His mother was a daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark.He had ambitious plans concerning the development of sea trade.

[citation needed] For this reason he sent on 6 November 1633 the expedition from Hamburg to Moscow under the management of a commercial agent of Otto Brüggemann and a ducal adviser, Philipp Crusius, and with Adam Olearius as secretary.

Although it was not successful in concluding a commercial agreement with Tsar Michael I of Russia, nevertheless, immediately after the return of the delegation to Gottorp on 6 April 1635, Frederick began the preparation of the following expedition.

[1] The difficult task of leading the country through the Thirty Years' War confronted Frederick.

[1] Since the Swedish attempt at being the Great Power ultimately failed, Frederick's pro-Swedish policy led to the weakening of the house of Holstein-Gottorp.