The Life of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Part II.

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Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen Olga of the Hellenes

In 1867, Alexandra’s eldest daughter, Olga, married King George I of the Hellenes. She was only sixteen, and her father Grand Duke Constantine was initially reluctant for her to marry so young. In July 1868, Olga’s first child was born and was named Constantine after his grandfather. The beginning of their daughter’s family coincided with the start of the breakdown of Alexandra and Constantine’s marriage.

Although he was only forty, Constantine’s struggles and travails of the previous decade— naval and judiciary reforms, the freeing of the serfs—had prematurely aged him. As his brother Emperor Alexander II turned away from the reform that had marked his first decade on the throne, Constantine’s influence began to wane and he began to focus more on his personal life.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

After twenty years of marriage he had drifted away from his wife. Constantine’s heavy workload, and the couple’s divergent political views and interests had over the years slowly torn away at their relationship. Alexandra was as conservative as her husband was liberal, and she had learned to concern herself with her own society and mysticism. Soon, Constantine turned elsewhere for sexual intimacy.

At the end of the 1860s, Constantine embarked on an affair and conceived an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. In the 1880s, Marie was sent to Greece, later serving as lady in waiting to her half sister, Queen Olga. Marie eventually married a Greek banker.

Soon after the birth of Marie, Constantine began a new liaison. Around 1868, he began to pursue Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, a young dancer from the St Petersburg Conservatoire. She was the illegitimate daughter of ballerina Tatyana Markyanovna Kuznetsova and actor Vasily Andreyevich Karatygin. Anna was twenty years younger than Constantine and in 1873 she gave birth to their first child. Four more would follow.

Princess Alexandra’s daughter, Queen Olga of the Hellenes

Constantine bought his mistress a large, comfortable dacha on his estate at Pavlovsk; thereby lodging his second family in close proximity to his wife Alexandra, whom he now referred to as his “government–issue wife”.

By this act Constantine gave ammunition to his political enemies, with Russian society reacting to the scandal by siding with his suffering wife, Alexandra, who tried to bear his infidelity with dignity.

In 1874, a fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Constantine’s eldest son, Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovich, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra’s private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan.

Alexandra’s twenty-four-year-old son was found guilty, declared insane, and banished for life to Central Asia. Alexandra suffered another bitter blow when in 1879, her youngest son, Vyacheslav, died unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage.

October 17, 1972: Death of Prince George, Crown Prince of Serbia

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Crown Prince George of Serbia, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, House of Karađorđević, House of Obrenović, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, King Peter I and Zorka of Montenegro

George, Crown Prince of Serbia (September 8, 1887 – October 17, 1972), was a Serbian Prince, the eldest son of King Peter I and Zorka of Montenegro. He was the older brother of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.

Early life and background

George was born a member of the House of Karađorđević. His grandfather, Alexander Karađorđević, had briefly ruled the Principality of Serbia during the period 1842–58, but he had been the first and only ruler from the family, which did not otherwise have a royal background.

After being deposed in 1858, George’s grandfather and his family had had to leave their homeland, and by the time of George’s birth, they had been in exile for almost three decades.

George’s father, Petar Karađorđević (the future King Peter I of Serbia), had made an advantageous marriage rather late in life with Ljubica (known as Zorka), the eldest daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro. After marrying the princess, he made his home in the Principality of Montenegro, and all his children were born there.

Thus, George was born in Cetinje and spent the first few years of his life in the court of his maternal grandfather. He was one of five siblings, two of whom died in infancy; he therefore grew up with one older sister, Helen, and one younger brother, Alexander. In March 1890, when George was hardly two years old, his mother died in childbirth.

Shortly afterwards, Peter moved his three motherless children first to Geneva (where he had lived in exile before his marriage) and then to Russia. In Russia, George studied at the Page Corps school of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Crown Prince

In 1903, aged 17, George returned to Serbia along with his family, following a palace coup when a conspiracy of army officers overthrew the ruling Obrenović dynasty to proclaim his father as King of Serbia. As a result, George became Crown Prince.

Renunciation

The Prince had a reputation for being hot-tempered, and on one occasion attacked his tutor, Major Levasseur, who had to be dispatched back to Paris. In 1909 a more serious scandal broke when he killed his valet by kicking him to death.

Although there were moves to cover up the murder, the truth came out, and he had to renounce his succession rights. George tried to recant his renunciation on a number of occasions, but was unsuccessful.

