Frederick William, Prince of Nassau, Prince of Nassau-Weilburg

Born: 25.10.1768 in The Hague

died: 09.01.1816 in Weilburg

Frederick, the son of Karl Christian Prince of Nassau-Weilburg (1735-1788) and a Princess of Orange (1743-1787), grew up in the Netherlands. He was in Dutch service until 1784 and succeeded his father Karl Christian as reigning Prince of Nassau-Weilburg in 1788. In the same year, he married Luise Isabella Countess of Sayn-Hachenburg, Countess of Kirchberg (1772-1827) in Hachenburg. In 1799 he inherited the county of Sayn-Hachenburg. After the Peace of Lunéville in 1801, Frederick lost the offices of Kirchheim, Stauf, Alsenz and Neu-Saarwerden on the left bank of the Rhine. However, he was compensated for these territories ceded to France in the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss with possessions on the right bank of the Rhine, Lahn and in the Westerwald.

Frederick played a decisive role in determining the course of the two Nassau principalities of Weilburg and Usingen during the Napoleonic era as well as their survival strategy of leaning towards France. In 1806, he united his principality with the principality of Nassau-Usingen of his cousin Friedrich August, who was 30 years his senior, to form the Duchy of Nassau and both joined the Confederation of the Rhine, which was founded as Napoleon's protectorate over large parts of Germany. Together with the new Duke Friedrich August, who had no surviving male descendants, Friedrich ruled the newly formed duchy as prince and hereditary prince, initially as a zealous vassal of the French emperor. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, the Nassau regents left the Confederation of the Rhine and joined the fight against their former protector.

During the period of reconstruction of the duchy, Frederick supported the reforms of government president Karl Friedrich Justus Emil von Ibell. With the signing of the constitution of 1814, Frederick also agreed to the transfer of the governments in Weilburg and Dillenburg to Wiesbaden from 1816.

For himself and his son Wilhelm zu Nassau, Friedrich had begun building the Erbprinzenpalais on Wilhelmstraße in Wiesbaden in 1813. When he died unexpectedly on January 9, 1816 as a result of a fall and Duke Friedrich August only six weeks later, Hereditary Prince Wilhelm succeeded to the throne as Duke and moved directly from Weilburg to Biebrich Palace.