Peter of Biron

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Peter von Biron, Duke of Courland, 1781

Peter von Biron (born February 15, 1724 in Mitau ; † January 13, 1800 in Gellenau , County Glatz ) was Imperial Count and from November 24, 1769 Duke of Courland and Semgallia and from April 6, 1786 Duke of Sagan . In 1792 he acquired the great Nachod rule in Eastern Bohemia.

Life

His parents were Duke Ernst Johann von Biron from the house of Biron von Curland and Benigna, nee. von Trotta called Treyden . At the age of 16, he was exiled to Siberia with his parents and younger brother Karl and - at the instigation of Tsarina Elizabeth I  - to Yaroslavl in eastern Russia a year later . 1762 raised Tsar Peter III. the exile and Tsarina Catherine II reinstated Peter’s father Ernst Johann as Duke of Courland in 1763. After his abdication in 1769, Peter succeeded him.

Peter von Biron's tenure from 1769 to 1795 was marked by the discontent of the Courland estates. That is why he began to orient himself towards Prussia and Bohemia . At the inherited from his father outdoors Standesherrschaft Wartenberg in Silesia he bought

With the third partition of Poland in 1795, the suzerainty of the Polish King August Poniatowski ceased and Kurland was annexed to Russia . Peter von Biron was forced to abdicate by Tsarina Katharina, and he was awarded an annual pension of 25,000 ducats and a wittum for his wife. He received two million rubles for his property in Courland. Then he went with his family to his Duchy of Sagan. In the same year he sold the Friedrichsfelde Palace and bought it

Through his Bohemian possessions, he became a member of the Bohemian Country Table .

On October 26, 1785, Peter von Biron was awarded the Order of the Black Eagle by the Prussian King Friedrich II .

Peter von Biron was a music and art lover. In his castles he owned extensive collections of paintings and engravings. In 1790 he commissioned the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin for a four-piece dinner service. The dinner service, later known as Kurland , is still produced today.

In relation to his subjects he was progressive; In Mitau, at the suggestion of Friedrich Wilhelm von Raison, he set up the Academia Petrina , an academic high school ; in his reign of Nachod, he supported the establishment of village schools and made it easier for forced labor. Around 1795 he confirmed to his successors or subjects the privileges of the Bohemian King George of Podebrady .

When he felt ill in December 1799, he went from Nachod to the nearby Gellenau near Bad Kudowa to be treated by the doctor von Mutius, whose family owned the castle in Gellenau. The Duchess Dorothea visited him there with her four daughters. On January 6, 1800 he wrote his will and died on January 13, 1800. His body was transferred to Sagan.

family

Duchess Dorothea of ​​Courland with her daughters Wilhelmine and Pauline

Peter von Biron married several times. His first wife was Karoline Louise Waldeck-Pyrmont (1748–1782) in 1765, a daughter of Karl August Friedrich zu Waldeck-Pyrmont . The childless marriage ended in divorce in 1772. His second wife was Yevdokia Borisovna Yusupova (1743-1780). This marriage was also divorced in 1778 without children. His third marriage was in 1779 with Anna Charlotte Dorothea , née Countess von Medem from the old Courland noble family. From this marriage, four daughters survived childhood:

  • Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna (1781–1839), inherited the Duchy of Sagan in Silesia and the rule of Nachod in Bohemia after Peter's death.
  • Maria Luise Pauline (1782-1845); ⚭ Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Hechingen ; after Peter's death inherited the Prague palace and the Hohlstein and Nettkow lords, after Wilhelmine's death heiress to the Duchy of Sagan and the Nachod lordship.
  • Johanna Katharina (born June 24, 1783 in Würzau; † April 11, 1876 Löbichau); ⚭ Franz Pignatelli de Belmondi, Duke of Acerenza. In 1806 he inherited the Prague Kurland-Palais and, after the death of her mother, the Löbichau estate in Altenburg .
  • Dorothea (1793-1862); ⚭ Count Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord . After Peter's death, she inherited the Kurland-Palais in Berlin and the Deutsch Wartenberg rule, and in 1842 acquired the Duchy of Sagan from her sister Pauline.

With his mistress Karoline von Derschau he had the (1740-1783) natural son Peter von Gerschau (1779-1852), the Prussian second lieutenant in the hussars regiment "of Goeckingk" , Russian chief forester in Old Finland , Consul General in Copenhagen and State Council, and the progenitor of those of Was watched .

Trivia

The Czech writer Alois Jirásek created a literary monument to Peter von Biron with his 1877 novel “Na dvoře vévodském” (The Dukes' Court ) . In it, the duke is portrayed as benevolent and concerned about his subjects. At the same time, life on the Nachoder Castle during the summer of 1799 is portrayed in accordance with the time. Since Jirásek has largely processed the stories and memories of his older relatives and other residents from the Nachoder region, one can certainly believe the picture of the duke drawn.

literature

Web links

Commons : Peter von Biron  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leopold von Zedlitz-Neukirch : New Preussisches Adels-Lexicon , Volume 2, p. 96
  2. ↑ stilundmarkt.de: Johann Karl Friedrich giant and Kurland ( Memento of March 23, 2014 Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Confirmation of privileges
  4. ↑ Genealogical Handbook of the Baltic Knighthoods (New Series) , Volume IV, Hamburg 2014, pp. 146–147.
predecessor Office successor
Ernst Johann von Biron Duke of Courland and Semgallia
1769–1795 		---
Joseph Franz Maximilian von Lobkowitz Duke of Sagan
1786–1800 		Wilhelmine of Sagan
personal data
SURNAME Biron, Peter von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Imperial Count and Duke of Courland and Semgallia and Duke of Sagan
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1724
PLACE OF BIRTH Mitau
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1800
Place of death Gellenau