Prince Frederick William Henry Augustus of Prussia (19 September 1779 – 19 July 1843) was a Prussian royal and general. Born on Friedrichsfelde Palace, he was the youngest son of Prince Augustus Ferdinand of Prussia, the brother of King Frederick the Great, and Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt.

Military career

August joined the Prussian army as a young man, earning the rank of captain by eighteen years old. In 1803, he became a major and was granted an infantry battalion of his own. Three years later, now a lieutenant colonel, he and his battalion took part in the Battle of Auerstedt. His brother, Prince Louis Ferdinand, had been killed by the French army under Napoleon I four days earlier. August himself was captured and held by the French until 1807. In March 1808, his cousin, King Frederick William III of Prussia, made him brigadier general. The Prince spent the next five years reorganizing the Prussian artillery together with Gerhard von Scharnhorst. Seven years after the failure of the Prussian army at Auerstedt, the Prince distinguished himself at the Battle of Leipzig. He continued his campaign against Napoleon throughout 1814. In the winter 1814-1815, August attended the Congress of Vienna. He moved to the north of France in June 1818 and then back to Berlin after the war had ended. He spent his last years inspecting artillery units in various garrison towns. He died suddenly in Bromberg during one such trip, and was buried in Berlin Cathedral in a service accompanied by the Staats- und Dom Choir Berlin.

Relationships and estate

Although he was one of the richest landowners in Prussia, his estates reverted to the Crown upon his death, since he never left any legitimate heirs. His first mistress, Karoline Friederike Wichmann, with whom he cohabited from 1805 until 1817, bore him four children. She was ennobled as Baroness von Waldenburg. His second mistress was Auguste Arend, later ennobled as Baroness von Prillwitz. They were together from 1818 until her death in 1834, and had seven children. Shortly after Baroness Von Prillwitz's death he began a relationship with and morganatically married Emilie von Ostrowska, a Polish noblewoman. They had a daughter, Charlotte, who was five when her father died, and was raised by her father's Jewish tailor.

Honours

He received the following orders and decorations: • Kingdom of Prussia: • * Knight of the Black Eagle, 19 August 1786 • * Iron Cross (1813), 2nd Class • * Service Award Cross • Austrian Empire: • * Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa, 1813 • * Grand Cross of St. Stephen, 1837 • Brunswick: Grand Cross of Henry the Lion • Kingdom of Hanover: • * Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order, 1839 • * Knight of St. George, 1839 • Hohenzollern: Cross of Honour of the Princely House Order of Hohenzollern, 1st Class • Kingdom of Sardinia: Knight of the Annunciation, 30 October 1832 • Russian Empire: • * Knight of St. Andrew, 20 January 1809 • * Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 20 January 1809 • * Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 20 January 1809 • * Knight of St. Vladimir, 2nd Class, 7 October 1813 • * Knight of St. George, 2nd Class, 10 January 1817 • Two Sicilies: Knight of St. Januarius, 1834

Ancestry