ABSTRACT
When on 18 January 1701 Friedrich III, the Elector of Brandenburg, declared himself king in Prussia and placed the crown of the newly-created Prussian monarchy on his head, he knew he had started a risky gamble for status, prestige and recognition. Several of his closest councillors, such as Paul von Fuchs and his former teacher and foremost minister, Eberhard von Danckelmann, had advised against the ambitious move and the ‘chimera’ of elevating the duchy of Prussia to a kingdom. The result might make a powerful elector into an ‘irrelevant king’.1 Their alternative suggestion, to declare himself king of Brandenburg, Friedrich brushed away with the words: ‘If I accept the royal title based on my Brandenburg territories, I shall be a vassal king and shall have the Empire against me, but if I declare myself king because of my Prussian dominion, I shall be an independent king.’2
