Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany

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Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany
Joshua Reynolds : Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1788)
Coat of arms of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany

Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany KG GCB GCH ( German Prince Friedrich August , born August 16, 1763 in London , † January 5, 1827 ibid) was a British prince and field marshal from the House of Hanover . He was also the last prince-bishop of the Osnabrück bishopric until 1802 .

Life

Frederick Augustus was the second son of King George III. of Great Britain , Duke and Elector of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . As a baby he was appointed Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück on February 27, 1764 by his father. Due to the regulations of the Peace of Westphalia, the Osnabrück Monastery was ruled alternately by a Catholic bishop and a Lutheran elected bishop from the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg . Frederick Augustus thereby acquired considerable income rights .

His father took him each as a Knight Companion on 30 December 1767 in the Order of the Bath , and on June 19, 1771 the Order of the Garter on. In 1780 he began a military training and was in the Brevet -Rang a Colonel of the British Army charged. From 1781 to 1787 he lived in Germany and took part in maneuvers of the Austrian and Prussian armies . In 1782 he was promoted to major-general and appointed Colonel of the 2nd Horse Grenadier Guards , and in 1784 promoted to Lieutenant-General and appointed Colonel of the Coldstream Guards . On November 27, 1784, his father bestowed on him the British titles of Duke of York and Albany and Earl of Ulster .

In 1791 he married Princess Friederike of Prussia , the eldest daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm II.

On the occasion of the Revolutionary Wars , he was promoted to general in 1793 and appointed commander of the British-Hanoverian army in the Netherlands . After the capture of Valenciennes he undertook the siege of Dunkirk , suffered a defeat here between September 6th and 8th and withdrew to Lower Saxony in 1794 , where the remainder of the army embarked for Great Britain. Notwithstanding these failures, through which his military incapacity appeared to be sufficiently proven, the king promoted him to Field Marshal in 1795 and appointed him commander in chief of the British Army. In 1799 entrusted with the management of the British-Russian expedition to Holland, Frederick Augustus von Brune was defeated at Bergen op Zoom on September 19th and at Castricum on October 6th. On October 18 he surrendered to the surrender of Alkmar , as a result of which the allies embarked.

On October 29, 1802, he laid down the rule as bishop over the bishopric of Osnabrück, which had already been awarded by the French on June 3, 1802 to the electorate of Braunschweig-Lüneburg and thus to his father as a hereditary principality; the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of February 25, 1803 confirmed this.

In 1809 he was involved in a dispute with his mistress Mary Anne Clarke , who made a formal trade in officer positions and made reports about the army administration to a member of the House of Commons , Colonel Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle, in a scandalous process. The investigation that was initiated ended with Frederick's acquittal, but public opinion was so decidedly against him that he resigned his command on March 20, 1809 .

Nonetheless, he was reinstated as Field Marshal and Commander-in-Chief of the Army by his brother , the Prince-Regent, in May 1811. He took part in the parliamentary negotiations of the House of Lords only as an opponent of Catholic emancipation . Emperor Franz I awarded him the Grand Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa in June 1814 for his services in the fight against Napoleon and appointed him Austrian Field Marshal.

On the occasion of the reform of the Order of the Bath, he was elevated to Knight Grand Cross of this order on January 2, 1815 . On August 12, 1815, he was also appointed Grand Cross Knight of the Guelph Order .

Since his father died in 1820 and his older brother George IV was crowned, he was heir presumptive of the British heir to the throne . However, he died childless on January 5, 1827. A memorial was erected to him in St. James's Park in London .

literature

Web links

Commons : Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. London Gazette . No. 12132, HMSO, London, October 31, 1780, p. 1 ( PDF , English).
  2. London Gazette . No. 13750, HMSO, London, February 7, 1795, p. 133 ( PDF , English).
  3. Jaromir Hirtenfeld : The Military Maria Theresa Order and its members . Vienna 1857, p. 1122.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Duke of York and Albany
1784-1827
Title expired
Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst Commander in Chief of the British Army
1795–1809
Sir David Dundas
Sir David Dundas Commander in Chief of the British Army
1811–1827
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Clemens August I of Bavaria Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück
1764–1802
Territory of Electoral Hanover ( Georg III. )
Bishopric vacant (from 1857: Paulus Melchers )