Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp

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 This This relationship as a cadet branch and the difference between that and the territories needs careful deliniation. Note the partition of the territory was eventually reversed, then eventually became titular. Much from the history needs cross loaded here. may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
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Main articles: History of Schleswig-Holstein and List of rulers of Schleswig-Holstein
Gottorp Castle
Gottorp Castle

Holstein-Gottorp or Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp is the historiographical name, as well as contemporary shorthand name, for the parts of the duchies Schleswig and Holstein that were ruled by the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. Other parts of the duchies were ruled by the kings of Denmark. The territories of Gottorp are located in present-day Denmark and Germany. The main seat of the dukes was the Gottorp (German: Gottorf) castle in the city of Schleswig in the duchy of Schleswig. Gottorp is also the name of the ducal house, which ascended to several thrones. For this reason genealogists and historians sometimes use the name of Holstein-Gottorp for related dynasties of other countries.

The formal ducal title was "Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Dithmarschen and Stormarn", but that also was borne by his cousins, as it was their common property. The Gottorp branch held Landeshoheit (supremacy) over the duchy of Holstein in the Holy Roman Empire and over the duchy of Schleswig in the kingdom of Denmark. The name Holstein-Gottorp is for the sake of convenience used instead of the technically more correct "Duke of Schleswig and Holstein in/at Gottorp".

The oldest of the ducal titles was that of Schleswig, which had been confirmed to their cognatic predecessors ultimately in 1386 by King Olav III & IV of Denmark & Norway and his mother and regent, Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Sweden & Norway. The ducal title to Holstein and so forth was granted to the king of Denmark in 1474 from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.

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[edit] History

In 1544 this "one-thirds-duchy" was ceded to Adolf, the third son of King Frederick I of Denmark and the youngest half-brother of King Christian III of Denmark. The house of Holstein-Gottorp was therefore a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg. The Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp shared the rule of Schleswig and Holstein with the Kings of Denmark. As such, they were often allies (practically clients) of the Swedes, enemies of the Danes. This longtime alliance was sealed by several dynastic marriages. Christina of Holstein-Gottorp married Charles IX of Sweden, Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp married Charles X Gustavus, Duke Frederick IV married the eldest daughter of King Charles XI of Sweden, and ultimately Prince Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp ascended to the Swedish throne in 1751, founding the Holstein-Gottorp dynasty of Sweden (ruled 1751-1818).

By the 1658 (Treaty of Roskilde and two years later the Treaty of Copenhagen) Denmark released Gottorp from its feudal bonds and recognized its sovereignty. Technically speaking, this was the birth of the sovereign principality of Gottorp within their parts of the duchy of Schleswig. Of course they had been relatively independent already for more than a century. In the duchy of Holstein they were vassals of the Holy Roman Empire. The dukes of Gottorp were furthermore bound by treaty to govern their lands in both duchies together with their formal overlord, the Danish king.

In the Great Northern War the duchy sided with Sweden and was defeated after Danish troops occupied the northern territories of Holstein-Gottorp. According to the 1720 Treaty of Frederiksborg the Swedish support of Gottorp had to cease, and this made it impossible for the dukes to regain their lost territories in Schleswig and continue their opposition to the king of Denmark. Following the peace settlement of 1721, Duke Charles Frederick fled to the court of Peter the Great of Russia, and for some time the Russians intrigued to restore Charles Frederick to his lands in Schleswig. Charles Frederick himself was married to Grand Duchess Anna, Peter's daughter. Peter's successors abandoned his policy of backing the claims of the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, but from this marriage was born Charles 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.

Charles Peter Ulrich, who acceded to the Russian throne as Peter III in 1762, was determined to conquer Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark-Norway. When he became tsar in 1762, he immediately signed a generous peace with Prussia (which was on its knees and virtually destroyed) and withdrew Russia from the Seven Years' War in order to concentrate fully on an attack upon Denmark. This move angered Russian opinion, since it was considered a betrayal of Russia's sacrifices in the war, as well as placing national interests in jeopardy. At the same time, the Danish army had hastily moved across the border into Mecklenburg, to avoid an invasion of Holstein, and assumed battle positions. The two armies stood less than 30 kilometres apart when news from Saint Petersburg suddenly reached the Russian army that the mad tsar had been overthrown by his wife, who had now acceded to the throne as Catherine II of Russia. One of her first actions was to call off the war against Denmark and restore normal relations.

Peter III's son, Paul, the new Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, was under the regency of his mother Catherine the Great. In 1773 she agreed to cede the territorial rights of her son to the Gottorp patrimony in Germany to his grandfather's cousin, the aged Prince-Bishop of Lübeck, representing a younger branch. The Prince-Bishop was given the county of Oldenburg in exchange. On behalf of her son Catherine also renounced his claims to the Holstein-Gottorp territories of Schleswig-Holstein, which were taken over by the king of Denmark. This put an end to the Gottorp question, which had generated so many conflicts between the Nordic powers.

The House of Holstein-Gottorp acceded to several European thrones. The dynastic policy of the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp resulted in its cadet branch, the Swedish line, ruling Sweden from 1751 until 1818 and Norway from 1814 to 1818. {In 1863 the related House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg-descended from King Christian III of Denmark-became Kings of Denmark and Greece and of Norway in 1905}.

Another branch became dukes and later grand dukes of Oldenburg from (1773 until 1918), while the senior branch ruled Russia briefly in 1762 and then again from 1796 until 1917. The senior branch has recently devolved to a morganatic branch of the Russian Imperial House.

[edit] Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp

Dukes of Scheswig and Holstein in Gottorp:

Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp:

In 1773, the remaining lands of the duchy of Holstein were ceded to the king of Denmark. Paul received in compensation the lands of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, which he transferred to a kinsman. The ducal family kept just the title, while their actual rule ended and was never resumed.

[edit] Titular dukes

The usual understanding (sources include: Stair Sainty, Theroff) is that the heir is the non-dynastic son of Grand Duke Dimitri, only son of Grand Duke Paul, himself the youngest brother of Alexander III. This heir is non-dynastic in the Russian sense, but the House of Oldenburg had no full limitations against unequal marriages, and Schleswig, where the (once sovereign) castle of Gottorp is located, was never part of Holy Roman Empire and under its jurisdiction. These heirs live in USA and have not staked a public claim to titles.

If Grand Duke Dmitri's marriage with Audrey Emery is considered unacceptable to Holstein titular succession, the question that arises is which of the various Romanov branches will be accepted. Presumably, marriages with countesses and princesses are at least acceptable, and thus male-line heirs exist. However, if all marriages deemed morganatic by Russian standards are unacceptable in the Gottorp succession, the next in the line of succession is Anton Gunther, Duke of Oldenburg, who is the current head of the branch descending from Christian August, Prince of Holstein-Eutin, the younger brother of Duke Frederick IV. He already holds claim to the defunct Grand Duchy of Oldenburg.

[edit] External links

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