General of Cavalry
1797-1888
Born in Berlin on 22nd March 1797, William
was the second son of King Frederick William III and Queen Louise
of Prussia. William spent much of the Napoleonic Wars ill in Königsberg,
Memel and St. Petersburg. He did however
participate in the campaigns of 1813-14 and subsequently the 100
Days campaign. He gained the Iron Cross at Bar-sur-Aube and was
promoted to general major on his twenty-first birthday. After
the war he became heir presumptive in 1840 on the accession of
his childless brother Frederick William IV. He was promoted to
field marshal in 1854, and eventually succeeded his brother to
the throne in 1861. He was known as the "Cartridge Prince"
on account of his profound militaristic conservatism
