| Augustus I | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Grand Duke of Oldenburg | |||||
| Reign | 21 May 1829 – 27 February 1853 | ||||
| Predecessor | Peter I | ||||
| Successor | Peter II | ||||
| Born | (1783-07-13)13 July 1783 Rastede | ||||
| Died | 27 February 1853(1853-02-27) (aged 69) Oldenburg | ||||
| Burial | Ducal Mausoleum, Gertrudenfriedhof, Oldenburg | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue |
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| House | Holstein-Gottorp | ||||
| Father | Peter I | ||||
| Mother | Frederica of Württemberg | ||||
| Religion | Lutheranism | ||||
Augustus I orPaul Frederick Augustus (German:Paul Friedrich August von Oldenburg; 13 July 1783 – 27 February 1853) was the reigningGrand Duke ofOldenburg from 1829 to 1853.
Augustus was born on 13 July 1783 atSchloss Rastede nearOldenburg, to the thenPrince Peter Frederick Louis of Holstein-Gottorp andDuchess Frederica of Württemberg, daughter ofFrederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg.
Augustus had one younger brother,Duke George of Oldenburg, who was a year younger than him. In 1785, his mother died in childbirth at the age of 20. His father never remarried.
In 1785, when Augustus was two years old, his father becamePrince-Bishop ofLübeck and was furthermore appointedregent of theDuchy of Oldenburg for his incapacitated cousinWilliam, Duke of Oldenburg.
From 1788 to 1803, the two princes were educated at home under the supervision of their father. Together with his brother, he studied at theUniversity of Leipzig from 1803 to 1805. From 1805 to 1807 he and his brother travelled extensively inEngland andScotland.[1]
In 1808, he accompanied his father to theCongress of Erfurt, the meeting betweenEmperorNapoléon I of France andTsarAlexander I of Russia. Between 1810 and 1814, Oldenburg was occupied byNapoleonic France.
In December 1810, the Duchy of Oldenburg wasannexed by theFrench Empire and Augustus and his father traveled toRussia to stay in exile with their relatives, theRussian imperial family.[2] This annexation was one of the causes for the diplomatic rift between former allies France andRussia, a dispute that would lead to war in 1812 and eventually to Napoleon's downfall.
From 1811 to 1816, he wasGovernor ofEstonia where he led the work to prepare theabolition of serfdom. He participated in theNapoleonic Wars from 1812 to 1814.[3] After the end of theNapoleonic Wars, he returned to Russia to finish his work as governor of Estonia. He returned to Oldenburg in 1816.[4]
On 24 July 1817, at the age of 34, Augustus marriedPrincess Adelheid of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym. She was the daughter ofVictor II, Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, and Princess Amalie Charlotte ofNassau-Weilburg.
Augustus and Adelheid had two daughters;Amalia, who was born in 1818 and later marriedPrince Otto of Bavaria, the electedKing of Greece, and thus becameQueen consort ofGreece; and Frederica, who was born in 1820 and later married Baron Maximilian Emanuel vonWashington (1829–1903) son ofBaronJakob von Washington, a distant relative of the firstPresident of the United StatesGeorge Washington. However, Princess Adelheid died suddenly in 1820.
In 1823, his father succeeded as Duke of Oldenburg after the death of his cousinWilliam, Duke of Oldenburg, and Augustus becameheir apparent.
Although Oldenburg, like many other German duchies, had been elevated from a mereduchy to agrand duchy in 1815 at theCongress of Vienna, his father chose to continue the use of the lesser title of Duke, making Augustus theHereditary Prince rather than the Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg.[5]
As Hereditary Prince, he participated extensively in thegovernment of the duchy.[6]
On 24 June 1825, after five years as a widower, Augustus married secondlyPrincess Ida of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, younger sister of his first wife.
Augustus and Ida had one son,Peter, who was born in 1827 and would later succeed Augustus as Grand Duke. Just like her sister, however, Princess Ida died after three years of marriage in 1828.
Augustus succeeded his father, Grand Duke Peter I, to the throne of Oldenburg, and thePrincipality of Birkenfeld on 21 May 1829. Unlike his father, Augustus assumed the title of Grand Duke, and Augustus was thus the first to use the titleGrand Duke of Oldenburg.
As Grand Duke, Augustus was employed in reforming the administration of his small state and showed himself a patriarchal ruler who cared foragriculture,transport,social welfare,art andscience.Trade flourished along the lowerWeser andJade, and thecity of Oldenburg developed into one of Northwestern Germany's cultural centres.[7]
The Grand Duke however was reluctant to follow popular demands to introduce aconstitution for the Grand Duchy. Although article 13 of the constitution of theGerman Confederation obliged Oldenburg to have a constitution, following the advice of his Russian relatives, the Grand Duke again and again postponed the promise of a constitution given in 1830.
Only as a consequence of theRevolutions of 1848 did the Grand Duke reluctantly give in under pressure from his advisers. On 18 February 1849, he signed the Oldenburg constitution which had already been revised by 1852.[8]
On 5 May 1831, Augustus married thirdly hissecond cousin once removedPrincess Cecilia of Sweden, daughter of the deposed KingGustav IV Adolf of Sweden. He had become Grand Duke two years earlier, making her the first Grand Duchess of Oldenburg.
Augustus and Cecilia had three sons, of which just one,Elimar, survived to adulthood.
Grand Duchess Cecilia died on 27 January 1844 in Oldenburg.
Grand Duke Augustus died on 27 February 1853 in Oldenburg. He wasburied in the DucalMausoleum in theChurchyard of Saint Gertrude inOldenburg. Augustus was succeeded as Grand Duke by his eldest son,Peter.
The settlementAugustfehn inAmmerland inLower Saxony,Germany is named after Grand Duke Augustus.
Russian Empire:[9]
Denmark: Knight of theOrder of the Elephant,29 July 1829[10]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of theOrder of the White Falcon,22 April 1830[11]
Kingdom of Hanover: Grand Cross of theRoyal Guelphic Order,1830[12]
Austrian Empire: Grand Cross of theOrder of St. Stephen,1831[13]
Baden:[14]
Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of theOrder of the Black Eagle,21 October 1834[15]
Oldenburg: Founder of theHouse and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis,27 November 1838[16]
Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of theOrder of Saint Hubert,1839[17]
Belgium: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Leopold,30 January 1841[18]
Württemberg: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Württemberg Crown[19]| Ancestors of Augustus, Grand Duke of Oldenburg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duchess Amalia | 21 December 1818 | 20 May 1875 | marriedOtto of Bavaria, the electedKing of Greece, and thus becameQueen consort of Greece. |
| Duchess Frederica | 8 June 1820 | 20 March 1891 | marriedBaron Maximilian Emanuel von Washington, a distant relative of the first President of the United StatesGeorge Washington. |
| Duke Peter | 8 July 1827 | 13 June 1900 | succeeded his father as Grand Duke of Oldenburg; marriedPrincess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg; had issue |
| Duke Alexander | 16 June 1834 | 6 June 1835 | |
| Duke August | 15 February 1836 | 30 April 1837 | |
| Duke Elimar | 23 January 1844 | 17 October 1895 | marriedmorganatically Baroness Natalie Vogel von Friesenhof |
Augustus, Grand Duke of Oldenburg Cadet branch of theHouse of Oldenburg Born: 13 July 1783 Died: 27 February 1853 | ||
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| Preceded by | Grand Duke of Oldenburg 1829–1853 | Succeeded by |
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