Christian August II, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg (19 July 1798 – 11 March 1869, Christian Carl Frederik August), commonly known as Christian, Duke of Augustenborg, was a Danish/German prince and statesman. During the 1850s and 1860s, he was a claimant to first duke of the whole provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, and a candidate to become king of Denmark following the death of King Frederick VII. He was the father-in-law of Princess Helena (daughter of Queen Victoria) and the paternal grandfather of Augusta Victoria, German Empress and wife of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
He was closely related to Kings Christian VII, Frederick VI and Christian VIII of Denmark through his mother and was a claimant for the Danish throne in the 1860s.
Christian August was the eldest son and heir of Frederik Christian II, Duke of Augustenburg and his wife Princess Louise Auguste of Denmark. His father was the head of the senior cadet branch of the ruling house of Denmark, and thus the nearest agnatic kin of the kings of Denmark. Furthermore, his mother Louisa Auguste was (officially) the daughter of King Christian VII of Denmark, the sister of King Frederick VI and the first cousin of King Christian VIII. Due to all this, Christian August was high in the line of succession to the Danish throne. He also enjoyed additional influence in the Danish court because his sister, Caroline Amalie, was the beloved second wife of King Christian VIII (his mother's cousin).
Christian August's family lost out in the competition for the throne of Denmark mainly because of the widely accepted belief that his mother was actually fathered by Johann Friedrich Struensee, Christian VII's royal physician. If true, this would mean Christian August was not a true legitimate descendant of Frederick III, the first hereditary monarch of Denmark. His claim was further weakened by having married for love to Countess Louise Sophie Danneskiold-Samsøe, a woman of unequal rank.
Biography
In 1848, German-nationalist sympathies prompted a rebellion in Schleswig-Holstein against Danish rule. A provisional government was established at Kiel under the Duke of Augustenborg, who travelled to Berlin to secure the assistance of Prussia in asserting his rights. The First War of Schleswig ensued.
However, European powers were united in opposing any dismemberment of Denmark. Among others, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, speaking with authority as Head of the elder Holstein-Gottorp line, regarded the Duke of Augustenborg a rebel. Russia had guaranteed Schleswig to the Danish crown by the treaties of 1767 and 1773.
A treaty of peace between Prussia and Denmark was signed at Berlin on 2 July 1850. Both parties reserved their antecedent rights. Denmark was satisfied that the treaty empowered the king-duke to restore his authority in Holstein with or without the consent of the German Confederation. Augustenburg was ousted from power, as Danish troops marched in to subdue the duchies.
The question of the Augustenburg succession made an agreement between the major powers impossible, and on 31 March 1852 the duke of Augustenburg resigned his claim in return for a money payment. Duke Christian sold his rights to the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark in the aftermath of the Punctation of Olmütz, but later renounced his rights to the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein in favor of his son Frederik August.
In November 1863, his son Frederick proclaimed himself rightful second Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, following the death of Frederick VII of Denmark, the last King of Denmark who, by primogeniture, was also sovereign Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, but whose death extinguished the patriline of Denmark's hereditary Oldenburg kings. The resulting divergence of hereditary claims to the duchies eventually developed into the Second War of Schleswig.
Johannes Heinrich Gebauer: Christian August, Herzog von Schleswig Holstein. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Befreiung Schleswig-Holsteins. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart u. a. 1910.
Mikkel Venborg Pedersen: Die Herzöge von Augustenburg; in: Die Fürsten des Landes. Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg, im Auftrag der Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte herausgegeben, S. 310–341.
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