Prince Karl Ernst Biron ( 1728 - 1801 ) - the youngest son of the Courland duke Ernst Johann , major general of the Russian imperial army .
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Content
Biography
In childhood, he enjoyed the special love of Empress Anna Ioannovna . Rumor had it that he was the secret son of the empress and her favorite [2] .
Four years old, was made scorer-captain of the Preobrazhensky regiment , and in 1740 he received the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky and the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called with diamonds. During the overthrow of his father was deprived of orders.
Together with his father and other relatives, he shared the conclusion, twice tried to escape from Yaroslavl , but unsuccessfully. Peter III on April 2, 1762 promoted him to major general , appointed chief of the Vologda Infantry Regiment, and re-granted him the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky .
In 1763 he became a founding member of the St. Petersburg lodge "Happy Accord."
Under Catherine II, he lived with his father in Courland . From 1767 to 1768 he was on a trip to Europe , was in Holland, France, England and Italy. During his stay in Paris from January 8 to April 24, 1768 he sat in the Bastille on charges of making fake bills and forging signatures. On this occasion, Count K. G. Razumovsky wrote to I. I. Shuvalov [3] :
| This kid is a real industrialist who lurks around the world without a will, therefore without a patch from his father, who gives him no more than 6.000 (thalers) per year, which is done with not more than 5.000 of our rubles. He has already wrapped so much and done such obscene acts to him that, finally, he now resides in the Bastille on counterfeit bills, and they say that he seems to deny him and the falsified debts ... |
He often visited St. Petersburg and visited Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich . According to P.V. Dolgorukov , Karl Biron, like his elder brother, was a drunkard [4] and in society he established a reputation as the greatest “dancer and rake”; he did not engage in any social activities .
In inheritance from his father in 1772 he received the Wartenberg estate in Silesia , donated by Biron to the emperor Charles VI [5] . His descendants bore the title of princes Biron-Wartenberg ( German: Fürst von Biron-Wartenberg ). He died on October 16, 1801 in Königsberg a few days after his 73rd birthday.
Family
The wife (from 18.02.1778; in Dubno ) is Princess Apollonia Poninskaya (1760-1800), the daughter of a wealthy Polish nobleman, the head of Babimostovsky and the steward of Vshovsky, Maciej Poninsky and the younger sister of Adam Poninsky . December 21, 1798 was granted the cavalry ladies of the Order of St. John of the Jerusalem Small Cross . She died in Petersburg. She had nine children in a marriage, but only four of them survived:
- Gustav Calixte (1780-1821), lieutenant colonel, Prussian chief jägermeister.
- Peter-Alexei (1781-1809), staff captain, lieutenant.
- Louise (1791-1853), maid of honor, secretly married Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky (husband of her younger sister) in 1816.
- Catherine (1793-1813), maid of honor, since 1812 the first wife of Count M. Yu. Vielgorsky , died during childbirth.
Literature
- Biron, Karl-Ernst // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
- Serkov A.I. Russian Freemasonry. 1731-2000 Encyclopedic Dictionary. Russian Political Encyclopedia, 2001 .-- 1224 p. - 3,000 copies. - ISBN 5-8243-0240-5 .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 BBLD - Baltisches biografisches Lexikon digital - 2012.
- ↑ Reports of the French ambassador to the Russian court, Marquis de La Shetardi, for the second half of 1741 // Collection of the Imperial Russian Historical Society . - SPb., 1896. - T. 96. - S. 359.
- ↑ A. B. Lobanov-Rostovsky. Prince Karl Ernest of Courland in the Bastille // Russian Antiquity, 1888. - V. 57. - No. 3. - S. 729-750.
- ↑ Notes of Prince Peter Dolgorukov. - St. Petersburg, 2007 .-- 604 p.
- ↑ Wartenberg, estate in Prussia // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.