Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
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| Charles Frederick | |
|---|---|
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| Duke of Holstein-Gottorp | |
| Reign | 19 July 1702 – 18 June 1739 |
| Predecessor | Frederick IV |
| Successor | Charles Peter Ulrich |
| Born | 30 April 1700 |
| Died | 18 June 1739(aged 39) |
| Burial | Cloister Church,Bordesholm |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | Peter III of Russia |
| House | Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp |
| Father | Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp |
| Mother | Hedvig Sophia of Sweden |
Charles Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp(German:Karl Friedrich, Herzog von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp) (30 April 1700 – 18 June 1739) was aPrince of Swedenand Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and an important member of European royalty. His dynasty, the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, were a cadet branch of the ancientHouse of Oldenburg,which at that time was rulingDenmark-Norway.His mother was a sister ofCharles XII of Sweden.Charles Frederick married a daughter ofPeter the Greatand became the father of the futurePeter III of Russia.As such, he is the progenitor of the Russian imperial house ofHolstein-Gottorp-Romanovand the patrilineal ancestor of all Russian emperors starting withPeter III,except forCatherine II.
Early life[edit]
Charles Frederick was born in Sweden, the son ofFrederick IVof Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorpand his consort,Hedvig Sophia,daughter ofKing Charles XI of Sweden.He became reigning duke in infancy, upon his father's death in 1702 at theBattle of Kliszów,co-ruling, however under guardianship till 1717, with his father's cousin KingFrederick IV of Denmarkin theDuchy of Holstein,a Holy Roman imperial fief, and theDuchy of Schleswig,a Danish fief, there as a vassal to the Danish-Norwegian king. All his life he was a legitimate claimant to the throne of Sweden, aspro formaheir toCharles XII,who was his maternal uncle.
Charles Frederick's parents had been offered refuge by maternal uncle,Charles XII of Sweden,during the outbreak of theGreat Northern War,and they resided in Stockholm. Charles Frederick succeeded to the dukedom at the age of two, upon the death of his father in theBattle of Kliszów.His mother became his regent, and they continued to reside in Stockholm. Actual daily co-rule in the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein was left to administrators. His mother is said to have raised him tenderly but firmly, but she died in 1708, when Charles Frederick was only eight years old. He was then placed in the care of his great-grandmother (his mother's paternal grandmother), Queen DowagerHedwig Eleonora of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp,who reportedly spoiled him terribly, resulting in making him passive and indolent.[1]His mother, and later Hedwig Eleonora, both supported and worked for his right to be considered heir of Sweden after his childless uncle.[1]
Since his guardians sided with Sweden against Denmark-Norway in theGreat Northern War,Danish troops ravaged the Gottorp ducal share in the duchies during that war and conquered its northern portions in 1713, including the ancestral ducal seatGottorp castlenearSchleswig cityin the homonymous duchy. In 1721 Frederick IV of Denmark-Norway, being the liege lord in Danish Schleswig whohad enfeoffedCharles Frederick with the ducal title in Schleswig in 1702, officially withdrew thisfief.