While he was crown prince, George developed a close friendship with the mathematician Mihailo Petrović Alas, who had been retained to tutor him in mathematics. They went fishing together and established a fencing club in Belgrade. This friendship lasted through difficult times later in George’s life.

War service and arrest

Prince George participated in the Balkan Wars as well as World War I, where he was severely wounded in the Battle of Mačkov Kamen near Krupanj in 1914. After his father’s death and brother Alexander’s subsequent coronation, hostilities between the two brothers arose, which led to Prince George’s arrest in 1925.

He was proclaimed to be insane and locked in an asylum near the city of Niš.

Following Alexander’s assassination in 1934, George hoped he would be freed by the new regent Prince Paul, but he remained in jail until World War II when he was freed by the German occupiers.

Later life and marriage

After the war the Karađorđević family was declared enemy-of-the-state by Josip Broz Tito’s communist regime. However, Prince George was permitted to retire in Belgrade as the only member of the royal family allowed to remain in the country.

In 1947, at the age of 60, he married Radmila Radonjić (1907–1993), a member of the Radonjić noble family, who held the hereditary title of guvernadur of Montenegro, granted to them by the Republic of Venice in 1756 and were in constant political opposition and rivalry with George’s maternal family, the House of Petrović-Njegoš. The couple did not have any children. He wrote his memoirs Istina o mom životu (Truth About my Life).

He died on October 17, 1972 in Belgrade and was buried in St. George’s Church in Topola, SFR Yugoslavia. His death came the day after the tenth anniversary of the death of his sister, Princess Helen of Serbia.

August 18, 1819: Birth of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia

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Charlotte of Prussia, Count Grigori Stroganov, Duke of Leuchtenberg, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia, Maximilian de Beauharnais, Morganatic Marriage

From the Emperor’s Desk: Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia is not to be confused with the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia (1899 – 1918) who was the daughter of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia (August 18, 1819 – February 21, 1876) was a daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and sister of Emperor Alexander II. In 1839 she married Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg. She was an art collector and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna was born on August 18, 1819 in Krasnoye Selo in Saint Petersburg. She was the second of seven surviving children and the eldest daughter. Her parents, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, were devoted to each other and to their children.

Her mother. Princess Charlotte of Prussia, was the eldest surviving daughter and fourth child of Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, and Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and a sister of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia and of Wilhelm I, German Emperor and King of Prussia.

They were warm and affectionate parents, but avoided overindulging them. In the evenings, Alexandra Feodorovna played games with her children, including riddles and charades. The Emperor liked to sing chorus music with them. The siblings grew up in a close knit family, remaining on good terms all their lives.

Maria Nikolaievna was raised in the company of her sisters Olga and Alexandra. Their rooms, located on the ground floor of the Winter Palace, were unpretentious and void of luxury. The girls were prescribed fresh air in all seasons, and doctors controlled their diet. Classes began at 8:00 AM.

Maria’s education was placed under the supervision of the liberal privy Counselor and poet Vasily Zhukovsky, who had previously been Alexandra Feodorovna’s Russian teacher. Zhukovsky remained in close terms with his royal wards until his death.

Grand Duchess Maria and her sisters received dancing, music and drawing lessons. Her childhood sketchbook (1826–1830) has survived and it is in the hands of her descendants living in the United States. Grand Duchess Maria, who painted fairly well, later made watercolors.

She never lost her love for the arts, becoming a benefactress and art collector. Artistically gifted, she showed an early interest in interior design, decorating her rooms with her personal style. She would later make her Palace in St Petersburg one of the most beautiful in the city.

All three sisters had musical abilities and were involved in charitable work. From 1835, Grand Duchess Maria was an active member of the patriots’ society, which had been founded by Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. The society occasionally met in session in Maria’s room at the Winter Palace.

Grand Duchess of Russia

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna was noted for her formidable personality, her wit and her strong character. Her sister Grand Duchess Olga, wrote in her girlhood diary that Maria was “hot tempered, attentive and generous towards the poor, sympathetic to good deeds, but could not bear pretense of coercion. She is a hundred times more virtuous than me, more dynamic than all seven of us; she lacks only a sense of duty”.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna was brave and inventive, appreciated novelty, and was almost indifferent to the opinion of high society. She was lively, energetic, talented and impulsive. In appearance and character she was like her father.

