Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp

This page lists the members of the important cadet (junior ducal) branch of the house of Oldenburg that held about one third of the two border territories—the Duchy of Schleswig under the Danish throne, and the German Duchy of Holstein—who are known to history either as the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp or as the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, after the famous and fabulous palace that became the seat of the dynasty, in the City of Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein.

• The reigns of the dynasty lasted from the Late Middle Ages into modern times, and included all the Russian czars from Peter III (who acceded to the Russian throne in 1762) to the end of that monarchy.

• As the second or junior Dukes of Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein, historians and their contemporaries permuted the names to avoid confusion between the senior and junior cousins, who more often than not were rivals and at odds in political and diplomatic matters.