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Kingdom of Prussia proclaimed

1701

Elector Frederick III crowned himself King in Prussia, creating the state that would later unify Germany.

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The story

On January 18, 1701, Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg, placed a crown on his own head in Königsberg and became Frederick I, King in Prussia. His wife Sophie Charlotte was crowned queen. The ceremony created a kingdom out of the scattered Hohenzollern lands of Brandenburg, Prussia and some western territories, which over the next 170 years became the leading German power.

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 had confirmed Brandenburg's gains and its princes' near-independence within the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick's grandfather, the Great Elector, won full sovereignty in the Duchy of Prussia, which lay outside the empire, in 1657. That made a crown possible, since the emperor would not allow a kingdom inside the empire. Leopold I agreed in November 1700 in exchange for Brandenburg's troops in the War of the Spanish Succession, so Frederick took the title King in Prussia. His son built an efficient bureaucracy and a large army, and his grandson Frederick the Great seized Silesia in 1740. Prussia led the wars that created the German Empire in 1871 and was abolished in 1947.

Why it mattered

Created the kingdom that became the core of the German Empire in 1871.
Gave the Hohenzollerns royal rank equal to other European rulers, supporting their long rivalry with Austria.
Began a state built around the army and bureaucracy that shaped German political culture for 200 years.

Sources

Frederick I Britannica
The Kingdom of Prussia is Founded History Today

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