House of Holstein-Gottorp
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The House of Holstein-Gottorp, a branch of the Oldenburg dynasty, rose to several thrones. The dynastic policy of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp resulted in their descendants ruling Sweden from 1751 until 1818 and Russia briefly in 1762 and then again from 1796 until 1917.
Holstein-Gottorp originally was a ducal family that ruled certain areas within Schleswig and Holstein, in present-day Denmark and Germany. Its founder was Adolf, the half-brother of King Christian III of Denmark and Norway. The Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp shared the rule of Schleswig and Holstein with the Kings of Denmark. However, they were often allies of the Swedes, the great enemies to the Danes.
Duke Karl Friedrich married to Grand Duchess Anna, daughter of Tsar Peter the Great. From this marriage was born Karl Peter Ulrich, who succeeded to Holstein-Gottorp in 1739, and became heir to the Russian throne upon the accession of his aunt Elisabeth in 1741.
Although Karl Peter Ulrich, who acceded the Russian throne as Peter III in 1762, was very interested in regaining his lands in Schleswig from the Danes, he was soon overthrown. His successor, his son Paul, was under the regency of his mother Catherine the Great, who in 1773 agreed with the Danes for her son's abdication of his rights in Schleswig-Holstein in favor of the Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, representative of a younger branch, and to a trade which would allow the Danes to take over the Holstein-Gottorp lands, giving the Prince-Bishop the County of Oldenburg in exchange.
[edit] Sweden
A branch of this family rose to the Swedish throne with King Adolf Frederick in 1751. He was elected crown prince on June 23, 1743 as a Swedish concession to the Russian Tsar, a strategy for achieving an acceptable peace after the disastrous war of the same year. A descendant of cadet branch of the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, Adolf Frederick was closely related to several members of the Russian Imperial Family, and later his niece Catherine the Great would even become Empress and founder of the House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.
King Gustav III of Sweden, who restored the royal power, was enthusiastic about the fact that through his paternal grandmother their dynasty descended from the royal house of Vasa. He expressed wishes that their house be known as Vasa, as the new Royal House of Vasa and the continuation of the original. Royal houses were as not such recognized in Swedish law and there was no effective way to force this change. Historians have not agreed with Gustav's desires, the house is referred as Holstein-Gottorp.
Adolf Frederick's grandson Gustav IV Adolf was deposed in 1809 following the loss of Finland, and the remaining parts of the dynasty became extinct with the death of his uncle Charles XIII in 1818. In 1810, Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, a Marshal of France, was elected crown prince, and became the founder of the next and current Swedish dynasty, Bernadotte.
The son of the deposed Gustav IV took the title The Prince of Vasa (in Germany, written Wasa). However, the use of that name ceased when the prince's only child, daughter Carola of Wasa died (as childless queen of Saxony).
[edit] Kings of Sweden
- 1751-1771 : Adolf Frederick
- 1771-1792 : Gustav III
- 1792-1809 : Gustav IV Adolf
- 1809-1818 : Charles XIII
[edit] King of Norway
| Preceded by: Frederick of Hesse |
List of Finnish rulers | Succeeded by: Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| List of Swedish monarchs | Succeeded by: The House of Bernadotte |
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| Preceded by: The House of Oldenburg |
List of Norwegian monarchs |
