William I, German Emperor

Born 22 March 1797, Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig was the second son of Prince Frederick William and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, raised in the shadow of an elder brother and never slated for the throne. He fought with distinction in the War of the Sixth Coalition and rose through the Prussian Army's ranks. When his childless brother became King Frederick William IV in 1840, Wilhelm turned heir presumptive; after helping crush the Revolutions of 1848 - though briefly exiled to England - he was named Prince Regent in 1858 when his brother's stroke left him incapacitated. Crowned King of Prussia in 1861, Wilhelm immediately clashed with the liberal Landtag over military spending and appointed Otto von Bismarck as Minister President to ram the budget through, forging a partnership that remade Europe. Prussia won the Second Schleswig War and the Austro-Prussian War under his reign; in 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck maneuvered the unification of Germany and Wilhelm was proclaimed German Emperor, the first head of state of a united Germany. He left governance largely to Bismarck, survived multiple assassination attempts that gave cover for the Anti-Social