WI: Empress Elizabeth of Russia married?

And before anyone says she did, I mean officially, not morganatically. Lets say Elizabeth meets the future Peter III and finds him wanting as an heir, or decides it would be better to put him on the Swedish throne (which would be VERY interesting indeed). Either way Elizabeth decides she must marry and produce an heir. So who does she pick? A Russian nobleman? A German Prince? Or perhaps an Italian or even British or Spanish? Who are the most likely candidates for the Empress's hand? Also, what would her consort's title be? Grand Duke? Prince Consort? Or even Emperor?
 

Razgriz 2K9

Banned
Grand Duke as the title...as to whom, who knows...the Empress Regnants of Russia were never my strong suit when it comes to relationships...
 
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Список...81.D1.8F_.D0.B6.D0.B5.D0.BD.D0.B8.D1.85.D0.B8
List of the guys she was planned to marry to:
Louis XV (project of her dad, never realized)
Maurice de Saxe (project of her mom, IMO the best Grand Duke-Consort of Russia)
Karl August von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf - cousin of father of Peter III, died in Petersburg shortly before planned marriage ceremony. He was an uncle of future Catherine II (and the reason she was chosen as bride of Peter III)
Karl, Electoral Prince of Brandenburg-Prussia - was refused the had of Elisabeth by Peter II
Nadir-Shah - super-odd candidate in the list
Peter II - good old incest, yet favored by Osterman for some reason​

So the biggest probability out of this list -
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_August_von_Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf
Never catches smallpox and his wedding with Elisabeth happens. That's how we can get non-morganatically married Elisabeth.
 
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Peter II - good old incest, yet favored by Osterman for some reason[/INDENT]

Incest is the best, as they say.

I think realistically, the two most plausible options would be Karl August, and Maurice, most likely Karl August if we can butterfly away that pesky sickness. He would be properly titled Grand Duke after the wedding. Nadir-Shah is a rather interesting suggestion, but I don't know that he was a realistic prospect.
 
Incest is the best, as they say.

I think realistically, the two most plausible options would be Karl August, and Maurice, most likely Karl August if we can butterfly away that pesky sickness. He would be properly titled Grand Duke after the wedding. Nadir-Shah is a rather interesting suggestion, but I don't know that he was a realistic prospect.

Nadir-Shah sounds like a proposal of the kind that was made by Ivan IV to Elisabeth Tudor. Politically theoretically reasonable but without any realistic ground.
Karl August is cool because in our TL he died only two weeks before marrying Elisabeth, and she was madly in love with him.
But Maurice is an awesome consort figure and IMO a good match for Lissie's fun-loving persona.
 
Nadir-Shah sounds like a proposal of the kind that was made by Ivan IV to Elisabeth Tudor. Politically theoretically reasonable but without any realistic ground.
Karl August is cool because in our TL he died only two weeks before marrying Elisabeth, and she was madly in love with him.
But Maurice is an awesome consort figure and IMO a good match for Lissie's fun-loving persona.

For clarification, the Maurice you mean is the illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony, correct? If so wouldn't be a little.... low ranking for a Grand Duchess? I mean I've never heard of a daughter of a sovereign marrying a Royal bastard. The closest you had was Louis XIV marrying his illegitimate daughters to the various Princes du Sang. So could such a match realistically happen?
 
Russian Royals were not regarded as something great back then and held dynastically lesser status in Europe. For example, Irina Romanova was betrothed to bastard son of King of Denmark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdemar_Christian_of_Schleswig-Holstein
The cool thing about bastards as consorts was that they can be made to convert into Orthodox faith while not messing up succession lines in any way. So Maurice is good if the marriage intention is for Elisabeth to stay in Russia and not be married away like her sister and cousins (who married second-rate German princes).
If we need a realistic option - Karl August is what we need (marriage near happened in OTL). Maurice would be cool as consort but illegitimate and may be considered only if the marriage contract includes conversion of consort in Orthodox faith (may happen if the marriage is planned when Elisabeth is already Empress).
 
Russian Royals were not regarded as something great back then and held dynastically lesser status in Europe. For example, Irina Romanova was betrothed to bastard son of King of Denmark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdemar_Christian_of_Schleswig-Holstein
The cool thing about bastards as consorts was that they can be made to convert into Orthodox faith while not messing up succession lines in any way. So Maurice is good if the marriage intention is for Elisabeth to stay in Russia and not be married away like her sister and cousins (who married second-rate German princes).
If we need a realistic option - Karl August is what we need (marriage near happened in OTL). Maurice would be cool as consort but illegitimate and may be considered only if the marriage contract includes conversion of consort in Orthodox faith (may happen if the marriage is planned when Elisabeth is already Empress).

