Friedrich III of Germany

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Born the son of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (younger brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV), in 1858 Friedrich married Princess Victoria (Vicky) of Great Britain and Ireland, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The rigorously educated Vicky, also known as the Princess Royal, was considerably smarter than her husband and influenced her husband towards her own liberal views.

In 1861, Friedrich's father became King Wilhelm I of Prussia, and Friedrich himself became Crown Prince. As such, he commanded armies in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 (where his timely arrival was crucial to the Prussian victory at Sadowa) and in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Never liked by Bismarck, who distrusted his wife's liberalism, Friedrich was always kept out of any real position of power throughout his father's life. By the time his father died in 1888, Friedrich had incurable cancer of the larynx, which had been misdiagnosed leading to cancellation of a necessary surgery in 1887. He ruled for only 99 days before his death.

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