She was Emperor Nicholas I’s favorite child and the one who resembled him most closely both in appearance and character. Like him she looked serious and severe. Her stare also brought to mind her father’s formidable gaze. The physical similarities with her father were marked in portraits and photographs that preferred to portray her in profile, the same as her father.

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna worried about finding a suitable husband for her most gifted and emotional daughter. On her part, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna did not want to leave Russia upon her marriage or have to change her religion.

Marriage

In 1837 King Ludwig I of Bavaria sent his nephew Maximilian de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, to take part in cavalry maneuvers in Russia. .

He was handsome, well educated and interested in cultural pursuits. A year later, in October 1838, he made a second visit. With his good looks and manners he impressed Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, as noted by the Grand Duchess Olga in her diary: “In four days it has become quite clear that Max and Maria were made for each other.”

It was not a desirable match for a daughter of a Russian Emperor. Maximilian was below the rank of royalty, only entitled to the style of Serene Highness as member of a secondary branch of the House of Bavaria.

Maximilian de Beauharnais was the only surviving son of Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg, and Prince of Eichstätt and grandson of Empress Josephine. His mother was Princess Augusta Amalia of Bavaria. His maternal grandparents were Maximilian I, King of Bavaria and his first wife Marie Wilhelmine, Landgravine of Hesse-Darmstadt, a daughter of Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt, younger son of Ludwig VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

He was a brother of:

Auguste de Beauharnais, Prince consort of Maria II of Portugal;
Amélie de Beauharnais, Empress consort of Pedro I of Brazil;
Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen consort of Oscar I of Sweden.

Maximilian was also Roman Catholic, not Orthodox, and his own family, his mother Princess Augusta of Bavaria in particular, was against this marriage. Maximilian was the last of the Leuchtenberg – Beauharnais family line and his mother feared that his descendants, brought up in the Orthodox faith, would be completely Russified. She said history would blame her son.

Furthermore, the Bonaparte family had been bitter enemies of Russia. Nevertheless, the Emperor granted his permission for the marriage on condition that his daughter did not leave Russia to live abroad. Since the Duke of Leuchtenberg was not a member of a reigning family, it was easy for him to take up residence in Saint Petersburg.

The wedding took place on July 2, 1839 at the grand church of the Winter Palace. The ceremony was described in detail by the Marquis de Custine, who visited St Peterburg at that time. He praised the Grand Duchess for her grace, but disliked the Duke of Leuchtenberg. Emperor Nicholas I spared no expense for his daughter’s wedding and the festivities lasted for two weeks. The couple remained in Russia, where their seven children grew up in the circle of the imperial family.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna and her husband had artistic inclinations and were active in charitable and artistic causes. Grand Duchess Maria’s husband became well known as a scientist throughout Russia. He took an interest in science and studied mining technology; he was a member of the academy of Science.

In 1843 the Duke of Leuchtenberg was appointed President of the Academy of Arts. In 1844 Emperor Nicholas I appointed him head of the Mining Engineering department. Grand Duchess Maria was proud of her husband’s accomplishments, calling him a scholar.

However, by the late 1840s the couple drifted apart. They had separate lives and both had love affairs of their own. Maximilian became a well known womanizer while Grand Duchess Maria started a long-term relationship with Count Gregory Alexandrovich Strogonov.

Court rumors attributed the paternity of her son George to her lover. The Duke of Leuchtenberg developed tuberculosis during mining expeditions in the Urals. Efforts to improve his health traveling to warmer climates abroad were unsuccessful and he died on November 1, 1852.

The Grand Duchess was an avid art collector, and after the death of her husband, she replaced him as President of the Academy of Arts. From then on, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievana devoted herself to her collection with even greater ardor. She spent lavishly, and as a consequence, her finances declined, particularly after the death of her father. Emperor Alexander II, although close to his sister, kept her on a strict budget.

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna made a second marriage in 1854, to Count Grigori Stroganov (June 16, 1824 – March 13, 1879). It was a morganatic union and was kept secret while her father lived. Officially the marriage did not take place until November 16, 1856, after Emperor Nicholas I’s death.

Anna Tyutcheva commented, “The former Emperor would have sent Masha to a convent and exiled the count to the Caucasus”, but her more gentle brother Emperor Alexander II, as the new head of the family, preferred not to let on that he knew about the secret marriage.

