Count Ernst Johann Bühren and the Russian Court of Anna Ioannovna

Abstract

In the early modern period of Russian history, the phenomenon of the male consort, or favorite, of a ruling empress was most common in the years immediately following the reign of Peter the Great and continuing until the end of the eighteenth century1 After the end of that century, no woman ruled Russia in her own name, and, consequently, the role of the male consort of a female ruler disappeared. One of the things that makes the male favorites of this post-Petrine period stand out is, in the words of historian John Alexander, “their presumed role in the politics and policy-making of the newly mighty Russian empire.”2 This study takes a close and focused look at the actual, rather than presumed, role of the first, and most infamous, of these eighteenth-century favorites, Count Ernst Johann Bühren, or Biron, as he called himself, the favorite of Tsaritsa and Empress Anna Ioannovna, who ruled the Russian empire for a decade, from 1730 until 1740.KeywordsPolish SuccessionCommercial AgreementVice ChancellorMale ConsortRussian PolicyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.