Information AboutHolstein-gottorp |
|
Karl Peter Ulrich, who acceded the Russian throne as Peter III in 1762 , was determined to conquering Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. When he became tsar in 1762, he immediately signed a generous peace with Prussia (which was on its knees and virtually destroyed) and withdrew Russia from the Seven Years' War in order to concentrate fully on an attack upon Denmark. This move angered Russian opinion, who considered it a betrayal of Russia's sacrifices in the war, as well as placing national interests in jeopardy. At the same time, the Danish army had hastily moved across the border into Mecklenburg, to avoid an invasion of Holstein, and assumed battle positions. The two armies stood less than 30 kilometres from each other when news from Saint Petersburg suddenly reached the Russian army than the mad tsar had been overthrown by his wife, who had now acceded the throne as Catherine II Of Russia . One of her first actions was to call off the war against Denmark and restore normal relations. Peter III's son, Paul , the new Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, was under the regency of his mother Catherine The Great , who in 1773 agreed with the Danes for her son's abdication of his rights in Schleswig-Holstein in favor of the Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, representative of a younger branch, and to a trade which would allow the Danes to take over the Holstein-Gottorp lands, giving the Prince-Bishop the County of Oldenburg in exchange. The dynastic policy of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp resulted in cadet branches of the House Of Holstein-Gottorp ruling Sweden from 1751 until 1818 and Oldenburg from 1773 to 1918 , while the senior branch ruled Russia briefly in 1762 and then again from 1796 until 1917 . The senior branch has devolved to a morganatic branch of the Russian Imperial House. DUKES OF HOLSTEIN-GOTTORP
After the Murder of the Emperor and Tsarevitch in 1918, the Dukedom of Schleswig-Holstein passed to the surviving senior male branch of the Romanov family. Grand Duke Wladimir died with only female issue, and so the title passed to the senior male member of the House of Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp. To find the senior male, one must go back to Alexander II through his son, Grand Duke Paul, and thence to his son Grand Duke Dimitri , and thence to his son: |
|
|