Unlike his predecessors and successors, he was not keen on war and instead became one of the patrons of German Geistesgeschichte, corresponding with Lavater and Klopstock and visiting Voltaire, D’Alembert and Albrecht von Haller.

His father died when he was only three and he succeeded to the landgraviate - Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor allowed his mother to become his regent, despite opposition from Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, who had occupied Hesse-Homburg in 1747.

Councillor Friedrich Karl Kasimir von Creutz fought on Frederick's behalf and was even imprisoned for 18 months, leading to the case being tried before the Reichshofrat and Francis himself.

[4] Despite his piety, he was a strong backer of the Société Patriotique de Hesse-Hombourg, a short-lived project to centre for coordinating Enlightenment ideas from across the whole of Europe, granting it financial support.

The foundation of the "Friedrich zum Nordstern" lodge in Homburg in 1817 would have been inconceivable without his protection and attention - it outlived him, lasting until it was shut down by his anti-Masonic successor Frederick VI.

In 1802 Alexander von Sinclair's son Isaac asked Frederick for a permanent position as court librarian for his old friend Friedrich Hölderlin, who had fallen into melancholy after professional setbacks and the death of his mistress.

Generals Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr and Michel Ney even moved their headquarters into Bad Homburg Castle in 1798, ejecting Frederick and his family to private lodgings in then-neutral Prussia (his six adult sons were already on military service).

Its administration was relocated to Gießen and Frederick retreated to landscaping his "Tempe" gardens at the foot of the Taunus, seeking a cure in the Schlangenbad baths and staying in a suite of rooms at the 'Stadt Ulm' hotel in Frankfurt am Main.

This was confirmed via the German Confederation Constitution of 1815, which gave Frederick back his original lands and even added the 176 km² Grand Bailiwick of Meisenheim on the west bank of the Rhine, taken from the French department of Sarre.

In 1819 Frederick established the Schwerterkreuz medal for military service in Hesse-Homburg's armies (now rare as it was only awarded sixteen times) and the following year he died in the castle at Bad Homburg.