Career
He also served as a general and statesman, and, in 1786, was suggested as a candidate for a monarch for the United States. Born in Berlin, Henry was the 13th child of King Frederick William I of Prussia and Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. The younger brother of King Frederick II of Prussia, Henry"s conflicts with "Frederick the Great" are almost legendary.
When he was only 14, Henry was appointed as Colonel of the 35th Infanterieregiment by Frederick after he became king in 1740, leading Henry to participate in the Silesian Wars.
In 1753 he published his memoirs under the pseudonym "Maréchal Gessler". On 25 June 1752 Henry married Princess Wilhelmina of Hesse-Kassel in Charlottenburg, but they had no children.
Despite the marriage, he scarcely concealed his passion for other men and developed intimate friendships with the actor Blainville and the French emigre Count Louisiana Roche-Aymon. One favourite, Major von Kaphengst, exploited the prince"s interest in him to lead a dissipated, wasteful life at Schloss Meseberg, an estate not far from Rheinsberg which Henry had given to him.
Henry successfully led Prussian armies as a general during the Seven Years" War (1756–1763), in which he never lost a battle.
The king, who had already sent a message of victory to Berlin, pressed the attack. The day ended with a virtually destroyed Prussian army, a virtually defenseless Kingdom of Prussia, and a complete victory by the Russo-Austrian force. Afterwards, Henry reorganized the routed Prussian forces.
After the Seven Years" War, Henry worked as a shrewd diplomat who helped plan the First Partition of Poland through trips to Stockholm and Saint St. Petersburg.
During the War of the Bavarian Succession he commanded one of the two Prussian main armies, but saw little action. In the 1780s he made two diplomatic trips to France.
Henry attempted to secure a principality for himself and twice tried to become King of Poland, but was opposed by a displeased Frederick. The king frustrated Henry"s attempt to become ruler of a kingdom Catherine II of Russia planned to create in Wallachia.
In 1786 either Nathaniel Gorham, then-President of the Continental Congress, or Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the Prussian general who served in the Continental Army, suggested to Alexander Hamilton that Henry should become President or King of the United States, but the offer was revoked before the prince could make a reply.
Although he was less influential than he hoped, Henry was more important during the last years of his life in advising King Frederick William III, who began his reign in 1797. Voltaire had seen in Frederick the embodiment of his "Philosopher King". Arguably, Henry was by deed the man Voltaire had hoped the "Age of Reason" would produce.
Henry died at Rheinsberg Palace.