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. Frederick William returned to Braunschweig in December 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. Family On 1 November 1802, in Karlsruhe, Frederick William married Princess Marie Elisabeth of Baden (7 September 1782 Karlsruhe – 20 April 1808 Bruchsal), daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden. The couple had three children before Marie died of puerperal fever four days after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. Charles (30 October 1804 – 18 August 1873) William (25 April 1806 – 18 October 1884) Stillborn daughter (b. & d. 16 April 1808 Bruchsal) Monuments Tomb in the crypt of Brunswick Cathedral Brunswick Monument at Quatre Bras, (Genappe, Belgium) erected by the Brunswick State for the 75th anniversary. The bronze lion was cast in the Wilhelm foundry in Bornum An 1874 pair of equestrian statues of the Black Duke and his father are outside the Schloss-Arkaden (Brunswick Palace), Braunschweig. They were restored in 1973. Ancestors References Further reading Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 7, p. 508-514 Hugo von Franckenberg-Ludwigsdorff: Erinnerungen an das Schwarze Corps, welches Herzog Friedrich Wilhelm von Braunschweig-Oels im Jahre 1809 errichtete. Aus dem Tagebuche eines Veteranen. Schwetschke, Braunschweig 1859, digitized. Ruthard von Frankenberg: Im Schwarzen Korps bis Waterloo. Memoiren des Majors Erdmann von Frankenberg. edition von frankenberg, Hamburg 2015, Louis Ferdinand Spehr: Friedrich Wilhelm, Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg-Oels. Meyer, 1848, digitized. External links At the House of Welf site 1771 births 1815 deaths Frederick William Frederick William German Lutherans Freikorps personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Prussian commanders of the Napoleonic Wars Frederick William Protestant monarchs Major generals of Prussia German military personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars German military personnel killed in action Military personnel killed