Frederick I of Sweden
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Frederick I of Sweden (April 23, 1676–March 25, 1751), King of Sweden from 1720 and (as Friedrich I von Hessen-Kassel) Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel from 1730.
| Missing image Frederick_I_of_Sweden.jpg Image:Frederick I of Sweden.jpg | |
| Reign | March 24, 1720–March 25, 1751
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| Coronation | May 3, 1720 |
| Royal motto | "In Deo spes mea" ("In God my hope") |
| Queen | Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden |
| Royal House | Hesse-Kassel |
| Predecessor | Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden |
| Successor | Adolf Frederick of Sweden |
| Date of Birth | April 17, 1676 |
| Place of Birth | Kassel, Germany |
| Date of Death | March 25, 1751 |
| Place of Death | Stockholm |
| Place of Burial | Riddarholmskyrkan, Stockholm |
| Contents |
Ancestry
Frederick was the son of the great Hessian ruler Karl I von Hessen-Kassel (1654–1730) and Marie Amalie Kettler, Princess of Courland (1653–1711). His maternal grandparents were Jacob Kettler, Duke of Courland (1610–1682) and Louise Charlotte, Princess of Brandenburg.
Louise Charlotte was daughter of Georg Wilhelm Hohenzollern, elector of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia and Charlotte von der Pfalz (1597–1660). Charlotte was daughter of Frederick IV, Elector Palatine (1574–1610) and Louise Juliana von Orange-Nassau. Her brother became Frederick V, Elector Palatine.
Louise Juliana was daughter of William I of Orange and Charlotte de Bourbon-Monpensier.
Marriage
He married his first wife, Luise Dorothee Sophie of Prussia (1680-1705), on May 31, 1700. His second wife, whom he married in 1715, was Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (1688–1741), daughter of Charles XI of Sweden (1655–1697) and of Ulrike Eleonora of Denmark (1656–1693).
Reign
Some historians have suggested that Frederick fired the shot, generally claimed to have been a stray bullet, that caused the death of his brother-in-law Charles XII of Sweden in 1718. After his authoritarian brother-in-law, one of the reason the Swedish Estates elected Frederick was because he was taken to be fairly weak, which indeed he turned out to be. He also had to oversee the loss of Sweden's position as a European power as a result of the wars Charles XII had started; in the Treaty of Nystad, he was forced to cede Estonia and Livonia to Russia, in 1721. He is also considered a very weak Hessian monarch, as he only visited his German country a few times and behaved like an absentee landowner, using the Hessian tax revenues to finance his court in Stockholm.
Illegitimate children
Frederick I had three illegitimate children:
Thus, the Hessian line in Sweden ended with him and was followed by that of Holstein-Gottorp. In Hesse-Cassel, he was succeeded by his much abler younger brother William VIII, a famous general.
| Preceded by: Ulrika Eleonora | King of Sweden 1720–1751 | Succeeded by: Adolf Frederick |
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