FREDERICK-WILLIAM, ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG, commonly called " the great elector," was b. in 1620, succeeded to the electorate in 1640, and d. in 1688. On his accession, he found an empty exchequer, the towns and cities depopulated, and the whole electorate devastated by the ravages of the Swedish and imperialist iirmies during the thirty years' war, which was not yet concluded; while a portion of his inheritance had even been confiscated by the Swedes. His first acts were to regulate the finances, and to conclude a treaty of neutrality with Sweden, which left him at leisure to devote himself to the organization of his army, and the repeopling of the deserted, towns and villages by means of immigration. By the treaty of Westphalia, through which he lost several important places, he recovered the eastern portions of Pomerania, Hohenstein, the bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Kamin, as lay-principalities, and the rever sion of the archbishopric of 3Ingdeburg. In the course of ten years he had, by the help of his generals, Derfffinger, Schomberg, and Kannenberg, created an army of 25,000 men, organized on the Swedish model; and having been constrained to enter into an alliance with Charles X., he co-operated with him in the taking of Warsaw, which was effected at the cost of a most sanguinary engagement in 1656. In return for this co-oper ation, Frederick-William secured the emancipation of his Prussian duchy from its former dependence on Poland. The aggressions of Louis XIV. on the Rhenish frontier alarmed the elector, who induced the emperor, the king of Denmark, and the elector of Hesse Cassel, to enter into a league against France. The result was unfavorable to the cause of the German princes, and Frederick-William was obliged to content himself with making highly disadvantageous terms. The war was soon renewed, and Brandenburg was again a
prey to the incursions of the Swedes, who, at the instigation of Louis. advanced upon Berlin, laying waste everything on their march. The elector, who had taken up his winter-quarters in Franconia, hurried across the Elbe at the head of his cavalry, and hav ing signally defeated the Swedes, drove them from his dominions. If the emperor had been true to his word, and supported him, Frederick-William might have made head against the French; but being forsaken by the other German princes, and his dominions overrun by the troops of Louis, he was obliged to agree to the treaty of St. Germain, by which lie restored all his conquests to the Swedes, in return for the withdrawal of the French army, and the payment to him of an indemnity of 300,000 crowns. From this time forth, Frederick-William devoted himself to the task of consolidating the prosperity of hits dominions. During his reign, lie more than tripled the area of his territories, and by his generous reception of 20,000 French Protestants, after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the encouragement which he afforded to the immigration of Dutchmen and other foreigners, he augmented the population of his states, and introduced numer ous industrial arts among his subjects. He founded the university at Duisburg, and the royal library at Berlin, and reorganized the universities of Frankfort-on-the-Oder. and Konigsberg, opened canals, established a system of posts, and greatly enlarged and beautified Berlin. He left a well-filled exchequer and a highly organized army. See Orlich, Genii,. des _L'reuss. Skies ins 17 Jahrit. Berl. 1839.