Georg de Beauharnais
Georg de Beauharnais , also of Beauharnais-Leuchtenberg or Georgi Maximilianowitsch of Leuchtenberg, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince Romanovsky , russian Георгий Максимилианович Лейхтенбергский February (born 17 . Jul / 29 February 1852 greg. In Saint Petersburg , † May 3 jul. / May 16, 1912 greg. in Paris ) was a Russian nobleman with Franco-German roots. He was the youngest son of Maximilian de Beauharnais , 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and the Grand Duchess Marija Romanowa , daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.
Life
Georg grew up more or less without parents: Duke Maximilian died just a few months after Prince Georg was born. His mother married Count Gregori Alexandrovich Stroganov two years later . The marriage was morganatic and concluded without the consent of the Tsar. Maria then had to go into exile. However, their children stayed with the family in St. Petersburg.
Georg was not considered particularly gifted and grew up in the shadow of his older siblings in St. Petersburg's Marienpalast . As usual for sons of his class, he embarked on a military career. Shortly after his birth he was awarded the Order of St. Andrew by his maternal grandfather , and he was accepted into the highly respected Preobrazhensk body guard regiment . In his further career Georg took part in campaigns of conquest in Central Asia and was awarded the Order of Saint George with his brother Eugène after conquering the city of Xiva in 1873 . He then served in the tsar's bodyguard and was appointed adjutant general in 1910 .
Georg was briefly traded as heir to the throne for the childless Serbian King Aleksandar Obrenović , before he was overthrown and murdered in 1903 by an officer conspiracy. However, his successor was Peter Karadjordjevic .
Marriages
In 1879 he married Princess Therese von Oldenburg in Stuttgart . She was the youngest daughter of the German-Russian Prince Peter von Oldenburg , who, like Georg, was the grandson of a tsar, and the sister of Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna . Georg's sister Eugenia was also married to Therese's brother Alexander . Therese died of tuberculosis in St. Petersburg in 1883 at the age of only 31 . They had a son:
- Alexander Georgiewitsch (1881–1942), 7th Duke of Leuchtenberg
Georg married Princess Anastasia of Montenegro in 1886 . The couple had two children:
- Sergei Georgiwitsch (1890–1974), 8th and last legitimate Duke of Leuchtenberg
- Elena Georgiowna (1892–1971), married Count Stefan Eugen Maria Tyszkiewicz (1894–1976) on July 18, 1917 . Their daughter Nathalia Rosa Marie was born on January 16, 1921 in Warsaw.
The marriage was far from happy and they divorced in 1906. One reason for the divorce is said to have been her bondage to the itinerant preacher Rasputin . Anastasia then married Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolajewitsch , maternal nephew of her ex-husband's first wife. Georg went to France, where he lived with his lover.
Georg was the only son of Duke Maximilian, who married appropriately, so that his brothers had no successor entitled to inherit. After the death of his brother Eugène in 1901, he became the 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg. He himself died in Paris in 1912 and was buried in the Grand Ducal mausoleum of St.Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral .
Individual evidence
- ^ The Servian Tragedy. P. 74 , accessed December 7, 2015 .
- ^ The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II, p. 91 , accessed December 7, 2015 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Beauharnais, Georg de |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Leuchtenberg, Georgi Maximilianowitsch von; Beauharnais-Leuchtenberg, Georg von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Russian nobleman with Franco-German roots |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 29, 1852 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Petersburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 16, 1912 |
| Place of death | Paris |