sermon.' Bale was consecrated by Browne; and the bitterness between them began at the ceremony, which Bale affirmed that Browne performed very awkwardly, and desired to have deferred, in order to get the revenue for the see for the year. Their differences were renewed when, on the accession of Queen Mary, Bale was forced to quit Ossory and fly for his life to Dublin. Browne refused to allow him to preach there. 'Sitting on his ale-bench, with his cup in his hand, he made boast that I should not preach in his city' (Bale, Vocation, in Harl. Misc. vol. vi.) Browne's triumph was short. In the revolution under Mary his primacy was revoked, and, Goodacre being expelled from Armagh, Dowdall was reinstated in his see and title of primate of all Ireland, and the superior style afterwards stood firm in Armagh without revocation. By Dowdall Browne was extruded from Dublin as being a married man (Ware, De Praesulib. Hib. 120), and in two years his successor, Hugh Carwin, was appointed, September 1555. The death of Browne followed shortly afterwards. His character, which seems to have been insignificant, has been described by the Irish historians merely in accordance with their own prejudices.
[Besides the authorities above mentioned, see Mant's Hist. of Ireland; Mosheim gives a long account of Browne in his Ch. Hist.; the Life in the Harleian Misc. is also in the Phoenix, a series of scarce tracts in 2 vols., London, 1707; Christian Biography, 2 vols., London, 1835.]
BROWNE, GEORGE, Count de (1698–1792), Irish soldier of fortune, was descended from a family which could trace its descent to the time of the Conqueror, and had settled in Ireland at a very early period. His immediate ancestors were the Brownes of Camas, Limerick, where he was born 15 June 1698. He was educated at Limerick diocesan school. A catholic and a Jacobite, he, like several of his other relations, sought scope for his ambition in a foreign military career. In his twenty-seventh year he entered the service of the elector palatine, from which he passed in 1730 to that of Russia. He distinguished himself in the Polish, French, and Turkish wars, and had risen to the rank of general, with the command of 30,000 men, when he was taken prisoner by the Turks. After being three times sold as a slave, he obtained his freedom through the intervention of the French ambassador Villeneuve, at the instance of the Russian court, and, remaining for some time at Constantinople in his slave's costume, succeeded in discovering important state secrets which he carried to St. Petersburg. In recognition of this special service he was raised by Anna to the rank of major-general, and in this capacity accompanied General Lacy on his first expedition to Finland. On the outbreak of the Swedish war his tactical skill was displayed to great advantage in checking Swedish attacks on Livonia. In the seven years' war he rendered important assistance as lieutenant-general under his cousin Ulysses Maximilian, count von Browne [q. v.] His fortunate diversion of the enemy's attacks at Kollin, 18 June 1757, contributed materially to the allied victory, and in token of her appreciation of his conduct on the occasion Maria Theresa presented him with a snuff-box set with brilliants and adorned with her portrait. At Zorndorf, 25 Aug. 1758, he again distinguished himself in a similar manner, his opportune assistance of the right wing at the most critical moment of the battle changing almost inevitable defeat into victory. By Peter III he was named field-marshal, and appointed to the chief command in the Danish war. On his addressing a remonstrance to the czar against the war as impolitic, he was deprived of his honours and commanded to leave the country, but the czar repenting of his hasty decision recalled him three days afterwards and appointed him governor of Livonia. He was confirmed in the office under Catherine II, and for thirty years to the close of his life administered its affairs with remarkable practical sagacity, and with great advantage both to the supreme government and to the varied interests of the inhabitants. He died 18 Feb. 1792.
[Histoire de la Vie de G. de Browne, Riga, 1794; Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyclopädie, sect. i. vol. xiii. pt. i. pp. 112–13; Ferrar's History of Limerick.]
BROWNE, HABLOT KNIGHT (1815–1882), artist and book-illustrator, who assumed the pseudonym of Phiz, was born at Kennington, Surrey, on 15 June 1815, being the ninth son of Mr. William Loder Browne, a merchant, who came originally from Norfolk. The child was christened Hablot in memory of Captain Hablot, a French officer, to whom one of his sisters was betrothed, and who fell at Waterloo. Young Browne received his first education at a private school in Botesdale, Suffolk, kept by the Rev. William Haddock. In his earliest years he displayed so strong a bias for drawing that he was apprenticed to Finden the engraver. In London he found a congenial home in the house of an elder sister, who was married to Elhanan Bicknell [q. v.], afterwards
