Friedrich Wilhelm Duke of Brunswick

(1771 – 1815), nicknamed “The Black Duke”, he was a military officer who led the Black Brunswickers against French domination in Germany.
Friedrich Wilhelm briefly managed to retake control of the city of Braunschweig in 1809, which gained him the status of a local folk hero. He then fled to Britain to join forces with his brother-in-law, later to be King George IV. His troops were taken into British pay and the Duke was granted the rank of lieutenant general in the British Army on 1 July 1809. His corps of originally 2,300 soldiers was largely destroyed in battles in Spain and Portugal during the Peninsular War.
Friedrich Wilhelm returned to Braunschweig in 1813, after Prussia had ended French domination in Braunschweig-Lüneburg. When Napoleon returned to the political scene in 1815 during the Hundred Days, Frederick William raised fresh troops. He was killed by a gunshot at the Battle of Quatre Bras 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.