Empress Anna Ioannovna

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, that's about what I've read. It does sound plausible, and is most likely the reason. Before this thread, I had actually never heard that there could have been any other reason.

[kmerov]

I feel a bit sorry for her. She doesn't seem to have had a very happy life. I wonder why her mother disliked her? But I agree, and average Empress with a bad reputation.

[Romanov_fan]

Well, her life wasn't very happy, nor perhaps personally fulfiling, but after her accesion to the throne of Russia, she got to make up for it somewhat.   She does have a bad repututation, which is injustified when you remember she was fairly average, and not particularly bad in any respect. But I doubt her memory will be redeemed any time too soon.

[bell_the_cat]

Well, her life wasn't very happy, nor perhaps personally fulfiling, but after her accesion to the throne of Russia, she got to make up for it somewhat.   She does have a bad repututation, which is injustified when you remember she was fairly average, and not particularly bad in any respect. But I doubt her memory will be redeemed any time too soon.

She did have a very lucky break in the death of Peter II - equivalent to winning the lottery, really. She must have been hugging herself and grinning broadly in the coach all the way from Courland to St Petersburg!

[Romanov_fan]

I think she did, as her life could have been much worse, had she never gotten the chance to make amends, as it were for her youth, except for Peter II's death. Her years in Russia may have been anticlimactic, but they were most likely her best years. The Five Empresses book has some good info on Anna.

[bell_the_cat]

I think she did, as her life could have been much worse, had she never gotten the chance to make amends, as it were for her youth, except for Peter II's death. Her years in Russia may have been anticlimactic, but they were most likely her best years. The Five Empresses book has some good info on Anna.

She was also able to indulge her bizarre sense of humour e.g. the ice wedding. This may also have been a clever way of keeping people on their toes without actually having to execute them! Unfortunately she is mostly remembered for these stories, which make her sound a bit crazy.

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, she is remembered for these stories. They have often been used to cast her in a negative light, about the bizarre court of Empress Anna. Perhaps it was bizarre, but still. She is often seen in a more negative light because of this, when it seems to be more in the realm of individual quirks.  

[Yseult]

I think that this man deserved a thread, since he was the power behind the throne of Anna Ivanovna and, for three weeks, the regent of little tsar Ivan VI.



Ernst Johann von Bühren, also named Ernst Johann von Biren and Ernst Johann Biron, was only the grandson of a groom in the service of Jakob Kettler, Duke of Courland. His parents sent him to the academy of Königsberg, but he acquired a poor education, due to the fact that he was expelled from the academy for riotous conduct. So he tried to placed himself at the court of Sophie Charlotte, wife of the ill-fated tsarevich Alexis, son of Peter the Great; but he has not success in Russia and, later, he returned to Mittau, where was reigning Anna Ivanovna as widow of duke Friedrich Wilhelm. Biron became the lover of Anna...and this made his fortune!.

When Anna became empress of Russia, Biron became her grand-chamberlain. For years and years, Biron was the most powerful figure at San Petersburg´s court. The magnificence of his apartments adjoined those of the empress atonished everyone. I think, but I´m not sure, that his wife, Benigna, was placed in the service of Elisabeth Petrovna to guarantee that the daughter of Peter could not revolt against her cousin Anna Ivanovna.

The downfall of Ernst Johann and Benigna happened three weaks after the death of Anna Ivanovna. The couple and their three children were sending to Siberia, for an exile that ended twenty years later, during the reign of Peter III and Catherine II. Catherine II allowed Ernst Johann return to Mittau as Duke of Courland.

More info? I will be pleased

[David_Pritchard]

Biron does deserve his own thread. I have always found him to be most interesting. Here are some links to see his amazingly large and beautiful palace in Latvia:




Images: http://www.castlesontheweb.com/photoarchive/index.php?action=album&id=1270

Images: http://www.fotosearch.com/results.asp?keyword=rundale+palace+&category=all&searchtype=sss

David

[bell_the_cat]

He did a good job! Anna Ivanovna was very wise to entrust the running of the empire to him. I don't know that they were lovers - I don't think she was very interested in men!

[Yseult]

Bell_the_cat...do you think really that he did a great job? I´m not sure. Of course, he was able to obtain a great elevation from his humble origins, able to gain the power and able to retain the power through decades, but it´s sad that he never realized that after the death of Anna, all his enemies (and he had made a lot of enemies) would plot against him. He was a foreigner...a courlander with german origins...and he had not conections with the great russian families. And  he was suspicious, rapacious, and a vindictive man, so was not well seen for the russian people...

[Marc]

Lovely thread!I was always interested in Birons!I think that I read somewhere that Princess Benigna von Kurland was also Empress Anne's lover...but not sure!Can anyone tell me about the connection of Biron and Menshikov families.Did it come to marriage between those two families?

[Yseult]

Lovely thread!I was always interested in Birons!I think that I read somewhere that Princess Benigna von Kurland was also Empress Anne's lover...but not sure!Can anyone tell me about the connection of Biron and Menshikov families.Did it come to marriage between those two families?

Yes, Marc, the connection came since a brother of Ernst Johann, Gustav, married Maria Menshikova around 1735. If I´m not wrong, Maria lose her father, her mother and her elder sister during the Siberian exile of the Menshikovs. I don´t know why Ernst Johann was interested in linking his family to the only one survivor of the Menshikovs...young Maria. But I suppose he had good reasons...

About Benigna, I´m really interested about her. I have read somewhere that she was ugly and not very fair...

[bell_the_cat]

Yes, I do think he did a good job! It was a vast empire and had been torn apart by Peter's reforms. Peter's sucessors were weak rulers, dominated by one faction after another. Anna was not the obvious successor to Peter II. Nevertheless, she together with Biron managed to hold it all together for ten years. Russia even managed to expand, gaining in 1739 it's first port on the Black Sea,(Azov).

[Marc]

Was this Maria linked also with Emperor Peter II?