Charles Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Karl Ludwig Herzog von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck''; 18 September 1690 – 22 September 1774) was a Lieutenant General in the Prussian Army and Governor of Reval (

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

) in the

Governorate of Estonia The Governorate of Estonia, also known as the Esthonia (Estland) Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire. It was located in the northern Estonia with some islands in the West Estoni ...

Life

Charles Louis was born as the second son of

Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (; 6 April 1653 – 7 March 1728) was a Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and field marshal of the Prussian Army. Early life Frederick Louis was born in Haus Beck (now pa ...

(1653-1728) and his wife, Princess Louise Charlotte of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1658-1740).

Biography

In 1723, he converted to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. Charles Louis became the titular Duke of

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (Schleswig-Holstein-Beck or Beck for short) is a line of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg branch of the House of Oldenburg. It consisted of August Philipp, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Bec ...

in 1757 after his nephew Colonel

Frederick William III Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved. ...

died in the Battle of Prague without leaving a male heir. He was appointed

field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army (in countries without the rank of Generalissimo), and as such, few persons a ...

by Czar

Peter III of Russia Peter III Fyodorovich (; ) was Emperor of Russia from 5 January 1762 until 9 July of the same year, when he was overthrown by his wife, Catherine II (the Great). He was born in the German city of Kiel as Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holst ...

in 1762, but he refused because of his age.

Marriage and issue

In 1730 he married

Countess Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Anna Karolina Orzelska in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

. She was an illegitimate daughter of

August II the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the H ...

, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Grand-Duke of Lithuania, by his French mistress Henriette Rénard. Anna sought divorce after just three years of what proved to be an unhappy arranged marriage. They had one son: * Duke Karl Frederick (b. Dresden, 5 January 1732 - d. Strassburg, 21 February 1772), General Major of the

Saxon Army The Royal Saxon Army () was the military force of the Electorate (1682–1807) and later the Kingdom of Saxony (1807–1918). A regular Saxon army was first established in 1682 and it continued to exist until the abolition of the German monarchies ...

; Karl never married and did not have issue

Death

Charles Louis died in 1774 in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. He was succeeded by Peter August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck.

Ancestry

References

External links

Short biography
1690 births 1774 deaths 18th-century German military personnel Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck Nobility from Königsberg Military personnel from Tallinn People from the Governorate of Estonia Lieutenant generals of Prussia Baltic-German nobility Military personnel from Königsberg {{Germany-duke-stub