BRUNSWICK-LUNEBURG, Karl Wil helm Ferdinand, DUKE oir, German soldier: b. (eldest son of Duke Charles of Bruns wick, and of a sister of Frederick the Great) 9 Oct. 1735; d. Ottensen, near Altona, 10 Nov. 1806. He was carefully educated, and his military ambition was early kindled by the achievements of Frederick II. He commanded the Brunswick troops in the allied army in the Seven Years' War, and in the fatal battle at Hastenbeck, 28 July 1757, he recaptured a bat tery that had been taken by the French, calling forth from Frederick a statement that 'he showed that nature had destined him for a hero.) He was instrumental in deciding the victory of Crefeld. He took the most active part in all the enterprises of his uncle Ferdi nand; and Frederick's esteem for him continued to increase. In 1764 he married the Princess Augusta of England. He practised the greatest economy, living mostly retired from public business, and devoted to the arts and sciences. In 1773 he entered the Prussian service and be came general of infantry, but had no opportu nity of displaying his military talents. After the death of his father (1780) he entered upon the government with zeal and activity. Anxious for the improvement of the finances, he dimin ished his household, discharged the debts of the state, encouraged agriculture, extended the liberty of commerce, undertook or assisted in the erection of considerable buildings, and by causing Italian operas, masquerades, etc., to be exhibited gratis, provided also for the amuse ment of the public. Yet, with the best inten tions, he was often unsuccessful. This was the case with his plans for the improvement of pub lic education. He invited men of learning into the country at great expense, but the projected reformation having met with innumerable ob stacles, they became Et burden to the state. In 1787 he commanded a Prussian army for the support of the Stadtholder of Holland. When the wars of the French Revolution broke out, he received the chief command of the Austrian and Prussian army, and issued at Coblenz, 15 July 1792, a manifesto, drawn up in a very haughty style, which did more injury to the allied forces than a hostile army could have done. The Duke planned to press forward from Lorraine to Paris to cut off its supplies, and thus force it to surrender by famine. Longwy was taken 23 August and Verdun 2 Sept. 1792. But in Champagne, an unproductive country, the transport of provisions for the army from the frontiers was rendered difficult by moun tains and forests. Dumouriez was encamped in the vicinity of Saint Menehould, and skir mishes took place daily; but the skilful disposi tions of Dumouriez culminated in the defeat of the Germans by Kellermann at Valmy, 20 Sept. 1792, and Brunswick-Luneburg was obliged to conclude an armistice and evacuate Champagne. Cnstines took Worms and Spires during this retreat, and captured the fortress of Mainz, 21 October, and soon afterward Frankfort, which latter city, however, was retaken by the Prus sians and Hessians, 2 December. The en
deavors of the Germans, therefore, were prin cipally directed to the recapture of those places.
To this end the Duke, in conjunction with the Austrians, opened the campaign on the upper Rhine, in 1793, took the fortress of KOnigstein 7 March, reconquered Main; 22 July, and pre pared to attack the strong fortress of Landau, then in the power of the French. The French, on the other hand, 14 September, made a general attack on the Duke of Wurmser, from Strass burg to Saarbruck. On that day the Duke had a sanguinary engagement with Moreau in the vicinity of Pirmasens, a town belonging to the landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt. The French were driven from their camp near the village of Hombach as far as the Saar. A month later the Duke, having formed a union with Wurm ser, succeeded, 13 October, in his attack on the lines of Weissenburg and his attempt to draw nearer to Landau. In order to gain another strong point of support, he ventured, on the night of 16 November, to make an assault upon the mountain-fortress of Bitche, which is the key of the Vosges, as the roads from Landau, Pirmasens, Weissenburg and Strassburg unite at that place. This attempt miscarried. • Between the 28th and the 30th of November, however, he defeated a division of the Army of the Moselle at Lantern, which was pressing through the mountains under the command of Hoche, with the intention of relieving Landau. But the daily attacks of Hoche and Pichegru, without re gard to the sacrifice of men, and the successful attempt of the latter to break the Austrian lines near Frceschweiler, 22 December, forced the Austrians to retreat beyond the Rhine, and oc casioned the retreat of the Duke also. As some difficulties had already arisen between Austria and Prussia, he laid down the chief command of the army in the beginning of the year 1794. The Duke continued to labor for the welfare of his country until 1806. Although now of such an age that he might have retired without reproach from public life, yet he assumed bur dens beyond his powers. At the beginning of the year 1806, commissioned by the King of Prussia, he made a journey to Saint Petersburg relative to the war that soon broke out with France. He was then placed at the head of the Prussian army. But his physical strength was not equal to his moral energy, as was proved by the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, in the latter of which he was mortally wounded. Napoleon included his duchy in the kingdom of Westphalia in 1806, but it was afterward re stored to his son Frederick William. The latter lost his life at the battle of Quatre-Bras in 1815_ His son Charles Frederick came of age in 1823 and succeeded to the dukedom (George IV of England having acted as Prince Regent during his minority) but he was driven from the duchy by a revolt in 1830. His brother William then assumed the government, ruling until 1884.