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Brunswick (KARL WILHELM FERDINAND DUKE)

KARL WILHELM FERDINAND, DUKE OF, born in 1735; entered upon the government in 1780. He received the chief command of the Austrian and Prussian army against France, in 1792, and designed to press forward from Lorraine to Paris, but, after taking Longwy and Verdun, was baffled in Champagne by Dumouriez, defeated at Valmy by Kellermann, and obliged to evacuate the province. In 1793 the Duke, in conjunction with the Austrians, opened the campaign on the upper Rhine, took Königstein and Mentz, and prepared to attack Landau. After a long struggle with varying success the Austrian lines were broken by Pichegru, and the Duke was obliged to follow their retreat across the Rhine. At Auerstadt he was mortally wounded, in 1806.