Frederick William III of Prussia

Frederick William III
Frederick William III
	Copy of a portrait by Franz Krüger, 1837
King of Prussia
Reign	16 November 1797 – 7 June 1840
Predecessor	Frederick William II
Successor	Frederick William IV
Elector of Brandenburg
Reign	16 November 1797 – 6 August 1806
Predecessor	Frederick William II
Successor	Electorate abolished
Born	3 August 1770; Potsdam, Prussia
Died	7 June 1840 (aged 69); Berlin, Prussia
Burial	Mausoleum at Charlottenburg Palace
Spouses	; Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (m. 1793; died 1810) ; Auguste von Harrach (morganatic) (m. 1824)
Issue; see details...	Frederick William IV, King of Prussia; William I, German Emperor; Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia; Princess Frederica; Prince Charles; Alexandrine, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; Prince Ferdinand; Princess Louise of the Netherlands; Prince Albert;
House	Hohenzollern
Father	Frederick William II of Prussia
Mother	Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
Religion	Calvinist (until 1817); Prussian United (after 1817)
Signature

Frederick William III (German: Friedrich Wilhelm III.; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved.

Frederick William III ruled Prussia during the times of the Napoleonic Wars. The king reluctantly joined the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in the German Campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat, he took part in the Congress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. His primary interests were internal – the reform of Prussia's Protestant churches. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches to homogenize their liturgy, organization, and architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches. The king was said to be extremely shy and indecisive. His wife Queen Louise (1776–1810) was his most important political advisor.^{[citation needed]} She led a mighty group that included Baron Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein, Prince Karl August von Hardenberg, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, and Count August von Gneisenau. They set about reforming Prussia's administration, churches, finance, and military. He was the dedicatee of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1824.