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Charles William Ferdinand of
Brunswick 1735-1806
The Germans called him
Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von
Braunschweig.
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Image Above
Deutsches
Historisches Museum, Berlin |
Charles was the duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Wolfenbüttel, a
nephew of
 Frederick
the Great, which made him a determined
Prussian.
After the French had declared
war on Austria on April 20, 1792, (see
War of the First Coalition) the Duke of Brunswick set
up headquarters at Coblenz for the invasion of France, with
72,000 Prussian troops encamped in the immediate vicinity.
Why?
Because of the Austro-Prussian
Alliance which had been concluded on February 7, 1792,
between Austria's emperor
Leopold II and
Prussia's king
Frederick William II in
order to join forces against Revolutionary France.
Welcome to the
French Revolutionary Wars.
However, the Duke of Brunswick
was defeated at the
Battle of Valmy in 1792
and at the
Battle
of Auerstadt in 1806.
See also
Battle of Kaiserslautern
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