![]() Defeat, however, advanced a new set of advisers who counseled radical change to gird Prussia for survival in the modern world of revolutionary France. Thus Prussia entered its disastrous war with Napoleon largely unreformed from the Old Regime that characterized central and eastern Europe. Conservative noblemen also opposed his reform ideas. Educated by tutors who introduced him to enlightened principles, Frederick William appreciated the need to stay abreast of the zeitgeist, but he also possessed a pragmatic nature that made him wary of "phrase-makers," which, together with his reserved nature, produced inaction, especially in these early years. Prior to 1806 the Prussian monarch considered many ambitious reforms, including peasant emancipation. ![]() After the twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt, the French emperor occupied Berlin and Frederick William fled to East Prussia, not to return until 1809. Having unwisely remained neutral while Napoleon defeated the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz in 1805, however, Prussia's king faced Napoleon alone in 1806. By 1806 most of Germany north of the Main River had either fallen to Prussia or under Prussian influence. He was definitely not the nonentity that traditional historical scholarship has depicted.ĭuring his first decade on the throne, Frederick William III became increasingly involved in the delicate game of negotiating deals with France that allowed Prussia to make territorial gains at the expense of smaller German states as the Holy Roman Empire entered its death throes. Frederick William III suffered from melancholia, preferred to withdraw from politics into family life, and usually dreaded having to make decisions, but his sense of duty compelled him to struggle against his nature and shape Prussian and German history in significant ways. 1804–1814/15), the crushing loss to the French in 1806, the time of reform that this debacle necessitated, the Wars of Liberation and final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the reactionary era of Restoration after 1815, and the age of early industrialization that spanned the decades he ruled. ![]() ![]() 1797–1840), king of Prussia.įrederick William III presided over his kingdom during dynamic times: the shocking wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon I (r. ![]()
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