King in Prussia
Born in Berlin, Christian Ludwig was the youngest son of the "Great Elector" Frederick William (1620–1688), ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia, and his second wife Princess Sophia Dorothea of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (1636–1689). Like his elder brothers, he inherited large estates around Schwedt, Vierraden and Wildenbruch his mother had acquired to provide for her sons, while according to the Hohenzollern primogeniture principle the rule over Brandenburg-Prussia passed to Frederick-William's first-born son, Crown Prince Frederick III, who became King in Prussia in 1701.