General Notes

William I (of Germany and Prussia), full name WILHELM FRIEDRICH LUDWIG
(1797-1888), emperor of Germany (1871-88) and king of Prussia (1861-88), who
reigned during the unification of Germany under the Prussian crown.
William was born on March 22, 1797, in Berlin, the second son of Frederick
William III of Prussia and his queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He
entered the Prussian army in 1807 and served in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1829
he married Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, by whom he had two children. Upon the
accession of his childless brother Frederick William IV in 1840, William
became heir presumptive to the Prussian throne. In 1858, after the king was
declared insane, William became regent, and three years later he succeeded to
the throne. A firm believer in the divine right of kings, he declared at his
coronation that he "ruled by favor of God, and of no one else."
In 1862 William appointed the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck his chief
minister. Subsequently they embarked upon a program of unifying the German
states under Prussian leadership. Their policies involved Prussia in war with
Denmark in 1864 and with Austria in 1866. In 1867, after the defeat of
Austria, William became head of the newly established North German
Confederation. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took personal
command at the decisive Battle of Sedan. He was proclaimed German emperor in
the palace at Versailles on January 18, 1871, while his troops were laying
siege to the city of Paris.
During his reign William firmly supported the militarism espoused by Bismarck
as well as the latter's antidemocratic and anti-Catholic policies. Two
attempts to assassinate the emperor were made in 1878; on the second occasion
he was seriously wounded. On his death in Berlin on March 9, 1888, his son
Frederick William succeeded him as Frederick III.