I am aware that low energy fluorescent lamps cannot be dimmed with a
conventional dimmer. However, in order to save energy, I have replaced a
tungsten bulb in a dimmer equipped circuit, with a low energy lamp with the
intention of leaving the dimmer always set to maximum brightness.

Out of interest I tried the dimmer just to see what would happen. As
expected it was quite unsatisfactory and resulted in various modes of
flickering. I therefore set the dimmer permanently to max brightness. All
was OK for several weeks.

Now, a few weeks later, the low energy bulb has failed and flickers
constantly even on max brightness setting.

My question is this: Could I have damaged the bulb by fiddling with the
dimmer or is it a random premature failure?