Frederick William The Great Elector

Frederick William The Great Elector was born in Berlin on February 16, 1620. He became the elector of Brandenburg when his father died in 1640. He drew his military knowledge from his 22 years of witnessing the Thirty Years War. 

He believed power was derived from a strong military force. By the end of the Thirty Year’s War, he had built a small but powerful army of 8,000 men. By his death, his army was the strongest in all of Germany with 27,000 well-trained men.

He was an absolutist ruler, so he retained absolute power over his people, with only one person in charge of the entire nation. He was the sole decider in anything involving the government of Prussia. He appointed all of his army officials from the noble class, or Junker. They took an oath, promising their loyalty to Frederick William before serving in the army. He allowed these nobles to rule over the serfs and the lands in their area of the country. He also appointed many of his soldiers from the general population, not only mercenaries.

During Sweden’s war against Poland, William decided to join forces with Sweden. He subsequently left the Swedes after Russia and Denmark entered the war. As a result of a peace treaty between France and the Holy Roman Empire, William was forced to give up his conquest for unifying all of Pomerania.  

Prussia was invaded by the King of Sweden, Charles XI, and Frederick William’s army was too small in order to defend against Charles’ XI’s army. After some planning, he decided to take his land back. He was outnumbered, but he used strategy to take down a much larger army. He also built the entire Prussian army without any resources or any previous foundation.

He had Calvinist views, meaning he worshipped the scripture and god alone. He was also extremely religiously tolerant. Religion wasn’t the purpose of his conquests, whereas many other rulers like Louis XIV emphasized the spread of Catholicism.

Frederick William was able to delegate the military responsibilities very well, which helped his army be more successful in battle. He gave a group of soldiers a general mission, but had them plan the attack themselves. This type of warfare is called “mission tactics”. Frederick William could be described as a disloyal partner in battle. He would join forces with a nation and quickly move on or leave for another.

In 1678 Prussia was on the offensive against the Swedes, who had invaded their land. The Swedish troops were making for the coast to return to Sweden to resupply and rest. Instead of taking the immediate victory and allowing the Swedes to retreat, like most would have, Frederick Williams decided to to turn his troops towards the coast and cut off the attempted escape of the Swedes. He managed to stop them from reaching their destination, and significantly diminished their power. This shows his superb military strategy, as well as his persistent and aggressive character.

Frederick William the Great Elector was an extremely famous absolutist leader with many different strengths and weaknesses. He was immensely talented in battle, and he never gave up when given a task. He was extremely aggressive in getting what he wanted and this brought great strength to Prussia.

Bibliography

Citino, Robert M. The birth of German militarism: the legendary, victorious campaigns of the Great Elector, Frederick William I. N.p.: World History Group, 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=lake19096&id=GALE|A371284328&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco&authCount=1.

———. “The Great Sleigh Drive.” Revolvy.com. https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=The%20Great%20Sleigh%20Drive&item_type=topic.

Shevil, F. “Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William.” Columbia Encyclopedia. http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=6df953c8-39ed-40e8-b3e6-6a0ba9fe00f2%40sessionmgr103&vid=2&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=39007320&db=khh.

Tucker, Spencer C. Frederick William, the Great Elector (1620–1688). N.p.: ABC-CLIO, 2014. http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/abcclioml/frederick_william_the_great_elector_1620_1688/0?searchId=c3aefa0a-f4ae-11e6-a094-0aea1e3b2a47&result=0&PHPSESSID=atpc7orit067hcp6niv0078t62.