page_title: Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp
section_title: Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst
hierarchical_section_title: Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp / Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Widok na Zamek z wieży katedry św. Jakuba
context_page_description: Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp was a German regent, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst by marriage to Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, and regent of Anhalt-Zerbst from 1747 to 1752 for her minor son, Frederick Augustus. She is best known as the mother of Catherine the Great of Russia.
  She was born at Gottorp, the daughter of Christian August, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach.
context_section_description: Johanna Elisabeth found her existence with her sober, middle-aged husband in the misty grey and dull town of Stettin a far cry from the livelier atmosphere she had grown up in at the court of Brunswick. The city offered little scope for a young girl like Johanna Elisabeth, who craved for an exciting social life. Neither did the birth of her first child bring her much joy. Her attitude toward Sophie (the future Empress Catherine II) was always ambivalent. The birth was a difficult one, and Joanna Elisabeth seems to have thought that the reward was insufficient, considering what she went through. According to her daughter, she nearly died in the process, and it took her 19 weeks to recover.
  The reigning Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, cousin of Christian August, apparently could not have children and his older brother, Louis, was unmarried: This meant that if Johanna Elisabeth would have given her husband a son, their family's position would have changed considerably, and she would have been able to leave Stettin forever. Later, Johanna Elisabeth's priority thus remained the political advancement of her children and to give them a more distinguished future than she had, being forced to marry a prince with little prospect despite being the great-granddaughter of a king of Denmark. However, she always wanted to be a step ahead of her daughter, constantly feeling jealous of her and wanting to put her down, to the extent that she even allowed her brother, Georg Ludwig of Holstein-Gottorp to openly display his strong liking for Sophie, so much so that he kissed her on the lips. Infatuated by Sophie, Georg Ludwig proposed marriage, which was considered by his sister, who had begun to think of Sophie as a future sister-in-law and friend. However, this was never to happen as the Empress Elizabeth of Russia sent a letter to Joanna Elisabeth requesting her and her daughter's presence in Russia.
  For her adored son William, everything was tried, but without success. The thermal baths which he was put in likely resulted in a respiratory disease that eventually caused his death. For Johanna Elisabeth, this was a hard blow because he was her favorite son. When the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst died, he was succeeded by Ludwig of Anhalt-Zerbst, who appointed his nephew Frederick as his successor. By this, the family transferred itself to Zerbst. In 1742, her husband succeeded to the throne, and they lived at Zerbst Castle.
caption: Ducal Castle, Stettin
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