Charles William Ferdinand (; 9 October 1735 – 10 November 1806) was the ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, hereditary 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 princely states of the Holy Roman Empire. The duke was a cultured and benevolent despot in the model of his uncle, Frederick the Great, and was married to Princess Augusta, the eldest sister of George III of Great Britain. He was also a recognized master of 18th-century warfare, serving as a field marshal in the Prussian Army. He played a notable role in the French Revolutionary Wars by issuing the Brunswick Manifesto. During the Napoleonic Wars, he was mortally wounded by a musket ball at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt in 1806.
Early life
Charles William Ferdinand was born in the town of Wolfenbüttel on 9 October 1735, probably in Wolfenbüttel Castle. He was the firstborn son of Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Philippine Charlotte.
His father Charles I was the ruling prince () of the small state of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, one of the imperial states of the Holy Roman Empire. Philippine Charlotte was the favourite daughter of King Frederick William I of Prussia and sister of Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great). As the heir apparent of a sovereign prince, Charles William Ferdinand received the title of Hereditary Prince ().
He received an unusually wide and thorough education, overseen by his mother. 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 (), 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 Seven Years' War of 1756–63. He joined the allied north-German forces of 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. 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.
The subsequent French Invasion of Hanover and the Convention of Klosterzeven of 1757 temporarily knocked Hanover out of the war (they were to return the following year). Cumberland was recalled to Britain and the remaining allied north-German forces were placed under the command of Ferdinand of Brunswick, brother of Charles I, who easily persuaded his nephew Charles William Ferdinand to renew his military service as a general officer.
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. 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. Peace was restored in 1763.
Marriage and travels
The royal houses of the former Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg had traditionally married within the family, to avoid further division of their family lands under Salic law. By the time, Brunswick-Lüneburg had consolidated back into two states, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover). The electorate was ruled by the Hanoverian branch of the family in personal union with the Kingdom of Great Britain. It was therefore arranged for Charles William Ferdinand to marry a British-Hanoverian princess: Princess Augusta of Great Britain, daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and sister of the reigning King George III.
In 1764, shortly after the Seven Years' War had ended, he travelled to London (landing at Harwich) to marry Princess Augusta. He received a rapturous welcome from the British people, thanks to his service with allied British troops during the war. The Parliament of Great Britain showed its gratitude by voting him a lump sum of £80,000 and an annual income of £3,000 as a wedding gift. However George III was less welcoming, and sought to express his displeasure through numerous small insults e.g. by lodging the prince at Somerset House, instead of one of the royal palaces; not providing him with a military guard; and instructing the servants at the wedding to wear old clothes. This merely served to exacerbate the enthusiasm of the public, particularly when the prince was suspected of turning his back on the unpopular monarch while attending an opera (a breach of social protocol). Charles William Ferdinand defied royal displeasure by meeting William Pitt the Elder (who had been prime minister during the war but resigned in 1761) and the other leaders of the parliamentary opposition. The wedding was completed, but as a result of these machinations, the prince remained in Britain for only thirteen days.
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. In Paris he made the acquaintance of Marmontel. The couple next proceeded to Switzerland, where they met Voltaire. The longest stop on their travels was Rome, where they remained for a long time, exploring the antiquities of the city under the guidance of Johann Winckelmann. During their travels the couple also met Pietro Nardini and in 1767 the prince had his portrait painted by Pompeo Batoni. After a visit to Naples they returned to Paris, and thence to Brunswick.
Ruler of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
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.
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. The Convention Army was kept in captivity until the war ended in 1783.
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, characterised by economy and prudence.
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's father.Dunnington, G. Waldo. (May 1927). Scientific Monthly XXIV: 402–414. Retrieved on 29 June 2005. Now available at Retrieved 28 January 2016.
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. 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.
The duke was frequently engaged in diplomatic and other state affairs. In August 1784 he hosted a secret diplomatic visit from Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach (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. 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."
In 1803 the process of German Mediatisation led to the acquisition of the neighbouring imperial abbeys of Gandersheim and Helmstedt, which were secularised.
Military commander
He was made a Prussian general in 1773.
War of the Bavarian Succession
From 1778 to 1779 he served in the War of the Bavarian Succession. Frederick II praised the prince personally for his conduct during the war.
Invasion of the Netherlands
In 1787 the Duke was made Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) in the Prussian army. Frederick William II of Prussia appointed him as commander of a 20,000-strong Prussian force which was to invade the United Provinces of the Netherlands (The Dutch Republic). The goal was to suppress the Patriots of the Batavian Revolution, restoring the authority of the stadtholder William V of the 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". 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.
The Duke's forces entered the Netherlands on 13 September and occupied Nijmegen that day. The largest Patriot force, 7,000 men under the Rhinegrave of Salm, was quickly out-manoeuvred and forced to abandon Utrecht, which the Duke occupied on 16 September. The Prussian force captured Gorcum on the 17th after a short artillery bombardment, followed by Dordrecht on the 18th and Delft on the 19th. They entered The Hague on the 20th, from which the Patriots had been forced to withdraw following a loyalist insurrection on the 17th. Amsterdam, the last city occupied by the Patriots, surrendered on 10 October. The campaign had taken less than a month. William V was restored to power, which he was to hold until 1795.