Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Karl of Prussia (3 July 1783 – 28 September 1851) was the son of

Frederick William II of Prussia Frederick William II (; 25 September 1744 – 16 November 1797) was King of Prussia from 1786 until his death in 1797. He was also the prince-elector of Brandenburg and (through the Orange-Nassau inheritance of his grandfather) sovereign princ ...

and

Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (; 16 October 1751 – 25 February 1805) was Queen of Prussia and Electress of Brandenburg as the second wife of King Frederick William II. Life Frederica Louisa was the daughter of Louis IX, Landgrav ...

Life

Prince William was the fourth and youngest son of King

and Princess Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. He served in the Guards from 1799 and fought in 1806 at the head of a cavalry brigade at Battle of Jena and Auerstedt. In December 1807, he traveled to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, to try to reduce the war burdens imposed on

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

; he only managed to obtain a modest reduction. In 1808, he represented Prussia at the Congress of Erfurt. At the end of 1808, he accompanied his brother, King

Frederick William III Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved. ...

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Later, he had a prominent role in the transformation of Prussia and its army. During the

War of the Sixth Coalition In the War of the Sixth Coalition () (December 1812 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation (), a coalition of Austrian Empire, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, History of Spain (1808– ...

of 1813, he was stationed in Blücher's headquarters. In the

Battle of Lützen (1813) The Battle of Lützen, fought on 2 May 1813 near the town of Lützen in Saxony, was a major engagement during the War of the Sixth Coalition. It pitted Napoleon Bonaparte's French forces against a coalition army of Prussian and Russian troop ...

on 2 May, he commanded the reserve cavalry in the left wing of the army and during the

Battle of Leipzig The Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations, was fought from 16 to 19 October 1813 at Leipzig, Saxony. The Coalition armies of Austria, Prussia, Sweden, and Russia, led by Tsar Alexander I, Karl von Schwarzenberg, and G ...

, he negotiated the union of the Northern army with Blucher's. Later he led the 8th Brigade of the

Yorck ''Yorck'' is a 1931 German war film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Werner Krauss, Grete Mosheim and Rudolf Forster.Noack p.59 It portrays the life of the Prussian General Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, particularly his refusal to ser ...

's army corps on the Rhine and distinguished himself by bravery and military skills at the battles of

Château-Thierry Château-Thierry (; Picard: ''Catieu-Thierry'') is a French commune situated in the department of the Aisne, in the administrative region of Hauts-de-France, and in the historic Province of Champagne. The origin of the name of the town is u ...

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...

and outside Paris. After the

Treaty of Paris (1814) The Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ended the war between France and the Sixth Coalition, part of the Napoleonic Wars, following an armistice signed on 23 April between Charles, Count of Artois, and the allies. The treaty set the bord ...

, the Prince accompanied the king to London and then attended the negotiations of the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

. In 1815 during the

Waterloo Campaign The Waterloo campaign, also known as the Belgian campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North (France), Army of the North and two War of the Seventh Coalition, Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied arm ...

he commanded the reserve cavalry of the Prussian IV Corps ( Bülow's). After the second Treaty of Paris, he lived mostly in Paris and sometimes at his Fischbach Castle in

Kowary Kowary () is a town in Karkonosze County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, with a population of around 11,000. It lies approximately south-east of Jelenia Góra, and south-west of the regional capital Wrocław. The town is ...

in the Riesengebirge mountains. From 1824 to 1829 he was governor of the Confederate Fortress at Mainz; from 1830 to 1831 he was governor-general of the

Rhine Province The Rhine Province (), also known as Rhenish Prussia () or synonymous with the Rhineland (), was the westernmost Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia, within the German Reich, from 1822 to 1946. ...

and

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

. In this capacity, on 20 September 1831 he opened the first rail line on German soil from Hinsbeck via the Deilbach valley to Nierenhof. Until then, the line had been called ''Deilthaler Eisenbahn'' ("Deil Valley Railway"); after its opening it was allowed to call itself '' Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''. In March 1834 he was appointed general of cavalry and re-appointed as governor of the federal fortress at Mainz. He should not be confused with his nephew of the same name, the future emperor

William I William I may refer to: Kings * William the Conqueror (–1087), also known as William I, King of England * William I of Sicily (died 1166) * William I of Scotland (died 1214), known as William the Lion * William I of the Netherlands and Luxembour ...

, who was governor of the same fortress in 1854. After the death of his wife, Marie Anna, on 14 April 1846, he withdrew from public life at his Fischbach castle.

Marriage and issue

He married his first cousin Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg, daughter of

Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg Frederick V Louis William Christian, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg (30 January 1748, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe – 20 January 1820, Bad Homburg vor der Höhe) was from 1751 to his death landgrave of Hesse-Homburg. He was born under Europe's An ...

, and Caroline of Hesse-Darmstadt (his mother's sister), together they had nine children: * Princess Amalie ''Friederike'' Luise Karoline Wilhelmine of Prussia (4 July 1805 – 23 November 1805); died in infancy. * Princess Irene of Prussia (born and died 3 November 1806); stillborn. * Unnamed son (born and died 30 August 1809); stillborn. * Prince Friedrich ''Tassilo'' Wilhelm of Prussia (29 October 1811 – 9 January 1813); died in infancy. * Prince Heinrich Wilhelm ''Adalbert'' of Prussia (29 October 1811 – 6 June 1873); married morganatically, in 1850,

Therese Elssler Therese Elssler (; 5 April 1808, Vienna - 19 November 1878, Merano) was a dancer. The sisters Therese and Fanny Elssler were both dancers, the former born in 1808, the latter in 1810, both in the Vienna suburb of Gumpendorf. They were daught ...

and had issue. * Prince Friedrich Wilhelm ''Tassilo'' of Prussia (15 November 1813 – 9 January 1814); died in infancy. * Princess Marie ''Elisabeth'' Karoline Viktoria of Prussia (18 June 1815 – 21 March 1885); married, in 1836, Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine and had issue. * Prince Friedrich Wilhelm ''Waldemar'' of Prussia (2 August 1817 – 17 February 1849), never married. * Princess ''Marie'' Friederike Franziska Hedwig of Prussia (15 October 1825 – 17 May 1889); married, in 1842, King Maximilian II of Bavaria and had issue.

Honours

He received the following orders and decorations:

Ancestors

Siblings

* Frederica Charlotte (1767–1820), who became Duchess of York by her marriage to Frederick, Duke of York * Frederick William III of Prussia (1770–1840) * Christine (1772–73) * Louis Charles (1773–96) * Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina (1774–1837), wife of William of Orange, afterwards King

William I of the Netherlands William I (Willem Frederik; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was King of the Netherlands and List of monarchs of Luxembourg, Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1815 until his abdication in 1840. Born as the son of William V, Prince of Orange, ...

* Augusta (1780–1841), wife of

William II, Elector of Hesse William II (; 28July 177720November 1847) was the penultimate Elector of Hesse.After 1806, the title of ''Elector'' was meaningless, since no more Holy Roman Emperors could be elected, because the Empire had been dissolved. Nevertheless, the ru ...

* Henry (1781–1846)

Notes

References

* * , {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilhelm of Prussia 1783 births 1851 deaths House of Hohenzollern Prussian princes Military personnel from Berlin Prussian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Generals of Cavalry (Prussia) Recipients of the Iron Cross, 2nd class Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Knights Grand Cross of the Military Order of William Recipients of the Order of St. George of the Third Degree Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 2nd class Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Burials at Berlin Cathedral Sons of kings Children of Frederick William II of Prussia Sons of princes regnant Sons of prince-electors