The New Student's Reference Work/Peter III

Peter III (Feodorovitch, of Russia), grandson of Peter the Great, being the son of his oldest daughter, Anna Petrowna, was born at Kiel, Jan. 29, 1728, and in 1742 was declared by Czarina Elizabeth her successor.  Peter succeeded Elizabeth on her death in 1762, and his first act of authority was to restore East Prussia to Frederick the Great, whom he greatly admired, and to send to his aid a force of 15,000 men.  He also recalled a great many political exiles from Siberia.  While he was arranging a campaign to take Sleswick from Denmark, soon after his inauguration an insurrection, headed by his wife and the principal nobles, broke out against him in St. Petersburg, a conspiracy which originated in the discontent over his liberal policy, his preference for the Germans, his indifference to the national religion and his servility to Frederick the Great.  The result of this conspiracy was that Peter was declared to have forfeited his crown, and was soon after strangled in his bed in 1762 by Orloff and other conspirators.  He was succeeded by his wife as Catherine II.