Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
)

Charles William Ferdinand
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Holy Roman Empire
Died10 November 1806(1806-11-10) (aged 71)
Ottensen, Hamburg
Burial24 November 1806
Christianskirche, Ottensen, Hamburg
6 November 1819
Brunswick Cathedral
Spouse
Issue
Details
HouseBrunswick-Bevern
FatherCharles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
MotherPrincess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia
SignatureCharles William Ferdinand's signature

Charles William Ferdinand (

duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
and a military leader. His titles are usually shortened to Duke of Brunswick in English-language sources.

He succeeded his father as sovereign prince of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, one of the

George III of Great Britain. He was also a recognized master of 18th century warfare, serving as a Field Marshal in the Prussian Army. During the Napoleonic Wars, he was mortally wounded by a musket ball at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt
in 1806.

Early life

Schloss Wolfenbüttel, probable birthplace of Charles William Ferdinand

Charles William Ferdinand was born in the town of Wolfenbüttel on 9 October 1735, probably in Wolfenbüttel Castle. He was the first-born son of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Philippine Charlotte.

His father Charles I was the ruling prince (

Erbprinz
).

He received an unusually wide and thorough education, overseen by his mother.[1] In his youth he travelled in the Netherlands, France and various parts of Germany. In 1753, his father moved the capital of the principality back to Brunswick (German: Braunschweig), the state's largest city. (Wolfenbüttel had been the capital since 1432.) The royal family moved into the newly built Brunswick Palace.

Early military career

Charles William Ferdinand entered the military, serving during the

Hanoverian Army of Observation, whose task was to protect Hanover (in personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain) and the surrounding states from invasion by the French. The force was initially commanded by the Anglo-Hanoverian Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.[2] At the Battle of Hastenbeck (1757) Charles William Ferdinand led a charge at the head of an infantry brigade, an action which gained him some renown.[2][3]

The subsequent French

Ferdinand of Brunswick, brother of Charles I, who easily persuaded his nephew Charles William Ferdinand to renew his military service as a general officer.[3]

Charles William Ferdinand was part of the allied Anglo-German force at the Battle of Minden (1759), and the Battle of Warburg (1760). Both were decisive victories over the French, during which he proved himself an excellent subordinate commander.[3] He continued to serve in the army commanded by his uncle for the remainder of the war, which was generally successful for the north German forces. The hereditary prince's reputation improved throughout, and he became an acknowledged master of irregular warfare.[3] Peace was restored in 1763.

Marriage and travels

Princess Augusta of Great Britain, his wife, painted c. 1763

The royal houses of the former

King George III.[2]

In 1764, shortly after the Seven Years' War had ended, he travelled to

prime minister during the war but resigned in 1761) and the other leaders of the parliamentary opposition.[9] The wedding was completed, but as a result of these machinations, the prince remained in Britain for only thirteen days.[10]

Portrait of Charles William Ferdinand as Hereditary Prince by Pompeo Batoni, 1767.

Over the next few years the couple embarked on a wide-ranging tour of Europe, visiting many of the major states. In 1766 they went to France, where they were received by both his allies and recent battlefield enemies with respect.

Brunswick.[3]

Ruler of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Bishopric of Hildesheim
(violet).

Restoration of state finances

His father, Charles I, had been an enthusiastic supporter of the war, but nearly bankrupted the state in paying for it. As a result, in 1773 Charles William Ferdinand was given a major role in reforming the economy with the assistance of the Geheimrat, Féronce von Rotenkreuz. They were highly successful, restoring the state's finances and improving the economy. This made the prince hugely popular in the duchy.[3]

When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Charles William Ferdinand saw an opportunity to replenish the state's treasury by renting its well-trained army to Great Britain. In 1776, Charles I signed a treaty supporting Britain in the war, the first prince to do so. Under the terms of this treaty, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel supplied 4,000 troops for service with the British armies in America, under the command of general Friedrich Adolf Riedesel. Riedesel was given command of all the German troops serving in the Saratoga campaign, under British general John Burgoyne. Burgoyne was defeated in the Battles of Saratoga (1777), and his troops were taken captive as the Convention Army. Although the terms of surrender allowed the Convention Army to give their parole and return to Europe, the American Continental Congress revoked the convention.[11] The Convention Army was kept in captivity until the war ended in 1783.[citation needed]

