Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)

For the later prince, see Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1906-1940).

Prince Wilhelm
File:Willem1783.jpg Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
Born	(1783-07-03)3 July 1783 Berlin
Died	Berlin
Spouse	Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg
House	House of Hohenzollern
Father	Frederick William II of Prussia
Mother	Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Religion	Calvinism Evangelical Christian Church (since 1817)

Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (3 July 1783, Berlin – 28 September 1851, Berlin) was the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Life

Prince William was the fourth and youngest son of King Frederick William II of Prussia and Princess Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. He served in the Guards from 1799 and fought in 1806 at the head of a cavalry brigade at Battle of Jena and Auerstedt. In December 1807, he traveled to Paris, to try to reduce the war burdens imposed on Prussia by Napoléon Bonaparte; he only managed to obtain a modest reduction. In 1808, he represented Prussia at the Congress of Erfurt. At the end of 1808, he accompanied his brother, King Frederick William III to St. Petersburg. Later, he had a prominent role in the transformation of Prussia and its army.

During the War of the Sixth Coalition of 1813, he was stationed in Blücher's headquarters. In the Battle of Lützen (1813) on 2 May, he commanded the reserve cavalry in the left wing of the army and during the Battle of Leipzig, he negotiated the union of the Northern army with Blucher's. Later he led the 8th Brigade of the Yorck's army corps on the Rhine and distinguished himself by bravery and military skills at the battles of Château-Thierry, Laon and outside Paris.

After the Treaty of Paris (1814), the Prince accompanied the king to London and then attended the negotiations of the Congress of Vienna. In 1815 during the Waterloo Campaign he commanded the reserve cavalry of the Prussian IV Corps (Bülow's). After the second Treaty of Paris, he lived mostly in Paris and sometimes at his Fischbach Castle in Kowary in the Riesengebirge mountains.

From 1824 to 1829 he was governor of the Confederate Fortress at Mainz; from 1830 to 1831 he was governor-general of the Rhine Province and Westphalia. In this capacity, on 20 September 1831 he opened the first rail line on German soil from Hinsbeck via the Deilbach valley to Nierenhof. Until then, the line had been called Deilthaler Eisenbahn ("Deil Valley Railway"); after its opening it was allowed to call itself Prinz-Wilhelm-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft.

In March 1834 he was appointed general of cavalry and re-appointed as governor of the federal fortress at Mainz. He should not be confused with his nephew of the same name, the future emperor William I, who was governor of the same fortress in 1854.

After the death of his wife, Marie Anna, on 14 April 1846, he withdrew from public life at his Fischbach castle.

Marriage and issue

He married Landgravine Marie Anna of Hesse-Homburg, his first cousin and daughter of Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg. They had seven children:

• HRH Princess Amalie Friederike Luise Karoline Wilhelmine of Prussia (4 July 1805 - 23 November 1805); died in infancy.
• HRH Princess Irene of Prussia (born and died 3 November 1806); stillborn.
• unnamed son (born and died 30 August 1809); stillborn.
• HRH Prince Friedrich Tassilo Wilhelm of Prussia (29 October 1811 - 9 January 1813); died in infancy.
• HRH Prince Heinrich Wilhelm Adalbert of Prussia (29 October 1811 - 6 June 1873); married morganatically, in 1850, Therese Elssler and had issue.
• HRH Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Tassilo of Prussia (15 November 1813 - 9 January 1814); died in infancy.
• HRH Princess Marie Elisabeth Karoline Viktoria of Prussia (18 June 1815 - 21 March 1885); married, in 1836, Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine and had issue.
• HRH Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Waldemar of Prussia (2 August 1817 - 17 February 1849)
• HRH Princess Marie Friederike Franziska Hedwig of Prussia (15 October 1825 - 17 May 1889); married, in 1842, King Maximilian II of Bavaria and had issue.

Ancestors

Family of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)

16. Frederick I of Prussia               8. Frederick William I of Prussia                       17. Sophia Charlotte of Hanover               4. Prince Augustus William of Prussia                             18. George I of Great Britain               9. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover                       19. Sophia Dorothea of Celle               2. Frederick William II of Prussia                                   20. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg               10. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg                       21. Christina Wilhelmina of Hesse-Eschwege               5. Duchess Louise Amalie of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel                             22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg               11. Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg                       23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen               1. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia                                         24. Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt               12. Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt                       25. Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach               6. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt                             26. Johann Reinhard III of Hanau-Lichtenberg               13. Charlotte of Hanau-Lichtenberg                       27. Dorothea Friederike of Brandenburg-Ansbach               3. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt                                   28. Christian II of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld               14. Christian III, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken                       29. Katharina Agathe, Countess of Rappoltstein               7. Countess Palatine Caroline of Zweibrücken                             30. Louis Crato, Count of Nassau-Saarbrücken               15. Caroline of Nassau-Saarbrücken                       31. Philippine Henriette of Hohenlohe-Langenburg

References

• , Complete text at Google Books