Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Who was Frederick William, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin?

Frederick William I, Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was the reigning Duke of Mecklenburg in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin portion of the duchy of Mecklenburg from 1692 until 1713.

Frederick William was the eldest son of Prince Frederick, Duke of Mecklenburg-Grabow, and Christine Wilhelmine of Hesse-Homburg. He was a nephew of the childless Duke Christian Ludwig I of Mecklenburg. Frederick Wiliam succeeded his uncle on 21 June 1692 as regent of the Schwerin portion of the duchy of Mecklenburg. After the extinction of the Mecklenburg-Güstrow line of the dynasty with the death of Duke Gustav Adolph in 1695, Frederick William became embroiled in a violent succession dispute with his uncle Adolf Frederick II that escalated quickly. It brought the country to the brink of civil war and was settled only through the intervention of foreign powers. The dispute was ended in 1701 by the Hamburg Compromise. Mecklenburg was again split into two parts with limited autonomy. The two sub-principalities, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, existed until 1918. The Compromise also introduced the right of succession of the first-born to the dynasty.

In 1708, Frederick William introduced the "Consumption and Tax Statute" to overcome the fiscal consequences of the Thirty Years' War and the Great Northern War. In addition to the taxation of knights and the clergy, this law included the abolition of serfdom, freeing farmers from dependence on their landlords. The former peasants could lease their land and forced labor was to be replaced by work for a salary. This created a sharp conflict between the duke and the landed estates.