Peter von Biron (15 February 1724–13 January 1800) was the last Duke of Courland from 1769 to 1795.
Peter was born in
JelgavaJelgava is a city in central Latvia about 41 km southwest of Riga with 66,087 inhabitants . It is the largest town in Semigallia. Jelgava is known as the former capital of the Duchy of Courland, and was the capital of the Courland region until 1919.Jelgava is situated on a fertile plain...
as the son of
Ernst Johann von BironErnst Johann von Biron was a Baltic German Duke of Courland and Semigallia and regent of the Russian Empire .- Biography :...
, future Duke of Courland, and his wife Benigna von Trotha. When 16 years old, he was forced to follow his family into the
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
n exile. In 1769, Peter was given the
Duchy of Courland and SemigalliaThe Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1791 as a vassal state of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
by his father, but he first ceded the government in the Duchy and then its territory to the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1795, and received in return a high
appanageAn apanage or appanage is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who under the system of primogeniture would otherwise have no inheritance...
.
Peter von Biron (15 February 1724–13 January 1800) was the last Duke of Courland from 1769 to 1795.
Peter was born in
JelgavaJelgava is a city in central Latvia about 41 km southwest of Riga with 66,087 inhabitants . It is the largest town in Semigallia. Jelgava is known as the former capital of the Duchy of Courland, and was the capital of the Courland region until 1919.Jelgava is situated on a fertile plain...
as the son of
Ernst Johann von BironErnst Johann von Biron was a Baltic German Duke of Courland and Semigallia and regent of the Russian Empire .- Biography :...
, future Duke of Courland, and his wife Benigna von Trotha. When 16 years old, he was forced to follow his family into the
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
n exile. In 1769, Peter was given the
Duchy of Courland and SemigalliaThe Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is the name of a duchy in the Baltic region that existed from 1562 to 1791 as a vassal state of the Crown of the Polish Kingdom and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth...
by his father, but he first ceded the government in the Duchy and then its territory to the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1795, and received in return a high
appanageAn apanage or appanage is the grant of an estate, titles, offices, or other things of value to the younger male children of a sovereign, who under the system of primogeniture would otherwise have no inheritance...
. This helped him to buy and refurbish for his purposes a palace in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
's street of
Unter den LindenUnter den Linden is a boulevard in the center of Berlin, the capital of Germany. It is named for its linden trees that line the grassed pedestrian mall between two carriageways...
(Palais Kurland, bought in 1782). In 1785 he bought the park and castle in Friedrichsfelde (part of today's
Tierpark BerlinThe Tierpark Berlin is one of the two zoos in Berlin, Germany. It is located in Friedrichsfelde, on the former grounds of Friedrichsfelde Palace, which is situated within the zoo. At 160 hectares it is Europe's largest zoological garden...
), which he rebuilt in luxurious beauty. In April of the following year he purchased the Duchy of
ŻagańIn demonology, Zagan is a Great King and President of Hell, commanding over thirty-three legions of demons. He makes men witty; he can also turn wine into water, water into wine, and blood into wine...
(Sagan) from the
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
n Lobkovic family, then additionally using the title of Duke of Żagań. Five years later, Peter died in
JeleniówJeleniów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Lewin Kłodzki, within Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Prior to 1945 it was in Germany....
.
Marriage and issue
After two childless marriages, Peter married
Dorothea von Medem Dorothea von Medem was born a Gräfin of the noble German Baltic Medem family and later became Duchess of Courland...
(a member of the old Courland nobility) in 1779. They had six children, of which two died in infancy. The remaining four were:
- Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna
Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan was a German noblewoman from the Ruling family of Courland and Semigallia...
, known as duchess Wilhelmine von Sagan; on Peter's death, it was she who inherited the duchy of SaganIn demonology, Zagan is a Great King and President of Hell, commanding over thirty-three legions of demons. He makes men witty; he can also turn wine into water, water into wine, and blood into wine...
in SilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany....
and the HerrschaftIn the German feudal system, a Herrschaft or Herrlichkeit was the fiefdom of a lord, who in this area exercised his full feudal rights...
of NáchodNáchod is a town in the Czech Republic, in the Hradec Králové Region. Náchod lies in the valley of the river Metuje, in northern parts of the upland Podorlická pahorkatina...
in BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
.
- Maria Luise Pauline
Luise Pauline Maria Biron, Princess of Courland, Duchess of Sagan was a Princess of Courland by birth and through her marriage to Friedrich Hermann Otto, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Pauline was Princess consort of Hohenzollern-Hechingen...
(19 February 1782, Mitau - 8 January 1845, Vienna); married Prince Friedrich Hermann OttoFriedrich Hermann Otto of Hohenzollern-Hechingen was the penultimate Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen...
von Hohenzollern-HechingenHohenzollern-Hechingen was a county and principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to a branch of the senior Swabian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty.-History:...
; on Peter's death, she inherited the Prager Palais and the Herrschaft of Hohlstein and Nettkow, and on Wilhelmine's death she also inherited the duchy of SaganIn demonology, Zagan is a Great King and President of Hell, commanding over thirty-three legions of demons. He makes men witty; he can also turn wine into water, water into wine, and blood into wine...
in Silesia and the Herrschaft of Náchod in BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
.
- Johanna Katharina (24 June 1783, Würzau - 11 April 1876, Löbichau); married HE Don Francesco Ravaschieri Fieschi Squarciafico Pinelli Pignatelli y Aymerich, Duke of Acerenza, brother and heir presumptive of the 8th Prince of Belmonte and of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806 she inherited the Kurland-Palais in Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
and on her mother's death inherited the Herrschaft of LöbichauLöbichau is a municipality in the district Altenburger Land, in Thuringia, Germany....
in AltenburgischenAltenburger Land is a district in Thuringia, Germany. It is bounded by the district of Greiz, the Burgenlandkreis , and the districts Leipziger Land, Mittweida, Chemnitzer Land, Zwickauer Land in Saxony....
.
- Dorothea
Dorothea von Biron, Princess of Courland, self-styled Dorothée de Courlande , was a Baltic German noblewoman. Her mother was Dorothea von Medem, Duchess of Courland, and although her mother's husband, Duke Peter von Biron, acknowledged her as his own, her true father was Alexander Batowski...
, married Edmond de Talleyrand-PérigordEdmond de Talleyrand-Périgord , second Duke of Talleyrand, 2nd Duke of Dino, was a French general of the Napoleonic Wars. As the son of Archambaud de Talleyrand-Périgord and Madeleine Olivier de Senozan de Viriville , he was the nephew of the minister Talleyrand...
, 7th duke of Talleyrand and duke of DinoDino may refer to* slang term for a dinosaur* Japanese professional wrestler who uses the name Danshoku Dino* Dino , pet dinosaur of The Flintstones, voiced by Mel Blanc...
in CalabriaCalabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the...
. A PolishPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
nobleman, Alexander Batowski, was her biological father, but Peter acknowledged her as his own. On Peter's death she inherited the Kurland-Palais in Berlin and the Herrschaft of Deutsch Wartenberg; on her half-sister Pauline's death in 1842 she also inherited the Duchy of SaganIn demonology, Zagan is a Great King and President of Hell, commanding over thirty-three legions of demons. He makes men witty; he can also turn wine into water, water into wine, and blood into wine...