The Children of Adam and Eve

William I (of Germany and Prussia), full name Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig
(1797-1888), emperor of Germany (1871-88) and king of Prussia (1861-88),
who reigned during the unification of Germany under the Prussian crown.

William was born on March 22, 1797, in Berlin, the second son of Frederick
William III of Prussia and his queen Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
(1776-1810). He entered the Prussian army in 1807 and served in the
Napoleonic Wars. In 1829 he married Augusta of Saxe-Weimar (1811-90), by
whom he had two Children. Upon the accession of his Childless Brother
Frederick William IV in 1840, William became heir presumptive to the
Prussian throne. In 1858, after the king was declared insane, William
became regent, and three years later he succeeded to the throne. A firm
believer in the divine right of kings, he declared at his coronation that
he "ruled by favor of God, and of no one else."

In 1862 William appointed the Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck his
chief minister. Subsequently they embarked upon a program of unifying the
German states under Prussian leadership. Their policies involved Prussia
in war with Denmark in 1864 and with Austria in 1866. In 1867, after the
defeat of Austria, William became head of the newly established North
German Confederation. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) he took
personal command at the decisive Battle of Sedan. He was proclaimed German
emperor in the palace at Versailles on January 18, 1871, while his troops
were laying siege to the city of Paris.

During his reign William firmly supported the militarism espoused by
Bismarck as well as the latter's antidemocratic and anti-Catholic
policies. Two attempts to assassinate the emperor were made in 1878; on
the second occasion he was seriously wounded. On his Death in Berlin on
March 9, 1888, his son Frederick William succeeded him as Frederick III.