Reign

Charles I died in 1780, at which point Charles William Ferdinand inherited the throne. He soon became known as a model sovereign, a typical enlightened despot of the period, characterized by economy and prudence.[3]

The duke's combination of interest in the well-being of his subjects and habitual caution led to a policy of gradual reforms, a successful middle way between the conservatism of some contemporary monarchs and the over-enthusiastic wholesale changes pursued by others. He sponsored enlightenment arts and sciences; most notably he was patron to the young mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, paying for him to attend university against the wishes of Gauss' father.[12]

He resembled his uncle Frederick the Great in many ways, but he lacked the resolution of the king, and in civil as in military affairs was prone to excessive caution.[3] He brought Brunswick into close alliance with the king of Prussia, for whom he had fought in the Seven Years' War; he was a Prussian field marshal, and was at pains to make the regiment of which he was colonel a model one.[3]

The duke was frequently engaged in diplomatic and other state affairs. In August 1784 he hosted a secret diplomatic visit from

Goethe was a member of Karl August's entourage). The visit was disguised as a family visit, but was in fact to discuss the formation of a league of small- and mid-sized German states as a counterbalance within the Holy Roman Empire to Habsburg monarchy's ambitions to trade the Austrian Netherlands for the Electorate of Bavaria. This Fürstenbund (League of Princes) was formally announced in 1785, with the Duke of Brunswick as one of its members and commander of its military forces.[3] The league was successful in forcing the Austrian Joseph II
to back down, and thereafter became obsolete.

The Swedish princess and diarist

Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte visited Brunswick in 1799; she described the Duke as "witty, literal and a pleasant acquaintance but ceremonial beyond description. He is said to be quite strict, but a good father of the nation who attends to the needs of his people."[13]

In 1803 the process of

]

Military commander

Equestrian statue of the duke in Brunswick, by Franz Pönninger [de].

He was made a Prussian general in 1773.

War of the Bavarian Succession

From 1778 to 1779 he served in the

Frederick II praised the prince personally for his conduct during the war.[14]

Invasion of the Netherlands

Prussian troops entering Amsterdam on 10 October 1787

In 1787 the Duke was made

House of Orange
. Much of the country was in open revolt against William, whose personal troops were unable to quell the Patriot militias and the various Dutch provinces refused to aid him.

The Encyclopædia Britannica described the Duke's invasion: "His success was rapid, complete and almost bloodless, and in the eyes of contemporaries the campaign appeared as an example of perfect generalship".[3] The Patriots were out-manoeuvred and overwhelmed: their militias were unable to put up any real resistance, were forced to abandon their insurrection, and many Patriots fled to France.[15]

The Duke's forces entered the Netherlands on 13 September and occupied

Gorcum on the 17th after a short artillery bombardment, followed by Dordrecht on the 18th and Delft on the 19th.[16] They entered The Hague on the 20th, from which the Patriots had been forced to withdraw following a loyalist insurrection on the 17th.[16] Amsterdam, the last city occupied by the Patriots, surrendered on 10 October.[16] The campaign had taken less than a month. William V was restored to power, which he was to hold until 1795
.

Both contemporaries and historians have praised the Duke's decisive campaign, in which he manoeuvred to concentrate his forces and achieve overwhelming local superiority, before moving on to the next city.[3][17] He also received credit for the low number of casualties; one British observer suggested that "the sap of the trees was the only blood shed" (an exaggeration),[18] referring to the wooden palisades and batteries constructed by both sides.

War of the First Coalition

At the outbreak of the

Girondins had arranged for France to declare war on Austria, voted on 20 April 1792, the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and the Protestant King of Prussia Frederick William II had combined armies and put them under Brunswick's command.[citation needed
]

The Brunswick Proclamation

Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé, primary author of the Brunswick Manifesto

The "

Louis XVI
and his family. His avowed aim was:

to put an end to the anarchy in the interior of France, to check the attacks upon the throne and the altar, to reestablish the legal power, to restore to the king the security and the liberty of which he is now deprived and to place him in a position to exercise once more the legitimate authority which belongs to him.

