Figure 1.--Here ae the children of Duke Peter of Oldenburg (Alexandra, Katharine, Nikolaus, Alexander, and Georg) Note the boy in front holding a Gerrman Pickelhaube helmet. They were painted about 1852. The artist was Woldemar Hau / Vladimir Ivanovich Gau. Duke Peter's farhr was Duke George, the second son of the reigning Duke of Oldenburg. The family lived in Russia in Russia since his marriage to Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia (1809). Duke Peter was a noted scholar, philanthropist, and composer. Duke Peter spent fifty years in Russia's service, for which he was widely respected.

Oldenburg is today a city in the state of Lower Saxony, northwest Germany which dates back to the 8th century. (There is also an Oldenburg in Holstein.) Oldenburg became the capital of the County of Oldenburg--ruled by counts, the lower order of nobility. It began as as small settlement that grew into a prsperous market town because due to its strategic location on the rivers Hunte and Haaren--imprtant trade routes. The county was elevated to a duchy (1773) until absorbed into the French Empire by Napoleon's conquests (1810). After the Napoleonic Wars, Oldenburg was reserected as a Grand Duchy by the Conress of Vienna (1815), and finally after the German Revolution it beame a Free State within the Weimr Republic (1918). Count Elimar I founded the Oldenburg line (1091). The ancestral home is Oldenburg Castle. Oldenburg was a small principality largely under the influence of the important Hanseatic city of Bremen. The history of the House of Oldenburg is somewhat complicated. It is a German dynasty ruling Oldenburg, but for a time has played an important role in the history of several European coutries (Denmark, Iceland, Greece, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), although the three Scadanavian countries were ruled by a single individual. The Oldennburgs also ruled in Livonia, Schleswig and Holstein. The modern kings of Norway and the United Kingdom as patrilineal descendants of the Glücksburg branch of the House of Odenburg. The Oldenburgs first rose to some prominence when Count Christian I of Oldenburg was elected King of Denmark (1448), Norway (1450) and Sweden (1457). Another German dynasty, the House of Mecklenburg, was the chief alternative for the Scandanavian thrones. This was during the Kalmar Union and competition with the Hanseatic League. King Christain had, however, no direct heir and the Oldenburgs rise to prominance was brief and largely outside Germany. Thrre are several branches. The House of Oldenburg was almost able to claim the English thrones through the marriage of Queen Anne and Prince George of Denmark and Norway (1683). The unanticipated early deaths of all their children rioned the arrangement. The Engish crown passed to the House of Hanover. Through marriage, one branch of the family developoed a loyalty to Tsarist Russia (figure 1). Family members served in the Tsarist Army. Denmark's current monarch, King Frederik X, belongs to the Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg through his mother, Queen Margrethe II. Following World War I, Grand Duke Friedrich-August of Oldenburg abandoned the throne he had occupied for 18 years (1918). The two related royal cousins, Henry XXIV Reuss-Greiz and Henry XXVII Reuss-Schleiz also lost their thrones (1918).

Created: 3:49 PM 9/4/2025
Last updated: 3:49 PM 9/4/2025