He was the son and successor of Frederick III and his wife, Princess Johanna Franziska of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
His mother died in 1790 at the Schloss Kirn, and his father was guillotined in Paris on 25 July 1794.
In 1801, the principality was removed from the Holy Roman Empire at the peace of Lunéville, and in 1806 (with Amalie signing as Frederick's guardian and regent), it became a founding member of the Confederation of the Rhine, gaining protection from Napoleon and effectively freedom of action for itself (albeit as a French satellite).
In compensation for the loss of the Salm-Kyburg principality on the left bank of the Rhine, the 1803 German Mediatisation granted Salm-Kyburg lordship over a third of a part of the secularised lands of the prince bishops of Munster that had previous belonged to the amts of Bocholt and Ahaus to compensate for his loss in 1801.
The other two-thirds were granted to Konstantin Alexander Joseph zu Salm-Salm in compensation for his lost lands on the Rhine.