Additionally, the manifesto threatened the French population with instant punishment should they resist the Imperial and Prussian armies, or the reinstatement of the monarchy. In large part, the manifesto had been written by

Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, who was the leader of a large corps of émigrés in the allied army.[citation needed
]

It has been asserted that the manifesto was in fact issued against the advice of Brunswick himself; the duke, a model sovereign in his own principality, sympathized with the constitutional side of the French Revolution, while as a soldier he had no confidence in the success of the enterprise. However, having let the manifesto bear his signature, he had to bear the full responsibility for its consequences. The proclamation was intended to threaten the French population into submission; it had exactly the opposite effect.[citation needed]

In Paris,

10 August, when the Tuileries Palace was stormed.[citation needed
]

Invasion of France

The Battle of Valmy, painted by Horace Vernet.

The Duke was disappointed that the British remained neutral. His initial advance into France was slowed by poor weather, the rough terrain of the Forest of Argonne, and an outbreak of dysentery among his troops.[19]

The Duke was less successful against the French citizens' army that met him at

Verdun without serious resistance, he turned back after a mere skirmish in Valmy, and evacuated France.[citation needed
]

Initially the Duke intended to winter in the fortress of Verdun, before resuming the campaign in France the following spring. However, Kellerman's forces outflanked him by advancing up the Rhine, recapturing French possessions there. The Duke abandoned Verdun on 8 October and Longwy on 22 October,[20] before retreating back into Germany.

When he counterattacked the Revolutionary French who had invaded Germany, in 1793, he recaptured Mainz after a long siege, but resigned in 1794 in protest at interference by Frederick William II of Prussia.[citation needed]

War of the Fourth Coalition

The Duke of Brunswick fleeing with his troops
The wounded Duke of Brunswick after the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt.
Brunswick in the 1790s.

Prussia did not take part in the Second Coalition or the Third Coalition against Revolutionary France. However, in 1806 Prussia declared war on France, beginning the War of the Fourth Coalition. Despite being over 70 years old, the Duke of Brunswick returned to command the Prussian army at the personal request of Louise, Queen of Prussia.[3]

By this stage the Prussian army was regarded as backward, using outdated tactics and with poor communication. The structure of the high command has been particularly criticised by historians, with multiple officers developing differing plans and then disagreeing on which should be followed, leading to disorganisation and indecision.

The duke commanded the large Prussian army at Auerstedt during the double

Davout, despite the Prussians outnumbering the French around Auerstedt by two to one. During the battle he was struck by a musket ball and lost both of his eyes; his second-in-command Friedrich Wilhelm Carl von Schmettau was also mortally wounded, causing a breakdown in the Prussian command. Severely wounded, the Duke was carried with his forces before the advancing French. He died of his wounds in Ottensen on 10 November 1806.[3]

Memorial in Christianskirche

The duke's body was provisionally laid to rest in the Christianskirche at Ottensen in 1806. It was later transferred for reburial in Brunswick Cathedral on 6 November 1819.

Family

Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand II, Herzog von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1735–1806) and Princess Augusta of Great Britain

On 16 January 1764, Charles married

King George III. The couple were second cousins to each other, being great-grandchildren of George I of Great Britain. As such, they were not related in a particularly close degree, yet there had been many bonds of marriage between the House of Brunswick-Bevern and the House of Hanover, themselves both branches of the House of Welf
.

Some commentators have pointed to inbreeding as a possible cause for the fact that many of the couple's children had physical, mental or psychological disabilities. Indeed, the duke was once moved to describe his children to von Massenbach as "mostly cripples in mind and body."[21]

Shortly after they married, the prince had the Schloss Richmond built for his wife. It was in English architectural style and with an English landscape garden, to remind her of her home.[citation needed]

The duke and his wife Augusta had four sons and three daughters. Three of their four sons had major debilities. Their eldest son,

Karl Georg August (1766–1806) was named heir apparent, but had a significant learning disability and was regarded as "well-nigh imbecile."[10]

Nevertheless, he was married in 1790 to

Friedrich Wilhelm (1771 – 16 June 1815), was sound of mind and body. He eventually succeeded his father, married and sired two sons.[10]

Frederick and Augusta also had three daughters, two of whom reached adulthood. Neither of them was disabled, but both of them had similar, disastrous trajectories in life. Both of them were married to future kings, both made extreme failures of their marriages, both had extremely acrimonious relations with their husbands, and both were accused by them of similar faults: adultery, uncouth behavior, absence of dignity, falsehood and utter fecklessness. The elder daughter,

