FREDERICK-WILLIAM I., king of Prussia, born at Berlin, ascended the throne in 1713; in 1720, at the peace of Stockholm, he received part of Pomerania with Stettin for espousing the cause of Denmark in her war with Russia and Poland against Sweden; the rest of his reign was passed in improving the internal conditions of his country and her military resources; in praise of him as a sternly genuine man and king, Carlyle has much to say in the early volumes of his “Frederick”; “No Baresark of them” ("the primeval sons of Thor"), among whom he ranks him, “no Baresark of them, not Odin’s self, I think, was a bit of truer human stuff; his value to me in these times, rare and great” (1688-1740).

FREDERICK-WILLIAM II., king of Prussia, nephew of FREDERICK THE GREAT (q. v.); succeeded to the throne in 1786, but soon lost favour by indolence and favouritism; in 1788 the freedom of the press was withdrawn, and religious freedom curtailed; he involved himself in a weak and vacillating foreign policy, wasting the funds accumulated by his uncle in a useless war with Holland; at the partition of Poland in 1793 and 1795 various districts were added to the kingdom (1744-1797).

FREDERICK-WILLIAM III., king of Prussia from 1797 till 1840; incited by the queen and the commons he abandoned his position of neutrality towards Napoleon and declared war in 1806; defeat followed at Jena and in other battles, and by the treaty of Tilsit (1807) Prussia was deprived of half her possessions; under the able administration of Stein the country began to recover itself, and a war for freedom succeeded in breaking the power of France at the victory of Leipzig (1813), and at the treaty of Vienna (1815) her lost territory was restored; his remaining years were spent in consolidating and developing his dominions, but his policy was sometimes reactionary in its effects (1770-1840).

FREDERICK-WILLIAM IV., king of Prussia from 1840 till 1861; his reign is marked by the persistent demands of the people for a constitutional form of government, which was finally granted in 1850; a year previous he had declined the imperial crown offered by the Frankfort Diet; in 1857 he became insane, and his brother was appointed regent (1795-1861).

FREDERIKSHALD, a fortified seaport of Norway, 65 m.  SE. of Christiania; was burnt in 1826, but handsomely restored in modern style; timber is the main trade; in the immediate neighbourhood is the impregnable fortress of Frederiksteen, associated with the death of Charles XII. of Sweden, who fell fighting in the trenches before its walls in 1718.

FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, an ecclesiastical body formed by those who left the Established Church in 1843 on the ground that they were not free in their connection with the State to enforce certain obligations which they considered lay on them as a Church of Christ, to whom, and not to the State, they held themselves as a Church subject.