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Frederick William I, (born August 14, 1688, Berlin—died May 31, 1740, Potsdam, Prussia), second Prussian king, who transformed his country from a second-rate power into the efficient and prosperous state that his son and successor, Frederick II the Great, made a major military power on the Continent.

Frederick I, elector of Brandenburg (as Frederick III), who became the first king in Prussia (1701–13), freed his domains from imperial suzerainty, and continued the policy of territorial aggrandizement begun by his father, Frederick William, the Great Elector. In 1688 Frederick succeeded to the.

FREDERICK WILLIAM I (PRUSSIA) (1688 – 1740; ruled 1713 – 1740), king of Prussia. On 25 February 1713, Frederick William succeeded his father Frederick I as king of Prussia. He arrived on the throne in the midst of both war and peace, as the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1714) was drawing to a close, and the complex peace ...

Born in Königsberg, Frederick was the third son of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg by his father's first marriage to Louise Henriette of Orange-Nassau, eldest daughter of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and Amalia of Solms-Braunfels. His maternal cousin was King William III of England.

The Great Elector bequeathed to his son Frederick (after 1701, Frederick I, king of Prussia) a well-organized state, widely respected for its sound finances and efficient army. Frederick William had gone far toward integrating his inherited and acquired territories by establishing national institutions and central administrative bodies.