NIKOLAUS), PRINCE (1828-1885), Prussian general field marshal, son of Prince Charles of Prussia and grandson of King Frederick William III., was born in Berlin on March 20, 1828. He entered the army on his tenth birthday as second lieutenant in the 14th Foot Guards. He studied at Bonn where he lived for two years, being accompanied throughout by Major von Roon, after wards the famous war minister. He served in the Schleswig Holstein War on the staff of Marshal von Wrangel. In 1849 he took part in the campaign against the Baden insurgents, and was wounded at the action of Wiesenthal while leading a desperate charge against entrenched infantry. In 1852 he became colonel, and in 1854 major-general and commander of a cavalry brigade. In this capacity he was brought closely in touch with General von Reyher, the chief of the general staff, and with Moltke. He married, in the same year, Princess Marie Anne of Anhalt.
In 1858 he visited France, where he minutely investigated the state of the French army, but was recalled when Prussia mobilized her forces during the Franco-Austrian war. The prince was made a divisional commander in the II. army corps with a liberty of action which had previously been denied to him. About this time (186o) he gave a lecture to the officers of his command on the French army and its methods, the substance of which (Eine mili tdrische Denkschri f t von P.F.K., Frankfort on Main, 186o) was circulated more widely than the author intended, and in the French translation gave rise to much indignation in France. In 1861 Frederick Charles became general of cavalry. He was then com mander of the III. (Brandenburg) army corps. This post he held from 186o to 187o, except during the campaigns of 1864 and 1866, and in it he displayed his real qualities as a troop leader. Ten years of his continuous and thorough training brought the III. corps to a pitch of real efficiency which the Guard corps alone, in virtue of its special recruiting powers, slightly surpassed. Prince Frederick Charles' work was to be tested when von Alvens leben and the III. corps engaged the whole French army on Aug. 16, 1870. In 1864 the Prussian contingent under Frederick Charles formed a corps of the allied army, operating against the Danes, and half of it was drawn from the III. corps. After the storming of the Duppel lines the prince succeeded Wrangel in the supreme command, with Moltke as his chief of staff. These two great soldiers then planned and brilliantly carried out the capture of the island of Alsen, after which the war ended. In 1866 came the Seven Weeks' War with Austria. Prince Frederick Charles was appointed to command the I. Army, which he led through the mountains into Bohemia, driving before him the Austrians and Saxons to the upper Elbe, where on July 3, took place the decisive battle of Koniggratz or Sadowa. This was brought on by the initiative of the leader of the I. Army, which had to bear the brunt of the fighting until the advance of the II. Army turned the Austrian flank. After the peace he returned to the III. army corps, which he finally left, in July 187o, when appointed to command the II. German Army in the war with France. In the early days of the advance the prince's ruthless energy led to much friction between the I. and II. Armies (see FRANCO-GERMAN WAR) , while his strategical mistakes seriously embarrassed the great headquarters staff. The advance of the II. Army beyond the Saar to the Moselle and from that river to the Meuse displayed more energy than careful strategy, though the "red prince" (as he was called from the colour of his favourite hussar uniform) was in thorough sympathy with the king's head quarters on the one hand and the feelings of the troops on the other. Then came the discovery that the French were not in front, but to the right rear of the II. Army (August 16) . Alvensleben with the III. corps held the French to their ground at Vionville while the prince hurried together his scattered forces. He himself directed with superb tactical skill the last efforts of the Germans at Vionville, and the victory of St. Privat on the 18th was due to his leadership (see METZ), which shone all the more by contrast with the failures of the I. Army at Gravelotte. The prince was left in command of the forces which blockaded Bazaine in Metz, and received the surrender of that place and of the last remaining field army of the enemy. He was promoted at once to the rank of gen eral field marshal, and shortly afterwards the II. Army was despatched to aid in crushing the newly organized army of the French republic on the Loire. Here again he retrieved strategical errors by energy and tactical skill, and his work was in the end crowned by the victory of Le Mans on Jan. 12, 1871.
He now became inspector-general of the 3rd "army inspection," and a little later inspector of cavalry, and in the latter post he brought the Germany cavalry to a high degree of perfection in manoeuvre and general training. His sternness of character kept him aloof from the court and from his own family, and he spent his leisure months chiefly on his various country estates. In 1872 and in 1882 he travelled in the Mediterranean and the Near East. He died on June 1885, at Klein-Glienicke near Berlin, and was buried at the adjacent church of Nikolskoe. His third daughter, Princess Louise Margareta, was married, in March 1879, to the duke of Connaught. His Denkwiirdigkeiten were edited by W. Foerster in 191o.
See Mflller-Bohn. Der Eiserne Prinz 0902).