Empress Anna Ioannovna

[Svetabel]

Some historians think that Anna Ioannovna was mother of all Biron's children and his wife Benigna was only an official parent.

[Yseult]

Svetabel is true. At these times, it was a good deal of gossip about Anna Ivanovna giving birth to the three Biron´s children. I never read nothing about Karl Ernst, but I read some comments about his older son Peter, later duke of Courland. But, in fact, when Benigna Gottlieb von Trotta und Treyden, Biron´s wife, was delivered from his son Peter in Mittau, both Anna Ivanovna and Ernst Johann were not in the city. Knowing he was father of a male son, Ernst Johann wrotte to Benigna a very tender letter.
Karl Ernst shared the fate of his parents, brother and sister Hedwig. All the family spent decades in a not fair exile, only the girl -Hedwig- ran away from exile and found a place in the court of empress Elizabeth, where she was married to a nobleman. 

[Romanov_fan]

I guess this is another mystery.. I've read about this Empress, but it's hard to have an opinion when so much of the current stuff was gossip/hearsay of the time and later evidence hasn't come to light for certain, in my opinion. I don't know how much research has been done into this matter, although maybe it's not as important as speculation Empress Elizabeth could have had natural children with Razumovsky. She is better known. Did anyone claim later to be the child of Anna? That could give you a clue.

[bell_the_cat]

I don't believe that Anna I was the mother of Biron's children. In any case the  (legitimate) children of her niece, Anna Leopoldovna, had a better claim to the throne.

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, they were her heirs  ( Anna L and her children)and it ended up ruining their lives, in my opinion. So, if Anna Ivanovna had had heirs, then it would most likely have ruined their lives too, if they had been recognized as her heirs in public, and been even officially known- that is if she had children/ or a child. There isn't much historical evidence to back up this claim, so in my view it is best just not to believe it until there is. In my opinion, there is more evidence that Empress Elizabeth may have had natural children. Anyway, if Anna Ivanovna did, I think they were lucky their existence remained in the realm of speculation- even to this day.

[ivanushka]

Thanks for the replies, folks.  Very informative.

I had no idea that some historians believed that Anna was the mother of all of Biron's children.  By the sound of it, the youngest boy, Karl, was her favourite, but I think she was good to all of them and also to Biron's wife.

That said, I tend to think that she wasn't the mother of any of them.  Apparently she didn't want to appoint Biron regent for Ivan VI as she was sure such a position would be his ruin, but he bullied her into giving him the appointment on her deathbed.  I would imagine that if she were so worried about Biron's future after her death then, if one or more of his children were hers, she would have tried to have them sent out of Russia rather than stay and share what she clearly believed was going to be the harsh fate of Biron himself.

[Yseult]

Hi, Ivanushka...
Do you believe Karl Ernst was the favourite of Anna Ivanovna? I always thought her favourite was Peter, the elder son of the Biron couple. Peter received his name to honour the tsar, uncle of Anna Ivanovna. Peter had the childhood of a great prince of blood. A few years later, for a while, Ernst Johann tried to persuade Anna Ivanovna about a marriage between Peter and Anna Leopoldovna and, maybe, between Peter and Elisabeth Petrovna. But Anna Ivanovna disagreed with her beloved Ernst Johann.

By the way, if you look the portraits of Karl Ernst, he did not resemble Anna Ivanovna, tsar Ivan V or tsarina Praskovia.

[ivanushka]

Hi Yseult.  I only thought Karl Ernst was the favourite of Anna Ivanovna because that was what the "Five Empresses" book suggested.  I didn't know anything about him before I read it.

Do you know of any portraits of him?  I haven't been able to find any on the internet.

[Yseult]

Of course, ivanushka

Here you have a portrait of Karl Ernst von Biron and a portrait of his polish wife, Apollonia:

[ivanushka]

Thanks!  These are great!  Was Apollonia royal or "just" an aristrocrat?

From the little I've managed to find out about Karl Ernst, I understand that when Empress Elizabeth came to power he and his family were moved to a new place of exile which was a lot more civilised than the one they had been sent to by Anna Ivanovna.  I imagine that Karl spent most of the rest of his life after exile in Courland but it's difficult to find much information on him on the web.

[Alexandrina-Sofia]

Portrait of Frederick Wilhelm, Duke of Kurland.

[Rani]

[Carolath Habsburg]

i was watching a programs where they mentioned how cruel and bizarre was Anna`s behavior talking about jokes and how to humulliate people. In particular, i found disgusting the part when Anna  marry one of her clowns with a goat and he went to bed with it....gross!

[ivanushka]

What programme was this?  I've always found Anna one of the most fascinating of Russian rulers but there is very little about her on tv - at least in the English language.  I have found some films and documentaries on youtube but they are in Russian and sadly do not have subtitles.

[Carolath Habsburg]

The program is called "private lives" in the History Channel. I cant find a link to the program min english but here its in spanish

Anastasia Hackett whos an specialist in russian history appears there

http://cl.tuhistory.com/series/vidas-privadas.html