Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Brown, Ulysses Maximilian von
BROWN or BROWNE, ULYSSES MAXIMILIAN von (1705–1757), count of the holy Roman empire, baron de Camus and Mountany, and field-marshal in the imperialist armies, was son of Ulysses, baron Brown, an Irish colonel of cavalry in the Austrian army ennobled for his military services by the emperor Charles V, and was born at Basle on 23 Oct. 1705. He entered the imperial service at an early age and distinguished himself on several occasions. At the age of twenty-one he married the young Countess Marie Philippine von Martinez, daughter of George Adam Martinez, who for a short time was imperial vicegerent in the kingdom of Naples. Brown's influential connections, as well as his personal merits, secured his rapid advancement. At twenty-nine he commanded an Austrian infantry regiment in Italy, and a few years later, on the accession of the empress Maria Theresa, he was advanced to the rank of field-marshal lieutenant and appointed to command in Silesia. In the campaigns in Italy in 1743–8 he greatly distinguished himself, particularly at the battle of Piacenza, where he commanded the Austrian left, and mainly contributed to the success of the day. When the Austrians moved southward the city of Genoa opened its gates to him, and he subsequently commanded the imperialist troops that crossed the Var and entered France, establishing their outposts a few miles from Toulon. His withdrawal from Genoa was considered a masterly operation. After the convention of Nizza in 1749 he returned to Vienna, and held commands in Transylvania and Bohemia. He became a field-marshal in 1763. At the outbreak of the seven years' war he was in Silesia, and commanded the Austrians at the battle of Lobositz. Believing a dual command, as proposed by Maria Theresa, to be prejudicial to public interests, Brown offered to serve under the orders of Prince Charles of Lorraine, the empress's favourite, in Bohemia, and there, while heading a bayonet-charge of grenadiers on the Prussian line before the walls of Prague, on 6 May 1757, was struck by a cannon-shot, which shattered one of his legs. He was carried from the field, and died of his wound at Prague on 26 June following, leaving behind him the reputation of a consummate general and an able and successful negotiator. His biography was published in German and in French in 1757.
[Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (Leipzig, 1876), iii. 369-73, the particulars in which are taken from Zuverlässige Lebensbeschreibung von U. M. Count von Brown (Leipzig and Frankfort, 1757); Baron O'Cahill's Geschichte der grössten Heerführer der neueren Zeit (Rastadt, 1785), ii. 264–316. English readers will find compendious notices of Count Brown's military operations in Sir E. Gust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century (London, 1860–1); Carlyle's Frederick the Great.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.39
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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