GERMANY.
(DEUTSCHES REICH.)
Reigning Emperor.
Wilhelm I., Emperor of Germany, and King of Prussia, born March 22, 1797, the second son of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. of Prussia, and of Princess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; educated for the military career, and took part in the campaigns of 1813 and 1815 against France; Governor of the province of Pomerania, 1840; Military Governor of the Rhine provinces, 1849; appointed Regent of Prussia during the illness of his brother, Oct. 9, 1858; ascended the throne of Prussia at the death of his brother, Jan. 2, 1861; elected Emperor of Germany, December, 1870. Married June 11, 1829, to
Augusta, Empress of Germany, and Queen of Prussia, born Sept. 30, 1811, the daughter of the late Grand-Duke Karl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar.
Heir Presumptive—Friedrich Wilhelm, born October 18, 1831, eldest son of the Emperor-King; field-marshal in the army of Prussia (see Prussia, p. 104).
The Imperial throne of Germany has always been filled by election, though with a tendency towards the hereditary principle of succession. Originally, the Emperor was chosen by the vote of all the Princes and Peers of the Reich, but the mode came to be changed in the fourteenth century when a limited number of Princes, fixed at seven for a time, and afterwards enlarged to nine, assumed the privilege of disposing of the crown, and, their right being acknowledged, were called Electors. With the overthrow of the old Germanic Empire by the Emperor Napoléon, in 1806, the Electoral dignity virtually ceased, although the title of Elector was retained sixty years longer by the sovereigns of Hesse-Cassel, the last of them dethroned in 1866 by Prussia. The election of the present Emperor was by vote of the Reichstag of the Confederation, on the initiative of all the reigning Princes of Germany.
Since the creation of the Imperial dignity by Charlemagne, crowned 'Kaiser' at Rome, on Christmas-day in the year 800, there have been the following Emperors of Germany:—
