Duke Louis Ernest of Brunswick - Lüneburg Louis Ernest of Brunswick - Lüneburg - Bevern ( 25 September 1718 , Wolfenbüttel – 12 May 1788 , Eisenach ) was a field - marshal in the armies of the Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic . From 13 November 1750 to 1766 he was the Captain - General of the Netherlands , where he was known as the Duke of Brunswick or ( to distinguish him from his eldest brother Charles , who succeeded to their father ' s title of Duke of Brunswick - Lüneburg ) Duke of Brunswick - Wolfenbüttel . Another brother was Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick who led the Allied Anglo - German army during the Seven Years ' War . He was probably one of the first victims of the media in Dutch history . Family . He was the third son of Ferdinand Albert II , Duke of Brunswick - Lüneburg , and Antoinette Amalie of Brunswick . He had family ties with various European royal houses . The family was linked by blood to the royal houses in London and Berlin . His brother Anthony Ulrich had married Anna Leopoldovna , a Russian princess and cousin of Empress Anna . ( Their son Ivan - Louis ' s nephew - was appointed Emperor of Russia on his birth ) . His youngest sister Juliana Maria married King Frederick V of Denmark in 1752 . Maria Theresa of Austria and Wilhelmina of Prussia were his cousin ( their mothers were sisters ) and niece ( her mother was Ludwig ' s sister Louise Amalie ) . In addition , Wilhelmina ' s daughter Louise , married Charles George August , a grandson of Louis ' s brother Charles . Rarely were royal houses so interrelated other as in his case , and this factor was probably the main reason for his supporting the Dutch policy of neutrality during the Seven Years ' War . In the year 1737 , he entered the imperial military as Oberst and commander of the Alt - Wolfenbüttel infantry regiments . He took part in the Ottoman Wars from September 1739 until the Treaty of Belgrade . He entered the Netherlands in May 1740 as an Austrian major - general . Duke of Kurland . After the arrest of the duke of Kurland , Ludwig was elected his successor on 27 June 1741 with the support of his cousin Maria Theresa of Austria . He then went to St Petersburg , and seems to have been interested in marriage with Elizabeth of Russia in the hope to become emperor . However , upon Elizabeth ' s palace coup on 6 December 1741 , his nephew Ivan and all Ivan ' s German advisers lost their positions , resulting in their exile , imprisonment or departure . Louis Ernest lost his Dukedom of Kurland due to the coup and returned to Germany in 1742 . War of the Austrian Succession . He took part in the Second Silesian War from 1744 as an Austrian field - marshal and therefore fought against his brothers and many of his other relatives , who mostly took the side of Prussia . In the battle of Soor on 30 September 1745 , he was seriously wounded , but seems to have appeared on the military scene in the Netherlands as early as the spring of 1746 . On 11 October 1746 , during the War of the Austrian Succession , he took part in the battle of Roucoux against France . In the following year , he fought in the battle of Lauffeldt as Feldzeugmeister or supreme artillery commander , and met stadholder William IV , Prince of Orange , then involved in border battles against France . Regent of the Netherlands . In 1749 he entered the Dutch States Army as field marshal by request of William IV , for twenty thousand guilders per annum , although he also retained his position as an Austrian field - marshal and Protestant " Generalfeldzeugmeister " of the Holy Roman Empire . William ' s wife Anne was initially sceptical about his appointment and opposed it . In 1751 he became the governor of the garrison city of Bois - le - Duc , where the stadholder had had particular influence since 1629 . After the death of William IV on 22 October 1751 and Anne ' s appointment as regent , Louis Ernest was appointed captain - general ( commander - in - chief ) of the Netherlands , reorganising the higher strata of the army . Britain and Prussia asked him to command the allied armies in the Seven Years ' War , but Louis Ernest refused out of respect for the Dutch Republic ' s neutrality . His brother Duke Ferdinand was given command of the Anglo - German army in Hanover in 1757 . In 1759 Louis was used as an intermediary in an attempt to mediate the conflict , but plans for a peace congress came to nothing . From the death of William V ' s mother Anne in 1759 to William ' s majority in 1766 , he was William ' s guardian and led the Netherlands ' state affairs in his name . The prince called Louis Ernest his second father , but the Frisian nobility under Onno Zwier van Haren opposed Louis Ernest . Simultaneously , Louis Ernest began reforming the stadholder system that had previously appointed qualified persons to the regions in reward for their loyalty . Such favorites had been supposed to take care of local disputes independently . As a result , there was no efficient administrative device in the Republic , nor an equitable apportioning of offices . The