Auguste Caroline Friederike (1764–1788), was the wife of the future king Frederick I of Württemberg and mother of the future William I of Württemberg. She separated from her husband and died in Russia from complications that arose while giving birth in secret to an illegitimate child.[citation needed
]

The younger daughter,

George IV of the United Kingdom, and bore him a daughter, the ill-fated Princess Charlotte of Wales. On two occasions (1806 and 1818–19), her husband made serious efforts to divorce her on grounds of adultery, forming commissions of inquiry to indict her, and after he became king, he in fact caused the House of Lords to pass a bill of divorce citing adultery with an Italian commoner.[citation needed
]

However, the bill was never introduced in the House of Commons and the divorce was never finalized. Caroline died three weeks after she was physically prevented from entering Westminster Abbey to participate in her husband's coronation.[citation needed]

The future Queen of Sweden,

Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp
, described the ducal family thus:

The Duchess is the sister to the King of England and a typical Englishwoman. She looked very simple, like a vicar's wife, has I am sure many admirable qualities, and is very respectable, but completely lacks manners. She makes the strangest questions without considering how difficult and unpleasant they can be. ... The sons of the Ducal couple are somewhat peculiar. The (eldest) prince, chubby and fat, almost blind, strange and odd - if not to say an imbecile - attempts to imitate his father but only makes himself artificial and unpleasant. He talks continually, does not know what he says, and is in all aspects unbearable. He is accommodating but a poor thing, loves his consort to the point of worship, and is completely governed by her. The (second) son, Prince Georg, is the most ridiculous person imaginable, and so silly that he can never be left alone but is always accompanied by a courtier. The third son is also described as an original. I never saw him, as he served with his regiment. The fourth is the only normal one, but also torments his parents by his immoral behaviour.[13]

The duke also fathered at least one

illegitimate child, a son named Forstenburg, who began a promising military career but was killed in action in 1793.[21]

Issue

Name Birth Death Notes
Auguste Caroline Friederike Luise 3 December 1764 27 September 1788 married 1780, Friedrich III, Duke of Württemberg; had issue
Karl Georg August
8 February 1766 20 September 1806 married 1790,
Frederika Luise Wilhelmine, Princess of Orange-Nassau
; no issue
Caroline Amalie Elisabeth 17 May 1768 7 August 1821 married 1795,
George IV of the United Kingdom
; had issue
Georg Wilhelm Christian 27 June 1769 16 September 1811 Declared an invalid; Excluded from line of succession
August 18 August 1770 18 December 1822 Declared an invalid; Excluded from line of succession
Friedrich Wilhelm 9 October 1771 16 June 1815 married 1802, Maria Elisabeth Wilhelmine, Princess of Baden; had issue
Amelie Karoline Dorothea Luise 22 November 1772 2 April 1773

Ancestry

External links

References

Notes

  1. ^ Equivalent in 2021 to £12,100,000 and £450,000 per year respectively.[6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 7.
  2. ^ a b c d "BRUNSWICK-LÜNEBURG, Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of". Napoleon.org. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brunswick, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  4. ^ Fitzmaurice (1901), pp. 14–15.
  5. ^ a b Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 14.
  6. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  7. ^ a b Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 15.
  8. ^ Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 15–16.
  9. ^ Fitzmaurice (1901), pp. 14–16.
  10. ^ a b c Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 16.
  11. .
  12. ^ Dunnington, G. Waldo. (May 1927). "The Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Gauss". Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2008. Scientific Monthly XXIV: 402–414. Retrieved on 29 June 2005. Now available at "The Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Gauss". Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  13. ^ a b )
  14. ^ a b Black (1994), p. 151.
  15. ^ Black (1994), pp. 151–153.
  16. ^ a b c d Black (1994), p. 152.
  17. ^ Black (1994), pp. 152–153.
  18. ^ Black (1994), p. 153.
  19. ^ Black (1994), p. 403.
  20. ^ Black (1994), pp. 403, 407.
  21. ^ a b Fitzmaurice (1901), p. 17.
  22. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 52.

Bibliography

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brunswick, Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 687.

Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
Cadet branch of the House of Welf
Born: 9 October 1735 Died: 10 November 1806
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles I
Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

1780–1806
Succeeded by
Frederick William