Frederick William III

Frederick William III 1770-1840, king of Prussia (1797-1840), son and successor of Frederick William II. Well-intentioned but weak and vacillating, he endeavored to maintain neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1806, French troops were massed on Prussia's frontier and Frederick William was forced to take up arms against France. His crushing defeat by the French at Jena and the humiliating Treaty of Tilsit (1807), which virtually made Prussia a French vassal, served to waken the king to the need of reconstruction in Prussia. Unable to carry through the reforms himself, he was far-sighted enough to appoint capable ministers. The reforms of Karl vom und zum Stein , Karl August von Hardenberg , and Scharnhorst laid the basis of the modern Prussian state and prepared for the eventual war against Napoleon. Forced to send an auxiliary force to aid Napoleon's Russian campaign, the king was finally persuaded to support the Convention of Tauroggen (see Taurage ), concluded with the Russians by the commander of the Prussian auxiliary force, General Yorck von Wartenburg . A few weeks later a military alliance with Russia was signed, and in Mar., 1813, the king declared war on France. After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, which he attended, Frederick William grew more reactionary. Influenced by Czar Alexander I and by Metternich, he joined the Holy Alliance and refused to grant the constitution he had promised. His consort, Queen Louise , far more popular than the king, died in 1810. His elder son, Frederick William IV, succeeded him. His second son was to become Emperor William I.

Frederick William III (1770–1840) King of Prussia (1797–1840), son and successor of Frederick William II. He declared war on France (1806), suffered a disastrous defeat at Jena and was forced to sign the Treaty of Tilsit (1807). In Prussia, some progressive reforms were made, but a constitution, although promised, was never produced, and the king became increasingly reactionary. The reorganized Prussian army re-entered the Napoleonic Wars in 1813 and played a major part in Napoleon I's eventual defeat.

Frederick William III (1770–1840) King of Prussia (1797–1840). After his defeat at the Battle of JENA he was forced by the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) to surrender half his dominions by the creation of the kingdom of Westphalia and the grand duchy of Warsaw. In 1811 he joined NAPOLEON in the war against Russia but, following the retreat of Napoleon from Moscow, he signed a military alliance with Russia and Austria. From 1807 onwards he supported the efforts for reform made by Stein and Hardenberg, and at the Congress of VIENNA he won back for Prussia Westphalia and much of the Rhineland and of Saxony. He signed the HOLY ALLIANCE, and became progressively more reactionary during the last years of his reign.