Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia

Konstantin Pavlovich Romanov (born 27 Apriljul / 8 May 1779greg in Tsarskoye Selo, .. .. † 15 Junijul / 27 June 1831greg in Vitebsk ) from the House of Romanov -Holstein -Gottorp was Grand Duke and Tsarevich of Russia.

Life

Constantine was the second son of the Russian Tsar Paul I and Empress Maria Feodorovna. He distinguished himself in the 1799 campaign against France as a soldier under Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov made ​​. He took great courage in the Battle of Austerlitz on the day. In 1808 he attended the Congress of Erfurt in, accompanied it from 1812 to 1814 his brother Alexander I on the Army trains, fought on several occasions, especially in Leipzig, at the top of the Garden with great bravery, and was present at the Congress of Vienna. He was then in Congress Poland successively military governor and general of the Polish forces, Lieutenant General and de facto viceroy.

After separation from his first wife, Princess Juliane of Saxe- Coburg- Saalfeld, he married on 24 May 1820 the Polish Countess Joanna Grudzińska, which was later raised from the Tsar to the Princess of Łowicz. Because of this unacceptable marriage, he explained during his lifetime Alexander I in an Act of January 14, 1822 his renunciation of the throne. Since no one, not even the heir appointed Grand Duke Nicholas, Constantine knew of abdication, Konstantin was in his absence on December 9, 1825 was proclaimed after Alexander's death in Petersburg to the Emperor and marked the first Constantine rubles. But he said in Warsaw to try to insist on his resignation, and so the throne went to his younger brother Nicholas.

Constantine brutality and military rigor were not apt to take Poland for him and the Russian rule. When it came in the wake of the French Revolution of July 1830 in Poland on November Uprising, came on November 29, 1830, an armed band in Constantine 's home, but he saved himself by fleeing into the middle of his guards. After the hasty evacuation of Warsaw by Russian forces on 30 November he left Poland. He then lived in Białystok and was just about to get deeper withdraw at the approach of a Polish corps to Russia, when he died on June 27, 1831 of cholera in Vitebsk. His wife followed him, already on 29 November 1831st

Honor

Friedrich Wilhelm III. beat Konstantin on April 7, 1805 Knight of the Black Eagle and appointed him on 17 November 1813 Chief of the 3rd Cuirassier Regiment. In honor of Constantine wearing a part of the fortress of Koblenz its name, Fort Grand Duke Constantine.