prince , losing himself in the details , made it known that he valued advice , which , however , he usually sent back by return of post without any alterations . For over a dozen years he had been drilled by Brunswick and Fagel to believe that his only job was to sign the documents they placed in front of him ( and judging from his signature , he was not very good at that ) . William ' s coming of age . After 1766 , the Duke was kept on at the irresolute William ' s request as his privy councillor and as a Dutch field - marshal , with the object , it is thought by some , to keep William ' s older sister Carolina in check . The " Act of Advisorship " had been set up in secret by the Lord Advocate , Pieter van Bleiswijk , and under this Act Ludwig was to furnish advice by request only . Earlier plans to put in place an advisory council were thus frustrated and in addition , several jealous Dutch noblemen were passed over in favour of the Duke . It is said that Louis Ernest was instrumental in bringing Prince William V into contact with his niece , Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia . The duke had immediately observed that the princess craved joint rule in state affairs and so was starting to undermine Louis Ernest ' s dominant position . In long letters she complained about Louis Ernest to her uncle , King Frederick II of Prussia . Problems and exile . Louis Ernest ' s accumulated positions and tangled interests led to problems . As early as 1771 there was talk of an attempt on his life in the Hague , but the bullet fired at him passed between his bones . ( Rumour had it that an earlier bullet had hit him in his private parts . ) Pieter Paulus in 1773 gained national recognition through his book on the stadholder system , in which he took opposition against the Duke of Brunswick . In May 1781 the Republic declared war to England . In June resistance against the duke broke out once more , led by D . W . van Lynden and followed by the Patriots . The Amsterdam mayor Joachim Rendorp pleaded for an advisory council for the prince . The anti - stadholder party , which gave him the nickname of " the Bulky Duke " ( consistent with Frederick the Great ' s inkling to call him " Fat Louis " ) recognised the decline of the fleet , the rise of the national army , the outbreak of the Fourth Anglo - Dutch War and the loss of the border towns in the southern Netherlands , and apportioned the blame for all these to Louis Ernest first and foremost . The Patriots argued that Louis Ernest had outrageously neglected the education of the stadholder , so that the stadholder was now unable to take decisions on his own . On 24 May 1782 , the duke voluntarily left the Hague and retreated to Government House ( the " Gouvernementshuis " ) in Bois - le - Duc . ( It is now the Noord - Brabant Museum ) . In the disputes with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II , who probably tried to help his relative reopened an earlier argument over the buffer - cities , the Scheldt and free trade to the East Indies . Louis Ernest was mistrusted due to his family ties with the emperor and accused of high treason and of selling out on Maastricht . In Issue no . 214 of the patriotic magazine " Post van den Neder Rhijn " ( " the Lower - Rhenish Post " ) , the Act of Advisorship was made public . On 14 October 1784 , Louis Ernest laid down all his offices and left Bois - le - Duc to its new governor , Robert Douglas . The ' Kettle War ' was seen by the patriots as the emperor ' s revenge . Exile . In 1785 , the duke lived in Aachen for a short time . The patriots tried to get hold of his correspondence , using both intrigue and force . Throughout Europe , the nobility came under heavy criticism , and some of the Patriots ( anticipating the fate of the nobility and its privileges ) followed suit , making public all records relating to the duke so as to broadcast news of his fall right across the continent . The patriots were also energetic that year in organizing provincial armies and exercising free corps and " exercitiegenootschap pen " ( military societies ) with democratically chosen officers , leading to the first democratically elected city government in the city Utrecht , but also to the occupation of Elburg and Hattem by the Stadtholderian troops in September 1786 . Louis Ernest stayed in Eisenach from 1786 , where , with the help of August Ludwig von Schlözer , he wrote his " Autobiography " and its sequel , his " Defence " . Both works were soon translated from their original German into Dutch . He was in close contact with the court at Weimar , especially with his niece , Duchess Anna Amalia , and with Duke Charles August . Louis Ernest ' s nephew , the Duke of Brunswijk - Wolfenbüttel , occupied the Dutch Republic on 13 September 1787 , forcing many Patriots to flee the country . Louis Ernest died in Eisenach in 1788 and was buried in the Welf family vault in Brunswick Cathedral . His diaries , written by his secretary , the 180 pamphlets and publications in the Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv in Wolfenbüttel , are studied .