Frederick William I of Prussia

Frederick William I of Prussia

Frederick William's father, Frederick I (1657-1713), was the first King of Prussia. Although he was the newest and the least important of all European Kings, he modelled himself upon the most important, Louis XIV the Sun King of France. Frederick copied him slavishly and although he loved Frederick William's mother dearly, he took a mistress because he thought it the correct thing for a monarch to do. Loving all forms of pomp and the outward display of riches, his finances were always in a disastrous state.

His son Frederick William (1688-1740) was very different. In 1711, he presented his father with evidence of financial mismanagement and the Prime Minister was sacked. When Frederick I died two years later, Frederick William gave him a magnificent funeral and then started to reduce the Royal expenses drastically. Like everyone else, Frederick William paid the consumer taxt he himself had imposed, and no candles were left burning at court. He lived frugally and worked hard and tirelessly for the welfare of his people. He encouraged farming, reclaimed marshes, stored grain in good times and sold it in bad times. He dictated a manual of Regulations for State Officials, containing 35 chapters and 297 paragraphs in which every public servant in Prussia could find his duties precisely set out. A minister or councillor failing to attend a committee meeting would lose six months' pay. If he absented himself a second time, he would be discharged from the Royal service. No inspections were to take place during the ploughing season or the harvest, when the farmers would have no time to spare. The manual was supplemented by further instructions drawn up in person by Frederick William, prescribing methods of ploughing, erecting earthworks as a protection against flooding, and hunting wolves. Market women should not sit idle at their stalls but were to busy themselves knitting stockings. Any parson preaching for over one hour would be fined. Frederick William tore what he considered "extravagant finery" off the clothes of

females in the street and he used to discipline idle building workers in person. It is said that he once gave chase in the street to an escaping pickpocket. Having caught him, the King asked why he had tried to run away. When the man replied that he was afraid of him, Frederick William hit him with his stick and roared: "Miserable wretch! You shall love me!"

Frederick William had a passion for all things military. He gave Prussia an enormous army; one in every nine men in Prussia was a soldier and another 40000 men were foreign mercenaries. Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau (1676-1747, to the right), a remarkable soldier and strategist, helped to turn the army into a first-class fighting machine. He attached bayonets to the outside of the muskets and replaced the wooden ramrod with one made of iron, which was more reliable enabling faster loading of muskets and faster charging after firing. In addition, the "Old Dessauer" invented the marching step; marching in formation made an uncanny impression on foreigners used to the uncoordinated movements of their own troops. The discipline in Prussia's army was high due to the quality of the officers. Frederick William did not sell commissions to the highest bidder, as was custom, but gave them to members of the aristocracy strictly according to merit. In addition, the King believed in harsh discipline with flogging and executions as punishments for misbehaviour.

Frederick William had a special preference for tall men and would go to any length to obtain one for his regiment of Potsdam Giants. He sent recruiting agents throughout Europe in search of tall men to add to his regiment, giving bonuses to parents who surrendered their tallest sons and landowners who sent him their tallest farm workers. When he could not get them voluntarily, he even resorted to kidnapping giants. Once a preacher was carried off in mid-sermon together with four others. Many giants attempted desertion or suicide, despite high wages. When other rulers started protesting against the violation of their territorial boundaries by his kidnapping attempts, Frederick William introduced a breeding program. The