King of the Kingdom of Prussia, who reigned from 1840 to 1861. He was the eldest son of Friedrich Wilhelm III and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and the elder brother of Wilhelm I. Heavily influenced by Romanticism, Christianity, and the Divine Right of Kings, he was a conservative monarch whose ideal was a monarchy based on estates. On the other hand, he was fond of architecture and art, supporting urban landscapes and cultural facilities in Berlin and Potsdam, as well as the completion of Cologne Cathedral. During the Revolutions of 1848, he temporarily made concessions to liberal forces, but later turned counter-revolutionary, dissolving the Prussian National Assembly and promulgating a constitution. In 1849, he was offered the imperial crown of Germany by the Frankfurt Parliament, but refused to accept a crown derived from a parliament. From 1857 onward, complications from a stroke made political activity difficult, and his younger brother Wilhelm served as Regent starting in 1858.

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