ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the factors complicating and sometimes impeding Frederick William I's efforts to establish his authority throughout Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1703, he began to take part in meetings of the influential Privy War Council, an agency established by his grandfather, the Great Elector, which oversaw all the military treasuries as well as all matters concerning supply and administration for the army. The early years of Frederick William I's reign have traditionally been seen as a period in which Hohenzollern government first acquired a clear hierarchical division of duties. The large extent to which Brandenburg-Prussia was financially dependent upon foreign subsidies was a feature of Brandenburg-Prussian foreign policy that Frederick William I encountered both in council meetings after 1713 and on the batdefield. During the War of Spanish Succession, when Grown Prince Frederick William fought with his company in Flanders, he experienced at first hand the consequences of Brandenburg-Prussia's dependence upon foreign subsidies and its diplomatic results.
