Frederick William IV 1795-1861
King of Prussia

Born in C�lln, near Berlin, he succeeded his father, Frederick William III, in 1840, and began his reign by granting minor reforms and promising, but never fulfilling, radical changes. He was possessed by vague ideas of the divine right of kings, and by a mystic pietism. He refused the Imperial Crown offered to him by the liberal Frankfurt Diet (1849), and opposed the popular movement of 1848, but was forced to grant a representative parliament (1850). In 1857, having become insane, he resigned the administration to his brother, who from 1858 acted as regent until his accession as Wilhelm I.