success for some years; but towards 1700 Leopold, faced with the prospect of a new struggle with France, was inclined to view the idea more favourably. Having insisted upon various conditions, prominent among them being military aid for the approaching war, he gave the imperial sanction to Frederick's request in November 1700; whereupon the elector, hurrying at once to Koenigsberg, crowned himself with great ceremony king of Prussia on the 18th of January 1701. According to his promise the king sent help to the emperor; and during the War of the Spanish Succession the troops of Brandenburg-Prussia rendered great assistance to the allies, fighting with distinction at Blenheim and elsewhere. Frederick, who was deformed through an injury to his spine, died on the 25th of February 1713. By his extravagance the king exhausted the treasure amassed by his father, burdened his country with heavy taxes, and reduced its finances to chaos. His constant obligations to the emperor drained Brandenburg of money which might have been employed more profitably at home, and prevented her sovereign from interfering in the politics of northern Europe. Frederick, however, was not an unpopular ruler, and by making Prussia into a kingdom he undoubtedly advanced it several stages towards its future greatness. He founded the university of Halle, and the Academy of Sciences at Berlin; welcomed and protected Protestant refugees from France and elsewhere; and lavished money on the erection of public buildings. The king was married three times. His second wife, Sophie Charlotte (1668-1705), sister of the English king George I., was the friend of Leibnitz and one of the most cultured princesses of the age; she bore him his only son, his successor, King Frederick William I. See W. Hahn, _Friedrich I., Koenig in Preussen_ (Berlin, 1876); J. G. Droysen, _Geschichte der preussischen Politik_, Band iv. (Leipzig, 1872); E. Heyck, _Friedrich I. und die Begruendung des preussischen Koenigtums_ (Bielefeld, 1901): C. Graf von Dohna, _Memoires originaux sur le regne et la cour de Frederic I^er_ (Berlin, 1883); _Aus dem Briefwechsel Koenig Friedrichs I. von Preussen und seiner Familie_ (Berlin, 1901); and T. Carlyle, _History of Frederick the Great_, vol. i. (London, 1872).