Background
She was born as Elisabeth Katharina Christine von Mecklenburg-Schwerin Elisabeth on December 18 1718. She was the daughter of Catherine, the sister of the Russian empress Anna, and of Karl Leopold, the duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
She was born as Elisabeth Katharina Christine von Mecklenburg-Schwerin Elisabeth on December 18 1718. She was the daughter of Catherine, the sister of the Russian empress Anna, and of Karl Leopold, the duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Catherine separated from Elisabeth's father and the two escaped to Russia in 1722.
Catherine was considered for the imperial throne in 1730 but her sister Anna was chosen instead.
In 1739, she married Anthony Ulrich (1714–1776), son of Ferdinand Albert, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
He had lived in Russia since 1733 so that she could get to know him.
On 5 October 1740, the empress Anna adopted their newborn son Ivan and proclaimed him heir to the Russian throne.
On 28 October, just a few weeks after this proclamation, the empress died, leaving directions regarding the succession and appointing her favourite Ernest Biron, Duke of Courland, as regent.
Biron, however, had made himself an object of detestation to the Russian people.
After Biron threatened to exile Anna and her spouse to Germany, she had little difficulty working with Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich to overthrow him.
The coup succeeded and she assumed the regency on 8 November, taking the title of Grand Duchess. Field Marshal Münnich personally arrested Biron in his apartment, where the formerly tyrannical Biron ingloriously begged for his life on his knees She knew little of the character of the people with whom she had to deal, knew even less of the conventions and politics of Russian government, and speedily quarrelled with her principal supporters.
In December 1741, Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, excited the guards to revolt, having already become a favorite of theirs.
The coup overcame the insignificant opposition and was supported by the ambassadors of France and Sweden, owing to the pro-British and pro-Austrian policies of Anna's government. The French ambassador in St. Petersburg, the marquis de La Chétardie was deeply involved in planning Elizabeth's coup and bribed numerous officers of the Imperial Guard into supporting the coup.
The victorious regime first imprisoned the family in the fortress of Dünamünde near Riga and then exiled them to Kholmogory on the Northern Dvina river. Anna eventually died on 18 March 1746 during childbirth.
Her son Ivan VI was murdered in Shlisselburg on 16 July 1764, while her husband Anthony Ulrich died in Kholmogory on 19 March 1776. Her remaining four children (Ekaterina, Elizaveta, Peter and Alexei) were released from prison into the custody of their aunt, the Danish queen dowager Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, on 30 June 1780 and settled in Jutland, where they lived in comfort under house arrest in Horsens for the rest of their lives under the guardianship of Juliana and at the expense of Catherine the Great: having lived as prisoners, they were not used to social life, and kept a small "court" of 40/50 people, all Danish except for the priest.
On the 18th of March 1746 she died.
At first she was Lutheran. Elisabeth converted to the Russian Orthodox Church and given the name Anna Leopoldovna, which made her acceptable as an heir to the throne.
In 1739, she married Anthony Ulrich (1714–1776), son of Ferdinand Albert, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. She had five childten.
(26 November 1678 – 28 November 1747)
(20 October 1691 – 14 June 1733)
(28 August 1714, Bevern – 4 May 1774, Kholmogory)
(1743–1782)
(1741–1807)
(27 February 1746 – 12 (23) October 1787)
(1745–1798)
(23 August 1740 – 16 July 1764)
