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| CATEGORIES ABOUT FREDERICK WILLIAM, ELECTOR OF BRANDENBURG | |
| electors of brandenburg | |
| house of hohenzollern | |
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| 1620 births | |
| 1688 deaths | |
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This article is about the elector of Brandenburg. For the King of Prussia, see Frederick William I Of Prussia . Frederick William ( 1620 - April 29 1688 ) of the House of Hohenzollern , was the Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Prussia from 1640 until his death. He is popularly known as the '''Great Elector''' (''Großer Kurfürst''). BIOGRAPHY Frederick William was born in Berlin to George William Of Brandenburg and Elisabeth Charlotte Of The Palatinate . His inheritance consisted of the March of Brandenburg, ravaged during the Thirty Years' War , and Ducal Prussia. During the war George William had striven to maintain with a minimal army a delicate balance between the Protestant and Catholic forces fighting throughout the Holy Roman Empire . Out of these meager beginnings Frederick William managed to rebuild the country. With the help of French Subsidies , he built up an army to defend the country. Through the Treaties of Wehlau , Labiau , and Oliva , Frederick William succeeded in revoking Polish sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia, leaving the Holy Roman Emperor as his only Liege . At the outbreak of the Swedish-Polish War Lithuania put itself under protection by Frederick William and the Swedes. Frederick William was entitled to inherit the grand duchy, due to his direct line to the Jagiellonians . In 1655 the Lithuanians recognized Frederick William as their sovereign. Poland asked for a union with the grand duchy and offered this to Frederick William, if he converted his religion to Roman Catholicism , which he declined. John Kasimir ( Jan II Kazimierz Vasa ) accepted to become king, resigned in 1672 and died in 1672. Frederick William is notable for raising an Army of 40,000 Soldier s by 1678 , aided by the General War Commissariat . He was an advocate of Mercantilism , Monopolies , subsidies, Tariff s, and Internal Improvements . Following King Louis XIV of France's revocation of the Edict Of Nantes , he encouraged skilled French and Walloon Huguenot s to emigrate to Brandenburg-Prussia , bolstering the country's technical and industrial base. He agreed to exempt the Nobility from Tax es and in return they agreed to dissolve the Estates-General . He also simplified travel in Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia by connecting riverways with Canal s, a system that was expanded by later Kingdom Of Prussia n architects, such as Georg Steenke ; the system is still in use today. On 7 December 1646 at The Hague , he married Luise Henriette Of Nassau (1627-1667), daughter of Frederick Henry Of Orange-Nassau and Amalia Of Solms-Braunfels . Their children were William Henry (1648-1649), Charles (1655-1674), his successor Frederick (1657-1713), Amalie (1656-1664), Henry (1664-1664), and Louis (1666-1687). On 13 June 1668 at Gröningen , he married Sophie Dorothea of Holstein-Glücksburg , daughter of Philipp of Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and Sophie Hedwig of Saxe-Lauenburg . Their children were Philip William (1669-1711), Marie Amalie (1670-1739), Albert Frederick (1672-1731), Charles (1673-1695), Elisabeth Sofie (1674-1748), Dorothea (1675-1676), and Christian Louis (1677-1734).
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