Grand Duchess Maria begged her brother to recognize her second marriage and permit them to live in Russia, but he did not dare permit it; instead, he suggested she continue to live abroad while he maintained ignorance of their marriage. Because he could not recognize her marriage, he paid special attention to her children by her first marriage, who lived in St. Petersburg without their mother.

In 1862, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna installed herself in Florence in the Villa Quarto, which had belonged to Jérôme Bonaparte, and appointed the painter and collector Karl Liphard as her advisor. They went almost daily to visit museums, private collection and antique dealers. In Italy, the Grand Duchess was zealous in her purchases of painting, sculptures and furniture for the complete refurbishing of her residence.

Grand Duchess Maria probably suffered either from varicose veins or from some sort of bone disease, and by the end of her life she had become an invalid. She died on February 21, 1876 in Saint Petersburg at age 56.

December 6, 1820: Birth of Alexandrine of Baden, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Part I

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Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Alexandrine of Baden, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duke Leopold of Baden, Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Alexandrine of Baden (Alexandrine Luise Amalie Friederike Elisabeth Sophie; December 6, 1820 – December 20, 1904) was the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the wife of Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the eldest child of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, and his wife Princess Sophie of Sweden, daughter of King Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden and his wife, Frederica of Baden.

In 1838–39, the young bachelor, Tsarevich Alexander of Russia, future Emperor Alexander II is, made the Grand Tour of Europe which was standard for young men of his class at that time. One of the purposes of the tour was to select a suitable bride for himself. His father Emperor Nicholas I of Russia suggested Princess Alexandrine of Baden as a suitable choice, but he was prepared to allow Alexander to choose his own bride, as long as she was not Roman Catholic or a commoner.

Alexandrine of Baden

Alexandrine already regarded herself as his betrothed, as all the preliminary negotiations had taken place.

In Germany, Alexander made an unplanned stop in Darmstadt. He was reluctant to spend “a possibly dull evening” with their host Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, but he agreed to do so because Vasily Zhukovsky insisted that his entourage was exhausted and needed a rest.

During dinner, he met and was charmed by Princess Marie, the 14-year-old daughter of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse. He was so smitten that he declared that he would rather abandon the succession than not marry her. He wrote to his father: “I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it, dear father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England.” When he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket that contained a piece of her hair.

Alexander and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine were married April 28, 1841 in the Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, on the eve of Alexander’s twenty-third birthday. Marie was 17.

At the urging of his brother Prince Albertof Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Hereditary Prince Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1818) began to search for a suitable bride. Albert believed that a wife would be good for his brother: “Chains you will have to bear in any case, and it will certainly be good for you… The heavier and tighter they are, the better for you. A married couple must be chained to one another, be inseparable, and they must live only for one another.” With this advice in mind (although Albert was reprimanded for presuming to counsel his elders), Ernest began searching.

Around this time, Ernst was suffering from a venereal disease brought on by his many affairs; Albert consequently counseled him against marrying until he was fully recovered. He also warned that continued promiscuity could leave Ernst unable to father children. Ernst waited a few years before marrying as a result.

Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Various candidates were put forward as a possible wife for Ernest. His father wanted him to look to a woman of high rank, such as a Russian grand duchess, for a wife. One possibility was Princess Clémentine of Orléans, a daughter of Louis Philippe I, whom he met while visiting the court at the Tuileries. However, such a marriage would have required his conversion from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism, and consequently nothing came of it. She later married his cousin Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernest was also considered by Dowager Queen Maria Christina as a possible husband for her young daughter Isabella II of Spain, and by Queen Victoria for her cousin Princess Augusta of Cambridge.

On 13 May 1842, in Karlsruhe, Ernest married Princess Alexandrine. To the consternation of his brother and sister-in-law Queen Victoria, the marriage failed to “settle down” Ernest. Alexandrine accepted all his faults cheerfully enough, however, and began a fierce devotion to Ernest that became increasingly baffling to the outside world.

Though he gave his consent, Ernst’s father, Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was disappointed that his first son did not do more to advance the concerns of Coburg. The marriage did not produce any issue, though Ernest apparently fathered at least three illegitimate children in later years.

November 25, 1876: Birth of HRH Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess of Russia.

