Friedrich Wilhelm III (Friedrich Wilhelm III)

(1770-1840)
The son of Friedrich Wilhelm II, great-nephew of Frederick II the Great. Born August 3, 1770 in Potsdam, received a traditional stern military education, took part in military campaigns against France after the outbreak of hostilities in 1792. In 1793 he married Louise, daughter of Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Kind, sincere believer, Friedrich Wilhelm was a weak, timid and indecisive ruler. He promised to support Austria, but did nothing after the invasion of that country by Napoleon in 1805, hoping to buy from France in exchange for the neutrality of Prussia, Hanover and other lands in the north. The reward, however, he received only after it refused to Ansbach, Bayreuth, Cleves and Neuchц?tel. When Napoleon defeated the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz in 1805, it was impossible to ignore the calls to resist the French, but the Prussian army suffered a crushing defeat at Jena and Auerstadt (1806). In 1807, Frederick William was forced to sign a peace treaty at Tilsit, once lost half of their possessions
. In 1807-1812 in Prussia, a number of administrative, . social, . agrarian and military reforms, . initiators and agents who became Minister of Baron von Stein (1757-1831), . General Scharnhorst (1755-1813), . Field-Marshal Gneisenau (1760-1831) and Count von Hardenberg (1750-1822),
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In 1812, before the invasion of Napoleon in Russia, the French emperor forced Austria and Prussia sign the contract with him, according to which these countries have military contingents in support of the French army. However, thanks to patriotic officers in the Prussian army, and with the assistance of Gneisenau, Stein and other Prussian leaders was established Russian-German Legion (in November 1812 it consisted of 8 thousand. people), who fought with Napoleon's army. Only in March 1813, Frederick William made an appeal to my people, who authorized the war of liberation against the French invaders. In 1814 the Prussian army in the allied coalition antinapoleonovskoy troops entered Paris. Friedrich Wilhelm took part in the Congress of Vienna (1815), returning the Rhenish Prussia, Westphalia, Poznan and part of Saxony. During the war for the liberation of Frederick William promised the people a constitution and an executive board, . but under the influence of the Austrian statesman and diplomat Metternich refused to fulfill its obligations, . and Prussia, together with Austria until 1848 became the center of the reaction,
. Frederick William died June 7, 1840.