King in Prussia

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King in Prussia (

The

The title "King in Prussia" reflected the legal fiction that Frederick was only sovereign over his former duchy. In Brandenburg and the other Hohenzollern domains within the borders of the empire, he was legally still an elector under the ultimate overlordship of the emperor. By this time, however, the emperor's authority had become purely nominal. The rulers of the empire's member states acted largely as the rulers of sovereign states, and only acknowledged the emperor's suzerainty in a formal way. Hence, even though Brandenburg was still legally part of the empire and ruled in personal union with Prussia, the two states came to be treated as one de facto. Although Prussia's royal title gave the Hohenzollern rulers higher status, Brandenburg was the wealthier and more populous portion of the combined realm, and Brandenburg's capital Berlin remained the primary residence of the King and his administration. In addition, the Duchy was only the eastern bulk of the region of Prussia; the westernmost fragment constituted the part of Royal Prussia east of Vistula, held along with the title King of Prussia by the King of Poland.

On 17 January 1701, Frederick dedicated the royal coat of arms, the

King Frederick II adopted the title King of Prussia in 1772, the same year he annexed most of Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland. The Hohenzollerns continued to be both Kings of Prussia and Electors of Brandenburg until the empire's dissolution in 1806. At that point, the entire realm was formally unified as the Kingdom of Prussia, with Brandenburg one of its provinces and Berlin the kingdom's capital, though the two parts later became again partially distinct during the existence of the German Confederation (1815–1866).

See also

• List of monarchs of Prussia

References