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Alfred of Edinburgh, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess of Russia, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Grand Duke Kirill Alexandrovich of Russia Russian Orthodox Christianity, King Edward VII of United Kingdom, Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh

Today, November 25th, is the 145th anniversary of the birth of HRH Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess of Russia. (November 25, 1876 – March 2, 1936) Victoria Melita was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and also of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Born a British princess, Victoria spent her early life in England and lived for three years in Malta, where her father served in the Royal Navy. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, where Victoria’s father became the reigning duke in 1893.

In her teens Victoria fell in love with her first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (the son of her mother’s brother, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia) but his faith, Rusian Orthodox Christianity, discouraged marriage between first cousins. Bowing to family pressure, Victoria married her paternal first cousin, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine in 1894, following the wishes of their grandmother, Queen Victoria.

The marriage failed – Victoria Melita scandalized the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901. The couple’s only child, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, who they nicknamed Ella, died of typhoid fever in 1903 at the age of 8.

In 1905, Victoria married Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia. They wed without the formal approval of Britain’s King Edward VII (as the Royal Marriages Act 1772 would have required), and in defiance of Russia’s Emperor Nicholas II. In retaliation, the Emperor stripped Kirill of his offices and honours, also initially banishing the couple from Russia.

They had two daughters and settled in Paris before being allowed to visit Russia in 1909. In 1910 they moved to Russia, where Nicholas recognized Victoria Melita as Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. After the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917 they escaped to Finland (then still part of the Russian Republic) where she gave birth to her only son, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in August 1917.

In exile they lived for some years among her relatives in Germany, and from the late 1920s on an estate they bought in Saint-Briac in Brittany. In 1926 Kirill proclaimed himself Russian Emperor in Exile, and Victoria supported her husband’s claims. Victoria died after suffering a stroke while visiting her daughter Maria in Amorbach (Lower Franconia).

HIH Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

She is the grandmother of Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, claimant to the Russian Throne, and the great-grandmother of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, claimant to the German Imperial Throne.

HI & RH Prince Georg Friedrich, The Prince of Prussia

Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes. Part II

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Demotic Greek, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Evangelika Controversy, King George I of the Hellenes, Koine Greek, Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes

The Emperor Alexander II told Olga “to love her new country twice more than her own”, but she was ill-prepared for her new life. Aware of her youth, she chose to retain the services of her governess to continue her education. On arrival at Piraeus, Olga wore blue and white, the national colors of Greece, to the delight of the crowd.

On the way to the capital, popular unrest was such that Olga, who was not accustomed to such demonstrations, was close to tears. Unable to speak Greek, and with little time for rest, she attended official functions over several days. Overwhelmed, Olga was found sobbing under a staircase cuddling her teddy bear a few days after her arrival in the kingdom while she was expected for a formal event. In less than a year, she learnt Greek and English. On the advice of her mother, she took an interest in the archeology and history of Greece to gain public support.

Private life

Throughout their marriage, George I and Olga were a close-knit couple, and contrary to the prevailing custom spent much time with their children, who grew up in a warm family atmosphere. With age, however, George I argued with his sons and Olga lamented the quarrels that divided the family periodically. In private, Olga and George I conversed in German because it was the only language they both spoke at the time of their marriage. With their offspring, they spoke mainly English, although the children were required to speak Greek among themselves, and Prince Andrew refused to speak anything but Greek to his parents.

The life of the royal family was relatively quiet and withdrawn. The Athenian court was not as brilliant and sumptuous as that of Saint Petersburg, and days in the Greek capital were sometimes monotonous for members of the royal family. In spring and winter, they divided time between the Royal Palace in Athens and Tatoi Palace at the foot of Mount Parnitha. Summers were spent on vacation at Aix-les-Bains in France, visiting relatives in the Russian capital or at Fredensborg and Bernstorff in Denmark, and relaxing at Mon Repos, Corfu.

Olga remained nostalgic for Russia. Her room was filled with icons from her homeland and, in the palace chapel, she sang Slavic hymns with her children. She often visited Russian ships that were docked at Piraeus and invited the Russian sailors to the royal palace. She was the only woman in history to bear the title of Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy, an honor given to her on marriage. She was honored in the Greek navy by having a ship named after her.

