Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1046

 024 GERMAN empire: — PRUSSIA

Children of the King.

1. Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, born May 6, 1882, Crown Prince of the German Empire and of Prussia, married June 6, 1905, to Princess Cecilie, born Sept. 20, 1886, daughter of the late Friedrich Franz III., of Mecklenburg-Schwerin ; offspring, Prince Wilhelm Friedrich, born July 4, 1906 ; Prince Ltcdtoig Ferdinand, born November 9, 1907 ; Prince Huhertius, born September 30, 1909 ; Prince George, born Dec. 19, 1911 ; 2. Prince Wilhelm Eitcl-Friedrich, born July 7, 1883, married, Feb- ruary 27, 1906, to Princess Sophie Charlotte, daughter of the Grand-Duke Friedrich August of Oldenburg ; 3. Prince Adalbert, born July 14, 1884 ; 4. Prince August Wilhelm, born Jan. 29, 1887 ; married, October 22, 1908, to Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-HoLstein ; 5. Prince Oifcar, born July 27, 1888 ; 6. Prince Joachim, born Dec. 17, 1890 ; 7. Princess Viktoria Luise, born Sept. 13, 1892.

Brother and Sisters of the King.

1. Princess Charlotte, born July 24,1860; married, Feb. 18, 1878, to Prince Bernhard, eldest son of Duke George II. of Saxe-Meiningen. 2. Prince Heinrich, born Aug. 14, 1862 ; married, Mav 24, 1888, to Princess Irene, daughter of the late Grand-duke Ludwig IV., of Hesse; offspring of the union are two sons, Waldemar, born Marcli 20, 1SS9 ; Sigismund born Nov. 27, 1896. 3. Princess Victoria, Lorn April 12, 1866 ; married. Nov. 19, 1890, to Piince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe. 4. Princess Sophif, born June 14, 1870 ; married, Oct. 27, 1889, to Crown Prince Konstantin of Greece, Duke of Sparta, r., 'Pnncess Marparethe, horn April 22, 1872, married, Jan. 25, 1893, to Prince Friedricli Karl Ludwig of Hesse.

The Kings of Prussia trace their origin to Count Thassilo, of Zollern in Swabia, one of the generals of Charles the Great. His successor, Count Friedrich I., built the family castle of HohenzoUern, near the Danube, in the year 980. A subsequent Zollern, or HohenzoUern, Friedrich III., was elevated to the rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1273, and received the Burggraviate of Nuremburg in fief ; and his great-grandson, Friedrich VI., was invested by King Sigmund, in 1415, with the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and obtained the rank of Elector in 1417. A century after, in 1511, the Teutonic Knights, owners of the large province of Prussia, on the Baltic, elected Margrave Albrecht, a younger son of the family of HohenzoUern, to the post of Grand-Master, and he, turning Protestant, declared himself hereditary duke. The early extinction of the male line of Albrecht brought the province of Prussia by inheritance to the electors of Brandenburg, who likewise adopted Protestantism. In the seventeenth centurv, the HohenzoUern territories became greatly enlarged by Friedrich Wilhelm, 'the Great Elector,' under whose fostering care arose the first standing army in Central Europe. The Great Elector, after a reign extending from 1640 to 1688,^ left a country of one and a half million inhabitants, a vast treasure, and 38,000 well-drilled troops to his son, Friedrich I., who put the kingly crown on his head at Konigsberg on January 18, 1701. His successor Friedrich Wilhelm I., after adding part of Pomerania to the possessions of the house, left his son and successor Friedrich II., called 'the Great,' a State of 47,770 square miles, with two and a half millions of inhabitants. Friedrich II., added Silesia, an area of 14,200 square miles ; this, and the large territory gained in the first partition of Poland, increased Prussia to 74,340 square miles, with more than five and a half million inhabitants. Under the reign of Friedrich's successor, Friedrich Wilhelm 11., the State was enlarged by the acquisition of the principalities of Anspach and Baireuth, as well as the vast territory acquired in another partition of Poland, which raised its area to nearly 100,000 square miles,