Peter III of Russia

Born on February 12, 1728, as *Karl Peter Ulrich von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp* in present-day Kiel, Germany, his father was Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, the nephew of King Charles XII of Sweden, and his mother was Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, daughter of Tsar Peter I of Russia. Sadly, he lost both parents at a young age. Upon her ascension to the Russian throne, his maternal aunt, Yelizaveta, summoned him from Germany to Russia as her heir. He was then renamed *Pyotr Fyodorovich Romanov*. In 1745, Peter wed his second cousin, Sophie Auguste Friederike, who, upon baptism, was renamed Yekaterina Alekseyevna Romanova, later known as Catherine the Great.