RuHistory

Parents of Anna Leopoldovna: 
Ekaterina Ioannovna, elder sister of Empress Anna Ioannovna and niece of Peter the Great and Duke Carl Leopold of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Husband:
Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, nephew of the Austrian empress and cousin of Peter II.
 
Important events:

• The most important events during this short reign were the start of the Russo-Swedish War and the victory of Field-Marshal Peter Lassy at the Battle of Villmanstrand on 23 August 1741. The war ended when Elizabeth Petrovna signed the Treaty of Abo with Sweden on 18 August 1743, acquiring three Finnish provinces
• On the night of 4/5 July 1764, Vasily Mirovich, a sub-lieutenant of the Smolensk Regiment who served in the garrison, entered the fortress with a small detachment. He attemptent to free Ioann, who was instantly put to death by his captors. Although Mirovich was beheaded in St Petersburg on 15 September 1764, there is good reason to believe that his rescue attempt was instigated by Catherine II.

......1762  In march 1762, Peter III visited the fortress in disguise and had a conversation with Ioann lasting many hours. He saw a fair-haired young man of average height with a hooked nose and large eyes. Although he stuttered, Peter observed that "his conversation was intelligent and animated". Peter planned to free Ioann from imprisonment, only he himself was overthrown by his wife Catherine three months later.

Elizabeth Catherine Chistine was born in Rostock on 7 October 1718. Empress Anna Ioannovna decided to bring her niece up herself. On 12 May 1733, at the age of fourteen, the girl converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Anna in honour of her aunt. She grew into a graceful and shapely blonde. Although her face  little away and she often seemed bored, she spent entire days daydreaming or in a state of melancholy. As Empress Anna Ioannovna did not have any children of her niece in an attempt to produce a male heir for the Russian throne. Her choice fell on Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. They were married in St Petersburg on 3 July 1739. Anna gave birth to Ioann Antonovich, on 12 August 1740.

When empress Anna Ioannovna died in October 1740, the throne passed to the two-month-old Ioann with Biron as regent. Biron's regency lasted one month. On the night of 9 November 1740, he was overthrown and exiled to Perm in Siberia.  Uninterested in affairs of state, the regent preferred to leave the government of the country to Ostermann, while she herself spent her time in bed or playing cards.  

All this set the scene for another palace coup of 25 November 1741, when Elizabeth Petrovna burst into her bedroom with several officers of the guard. Anna and her children were banished to Riga, Dinamund, Rannenburg and, finally, Kholmogory. Ioann was separated from the rest of the family, who did not even suspect that they were all actually living in the same house. He was harshly treated and even not allowed to see a doctor.

In 1756, Ioann was transferred to Schlusselburg  Fortress and placed in solitary confinement. Not even the  prisoner. Elizabeth feared a coup in his favour and sent about destroying all papers, coins and anything else depicting or mentioning Ioann. The prisoner was kept in harsh conditions. Daylight was not allowed into his cell and candles were the only source of light. The dungeon was closely guarded and the boy never knew whether it was day or night. The only book he was allowed to read was the Bible. The prison guards noted that his "mental abilities were disturbed ... he stuttered so badly that even those with practice had difficulty understanding him". In August 1762, Catherine II came to the fortress. A deposed emperor was dangerous to a German princess who had seized the Russian throne. Catherine ordered him to be guarded carefully and, in the event of an attempt to free him, to be killed. Ioann VI was secretly buried in an unmarked grave inside the Schlusselburg Fortress.

Династия Романовых  1613-1917