This is my attempt at a short biography of the Antonovich (Anna Leopoldovna's children (based Evgenii V. Anisimov's Five Empresses as well as the info I've found in various blogs on the web).
Born just before the palace coup led by Elizabeth Petrovna, that deposed her brother as Emperor, Catherine was named for her maternal-grandmother, the Grand Duchess Catherine Ivanovna (eldest surviving daughter of the mentally retarded Tsar Ivan V, half-brother of Peter the Great).
On the night of the coup, Elizabeth Petrovna rallied the guards with the cry “You know whose daughter I am, so be loyal to me as you were to my father!”. She received support of the Preobrazhensky regiment and with no resistance seized power, putting those in the way in prisons, including the young Ivan and his regent. Entering the Anna Leopoldovna’s bedchamber, she roughly shook the Regent awake, saying “Get up, sister, it’s time to go!”
At the same time Elizabeth was deposing Anna, the guards stormed the rooms of the infant Ivan and Catherine. There was a scuffle between the nurse or maid tending Catherine and one of the guards, and the little girl was dropped. As a result of this injury, Catherine spoke the rest of her life with a stutter, and was hard of hearing.
At first, the newly crowned Elizabeth, secretly sent the former Regent and her family to the fortress of Dunamünde near Riga, in Latvia – where Catherine’s younger sister, Elizabeth (named for the Empress), was born on 16 September 1743. Finally, in 1744, they were moved to an abandoned bishop’s residence in Cholmogory, south of Archangelsk. Here were the small former czar separated from his parents and brothers and sisters whom he – even though they lived at opposite ends of the house – never saw again.
The bishop’s house was a two-storey building with 20 rooms, surrounded by walls and fencing. Inside the gates sentry boxes were built for a command of 36 soldiers and 4 officers. The house and farm were divided into two completely separate departments. The former Imperial family was not allowed to associate with anyone – not even the families of the officers, nor was the staff allowed to leave the premises when their service ended – their stay here was kept under the strictest of secrecy.
After a further two births – both boys, Peter in 30 March 1745 and Alexei in 10 March 1746, Anna died of puerperal fever on 19 March 1746, leaving Anton Ulrich as a single parent to the remaining four children.
Teaching was not allowed, though the children did learn to read and write (most likely from their father), and Catherine – reportedly deaf from the age of 8 – learnt a form of sign language (eventually she learnt to read lips). The four siblings got along well with each other. Elizabeth was always the leader of the quartet, while Catherine with her stutter stayed in the background; Peter was humpbacked and crooked on one side as a result of a childhood injury, while Alexei was the sensible one of the group.
In the summer they fed the geese and ducks in the muddy farm pond, or worked in the overgrown garden. In the winter they went skating or drove over the snow in homemade sleds. Otherwise, their time was spent playing cards or reading Russian ecclesiastical books, the only reading material allowed.
In 1756, the Empress Elizabeth order Ivan to be transferred to the prison at Schlüsselburg. Ivan’s childhood had been miserable at best, he stammered, and gave the impression of being an idiot. The guards were given strict instructions to murder him if anyone tried to free him, even were they to come bearing a document with the Empress’ own signature.
In 1762, the Empress Elizabeth died, and although on his meeting with the former Ivan VI, her successor, Peter III promised his freedom, he was overthrown in a coup by his wife, Catherine II later that year, before it could happen. Even after Ivan was murdered in 1764, Catherine the Great still refused Anton Ulrich and his children their freedom.
However, Anton Ulrich was offered his own freedom several times – with the condition that he return to his native Germany without his children, who would remain in Russia for the security of the succession. In 1768 he petitioned the Empress Catherine for permission to travel to Germany with his family. It is unknown if the petition was ever answered.
Finally, in 1774, the by now blind prince died, surrounded by his four children with Anna, as well as two illegitimate daughters he had had by an unknown mistress after she died. He was quietly buried in the courtyard. Finally, in 1780, with the Russian succession secure in the person of Catherine II’s two eldest grandsons, Alexander I and Constantine, the Empress decided to set the Antonovichs at liberty.
Catherine II entered into talks with Anton Ulrich’s sister, the Dowager Queen of Denmark, to take custody of her nieces and nephews. The Queen Dowager then suggested Hørsens in Jutland as a safe place of exile for the would be Russian imperial family.
Comments and further information welcome!