Swedish career[edit]
Charles Frederick met his uncle Charles XII for the first time in 1716. He was declared of legal majority in 1717, and was then given some military responsibility. Charles Frederick was in a tense relationship to his aunt Ulrika Eleonora, whose followers pointed him out to be too rude and arrogant and in lack of any sense of responsibility to be a suitable heir to the throne.[1]
Upon thedeath in 1718of his maternal uncle and second cousin, Charles XII of Sweden, Duke Charles Frederick was presented as claimant to the throne. However, his auntUlrika Eleonora the Younger(1688–1741) managed to wrest the throne for herself, claiming that her elder sister had not "acquired the consent of the ParliamentaryEstates"for her marriage to his father, according to laws of succession laid down inNorrköpings arvförening.The duke's party asserted that theabsolute monarchyin Sweden, which his grandfather King Charles XI had created, made that marriage clause irrelevant. Upon the news of the death of his uncle, he was reportedly too grief-stricken to take any action. Ulrika Eleonora's husbandFrederick I,however, who was also present with him in Tistedalen, rushed to assist her in claiming the throne. When Charles Frederick was confronted with Ulrika Eleonora, he was forced byArvid Hornto greet her as queen.[1]He asked to be granted the title Royal Highness and to be recognised as her heir, but when her husband instead was given the title, he left Sweden in 1719. In 1723, he was granted the title Royal Highness in his absence, but his pro-Russian policy made him impossible as heir to the Swedish throne.[1]
Charles Frederick withdrew from Sweden, eventually settling in Russia, where in May 1725 he marriedGrand Duchess Anna Petrovna,elder daughter of TsarPeter the Great.Meanwhile, the so-calledHolstein Partyin Sweden continued to advance Charles Frederick's claims. The party made preparations and awaited the childless Ulrika Eleonora's death, but Charles Frederick died before his aunt and left his claims to his infant son. By this time however, Sweden had enacted new laws of succession which specifically excluded Charles Frederick and his heirs because of theirRussianpolitics, because at that time, Russia and Sweden had a strained relationship. The exclusion of Charles Frederick and his progeny from the Swedish succession avoided thepersonal unionof Sweden and Russia, because Charles Frederick's only child would become TsarPeter III of Russia.
The question then became who was to become the next king of Sweden after the death of the childless incumbent. The so-called "Hat faction"in Sweden managed to elect Charles Frederick's first cousinAdolph Frederick,who was his father's younger brother's son and thus belonged to the sameOldenburgdynasty, as Crown Prince of Sweden.
Later life[edit]
Charles Frederick left forHamburg,as the Gottorp ducal share in the duchies of German Holstein and Danish Schleswig had been occupied by Denmark since 1713. Having lost the title as duke of Schleswig, succeeded to have the occupation of the ducal share in German Holstein removed by application to his Holstein liege lord, the Holy Roman Emperor. In 1720, Sweden and Denmark-Norway concluded theTreaty of Frederiksborg,in which Sweden pledged to cease its support of the House of [Schleswig-]Holstein-Gottorp. Duke Charles Frederick opposed the treaty, made by a Swedish government which he regarded as rebellious against his own right to the Swedish succession; the treaty also made virtually impossible the regaining of his lost ducal share in the northern duchy of Schleswig. (This was to be a motivation for his son Peter in 1762, upon his Russian accession, to start preparations for the use of Russian troops to reconquer the lost lands from Denmark-Norway.)
Duke Charles Frederick was married toAnna Petrovna,Tsesarevnaof Russia and elder daughter ofTsarPeter IandMarta Skavronskaya(who would later become Empress Catherine I of Russia). As Charles was the Swedish heir, Peter saw the marriage as politically useful. Charles Frederick was officially engaged to Anna by Tsar Peter. After the death of Peter in 1725, he was given a place in the council, his own court, palace and income byCatherine I of Russiaand married to Anna. Anna was not enthusiastic about the marriage, because of his reputation of consorting with prostitutes.
Charles Frederick, then commander of the palace guard in St. Petersburg, attempted to secure his wife's succession to the Russian throne upon the death in 1727 of her mother, the EmpressCatherine I of Russia.His attempt failed, but his son by Duchess Anna Petrovna,Charles Peter Ulrich(who - as Duke of Holstein-Gottorp - succeeded in the ducal share of Holstein in 1739), eventually became Russian tsar in 1762, as Peter III.
Charles Frederick and Anna left for Gottorp ducal share of Holstein in 1727, taking residence inKiel Castle,where Anna died following the birth of their son in 1728. Charles Frederick spent the rest of his life in Holstein-Gottorp atKiel.His prime concern was to secure his son's succession to the Russian throne. He did support his followers in Sweden also, but did not pay much attention to Holstein-Gottorp. Before a member of the family of Holstein-Gottorp was to sit on either the Swedish or the Russian throne, Duke Charles Frederick died in 1739 in Rohlfshagen,[2]today part of the town ofRümpel.His grave is in the Cloister Church atBordesholm.
Ancestors[edit]
| Ancestors of Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp |
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