Peter August Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (7 December 1697 – 22 March 1775) was a 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 ...

Early life

Born 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 ...

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (, , ) or Ducal Prussia (; ) was a duchy in the region of Prussia established as a result of secularization of the Monastic Prussia, the territory that remained under the control of the State of the Teutonic Order until t ...

, as the fifth and youngest son of Frederick Louis, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and his wife, Duchess Louise Charlotte of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (1658–1740).''Burke's Guide to the Royal Family'' (1973), Burke's Peerage, , p. 328 He was named after the Russian tsar

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

, who stood by proxy as his godfather after Duke Frederick asked him to do so. It was one of the first family ties established between the Eastern Orthodox Romanov dynasty and Protestant rulers of Europe, predating the German marriages of Peter's own children and nieces.

Army career

Peter August became Governor General 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 ...

), Governor of

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, and a

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 ...

in the

Russian Imperial Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

. He died in Reval,

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Biography

He was only the ''titular'' duke, because he did not inherit the Haus Beck, Ulenburg,

Herford Herford (; ) is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, located in the lowlands between the hill chains of the Wiehen Hills and the Teutoburg Forest. It is situated in the cultural region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe (OWL) and the Detmold (administrat ...

and the domain that belonged to this line of the family. It had been inherited by his father's older brother, Duke August (1652–1689), and nephew Frederick William I (1682–1719), and was then sold by the latter's widow, Duchess Antoinette Josefa Isnardi di Castello (1692-1762) to Peter August's older brother, Duke Frederick William II (1687–1749), in 1732. But he re-sold it in 1745 to Baroness Magdalena Dorothea von Ledebur-Königsbrück (d. 1750). Thus, in time Peter August became the head of this

cadet branch A cadet branch consists of the male-line descendants of a monarch's or patriarch's younger sons ( cadets). In the ruling dynasties and noble families of much of Europe and Asia, the family's major assets (realm, titles, fiefs, property and incom ...

of the

House of Oldenburg The House of Oldenburg is a Germans, German dynasty whose members rule or have ruled in Danish Realm, Denmark, Kingdom of Iceland, Iceland, Kingdom of Greece, Greece, Norway, Russian Empire, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, the United Kingdom, King ...

, he was ''Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck'' in name only.

Royal descendants

He is the

male line Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

ancestor of

Margrethe II of Denmark Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is a member of the Danish royal family who reigned as Queen of Denmark from 14 January 1972 until Abdication of Margrethe II, her abdication on 14 January 2024. Ha ...

Harald V of Norway Harald V (, ; born 21 February 1937) has been King of Norway since 1991. A member of the House of Glücksburg, Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the Succession to t ...

Constantine II of Greece Constantine II (, ; 2 June 1940 – 10 January 2023) was the last King of Greece, reigning from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973. Constantine was born in Athens as the only son of Crown Prince Paul and ...

and

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and the

Commonwealth realms A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations that has the same constitutional monarch and head of state as the other realms. The current monarch is King Charles III. Except for the United Kingdom, in each of the ...

, as well as previous Kings of Denmark, Kings of Greece, Kings of Norway and future Kings of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Marriages and issue

Peter August married Princess Sophie of Hesse-Philippsthal (1695-1728), the daughter of

Philip, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal Philip of Hesse-Philippsthal (14 December 1655 – 18 June 1721) was the son of William VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and Hedwig Sophia of Brandenburg. He was the first landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal from 1663 to 1721 and the founder of the ...

and Countess Katharina Amalie of Solms-Laubach (1654-1736), at Rinteln on 5 September 1723. Sophie died on 8 May 1728 at age 33. They had three children: * Prince Karl of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (October 1724 – March 1726). * Princess Ulrike Amelie Wilhelmine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (20 May 1726 – died shortly after). * Prince Karl Anton August of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (10 August 1727 – 12 September 1759). He married secondly Countess Natalia Nikolaievna Golovina (1724-1767), granddaughter of Count Fyodor Alexeyevich Golovin, only daughter of Count Nicholas Fedorovich Golovin (1695-1745) and Sophia Pushkina (1700-1745), on 15 March 1742. The couple had the following three children: * Prince Peter of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (1 February 1743 – 3 January 1751). * Prince Alexander of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (born and died 1744). * Princess Catherine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck (23 February 1750 – 10 December 1811); married Prince Ivan Sergeevich Baryatinsky (d. 1811); grandmother of Russian field marshal Prince Aleksandr Baryatinsky and Princess Leonilla of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn.

Ancestry

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peter August Of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, Duke 1697 births 1775 deaths Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck Field marshals of the Russian Empire Nobility from Königsberg People from Tallinn People from the Governorate of Estonia Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire 18th-century Prussian people Governors-general of Saint Petersburg