Peter von Biron

Peter von Biron (15 February 1724–13 January 1800) was the last Duke of Courland from 1769 to 1795.

Peter was born in Jelgava as the son of Ernst Johann von Biron, future Duke of Courland, and his wife Benigna von Trotha. When 16 years old, he was forced to follow his family into the Siberian exile. In 1769, Peter was given the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia by his father, but the Duchy ceased to exist in 1795 and its territory became part of the Russian Empire. Since then Peter used the title of the Duke of Żagań (which territory he purchased from the Bohemian Lobkovic family in April 1786). Five years later, Peter died in Jeleniów.

Marriage and issue

After two childless marriages, Peter married Dorothea von Medem (a member of the old Courland nobility) in 1779. They had six children, of which two died in infancy. The remaining four were:

* Katharina Friederike Wilhelmine Benigna, known as duchess Wilhelmine von Sagan; on Peter's death, it was she who inherited the duchy of Sagan in Silesia and the Herrschaft Nachod in Bohemia.
* Maria Luise Pauline (19 February 1782, Mitau - 8 January 1845, Vienna); married Friedrich Hermann Otto von Hohenzollern-Hechingen; on Peter's death, she inherited the Prager Palais and the Herrschafts of Hohlstein and Nettkow, and on Wilhelmine's death she also inherited the duchy of Sagan in Schlesien and the Herrschaft Nachod in Bohemia.
* Johanna Katharina (24 June 1783, Würzau - 11 April 1876, Löbichau); married HE Don Francesco Ravaschieri Fieschi Squarciafico Pinelli Pignatelli y Aymerich, Duke of Acerenza, brother and heir presumptive of the 8th Prince of Belmonte and of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806 she inherited the Kurland-Palais in Prague and on her mother's death inherited the Herrschaft of Löbichau in Altenburgischen.
* Dorothea, married Edmond de Talleyrand-Périgord, 7th duke of Talleyrand and duke of Dino in Calabria. A Polish nobleman, Alexander Batowski, was her biological father, but Peter acknowledged her as his own. On Peter's death she inherited the Kurland-Palais in Berlin and the Herrschaft Deutsch Wartenberg; on her half-sister Pauline's death in 1842 she also inherited the duchy of Sagan

Bibliography

* Hugo Weczerka (Hg.): Handbuch der historischen Stätten "Schlesien", Stuttgart 1977
* Dehio-Handbuch der Kunstdenkmäler in Polen: "Schlesien", Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2005
* Věra Vlčková: "Pamětihodnosti panstvί Náchod důchodnίho Jana Müllera". In: Stopami Dějin Náchodska, Nachod 1997
* Alois Jirasek: "Na dvoře vévodském, Historický Obraz". Prag 1953