FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., King of Prussia, son of the preceding; born Oct. 15, 1795; on the death of his father, suc ceeded to the throne in 1840. He served as a simple officer, in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, and evinced, at an early period of his life, a very great love for the arts. During the first years of his reign his subjects anxiously demand ed the reform of the government, requir ing the liberal constitution which had been promised them in 1815, in return for the great sacrifices they had made during the continental war. In 1847, at a general diet of the Prussian states, many of these reforms were granted. In March, 1848, the people and the troops came into collision, the king was obliged to change the ministry, to is sue a general amnesty, and commence a war in favor of Schleswig against Den mark, and to salute from his balcony the corpses of the insurgents. These humili ations were somewhat softened by his hopes of becoming emperor of a united Germany, and by the success of his army in putting down an insurrection of the Poles in Posen. The mingled irresolu
tion and absolutism of Frederick, how ever, led him subsequently to other conflicts in June and August of the same year; and it was not till two coups d'etat that Frederick, assisted by his army, succeeded in retaining his author ity almost unimpaired by the powers he had yielded. In the war between the W. powers and Russia, the king preserved a strict neutrality. In 1856, in conse quence of an attack on Neufchatel by some Prussian partisans, war was in danger of breaking out between Switzer land and Prussia; but this was avoided, and a treaty concluded, in May, 1857, in reference to the king's claims on that place. In the complication relative to the Danubian principalities, Prussia fol lowed the lead of France and Russia as opposed to England and Austria. To ward the end of 1857, a severe illness, resulting in the loss of some of his facul ties, caused his brother William to be nominated regent, who succeeded him as king on his death, near Potsdam, Jan. 2, 1861.