Peter Antonovich of Brunswick

Peter Antonovich of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1745–1798), was the second son of Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick and Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna of Russia, and younger brother of Ivan VI. The siblings were kept prisoner because their right to the Russian throne, according to the succession of Empress Anna, made them potential political threats to Empress Elizabeth, Emperor Peter III, and eventually Empress Catherine the Great. In contrast to their elder brother, the deposed Ivan VI, who was placed in solitary confinement, the younger siblings were kept together with their father after the death of their mother in 1746. In Kholmogory, the family occupied the Bishop's house within the fortress compound, where they were allowed a small garden and some animals. They were kept under watch by guards and kept a small retinue of servants. As their father had sexual relations with the female servants, their staff eventually consisted of their half siblings. By an imperial decree of 1750, the siblings were banned from learning to read and write. In 1766, their father was offered his freedom by Empress Catherine the Great, but he refused to leave without his children, and therefore remained with them until his death in 1774, by then blind. In 1780, Empress Catherine was arranging for their release and transfer to the custody of their paternal aunt, the Danish queen dowager Juliana Maria of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Denmark. Before their release, they were brought to Archangelsk to be interviewed and inspected by Governor Aleksei Melgunov. Melgunov provided personal descriptions of each sibling in his report. He reported that all four siblings were physically weak and suffered from poor health. Peter was lopsided and bow-legged and seemed consumptive; Aleksei was physically stronger but suffered from seizures; Catherine was thin and deaf and suffered from seizures, could lipread but had poor control over her voice. As for Elizabeth, she was described as plump, energetic, talkative and reliable, and also as the dominant personality and spokesperson of the family. While physically weak, however, all four siblings were described as intelligent, likable and humane people, who had learned to read and write through their own devices despite the prohibition of the imperial decree.