HSH

Serene Highness

His/Her Serene Highness is a style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein and Monaco. It also preceded the princely titles of members of some German ruling and mediatised dynasties as well as some non-ruling but princely German noble families until 1918...

 Prince

Prince

Prince is a general term for a ruler, monarch or member of a monarch's or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in the nobility of some European states. The feminine equivalent is a princess...

 Christopher von Lieven, Lord of Mesothen

Mežotne

Mežotne is a town in Latvia 10 km west of Bauska and 40 km south of the capital of Latvia, Riga. It lies in the historical region of Zemgale on the left bank of the Lielupe river near the Lithuanian border.- Mežotne Palace :...

  was a Livonian nobleman, Russian general

Russian Empire

The 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...

, ambassador to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1812-1834, and educator of tsesarevich

Tsesarevich

Tsesarevich was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the given name and patronymic.-Usage:...

 Alexander Nikolaievitch

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

.

Family

Christopher Lieven was born on May 6, 1774 (Old Style) into an old noble family of Lieven

Lieven

The Lievens are one of the oldest and noblest families of Baltic Germans. They claim descent from Caupo of Turaida , the Livonian quasi rex who converted to Christianity in 1186, when Bishop Meinhard attempted to Christianize the region...

 (Livonia

Livonia

Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...

n-originated medieval Baltic German

Baltic German

The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...

 knights), as the third son of Baroness Charlotte von Gaugreben, afterwards 1st Princess Lieven (1743-1828) and Freiherr

Freiherr

The German titles Freiherr and Freifrau and Freiin are titles of nobility, used preceding a person's given name or, after 1919, before the surname...

 Otto Heinrich Andreas von Lieven af Eksjö (1726-1781) (source: Gustav Elgenstierna, Ättartavlor). Since his youth, his mother served as governess of the younger children of the then Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia, Heir-Apparent to the throne of the then Empress Catherine II. As such, young baron Christopher's "foster-siblings" were a number of young grand dukes and grand duchesses, including his future liege lord the Emperor Nicholas I (1796-1855).

Early military

Fifteen-year old Lieven was registered in an artillery regiment, and made a quick military career: in 1791 he was promoted from the rank of warrant officer (Praporshchik

Praporshchik

Praporshchik is a rank in the Russian military.-Imperial Russia:Praporshchik was originally a name of a junior commissioned officer rank in the military of the Russian Empire equivalent to ensign...

) to the rank of second lieutenant (podporuchik) at the Semionovsky regiment; in 1794 to the rank of lieutenant (poruchik), and after a campaign in 1796 to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Vladimir

Vladimir

Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...

 dragoon regiment, later Tula

Tula, Russia

Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...

 musketeer regiment. Lieven was sent to Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

 and participated in the Persian Expedition

Persian Expedition of 1796

The Persian Expedition of Catherine the Great, alongside the Persian Expedition of Peter the Great, was one of the Russo-Persian Wars of the 18th century which did not entail any lasting consequences for either belligerent....

 and in the Georgian expedition. In 1797, Emperor Paul I

Paul I of Russia

Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...

 made him his aide-de-camp, and in 1798 he was promoted to the rank of mayor-general and assigned to the post of the Director of the Mobile Field Chancellery (военно-походная канцелярия) of His Majesty. Lieven accompanied Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia

Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....

 during the Battle of Vishkovo and Battle of Austerlitz

Battle of Austerlitz

The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...

 and at the signing of the Peace of Tilsit. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1807.

Ennobled to count and married

On February 22, 1799 Lieven received the title of Count, as his mother was granted a countship. Somewhat overshadowed by his more illustrious wife, the famous socialite and political force, Dorothea Lieven

Dorothea Lieven

HSH Princess Dorothea von Lieven , née Benckendorff , a Baltic German noblewoman and wife of Prince Khristofor Andreyevich Lieven, Russian ambassador to London, 1812 to 1834, was a political force in her own right....

, née vonBenckendorff (17 December 1785 Riga - January 1857 Paris), whom he had married on February 1 1800 in St.Petersburg, Prince

Diplomacy

In 1808 he assigned to the Foreign Office. In December 1809 he was sent to represent Russia at the Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

n court and, when Napoleon prepared to invade Russia, Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 in 1812, was appointed Ambassador to the court of St. James

St. James's Palace

St. James's Palace is one of London's oldest palaces. It is situated in Pall Mall, just north of St. James's Park. Although no sovereign has resided there for almost two centuries, it has remained the official residence of the Sovereign and the most senior royal palace in the UK...

, a post he kept for 22 years.

Ennobled to prince

In 1826, his mother was created 1st Princess of Lieven, whereby Count Christopher also received the title of Prince.

Governor

In 1834 tsar Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 recalled Lieven to Russia and entrusted him to be governor of the heir to the throne, tsesarevich

Tsesarevich

Tsesarevich was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the given name and patronymic.-Usage:...

 Alexander Nikolaevitch

Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

.

Death

Lieven died suddenly on January 10, 1839 at Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 as he escorted the future Alexander II of Russia on his Grand Tour

Grand Tour

The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage...

.

External links

• Judith Lissauer Cromwell, "Dorothea Lieven: A Russian Princess in London and Paris, 1785-1857 (McFarland & Co., 2007) ISBN 0-7864-2651-9
• Russian Embassy webpage (Russian only)