Christian Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin
Prince regent of Eutin, Prince-bishop of Lübeck and regent of the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp
Christian Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp-Eutin (11 January 1673 – 24 April 1726) was a cadet of the reigning ducal House of Holstein-Gottorp who became prince-bishop of Lübeck (de facto prince of Eutin) and regent of the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp.
He was the father of Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, and the maternal grandfather of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.
Biography
He was a younger son of Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Frederica Amalia of Denmark, daughter of King Frederick III of Denmark. His elder brother, Frederick IV, succeeded their father as ruler of the duchy, Christian Augustus being given a small fiefdom in 1695, whereupon he took the title Duke of Holstein-Eutin. Additionally, he was appointed coadjutor of the Prince-Bishopric of Lübeck, a Lutheran Imperial state within the Holy Roman Empire centred in Eutin, in 1701, and his family managed to have him elected as the bishop on 26 April 1706.
His eldest brother died in 1702, leaving only an underage son, Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as his heir. From 1702 to 1708 Christian Augustus was co-regent with his widowed sister-in-law, Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, for Charles Frederick, having been first installed as administrator under her authority. Upon her death in 1708, Christian Augustus became sole regent of Holstein-Gottorp, which duchy was severely ravaged by the violence of the Great Northern War.
Marriage and issue
Christian Augustus married his cousin Margravine Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach (3 July 1682 – 26 December 1755), on 2 September 1704, with whom he had ten children:
Hedwig Sophie Auguste of Holstein-Gottorp (9 October 1705 – 4 October 1764), Abbess of Herford, 1750–1764
Charles Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp (26 November 1706 – 31 May 1727), engaged to marry the future Elizabeth of Russia, but died just before the wedding in Saint Petersburg of smallpox
Frederica Amalia of Holstein-Gottorp (12 January 1708 – 19 January 1782), a nun at Quedlinburg
Anne of Holstein-Gottorp (3 February 1709 – 2 February 1758), wed Prince Wilhelm of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1701-1771), no issue. He was a brother of Augusta of Saxe-Gotha
Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, King of Sweden (14 May 1710 – 12 April 1771).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Christian Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin” as prince regent of Eutin, Prince-bishop of Lübeck and regent of the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q62259. VIAF identifies the subject as 80323075. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1673, 1726, 1695 and 1701.
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This entry incorporates text from “Christian Augustus of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.