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ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE (1705-1760)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 665 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE (1705-1760)  ,
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English poet, was born on the 21st of
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January 1705 at Burton-upon-Trent, of of the
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Empire (Reichsgraf) by the emperor Charles VI . His
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uncle Georg, Reichsgraf von Browne (1698-1792), was a distinguished soldier, who rose to the rank of field marshal in the
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Russian army, and was made Reichsgraf by the emperor Joseph II. in 1779 . The powerful influence which he commanded, through his
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father and his wife (nee Countess
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Marie Philippine v . Martinitz), advanced the young officer through the subordinate grades so rapidly that at the age of twenty-nine he was colonel of an
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infantry regiment . But he justified his early promotion in the field, and in the
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Italian
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campaign of 1734 he greatly distinguished himself . In the Tirolese fighting of 1735, and in the unfortunate
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Turkish war, he won further distinction as a general officer . He was a
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lieutenant field marshal in command of the Silesian garrisons when in 1740 Frederick II. and the Prussian army overran the province . His careful employment of such resources as he possessed materially hindered the king in his
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conquest and gave time for Austria to collect a field army (see
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AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE) . He was
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present at Mollwitz, where he received a severe wound . His vehement opposition to all
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half-hearted
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measures brought him frequently into conflict with his superiors, but contributed materially to the unusual energy displayed by the Austrian armies in 1742 and 1743 . In the following
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campaigns Browne exhibited the same qualities of generalship and the same impatience of control . In 1745 he served under Count Traun, and was promoted to the rank of Feldzeugmeister .

In 1746 he was present in the Italian campaign and the battles of

Piacenza and Rottofredo . Brown himself with the advanced guard forced his way across the Apennines and entered Genoa . He was thereafter placed in command of the army intended for the invasion of France, and early in 1747 of all the imperial forces in Italy . At the end of the war Browne was engaged in the negotiations which led to the convention of
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Nice(January 21st, 1749) . He became commanderin-chief in Bohemia in 1751, and field marshal two years later . He was still in Bohemia when the Seven Years' War opened with Frederick's invasion of Saxony (1756) . Browne's army, advancing to the
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relief of
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Pirna (see SEVEN YEARS' WAR), was met, and, after a hard struggle, defeated by the king at Lobositz, but he drew off in excellent order, and soon made another attempt with a picked force to reach Pirna, by wild mountain tracks . The field marshal never spared himself, bivouacking in the snow with his men, and Carlyle records that private soldiers made rough shelters over him as he slept . He actually reached the Elbe at
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Schandau, but as the
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Saxons were unable to break out Browne retired, having succeeded, however, in delaying the development of Frederick's operations for a whole campaign . In the campaign of 1757 he voluntarily served under Prince Charles of
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Lorraine (q.v.) who was made commanderin-chief, and on the 6th of May in that
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year, while leading a
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bayonet charge at the
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battle of Prague, Browne, like Schwerin on the same day, met his
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death . He was carried mortally wounded into Prague, and there died on the 26th of
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June, his last days embittered by the knowledge that he was unjustly held responsible for the failure of the campaign . His name has been borne, since 1888, by the 36th Austrian infantry .

See Zuverlassige Lebensbeschreibung U.M . Reichsgrafen, v . B . . K.-K . Gen.-Feldmarschall (Frankfurt and

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Leipzig, 1757); Baron O'Cahill, Gesch. der grossten Herrfuhrer (Rastadt, 1785, v. ii. pp . 264-316) .

End of Article: ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE (1705-1760)
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