Charlotte Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel
Charlotte Christine Sophie (* 28. August 1694 in Wolfenbüttel ; † October 22 . Jul / 2. November 1715 greg. In St. Petersburg ), Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , Grand Duchess of Russia .
Life
Charlotte Christine was the third daughter of Duke Ludwig Rudolf von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Christine Luise von Öttingen-Öttingen .
In December 1700, Charlotte Christine was brought up by her parents at the court of the Saxon Electress and Polish titular queen Christiane Eberhardine . In the following years she therefore lived primarily at their court in Torgau , Pretzsch and Dresden .
In 1707 the Russian Tsar Peter I made the decision to marry his son Tsarevich Alexei with a German princess. This was intended to strengthen the family connection of the Romanovs to the German aristocracy, but to bring the tsarevich closer to Western European culture in particular. Charlotte Christine was chosen as the partner. Charlotte initially had serious reservations about it, among other things, because she should convert to the Orthodox faith. The first meeting of the Tsarevich and Charlotte Christines took place in 1710 in the Bohemian spa town of Schlackenwerth , which Charlotte Christine visited in the wake of Christiane Eberhardine. As a result, the Tsarevich also came to Torgau. By getting to know each other personally, Charlotte Christine gave up her resistance to marriage. The marriage contract was signed by the Danish envoy J.Ch. von Urbich and the Braunschweig Privy Councilor J.Ch. negotiated by Schleinitz and confirmed by Peter I on April 19, 1711.
On October 25, 1711, the young couple got married in Christiane Eberhardine's residence at Schloss Hartenfels in Torgau. This assumed all the costs; including Charlotte Christine's trousseau. The bride's parents, her grandfather, Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and, of course, Tsar Peter had come to celebrate with many Russian princes. The festivities that followed lasted four days.
Subsequently, Charlotte Christine lived in Thorn and Elbing and suffered from the disagreement of her court because no funds were available. An intrigue set in against her, in which she was accused of a relationship with FC von Pöllnitz, the chamberlain and stable master of her husband. The fact that her parents reproached her caused Charlotte Christine to travel to Wolfenbüttel in 1712 and convince them of her innocence. This annoyed the tsar, with whom she reconciled when he stopped in Wolfenbüttel on the return journey from Hanover. Soon afterwards she started the trip to Russia.
The rift between Alexej and his father Peter I, Charlotte Christine's refusal to accept the Russian Orthodox faith and Alexei's drunkenness soon worsened the relationship between the couple.
In 1714 she gave birth to her daughter Natalja († 1728) and died in early November 1715, a few days after the birth of the future Tsar Peter II , of puerperal fever . Tsar Peter accused his son Alexei of conspiracy and had him brutally tortured because he did not want to renounce the succession to the throne. He died as a result of the torture.
As the first member of the Tsar's House, Charlotte Christine was buried in the then unfinished Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg .
Literary afterlife
Fifty years after her death, rumors surfaced that Charlotte did not die at the time, later lived in America as the wife of a French officer and spent her old age in Europe , financially supported by her niece Empress Maria Theresa of Austria .
This fate was thematized by the writer Heinrich Zschokke in a novella . The actress and writer Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer later processed Charlotte Christine's life in an opera libretto, for which Duke Ernst II of Saxony-Coburg and Gotha composed the music.
literature
- Johann Christian Lünig. Theatrum Ceremoniale or historical and political venue for all ceremonies . Part 2. Ceremonially at the supplement of the Tsar's Crown Prince, Mr. Alexej Petrowitz, celebrated in Torgau, de anno 1711 , p. 479.
- Vladimir Guerrier . The Crown Princess Charlotte of Russia / daughter-in-law of Peter the Great according to her unprinted letters 1707–1715, Bonn 1875.
- Manfred von Boetticher: Brunswick princes in Russia in the first half of the 18th century . Goettingen 1998
- Ferdinand Spehr: Charlotte Christine Sophie . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 103.
- Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer: Santa Chiara or the risen one. Romantic opera in three acts , Reclam, Leipzig 1900.
- Je.W. Ptschelow: Monarchs of Russia (Монархи России), Olma-Press, Moscow 2003, page 428.
Individual evidence
- ↑ NN: Alexei . In: Meyers Kleines Konversations-Lexikon . tape 1 . Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig a. Vienna 1893, p. 44 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Charlotte Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mother of the Russian Tsar Peter II. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 28, 1694 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wolfenbüttel |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 2, 1715 |
| Place of death | St. Petersburg |