Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand

Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (October 9, 1735 - November 10, 1806), German general, was born at Wolfenbüttel. Download high resolution version (1257x1500, 394 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1257x1500, 394 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... October 9 is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in Leap years). ... Events 16 April - The London premiere of Alcina by George Frideric Handel, his first the first Italian opera for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. ... November 10 is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 51 days remaining. ... 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... General is a military rank, in most nations the highest rank, although some nations have the higher rank of Field Marshal. ... Wolfenbüttel Wolfenbüttel is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. ...

He received an unusually wide and thorough education, and travelled in his youth in Holland, France and various parts of Germany. His first military experience was in the North German campaign of 1757, under the duke of Cumberland. At the battle of Hastenbeck he won great renown by a gallant charge at the head of an infantry brigade; and upon the capitulation of Kloster Zeven he was easily persuaded by his uncle Ferdinand of Brunswick, who succeeded Cumberland, to continue in the war as a general officer. The exploits of the hereditary prince, as he was called, soon gained him further reputation, and he became an acknowledged master of irregular warfare. In pitched battles, and in particular at Minden and Warburg, he proved himself an excellent subordinate. Holland is the common name in English referring to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (or exclusively its European part)--although this is incorrect from a Dutch perspective. ... Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (April 15, 1721–October 31, 1765), a younger son of King George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline, was a noted military leader. ... The Battle of Hastenbeck took place during the Seven Years War on July 26, 1757, near the village of Hastenbeck (close to Hamelin). ... Irregular soldiers in Beauharnois, Quebec, 19th century Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. ... The Battle of Minden was a battle fought on August 1, 1759 during the Seven Years War. ... The battle of Warburg was a battle fought on August 1, 1760 during the Seven Years War. ...

After the close of the Seven Years' War, the prince visited England with his bride, the daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and in 1766 he went to France, being received both by his allies and his late enemies with every token of respect. In Paris he made the acquaintance of Marmontel; in Switzerland, whither he continued his tour, that of Voltaire; and in Rome, where he remained for a long time, he explored the antiquities of the city under the guidance of Winckelmann. After a visit to Naples he returned to Paris, and thence, with his wife, to Brunswick. His services to the dukedom during the next few years were of the greatest value; with the assistance of the minister Feonçe von Rotenkreuz he rescued the state from the bankruptcy into which the war had brought it. His popularity was unbounded, and when he succeeded his father, Duke Karl I, in 1780, he soon became known as a model to sovereigns. The Seven Years War (1754 and 1756–1763) pitted Great Britain, Prussia and Hanover against France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. ... His Royal Highness The Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales (Frederick Louis) (February 1, 1707 - March 31, 1751) was the only man of that name ever to hold the title Prince of Wales, and is best remembered as the father of King George III of the United Kingdom and as the... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Jean-François Marmontel (July 11, 1723 - December 31, 1799) was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopediste movement. ... Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, deist and philosopher. ... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ... Johann Joachim Winckelmann (November 9, 1717–June 8, 1768) was a German archaeologist. ... Location within Italy Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule, from Greek Νέα Πόλις - Néa Pólis - meaning New City) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region. ... 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

He was perhaps the best representative of the benevolent despot of the 18th century: wise, economical, prudent and kindly. His habitual caution, if it induced him on some occasions to leave reforms uncompleted, at any rate saved him from the failures which marred the efforts of so many liberal princes of his time. He strove to keep his duchy from all foreign entanglements. At the same time he continued to render important services to 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, and he was frequently engaged in diplomatic and other state affairs. He resembled his uncle Frederick the Great in many ways, but he lacked the supreme resolution of the king, and in civil as in military affairs was prone to excessive caution. As an enthusiastic adherent of the Germanic and anti-Austrian policy of Prussia he joined the Furstenbund, in which, as he now had the reputation of being the best soldier of his time, he was the destined commander-in-chief of the federal army. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... Frederick the Great Frederick II of Prussia (Friedrich der Große, Frederick the Great, January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was the Hohenzollern king of Prussia 1740–86. ... Frederick the Great created the Furstenbund in Germany about 1780 to resist the encroachments of Austria. ...

