Ludwig Ernst of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

Ludwig Ernst of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel

Ludwig Ernst von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (born September 25, 1718 in Wolfenbüttel , † May 12, 1788 in Eisenach ) was a prince from the House of Welfs and an imperial and Dutch field marshal. In 1741 he was elected Duke of Courland and Semgallia , later he was Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg . In 1753 he became field marshal of the Reich . From 1751 to 1766 he was Captain General of the Netherlands. After Anna von Hanover's death in 1759, he was the guardian of the minor Wilhelm V of Orange and was in charge of Dutch state affairs until 1766. Then he was again Dutch field marshal and privy councilor of the undecided prince.

Life

Prince Ludwig Ernst was born in 1718 as the third son of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht II of Braunschweig and Antoinette Amalie of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . In 1737 he joined the "Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel Infantry Regiment" in imperial military service. He took part in the Turkish Wars until the Peace of Belgrade in September 1739. In May 1740 he became regiment owner ( "Jung-Wolfenbüttel" ) and imperial general field sergeant . He switched to his regiment, which was based in Luxembourg in the Austrian Netherlands . In April 1741 he became an imperial field marshal lieutenant.

Duke of Courland

The Braunschweig family tried again through a wedding to gain claims to the Russian throne. Ludwig Ernst was also drawn into the matter. When Tsarina Anna died in 1740, she did not leave the throne to her niece, but to her and Anton Ulrich's still young son Ivan. In order to strengthen the Brunswick-Habsburg position in Russia, Ludwig Ernst was elected Duke of Courland on June 27, 1741, after the overthrow of Duke Biron of Courland , after some maneuvering back and forth . Due to the coup d'état Elisabeth Petrovna on December 6, 1741, however, he lost the title of duke again. He was temporarily arrested in Russia and returned to Germany in the spring of 1742. Ludwig Ernst was lucky that, unlike his brother and his family, he was able to return to Wolfenbüttel. After this adventure, from which he would retain a lifelong aversion to Russia, he resumed his military career.

War of the Austrian Succession

In 1744 he took part in the Second Silesian War as an Austrian field marshal and thus fought against many of his relatives, who were mostly on the side of Prussia . He was wounded in the Battle of Thrush on September 30, 1745, but appeared on the theater of war in the Netherlands as early as the spring of 1746. On October 11, 1746 he took part in the Battle of Roucoux against France during the War of the Austrian Succession . In the following year he fought in the battle of Lauffeldt as general field master .

Regent of the Netherlands

Ludwig Ernst of Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Bevern

In November 1750, at the request of William IV of Orange, he joined the army of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces as field marshal . Wilhelm's request to dismiss him from imperial service was rejected by the empress. So he kept the position as imperial field marshal and also became a Protestant field master general of the Holy Roman Empire. After the death of Wilhelm IV on October 22, 1751 Ludwig Ernst was appointed captain general of the provinces. In October 1753 he was appointed Reich Field Marshal by the Kaiser and the Reichstag .

With the appointment of Charles , Ludwig's brother, as administrator of the Nassau lands of the House of Orange, a rapprochement arose with the House of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel . When Princess Anna of Hanover died in 1759, the Brunswick brothers administered all the property and rights of the House of Orange until Wilhelm V took over the functions of his father in 1766. The governorship actually represented the center of an extensive clientele. The governorship exercised influence through local "mini governors" by assigning offices, promotions and other ancillary income. For almost fifteen years he was able to hold this influential position almost undisturbed in the shadow of a governor who followed his advice in almost every way.

In 1781 Ludwig Ernst was the target of the patriots . A flood of pamphlets, newspaper articles and mock prints, in which he was unabashedly defamed and mocked, poured over him, and it is not without good reason that he is said to be probably one of the first media victims in modern Dutch history. Ludwig left the Netherlands on October 16, 1784. He lived for a short time in Aachen and from 1786 in Eisenach, where he wrote his biography and defense together with Schlözer . He himself sent around a hundred copies to family members, German princes, councilors and other influential people. The book had a beneficial effect on him. Shortly afterwards, Dutch and French translations appeared, on which he himself had worked.

He was in close contact with the court in Weimar, especially with his niece, Duchess Anna Amalia and Duke Karl August . Ludwig Ernst died in Eisenach in 1788 and was buried in the Guelph hereditary burial in Braunschweig Cathedral .

literature

• Paul Zimmermann :  Ludwig Ernst . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1884, pp. 543-546.
• Christof Römer (Ed.): Braunschweig-Bevern. A royal house as a European dynasty, 1667–1884. Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, Braunschweig 1997, p. 68.
• N. Bootsma: Braunschweig and Orange in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In: Onder den Oranje boom. Text volume: Dynasty in the Republic. The House of Orange-Nassau as a mediator of Dutch culture in German territories in the 17th and 18th centuries. Published by Horst Lademacher . Hirmer, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7774-8070-3 , pp. 239-243.