Maximilian de Beauharnais

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Maximilian de Beauharnais

Maximilian Josèphe Eugène Auguste Napoléon de Beauharnais (* 2. October 1817 in Munich , † October 20 . Jul / 1. November  1852 greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was the 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg . After his marriage (1839) he became Prince Romanowsky.

Life

Joseph Karl Stieler : Maximilian de Beauharnais as a toddler, 1821

Maximilian was the second son of Eugène de Beauharnais and his wife Princess Auguste of Bavaria , daughter of the first Bavarian King Maximilian I Joseph and his first wife Princess Auguste Wilhelmine Maria von Hessen-Darmstadt . On his father's side he was a grandson of Joséphine de Beauharnais , Empress of the French. He received an excellent education from his mother.

After the fall of Bonaparte , his father was awarded the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg by his father-in-law Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria in 1817, with the landgraviate of the same name and the principality of Eichstätt as the civil status. When his father died in 1824 and his older brother Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais died in 1835, he inherited the title of duke and all his rights. So he followed his brother in March 1835, first under the tutelage of his mother, in the state government. He entered the Bavarian service as a lieutenant in the fourth Chevauxlégers regiment, and later became colonel of the sixth, which his father and brother had held before him.

In 1837 the King sent Maximilian de Beauharnais to the great Russian cavalry maneuvers near Voznesensk and in 1838 he came again to Russia, where he became engaged to the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolajewna Romanowa (1819–1876). She was the eldest daughter of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I and Princess Charlotte of Prussia . Due to his relationship to Emperor Napoléon, Maximilian de Beauharnais was not a good match for the Tsar's daughter. But Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna had announced that she would never get married if she had to leave Russia . So the father agreed. On July 14, 1839, the wedding of Duke Maximilian von Leuchtenberg and his fiancee took place in the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. His father-in-law gave him and his descendants the hereditary title of Prince, Prince or Princess Romanowsky.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter : Grand Duchess Maria Nikolajewna Romanowa, oil on canvas, 1857

Seven children emerged from the joint relationship:

∞ Prince Ludwig Wilhelm August of Baden (1829–1897)
∞ Nadeshda Sergejewna Annenkowa (1840-1891)
∞ Duke Alexander von Oldenburg (1844–1932)
  • Eugen Maximilianowitsch (1847–1901), 5th Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince Romanowsky
∞ Daria Opotschinina (1845–1870)
∞ Zinaida Skobelewa (1878–1899)
  • Sergei Maximilianowitsch (1849–1877), killed in the Russo-Turkish War
  • Georgi Maximilianowitsch (1852–1912), 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince Romanowsky
∞ Princess Therese von Oldenburg (1852-1883)
∞ Princess Anastasia of Montenegro (1868–1935)

Maximilian de Beauharnais became adjutant general of the Tsar, lieutenant general, commander of the first division of the light guard cavalry, chief of the hussar regiment Duke Maximilian von Leuchtenberg , chief of the cadet corps of mine engineers, president of the Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the universities of Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan and the Council of Military Schools. In addition, he was made an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in 1847.

The possessions of his house in the Papal States , leaving Maximilian de Beauharnais in 1845 the papal government for 20 million francs, for which he purchased the domain of Tambov in Russia. Due to mutual guilt of the spouses, Leuchtenberg's marriage turned out to be a very unpleasant one, despite the seven children they had together. He died after several years of lung disease that he had contracted on a geological research trip in the Urals on November 1, 1852 at the age of 35 in Saint Petersburg.

Worth mentioning

The urn with the heart of Duke Maximilian stands together with the hearts of his mother Auguste and his sister Carolina in a showcase in the royal crypt of St. Michael in Munich.

His grandson, Prince Peter von Oldenburg , from the marriage of his youngest daughter Eugenia Maximilianowna, married Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanova in 1901 , the youngest sister of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. Because of Peter's homosexuality , the marriage was annulled by imperial decree .

literature

  • Richard Diener: Maximilian Eugene Josephe Napoleon de Beauharnais, the 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstätt. In: Historischer Verein Eichstätt, collection sheet No. 100, 2008, Eichstätt 2008, pp. 7–47.
  • New necrology of the Germans . Volume 30, Part II, Wimar 1854, pp. 731-736.

Web links

Commons : Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Arthur Kleinschmidt : Leuchtenberg (Maximilian Joseph Eugen August Napoleon) , in: Johann Samuelersch , Johann Gottfried Gruber : (Ed.): General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts , 3rd section, 43rd part (1889), p 258.
  2. ^ Member entry by Maximilian Herzog von Leuchtenberg (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Beauharnais, Maximilian de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Duke of Leuchtenberg; Prince Romanowsky
BRIEF DESCRIPTION 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1852
Place of death St. Petersburg