Friedrich Wilhelm lV

(1795 – 1861), the eldest son and successor of Friedrich Wilhelm III von Preussen, reigned as King of Prussia from 1840 to his death. Also referred to as the “romanticist on the throne”, he is best remembered for the many buildings he constructed in Berlin and Potsdam, as well as for the completion of the Gothic Cologne Cathedral.
In politics, he was a conservative, who initially pursued a moderate policy of easing press censorship and reconciling with the Catholic population of the kingdom. During the German revolutions of 1848–1849, he at first accommodated the revolutionaries but rejected the title of Emperor of the Germans offered by the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849 as it not up to the Parliament to do so and used military force to crush the revolutionaries throughout the German Confederation. From 1849 onward he converted Prussia into a constitutional monarchy.
From 1857 to 1861, he suffered several strokes and was left incapacitated until his death. His brother (and heir-presumptive) Wilhelm served as regent after 1858 and then succeeded him as King.