Social work

Olga was genuinely popular and was extensively involved in charity work. On arrival in Athens, her immediate patronages included the Amalieion orphanage founded by the previous queen consort Amalia of Oldenburg, and the Arsakeion school for girls located on University Boulevard. With her personal support and the support of wealthy donors, she built asylums for the terminally ill and for the elderly disabled, and a sanatorium for patients with consumption. She founded a society to help the poor, a kindergarten for the children of the poor, and a soup kitchen in Piraeus that doubled as a cooking school for poor girls that was later expanded into a weaving school for girls and elderly women in financial difficulty.

She was patron of two military hospitals and endowed the Evangelismos (Annunciation) Hospital, Greece’s largest, in downtown Athens. She built the Russian Hospital in Piraeus in memory of her daughter, Alexandra, who died in Moscow in 1891. Although aimed primarily at Russian sailors, the hospital was open to all seamen visiting Greece, with consultation fees set at the low rate of thirty lepta and medicines being free.

Olga also supported the establishment and funding of hospitals during the conflicts between Greece and its neighbors, including the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the First Balkan War (1912–13). For their work for the wounded, Olga and her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Sophia were awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in December 1897.

Before Olga’s arrival in Greece, there were no separate prisons for women or the young, and she was instrumental in the establishment of a women’s prison in the capital and, with the support of wealthy philanthropist George Averoff, one for juvenile delinquents.

Shortly after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, shots were fired at Olga’s husband and daughter by disgruntled Greeks in 1898. Despite the failed assassination, Olga insisted on continuing her engagements without a military guard. Her son Nicolas wrote in his memoirs that one day he spoke of the importance of public opinion to his mother, and she retorted, “I prefer to be governed by a well born lion rather than four hundred rats like me.” Olga’s interest in political and public opinion was limited. Although she favored Greece’s Russian party, she had no political influence over her husband and did not seek political influence in the Greek parliament.

Evangelika controversy

An Orthodox Christian from birth, Queen Olga became aware, during visits to wounded servicemen in the Greco-Turkish War (1897), that many were unable to read the Bible. The version used by the Church of Greece included the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the original Greek-language version of the New Testament. Both were written in ancient Koine Greek, but her contemporaries used either Katharevousa or the so-called Demotic version of Modern Greek.

Katharevousa was a formal language that contained archaized forms of modern words, was purged of “non-Greek” vocabulary from other European languages and Turkish, and had a (simplified) archaic grammar. Modern or Demotic Greek was the version commonly spoken. Olga decided to have the Bible translated into a version that could be understood by most contemporary Greeks rather than only those educated in Koine Greek.

Opponents of the translation, however, considered it “tantamount to a renunciation of Greece’s ‘sacred heritage'”. In February 1901, the translation of the New Testament from Koine into Modern Greek that she had sponsored was published without the authorization of the Greek Holy Synod. The price was set at one drachma, far below its actual cost, and the edition sold well. To mitigate opposition to the translation, both the old and new texts were included and the frontispiece specifically stated it was for “exclusive family use” rather than in church.

At the same time, another translation was completed by Alexandros Pallis, a major supporter of a literary movement supporting the use of Demotic in written language. Publication of the translation started in serial form in the newspaper Akropolis on September 9, 1901. Purist theologians and Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III of Constantinople denounced the translation.

A faction of the Greek press started accusing Pallis and his Demoticist supporters of blasphemy and treason. Riots, peaking on November 8, were started by students of the University of Athens, partly motivated by conservative professors. They demanded the excommunication of Pallis and anyone involved with the translations, including Olga and Procopios, the Metropolitan bishop of Athens, who had supervised the translation at her personal request.

Troops were called in to maintain order, and conflict between them and the rioters resulted in eight deaths and over sixty people wounded. By December, the remaining copies of Olga’s translation had been confiscated and their circulation prohibited. Anyone selling or reading the translations was threatened with excommunication. The controversy was called Evangelika, i.e. “the Gospel events” or Gospel riots, after the word Evangelion, Greek for “Gospel”, and led to the resignation of the metropolitan bishop, Procopius, and the fall of the government of Georgios Theotokis.

Wedding Announcement of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca Bettarini and last Imperial Marriage in Russia.

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Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia., King Gustaf V of Sweden, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Russian Emperor, Russian Empire

The wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and Rebecca Bettarini will take place in St Petersburg on October 1, 2021.


It will be the first imperial wedding in Russia since the wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in 1917.

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna was the first child and only daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, born Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. She was therefore a granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II.

She was a paternal first cousin of Nicholas II (Russia’s last Emperor) and maternal first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (consort of Queen Elizabeth II).


