Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick
Anton Ulrich Prince of Brunswick- Wolfenbüttel ( born August 28, 1714 Bevern; † May 4, 1774 in Kholmogory ) was the son of Ferdinand Albrecht II, Duke of Brunswick- Bevern. He was the husband as regent Anne Leopoldovna 1740-1741 generalissimo of the Russian army.
Life
Anton Ulrich was the second son Ferdinand Albrecht II and brother of the Prussian General Duke Ferdinand. He was also the brother of King Frederick II of Prussia. In 1733 it became Anton Ulrich at the request of the Russian Empress Anna, who had appointed him as a husband for her niece Anna Leopoldovna, by Russia. In Riga, he took over the ownership of a regiment, the named after him in 1732 already " Brunswick- Cuirassiers ".
His marriage to Anna Leopoldovna was not until 1739 in Saint Petersburg. The from this marriage emerged Ivan VI. was appointed by the Empress to her future successor; up to the age of majority Biron should lead the regency. Anton Ulrich was kept away with his wife by all government transactions.
When he was soon compromised after the death of the Empress Anna in a conspiracy directed against Biron, Biron forced him to renounce all his military offices and threatened to expel him from Russia. Following Biron's fall of the Prince of his wife, the regent Anne Leopoldovna, generalissimo of the Russian army was raised. Anna Leopoldovna but was ousted in the night of December 6, 1741 by Elizabeth Petrovna and imprisoned with her husband and their children in the citadel of Riga, finally deported later to Dünamünde and after Kholmogory in the government of Archangel, where she at the age of 27 years in 1746 died.
Catherine II was soon after her accession to the throne in 1762 Anton Ulrich make the proposal to leave Russia. His children but would have to stay behind, because you can not give freedom to them for political reasons. He pulled the prisoner before his children the freedom without this and died, almost completely blind, on May 4 1774th His son Ivan was assassinated in 1764 Schlüsselburg. His other four children were allowed free 1780. Catherine II refused them an annual salary and sent them to Denmark, where they lived withdrawn in Horsens in Jutland. The Dowager Queen of Denmark, Juliane Marie of Brunswick, was the younger sister of Anton Ulrich.
Progeny
Anton Ulrich married in 1739 Anna Leopoldovna, daughter of Duke Charles Leopold of Mecklenburg.
- Ivan VI. (1740-1764)
- Catherine (1741-1807)
- Elisabeth (1743-1782)
- Peter (1745-1798)
- Alexei (1746-1787)