Frederick William IV of Prussia

Frederick William IV became King of Prussia on 7 June 1840, a deeply religious man convinced he ruled by divine right who feared revolutions and dreamed of a Christian estate-based state rather than constitutional monarchy. He started moderately — easing censorship, freeing political prisoners — but when the German revolutions of 1848–1849 forced him to bend, he dissolved the Prussian National Assembly in December 1848 for proposing too radical a constitution, imposed his own version with a strong monarch, and sent Prussian troops to crush revolutionary forces across the German Confederation.…