So best case would be Karl August, then Maurice if we go with her marrying after taking the throne.
 
With Karl August and marriage in 1627
- A couple of healthy heirs to throne raised in Russia so Peter III is never considered as direct heir in line;
- Less incest marriage proposal for Peter II if Elisabeth and Karl have a daughter (first cousin is better than aunt)
- We can still have Catherine the Great (she'll be first cousin to Elisabeth's son, but the match is possible).

With Maurice
Roughly in 1740, probably too old to be meaningful and only if Elisabeth is in love with him (Russian court was pissed off by his plan to become Duke of Courland by marrying to widowed Anna Ioannovna and he was not popular in Russia back then).
He may still marry to Elisabeth in late 1720ies if we have Catherine I live a bit longer (she didn't give damn about bastard status, being elevated camp follower herself, and seriously favored Maurice as a husband for her daughter).
 
With Karl August and marriage in 1627
- A couple of healthy heirs to throne raised in Russia so Peter III is never considered as direct heir in line;
- Less incest marriage proposal for Peter II if Elisabeth and Karl have a daughter (first cousin is better than aunt)
- We can still have Catherine the Great (she'll be first cousin to Elisabeth's son, but the match is possible).

With Maurice
Roughly in 1740, probably too old to be meaningful and only if Elisabeth is in love with him (Russian court was pissed off by his plan to become Duke of Courland by marrying to widowed Anna Ioannovna and he was not popular in Russia back then).
He may still marry to Elisabeth in late 1720ies if we have Catherine I live a bit longer (she didn't give damn about bastard status, being elevated camp follower herself, and seriously favored Maurice as a husband for her daughter).

Sounds like it would be better for Russia if Elizabeth had married. Hell in such a scenario Peter III could end up King of Sweden.

Out of curiosity, WHO came up with the idea for a marriage between Elizabeth and Peter II? Its a very Habsburgs type match. I suppose it could have came as a suggestion to counter a match to one of the Russian nobles but besides that I have no idea where it could have came from.
 
Osterman, a minister of Peter the Great. Normally very sane and intelligent guy, rather fond of Peter's sister Natalya, but when she died he was left without counterweight against Dolgorukov clan and decided that aunt-nephew incest is the best solution:eek:
Desperation sometimes does this to people. Though in this forum if a statesman proposes something like this in TL to counter some succession crisis, it promptly gets branded as ASB.
 
Osterman, a minister of Peter the Great. Normally very sane and intelligent guy, rather fond of Peter's sister Natalya, but when she died he was left without counterweight against Dolgorukov clan and decided that aunt-nephew incest is the best solution:eek:
Desperation sometimes does this to people. Though in this forum if a statesman proposes something like this in TL to counter some succession crisis, it promptly gets branded as ASB.

Makes sense. It seemed to be a fairly good idea to counter to the Dolgorikov influence. As for incesty, yes it would be a bit creepy, but at least they were closer in age then the majority of the Habsburg uncle-niece matches.
 
So two PODs for Elisabeth marriage that are good and sane so far:
- Karl-August, her fiancé, not dying of smallpox in Petersburg;
- Karl-August still dies, but Catherine I lives till 1730 and manages to arrange Elisabeth's marriage to Maurice de Saxe.

Anything else is either plain ASB or improbable.
 
So two PODs for Elisabeth marriage that are good and sane so far:
- Karl-August, her fiancé, not dying of smallpox in Petersburg;
- Karl-August still dies, but Catherine I lives till 1730 and manages to arrange Elisabeth's marriage to Maurice de Saxe.

Anything else is either plain ASB or improbable.

This sounds about right to me.
 
Osterman hoped so, at least. Russian succession since 1682 and till Paul I was a mess - Russia has tried everything at that point. Co-rulers are not new thing by that point, and Osterman will try and have Elisabeth crowned as co-ruler of Peter. Not the most crazy thing that was done in the country back then. 18th century in Russia is... messy paradise for wannabe Kingmakers.
 
The aunt-nephew marriage...would it result in a sharing of the throne?

Could happen. After all there was precedent: Ivan V and Peter I, and Peter I and Catherine I, I'm not sure if there was others. But with such a marriage, I wonder who would hold the reins. Both were fairly lazy, and self indulgent, so we could see the rise of a Royal favorite in Russia, similar to the Validos of Spain or Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin in France.
 
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