Orlov (noble family)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of the Counts Orlov

Orlov is the name of a Russian aristocratic family who achieved respect and wealth under Catherine the Great .

history

Gatchina Castle , built by Prince Gregor Orlow
Gregor and Alexej Orlov
Marble Palace in St. Petersburg

The father of Ivan Orlov was the end of the 17th century Strelize , so a member of the palace guard of the Tsar. On the orders I. Peters he was executed will. Ivan Orlov showed such cold-bloodedness that the Tsar, impressed by this, pardoned him and later appointed him an officer .

His grandchildren, the five brothers Iwan , Gregor , Alexej , Feodor and Wladimir , received the Russian count status from Catherine the Great on September 22, 1762 in gratitude for their contribution to the overthrow of their husband . The Orlow brothers were accepted into the Livonian knighthood in 1765 and enrolled in the Estonian knighthood on March 1, 1766 .

The brother Gregor Graf Orlow (1734–1783) received the prince status of the Roman-German Empire on July 21 of the following year in Vienna . Prince Gregor and his brother Alexej were instrumental in the overthrow of Tsar Peter III. involved and one of the Empress's mistresses. In 1765, Catherine the Great gave the city of Gatchina near Saint Petersburg to her favorite . Gregor Orlov had a 600-room castle built here, which was surrounded by an English garden for the first time in Russia .

Over time, the Empress Grigory Alexandrovitch favored Potjomkin . In Antwerp , Gregor Orlow had bought a large diamond from India and gave it to Catherine the Great in 1776. However, he did not win back the favor of the Empress, whereupon he knocked out the left eye of his rival, Prince Potjomkin. Tsarina Katharina had the Orlov diamond , as it was henceforth called, worked into the tip of the golden scepter of the Russian tsars. Had died as Prince Gregory Orlov 1783, the Empress bought the castle by his heirs and gave it to her son, the future Emperor Paul I , on.

The brother Alexej Graf Orlow (1737-1808) had in 1762 the dethroned Tsar Peter III. strangled. On July 10th, 1775, because of his brilliant victory in the sea ​​battle of Çeşme, the Empress gave him a name as Orlow-Tschesmensky . Count Orlow-Tschesmensky is said to have gained so much corpulence by 1775 that he had become too fat to ride. So he decided to breed the perfect chariot horse. The result of this effort was the Orlov trotter , of which there are said to be around 25,000 today.

Line legitimized in 1796

One of the Orlow brothers who were formed in 1762, Count Feodor Orlow (1741–1796), was an imperial Russian senator , adjutant general and prosecutor general . He left illegitimate children who were legitimized as aristocratic by the Russian Empress on April 27, 1796. Among them was the son Alexej (1786–1861). As Russian major general and adjutant general of the emperor on December 25, 1825, he received the status of Russian count. He was enrolled in the Courland Knighthood as General of the Cavalry and member of the Imperial Council on May 3, 1840. As President of the Imperial Council, he rose to the rank of Russian princes on August 14, 1856, his diploma dated October 15, 1857. His son, the lieutenant general , adjutant general of the emperor and ambassador in Paris , Nikolai Prince Orlow , received imperial Russian recognition of the princely title on September 6, 1872.

coat of arms

Count's coat of arms 1762

Count's coat of arms 1762

The coat of arms in the count's diploma from 1762 is quartered and covered with a heart shield , divided nine times by gold and blue , with a red eagle inside. The heart shield is a talking coat of arms, since the Slavic "orel, orlow" means eagle. At the same time the shield shows similarities to the family coat of arms of the Anhalt Ascanians , the family coat of arms of Tsarina Catherine the Great. Fields 1 and 4 show under a blue shield head, inside a red lined imperial crown, in gold a gold crowned black double-headed eagle (imperial sign of grace), fields 2 and 3 show an upright silver lion striding inwards, the shoulder covered with a blue label, inside a deposed one golden paw cross; on the shield rests a count's crown and on it three helmets; on the right with blue and gold covers a closed red flight , on the middle one with blue and gold covers on the right, red and gold covers on the left a golden crowned black double-headed eagle, on the left with red and gold covers the lion with the label growing; Shield holders are two mustached armor, each holding a golden-edged flag on a silver-tipped lance, the right one with a blue sash, the flag labeled like the heart shield, the left one with a red sash, the flag labeled as field 2; Motto: Fortitudine et constantia on a banner under the sign.

Princely coat of arms 1763

Princely coat of arms 1763

The coat of arms in the prince's diploma from 1763 is almost exactly the same, only the count's crown is missing and instead the whole thing stands in front of a hermel-lined, purple coat of arms that flows down from a prince's crown .

Princely coat of arms 1856

Princely coat of arms of the line legitimized in 1796: embroidered and covered with a princely crowned heart shield, inside a gold crowned black double eagle with a silver breast shield, inside the imperial monogram, below a red eagle in a field divided by gold and blue; Fields 1 and 4 under a blue shield head, inside a red lined imperial crown, in gold a gold crowned black double-headed eagle, fields 2 and 3 in red turned inwards with a green hydra, a golden crowned silver lion, the shoulder covered with a blue shield, inside a golden paw cross; on the shield rest five helmets with black and gold ceiling: the first bears as a crest the lion with the tag inward growing , the second a closed red flight, the middle on a Fürstenkrone rest of triple gold-winning Imperial Russian imperial eagle with scepter, orb and A golden-edged red breast shield, in it Saint George in armor on a white horse, killing a dragon with a golden lance, the fourth helmet wears a triple golden crowned black double-headed eagle, the fifth a straight golden sword, set with a green laurel branch, elevated from a golden crown. Shield holders are two mustached soldiers in regimental uniforms, each holding a golden rimmed flag on a golden lance, the right and the lower half of the heart shield, the left as field 2. Motto as above.

Well-known namesake

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the aristocracy , Adelslexikon band X . Volume 119 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag Limburg (Lahn) 1999, pp. 46-48.
  • Edgar Hösch: Orlov . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Vol. 3. Munich 1979, p. 360 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Genealogical Handbook of Adels , Adelslexikon Volume X, Volume 119 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag Limburg (Lahn) 1999, pp. 46-48.
  2. ^ Sedina archive: Family history messages from Pomerania NF Vol. 10, Vol. 48, newsletter of the association “Pommerscher Greif” e. V. No. 1 + 2, May 2002, p. 26 (digitized version)