Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg
Encyclopedia
Maximilian Joseph Eugene Auguste Napoleon de Beauharnais (2 October 1817 Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 – 1 November 1852 St.Petersburg), 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg
Duke of Leuchtenberg
Duke of Leuchtenberg was a title created by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria and awarded to his son Maximilian Philipp Hieronymus. Little is known about this title until its re-creation by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria on 14 November 1817 and awarded to his son-in-law Eugène de Beauharnais...

, 3rd Prince of Venice Prince des Français and Hereditary Prince of the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon, fully influenced by revolutionary France, that ended with his defeat and fall.-Constitutional statutes:...

 (a creation of Napoleon I of France
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

) and claimant to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
Grand Duchy of Frankfurt
The Grand Duchy of Frankfurt was a German satellite state of Napoleonic creation. It came into existence in 1810 through the combination of the former territories of the Archbishops of Mainz along with the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt itself....

 was the husband of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna of Russia

Childhood

He was born as the second son of Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène de Beauharnais
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Français, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt ad personam was the first child and only son of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la...

 and Princess Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia of Bavaria
Princess Augusta of Bavaria
Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg was the second child and eldest daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt.- Marriage and issue :...

. His maternal grandparents were Maximilian I, King of Bavaria and his first wife Marie Wilhelmine Auguste, Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt.

His maternal grandmother Marie Wilhelmine Auguste was a daughter of Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt, younger son of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis VIII was the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1739 to 1768. He was the son of Ernest Louis, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Margravine Dorothea Charlotte of Brandenburg-Ansbach....

.

He was a brother of:
  • Auguste de Beauharnais, Duke of Santa Cruz
    Duke of Santa Cruz
    Duke of Santa Cruz was a title of nobility of the Empire of Brazil created by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, dated from 5 November 1829, for his brother-in-law, Prince Auguste de Beauharnais, brother of Pedro's second wife Empress Amélie....

    , Consort prince of Queen Maria II of Portugal;
  • Amélie de Beauharnais, Empress consort of Pedro I of Brazil;
  • Josephine of Leuchtenberg
    Josephine of Leuchtenberg
    Joséphine of Leuchtenberg was Queen consort of Sweden and Norway as the wife of King Oscar I...

    , queen consort
    Queen consort
    A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...

     of Oscar I of Sweden
    Oscar I of Sweden
    Oscar I was King of Sweden and Norway from 1844 to his death. When, in August 1810, his father Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected Crown Prince of Sweden, Oscar and his mother moved from Paris to Stockholm . Oscar's father was the first ruler of the current House of Bernadotte...

    .

Duke of Leuchtenberg

His maternal grandfather Maximilian of Bavaria appointed Eugène de Beauharnais, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg on 14 November 1817. The title came with the effective administration of the Principality of Eichstätt
Eichstätt
Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...

. Maximilian was named "Prince of Leuchtenburg" and became the second-in-line heir to the Duchy.

On 21 February 1824, his father died and his older brother became Auguste de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg
Auguste de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg
Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais, 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg was the first Prince consort of Maria II of Portugal.-Family:...

. His brother was yet childless and Maximilian became his Heir Presumptive
Heir Presumptive
An heir presumptive or heiress presumptive is the person provisionally scheduled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir or heiress apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question...

.

Auguste eventually married Queen Maria II of Portugal but died childless on 28 March 1835. Maximilian became the 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg at this point.

Marriage

He married Grand Duchess Maria Nikolayevna of Russia on July 2, 1839 in the chapel of the Winter Palace
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...

. She was the eldest daughter of 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...

 and Charlotte of Prussia.

His father-in-law Nicholas I granted to him on 14 July 1839 the Russian and Finnish style Imperial Highness
Imperial Highness
His/Her Imperial Highness is a style used by members of an imperial family to denote imperial - as opposed to royal - status to show that the holder in question is descended from an Emperor rather than a King .Today the style has mainly fallen from use with the exception of the Imperial Family of...

, a rank he was entitled to as a descendant of the extended dynasty of Napoleon I of France. His father was an adoptive son of Napoleon.

Children

  1. Alexandra Princess Romanovskaja (1840–1843) died in childhood
  2. Maria Maximilianovna, Princess Romanovskaja
    Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
    Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, also known as Princess Maria Romanovskya, Maria, Princess Romanovskaja, or Marie Maximiliane was the eldest daughter of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.-Family and early...

     (1841–1914) m. Prince Wilhelm of Baden
    Prince Wilhelm of Baden (1829–1897)
    Prince Louis William Augustus of Baden was a Prussian general and politician. He was the father of Prince Maximilian of Baden, the last Minister President of the Kingdom of Prussia and last Chancellor of the German Empire...

     (1829–1897), younger son of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden
    Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden
    Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden succeeded in 1830 as the fourth Grand Duke of Baden....

  3. Nicholas Maximilianovich, 4th Duke of Leuchtenberg (1843–1891)
  4. Eugenia Maximilianovna, Princess Romanovskaja
    Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
    Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, also known as Princess Evgenia Romanovskya, or Eugenia, Princess Romanovskaja was a member of the French House of Beauharnais, though she was born and raised in her mother's native country, Russia...

     (1845–1925) m. Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
    Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
    Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg was the second son of Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg. Though he had a German title and ancestry, Alexander and his siblings were born and raised in St...

     (1844–1932)
  5. Eugen Maximilianovich, 5th Duke of Leuchtenberg (1847–1901) m. Daria Opotchinina (1845–1870) m. Zinaida Skobeleva (1856–1899)
  6. Sergei Maximilianovich, Duke of Leuchtenberg (1849–1877) Killed in the Russo-Turkish war
  7. Georgi Maximilianovich, 6th Duke von Leuchtenberg
    George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg
    George Maximilianovich, 6th Duke of Leuchtenberg, also known as Prince Georgii Romanovsky or Georges de Beauharnais was the youngest son of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.-Family and early life:George's father Maximilian de...

     (1852–1912) m.(1) Duchess Therese Petrovna of Oldenburg
    Duchess Therese Petrovna of Oldenburg
    Duchess Therese Petrovna of Oldenburg was the youngest daughter of Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg.-Marriage:...

     (1852–1883) m.(2) Anastasia of Montenegro
    Anastasia of Montenegro
    Princess Anastasia Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro was the daughter of King Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro and his wife, Milena Vukotić . Through her second marriage, she became Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaievna Romanova of Russia...

     (1868–1935)

Further descendants

Through his oldest surviving daughter Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
Princess Maria Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, also known as Princess Maria Romanovskya, Maria, Princess Romanovskaja, or Marie Maximiliane was the eldest daughter of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.-Family and early...

 (1841–1914), he is the grandfather of Prince Maximilian of Baden
Prince Maximilian of Baden
Maximilian of Baden was a German prince and politician...

 (1867–1929), Chancellor of Germany during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

His youngest daughter Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg
Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg, also known as Princess Evgenia Romanovskya, or Eugenia, Princess Romanovskaja was a member of the French House of Beauharnais, though she was born and raised in her mother's native country, Russia...

 (1845–1925) married Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg
Duke Alexander Petrovich of Oldenburg was the second son of Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg and his wife Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg. Though he had a German title and ancestry, Alexander and his siblings were born and raised in St...

 (1844–1932), the grandson of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, and became the mother of Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg
Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg
Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg was the first husband of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, the youngest sister of Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:...

 (1868–1924), the divorced husband of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was the youngest child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia. Her older brother was Tsar Nicholas II....

 (1882–1960), the youngest sister of Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...

.

Ancestry



External links


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