FREDERICK WILLIAM I. (1688-1740), king of Prussia, son of Frederick I. by his second marriage, was born on Aug. 15, 1688. He was early imbued with a passion for military life, and this was deepened by acquaintance with the duke of Marl borough 0709), Prince Eugene, whom he visited during the siege of Tournai, and Prince Leopold of Anhalt (the "Old Dessauer"). In nearly every respect he was the opposite of his father, having frugal, simple tastes, a passionate temper and a determined will. His life was simple and puritanical, being founded on the teaching of the Bible. He was, however, fond of hunting and somewhat given to drinking. He intensely disliked the French, and highly disapproved of the imitation of their manners by his father and his court. When he came to the throne (Feb. 25, 1713) his first act was to dismiss from the palace every unnecessary official and to regulate the royal household on principles of the strictest parsimony. The greater part of the beautiful furniture was sold. His importance for Prussia is twofold : in internal politics he laid down principles which continued to be followed long after his death; he was one of the greatest administrators who have ever worn the Prussian crown. His foreign policy was less success ful, though under his rule the kingdom acquired some extension of territory.
Thus at the peace of Utrecht (April 11, 1713), after the War of the Spanish Succession, he acquired the greater part of the duchy of Gelderland. By the treaty of Schwedt, concluded with Russia, he was assured of an important influence in the solution of the Baltic question, and Swedish Pomerania, as far as the Peene, was occupied by Prussia. But Charles XII. on his return turned against the king, though without success, for the Pomeranian cam paign of 1715 ended in favour of Prussia (fall of Stralsund, Dec. 22). This enabled Frederick William I. to maintain a more inde pendent attitude towards the tsar; he refused, for example, to provide him with troops for a campaign (in Schonen) against the Swedes. When on May 28, 1718, in view of the disturbances in Mecklenburg, he signed at Havelberg the alliance with Russia, he confined himself to a defensive attitude, and, on the other hand, on Aug. 14, 1719, he also entered into relations with his former enemies, England and Hanover. By the treaty of Stock holm (Feb. 1, 172o), Frederick William succeeded in obtaining the consent of Sweden to the cession of that part of Pomerania which he had occupied (Usedom, Wollin, Stettin, Hither Pomerania, east of the Peene) in return for a payment of 2,000,000 thalers.
In order to secure the succession to the Lower Rhine duchies of Jiilich and Berg, Frederick William finally agreed to the treaty of Wusterhausen (Oct. 12, 1726; ratified at Berlin, Dec. 23, 1728), in which he recognised the Pragmatic Sanction. In the War of the Polish Succession against France (1734-35), Frederick Wil liam remained faithful to the emperor's cause, and sent an auxil iary force of Io,000 men. The peace of Vienna, which terminated the war, led to a reconciliation between France and Austria, and so to a further estrangement between Frederick William and the emperor. In 1738 the western Powers, together with the em peror, insisted in identical notes on the recognition of the em peror's right to decide the question of the succession in the Lower Rhine duchies. A breach with the emperor was now inevitable, and this explains why in a last treaty (April 5, 1739) Frederick William obtained from France a guarantee of a part, at least, of Berg (excluding Dusseldorf).
But Frederick William's failures in foreign policy were more than compensated for by his splendid services in the internal administration of Prussia. He saw the necessity of rigid economy not only in his private life but in the whole administration of the state. During his reign Prussia obtained for the first time a centralized and uniform financial administration. It was the king himself who composed and wrote in the year 1722 the famous instruction for the general directory (Generaldirektorium) of war, finance and domains. When he died the income of the state was about seven million thalers (11,050,000). The consequence was that he paid off the debts incurred by his father, and left to his successor a well filled treasury. In the administration of the domains he made three innovations : (I) the private estates of the king were turned into domains of the crown (Aug. 13, 1713) ; (2) the freeing of the serfs on the royal domains (March 22, 1719) ; (3) the conversion of the hereditary lease into a short-term lease on the basis of productiveness. His industrial policy was inspired by the mercantile spirit. On this account he forbade the importation of foreign manufactures and the export of raw materials from home, a policy which had a very good effect on the growth of Prussian industries.
The work of internal colonization he carried on with especial zeal. Most notable of all was his retablissement of East Prussia, to which he devoted six million thalers (c. 1900,00o). His policy in respect of the towns was motived largely by fiscal considera tions, but at the same time he tried also to improve their municipal administration; for example, in the matter of buildings, of the letting of domain lands and of the collection of the excise in towns. Frederick William had many opponents among the nobles because he pressed on the abolition of the old feudal rights, intro duced in East Prussia and Lithuania a general land tax (the General hip f ensclioss), and finally in 1739 attacked in a special edict the Legen, i.e., the expropriation of the peasant proprietors.
He did nothing for the higher learning, and even banished the philosopher Christian Wolff at 48 hours' notice "on pain of the halter," for teaching, as he believed, fatalist doctrines. After wards he modified his judgment in favour of Wolff, and even, in 1739, recommended the study of his works. He established many village schools, which he often visited in person; and after the year 1717 (Oct. 23) all Prussian parents were obliged to send their children to school (Schulzwang). Under him the people flourished ; and although it stood in awe of his vehement spirit it respected him for his firmness, his honesty of purpose and his love of justice. He was devoted also to his army, the number of which he raised from 38,00o to 83,50o, so that under him Prussia became the third military power in the world, coming next after Russia and France. There was not a more thoroughly drilled or better appointed force. The Potsdam guard, made up of giants collected from all parts of Europe, sometimes kidnapped, was a sort of toy with which he amused himself. The reviewing of his troops was his chief pleasure. But he was also fond of meeting his friends in the evening in what he called his Tobacco-College, where amid clouds of tobacco smoke he not only discussed affairs of state but heard the newest "guard-room jokes." He died on May 31, 1740, leaving behind him his widow, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, whom he had married on Nov. 26, 1706. His son was Frederick the Great (see FREDERICK II., king of Prussia), who opposed him. This opposition became so strong in 173o that the crown prince fled from the court, and was later arrested and brought before a court martial. A reconciliation was brought about, at first grad ually. In later years the relations between father and son came to be of the best.
See the references s.v. Prussia ; also Hohenzollernjahrbuch, viii. (1905) , for particulars of Frederick William's education and death ; letters to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau in the Acta Borussica (1905) . There is a picturesque account of him in Thomas Carlyle's Frederick the Great.