Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (; 9 October 1771 – 16 June 1815), was a German prince and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Oels. Nicknamed "The Black Duke", he was a military officer who led the

Black Brunswickers The Brunswick Ducal Field-Corps (), commonly known as the Black Brunswickers, was a volunteer military unit raised by Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel during the Napoleonic Wars. The Duke was a strong opponent of Napoleon's occ ...

against French domination in Germany. He briefly ruled the state of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1806 to 1807 and again from 1813 to 1815.

Life

Prince Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was born in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

as the fourth son of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (on the latter's 36th birthday), and Princess Augusta of Great Britain. He was the first cousin and brother-in-law (from 8 April 1795) of his friend George IV, Prince Regent of the United Kingdom (from 1811). He joined the Prussian army in 1789 as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

and participated in battles against Revolutionary France. In 1805, after his uncle, Frederick Augustus, Duke of Oels, had died childless, Frederick William inherited the Duchy of Oels, a small mediatized principality in Silesia subordinate to the

King of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

. In October 1806, Frederick William participated in the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt as a major general of the Prussian army, of which his father was the

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

. His father died from a wound he received in this battle, and Frederick William inherited Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, since his eldest brother had died childless two months earlier, and both the second and third brother had intellectual disabilities. After the defeat of Prussia in the Fourth Coalition, his state remained under the control of France, however, and was formally made a part of the short-lived Napoleonic

Kingdom of Westphalia The Kingdom of Westphalia was a client state of First French Empire, France in present-day Germany that existed from 1807 to 1813. While formally independent, it was ruled by Napoleon's brother Jérôme Bonaparte. It was named after Westphalia, ...

in 1807. Frederick William fled to his parents-in-law in Bruchsal in the

Grand Duchy of Baden The Grand Duchy of Baden () was a German polity on the east bank of the Rhine. It originally existed as a sovereign state from 1806 to 1871 and later as part of the German Empire until 1918. The duchy's 12th-century origins were as a Margravia ...

, which had remained a sovereign state with the dissolution of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

in 1806 by Francis II, where he lived for the next few years. When the

War of the Fifth Coalition The War of the Fifth Coalition was a European conflict in 1809 that was part of the Napoleonic Wars and the Coalition Wars. The main conflict took place in Central Europe between the Austrian Empire of Francis I and Napoleon's French Emp ...

broke out in 1809, Frederick William used this opportunity to create a corps of partisans with the support of the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

. This corps was called the

because they wore black uniforms in mourning for their occupied country. He financed the corps independently by mortgaging his principality in Oels, and made his way from Austrian

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

through the French-allied states of

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

and

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. He was shocked by the armistice of Znaim signed on 12 July 1809 and decided to fight on. He and his corps began their remarkable fighting march towards the north German coast at

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

on 24 July. Entering the town of Halle in Westphalia on 26 July, the duke appropriated its civic funds. This prompted

Jérôme Bonaparte Jérôme Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon, Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome Napoleon I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), Kingdom of Westphalia, King of Westphal ...

, King of Westphalia, to order three generals, Jean-Jacques Reubell, Pierre Guillaume Gratien and Claude Ignace François Michaud, to gather their forces and destroy the Brunswickers. However, the Brunswickers surprised the Westphalians by a rapid advance and defeated them in the battle of Halberstadt on 29 and 30 July 1809. After reinforcing his troops from captured stocks and men, Frederick William pushed on to his former capital

, which he reached on the evening of 31st July. Then he decided to go on to the coast. Although his path was successfully blocked by Reubell outside Brunswick at the battle of Ölper on 1 August, the Westphalians gave away their advantage by withdrawing under cover of darkness and allowing the Black Brunswickers to continue their march northward to Elsfleth, where they embarked on British ships, which took them to the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. The troops of Frederick William were taken into British pay and the Duke was granted the rank of

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

in the British Army His corps of originally 2,300 soldiers was largely destroyed in battles in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

Matthaei J F Tod des Schwarzen Herzogs um 1835

Frederick William returned to Braunschweig in December 1813, after Prussia had ended French domination in Braunschweig-Lüneburg. When Napoleon returned to the political scene in 1815 during the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...

, Frederick William raised fresh troops. He was killed by a gunshot at the

Battle of Quatre Bras The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought on 16 June 1815, as a preliminary engagement to the decisive Battle of Waterloo that occurred two days later. The battle took place near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras and was contested between el ...

on 16 June, the night after he had attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels and left it happy to have a chance to show his fighting ability.

Family

On 1 November 1802, in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, Frederick William married Princess Marie Elisabeth of Baden (7 September 1782

– 20 April 1808 Bruchsal), daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden. The couple had three children before Marie died of

puerperal fever The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to last for six to eight weeks. There are three distinct phases of the postnatal period; the acute phase, lasting for six to twelve hours after birth; the ...

four days after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. *

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

(30 October 1804 – 18 August 1873) *

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

(25 April 1806 – 18 October 1884) * Stillborn daughter (b. & d. 16 April 1808 Bruchsal)

Monuments

* Tomb in the crypt of

Brunswick Cathedral Brunswick Cathedral (, lit. in ) is a large Lutheran church in the City of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany. The church is termed '' Dom'', in German a synecdoche - pars pro toto - used for cathedrals and collegiate churches alike, and much li ...

* Brunswick Monument at Quatre Bras, (

Genappe Genappe (; , ; ) is a municipality and city of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. Demographics As of 2023, the municipality of Genappe boasted a population of 14,266 residents. Spanning a total area of 89.57 km2 , th ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

) erected by the Brunswick State for the 75th anniversary. The bronze lion was cast in the Wilhelm foundry in Bornum * An 1874 pair of equestrian statues of the Black Duke and his father are outside the Schloss-Arkaden (

Brunswick Palace Brunswick Palace ( or ''Braunschweiger Residenzschloss'') on the ''Bohlweg'' in the centre of the city of Brunswick (), was the residence of the Brunswick dukes from 1753 to 8 November 1918. History Work on the first building was begun in 1 ...

), Braunschweig. They were restored in 1973. File:Monument Brunswick Baisy-Thy.jpg, Brunswick Monument in Baisy-Thy. The German caption reads : ''Frederick-William Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg fought ahead of his troops and fell not far from this place on 16 June 1815.''"Friedrich Wilhelm Herzog zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg kämpfte und fiel unweit dieser Stätte an der Spitze seiner Truppen XVI Juni MDCCCXV. File:Braunschweiger Dom Krypta Schwarzer Herzog.jpg, Tomb of Frederick William, in the crypt of

File:Gedenkzuil van den Nederlandschen Krijgsroem in Junij MDCCCXV (1816) (14755821786).jpg, Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel depicted in ''Gedenkzuil van den Nederlandschen Krijgsroem in Junij MDCCCXV'' (1816) by

Ancestors

References

External links