queen was led out of the room as Frederick William breathed his last in the arms of his son and successor. Queen Dowager On 31 May 1740, Frederick William died and was succeeded by her son, Frederick II (the Great). The loss of a husband, who, despite his frequent harsh treatment, had been sincerely attached to her, and who was endeared by the habitual intercourse of many years, deeply affected Sophia Dorothea. When the Marchioness of Bayreuth revisited Berlin, she found her mother clad in deep mourning, and with an air of profound dejection impressed upon her features. Sophia Dorothea had a very good relationship with her son, the new king. When she addressed him as "Your Majesty" after the funeral of his father, he interrupted her and told her: "Always call me your son, that title is dearer to me than the royal dignity." Frederick was known for his devotion to her, expressed his gratitude for her having raised him and never blamed her for his traumatic childhood, which he instead blamed on his father, and never allowed anyone to criticize her. Sophia Dorothea lost no importance as a queen dowager: wary of the great respect the king afforded his mother and his neglect of his wife, the foreign envoys and other supplicants considered attending the audience chamber and receptions as of the queen dowager as even more important than that of the queen. Until her death, he honored her as the first lady of his court and placed her before that of his wife, the queen. It was to his mother's chamber the king paid the first visit on his return from campaigns, summoning the queen to meet him there; he regularly invited his mother to his personal residence at Potsdam, where his wife was never invited, and while he seldom visited his wife, he regularly attended his mother at Monbijou, where he took off his hat and remained standing until she gave him permission to sit. Sophia Dorothea presided at the wedding of her son Prince William in 1742, and her daughter Louisa Ulrika in 1744. The relationship between Sophia Dorothea and her daughter-in-law queen Elisabeth Christine was not good during the first years of her son's reign, as she resented her daughter-in-law's precedence in rank, though her son assured it to be merely formal, but their relationship improved during the last years of her life. Sophia