CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)

youngest child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (1783-1851)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ62022 ↗
Source-derived summary

Prince Friedrich Wilhelm Karl of Prussia (3 July 1783 – 28 September 1851) was the son of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Life

Prince William was the fourth and youngest son of King Frederick William II of Prussia and Princess Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt. He served in the Guards from 1799 and fought in 1806 at the head of a cavalry brigade at Battle of Jena and Auerstedt. In December 1807, he traveled to Paris, to try to reduce the war burdens imposed on Prussia by Napoléon Bonaparte; he only managed to obtain a modest reduction. In 1808, he represented Prussia at the Congress of Erfurt. At the end of 1808, he accompanied his brother, King Frederick William III to St. Petersburg. Later, he had a prominent role in the transformation of Prussia and its army.

During the War of the Sixth Coalition of 1813, he was stationed in Blücher's headquarters. In the Battle of Lützen (1813) on 2 May, he commanded the reserve cavalry in the left wing of the army and during the Battle of Leipzig, he negotiated the union of the Northern army with Blucher's.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)” is youngest child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (1783-1851). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Prince, Wilhelm and Prussia, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1783, 1851, 1799, 1806—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1783-07-03. For this dossier, Prince, Wilhelm and Prussia is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “youngest child of Frederick William II of Prussia and Frederica Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (1783-1851)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62022. VIAF identifies the subject as 261454761. The Library of Congress control number is no97061835. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1783, 1851, 1799 and 1806.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851) primary sources, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851) archive and Prince research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1783–1851)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.