George William Hohenzollern 1
- Born: 3 Nov 1595, Berlin, Germany
- Marriage: Elizabeth Charlotte Wittelsbach on 14 Jul 1616
- Died: 1 Dec 1640, Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). aged 45
General Notes:
Georg Wilhelm Hohenzollern, elector of Brandenburg, duke of Prussia, acceded to government in Brandenburg Prussia in 1619.
He was the son of Johann Sigismund of Prussia, elector of Brandenburg, born 1572, who acceded in 1608 and had died in 1619, and Anna of Prussia.
In 1616 Georg Wilhelm married Charlotte von der Pfalz (of the Palatinate). Their only son Friedrich Wilhelm later became known as the Grosse Kurfürst Great Elector.
Georg Wilhelm took over the reign of the Kurfürstentum Brandenburg, which included Ducal Prussia. His sister Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg was queen of Sweden and Georg Wilhelm had to maneuver between the Catholic Holy Roman Empire and his Protestant brother-in-law Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, between his Catholic chancellor Graf Adam von Schwarzenberg at the Brandenburg government and his Protestant counselors in Brandenburg Prussia on the other side. The country suffered greatly during the Thirty Years War. Friendly and enemy troops equally burned and plundered and the population greatly decimated. Retreating in 1637 to a relative safer region Georg Wilhelm died at Königsberg in 1640.
His great-great-grandson Frederick II the Great later wrote about him, that this was the unluckiest time, it is a shame that Georg Wilhelm did not put up an army, before the combatants of the Thirty Years War destroyed the land, where the ravages can still be witnessed so many years later. 2
Noted events in his life were:
• Acceded: Elector of Brandenburg, 1620.
• He was a Duke of Cleves and Prussia.
George married Elizabeth Charlotte Wittelsbach, daughter of Frederick IV Palatinate Wittelsbach and Luise Juliane de Nassau, on 14 Jul 1616. (Elizabeth Charlotte Wittelsbach was born on 7 Nov 1597 and died on 16 Apr 1660.)
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