Between 1763 and 1787 his only military service had been in the brief War of the Bavarian Succession; in the later year, however, the duke, as a Prussian field marshal, led the army which invaded Holland. His success was rapid, complete and almost bloodless, and in the eyes of contemporaries the campaign appeared as an example of perfect generalship. Five years later Brunswick was appointed to the command of the allied Austrian and German army assembled to invade France and crush the Revolution. In this task he knew that he must encounter more than a formal resistance. 1763 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The War of the Bavarian Succession was a war that occurred in 1778 and 1779. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... The period of the French Revolution in the history of France covers the years between 1789 and 1799, in which democrats and republicans overthrew the absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ...

He was so far in acknowledged sympathy with French hopes of reform, that when he gave an asylum in his duchy to the comte de Lille (Louis XVIII) the revolutionary government made no protest. Indeed, earlier in this year (1792) be had been offered supreme command of the French army. As the king of Prussia took the field with Brunswick's army, the duke felt bound as a soldier to treat his wishes as actual orders. The result of Brunswick's cautious advance on Paris was the cannonade of Valmy followed by the retreat of the allies. Louis XVIII (November 17, 1755 - September 16, 1824) was King of France from 1814 (although he declared that he considered his reign to have begun in 1795) until his death in 1824. ...

The following campaign of 1793 showed him perhaps at his best as a careful and exact general; even Hoche, with the nation in arms behind him, failed to make any impression on the veteran leader of the allies. But difficulties and disagreements at headquarters multiplied, and when Brunswick found himself unable to move or direct his army without interference from the king, he laid down his command and returned to govern his duchy. He did not, however, withdraw entirely from Prussian service, and in 1803 he carried out a successful and diplomatic mission to Russia. 1793 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Louis Lazare Hoche (June 24, 1768 - September 19, 1797) was a French general. ...

In 1806, at the personal request of Queen Louise of Prussia, he consented to command the Prussian army, but here again the presence of the king of Prussia and the conflicting views of numerous advisers of high rank proved fatal. At the battle of Auerstadt the old duke was mortally wounded. Carried for nearly a month in the midst of the routed Prussian army he died at last on the 10th of November 1806 at Ottensen near Hamburg. 1806 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Louise Auguste Wilhelmine Amalie (Louisa Augusta Wilhelma Amelia) (March 10, 1776 - July 19, 1810), Queen of Prussia, was born in Hanover, where her father, Prince Charles of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was field marshal of the household brigade. ... Frederick William III Frederick William III, known in German as Friedrich Wilhelm III, reigned as king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. ... The Battle of Auerstädt, was fought on 14 October 1806, and resulted in a French victory under marshall Davout against the Prussians under General Brunswick. ... Position of Hamburg in Germany Hamburgs central broadway Jungfernstieg at the Alster lake, between 1900 and 1914 This article is about the city in Germany. ...

His son and successor, Friedrich Wilhelm (1771 - June 16, 1815), who was one of the bitterest opponents of Napoleonic domination in Germany, took part in the war of 1809 at the head of a corps of partisans; fled to England after the battle of Wagram, and returned to Brunswick in 1813, where be raised fresh troops. He was killed at the battle of Quatre Bras. 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... June 16 is the 167th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (168th in leap years), with 198 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... A bivouac of Polish Uhlans at Wagram painted by January Suchodolski. ... The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought between contingents of the Anglo-allied army and the left wing of the French Army on June 16, 1815, near the crossroads of Quatre Bras, in Belgium. ...

See Lord Fitzmaurice, Charles W. F., duke of Brunswick (London, 1901); memoir in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1882); and, for an interesting sketch of his military character.

A Chuquet, Les Guerres de la Révolution: La Première Invasion prussienne (Paris).

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.