Frederick I of Prussia
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Frederick I of Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, King in Prussia, July 11, 1657 – February 25, 1713), was the first King in Prussia, reigning from January 18, 1701, until his death in Berlin.
Born in Königsberg, Friedrich became the Elector (Kurfürst) of Brandenburg, in 1688, upon the death of his father Frederick William. At the time, Frederick I was known as Frederick III. He became "Frederick", when he became King.
Frederick I was never called "king of Prussia". His title was "king in Prussia". Most of Frederick's territories were part of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", and that association of states had a Habsburg Emperor. For reasons of prestige Frederick wished to become a king instead of a mere prince-elector. However, according to Germanic law at that time, no kingdoms could exist within the Holy Roman Empire.
Leopold I, Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, was convinced by Frederick to allow Prussia to be ruled as a kingdom. This agreement was ostensibly given in exchange for an alliance against Louis XIV's France in the War of Spanish Succession. Frederick's argument was that Prussia had never belonged to the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" and therefore there was no legal or political barrier to prevent the prince-elector of Brandenburg also being King in Prussia. (the Holy Roman Emperor himself was also King of Hungary, outside of the Empire). To indicate that Friedrich's royalty was limited to Prussia and did not reduce the rights of the Emperor in Friedrich's German territories, he had to call himself "king in Prussia".
(1697 elector August II of Saxony became King of Poland; 1714 The Hanoverian elector became King George I of Great Britain).
Frederick was married three times: first to Elizabeth Henrietta of Hesse-Kassel, with whom he had one child, Louise Dorothea, b. 1680, who died without issue at age 25; then to Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, with whom he had Frederick William I, born in 1688, who succeeded him. In 1708, he married Sophia Louise of Mecklenburg, who survived him but had no children by him.
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