In September 1917, during the period of the Russian Provisional Government,  Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna married Prince Sergei Putyatin. They had one son, Prince Roman Sergeievich Putyatin, who died in infancy. The couple escaped revolutionary Russia through Ukraine in July 1918.

Previously, in 1908, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna married Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Södermanland, the second son of King Gustaf V of Sweden and his wife Victoria of Baden.

The couple had only one son, Prince Lennart, Duke of Småland later Count Bernadotte af Wisborg. The marriage was unhappy and ended in divorce in 1914.

On this date in history: February 10, 1840. Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland married her maternal first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Emperor Alexander II of Russia, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, King Leopold I of the Belgians, Lord Melbourne, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, royal wedding, The Prince Consort

Victoria once complained to her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, that her mother’s close proximity promised “torment for many years”, Melbourne sympathized but said it could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a “schocking alternative”. Although a marriage between Victoria and her cousin Prince Albert had been encouraged by the Coburg family, specifically King Leopold I of the Belgians since 1936, Victoria was ambivalent at best toward the arrangement.

The idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, was first documented in an 1821 letter from his paternal grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, (Countess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf) who said that he was “the pendant to the pretty cousin”.

Victoria did however, show interest in Albert’s education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into any marriage. Her uncle, King William IV of the United Kingdom, preferred that Victoria marry her paternal first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge. William IV also favored the suit of Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, second son of the Prince of Orange, future King Willem II. Victoria was well aware of the various matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.

In 1839, Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz), was sent on a tour of Europe by his parents where he met twenty-year-old Queen Victoria and both were enamored of each other. Simon Sebag Montefiore speculates that a small romance emerged. Such a marriage, however, would not work, as Alexander was not a minor prince of Europe and was in line to inherit a throne himself. In March 1855 Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich became Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

Following Albert’s second visit to Queen Victoria in October of 1839, along with his brother Ernst, Victoria continued to praise Him and it was during this visit that genuine romantic feelings began to stir for her. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold I of the Belgians to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.”

Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on October 15, 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. Victoria’s intention to marry Albert was declared formally to the Privy Council on November 23.

The couple were married on February 10, 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace, London. Victoria was besotted. She spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life!

Just before the marriage, Albert was naturalized by an Act of Parliament and granted the style of Royal Highness by an Order in Council. This style was only legal in Britain and under the German system of styles and titles Prince Albert remained His Serene Highness. Lord Melbourne advised against the Queen’s strong desire to grant her husband the title of “King Consort”. Parliament even refused to make Prince Albert a peer of the realm—(granting him a title of nobility) partly because of anti-German sentiment and a desire to exclude Albert from any political role.

Initially Albert was not popular with the British public; he was perceived to be from an impoverished and undistinguished minor state, barely larger than a small English county. In time Albert became an important political adviser as well as the Queen’s companion, replacing Lord Melbourne as the dominant, influential figure in the first half of her life.

Julia, Princess of Battenberg. Russian and German noblewoman

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Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, Countess Julia von Hauke, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and by Rhine, House of Battenberg, House of Mountbatten, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Princess of Battenburg, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

Julia, Princess of Battenberg (previously Countess Julia Therese Salomea von Hauke; November 24, 1825 –September 19, 1895) was the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, the third son of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

The daughter of a Polish general of German descent, she was not of princely origin. She became a lady-in-waiting to Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of the future Emperor Alexander II of Russia and a sister of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, whom she married, having met him in the course of her duties.

The marriage of social unequals was deemed morganatic, but the Duke of Hesse and by Rhine gave her own title of nobility as Princess of Battenberg. She was the mother of Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, and is an ancestor of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, and to the current generations of the Spanish royal family.

Life

Julia Therese Salomea Hauke was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, then ruled in personal union by the Emperor of Russia. She was the daughter of John Maurice Hauke, a Polish general of German descent, and his wife Sophie (née Lafontaine), who was of French, Italian, German, and Hungarian descent.

Julia’s father had fought in Napoleon’s Polish Legions in Austria, Italy, Germany, and the Peninsular War. After his service in the Polish army from 1790 and in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw from 1809 to 1814, he entered the ranks of the army of Congress Poland, was promoted to general in 1828, and was awarded a Russian title.

Recognizing his abilities, Emperor Nicholas I appointed him Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland and made him a hereditary count in 1829. In the November Uprising of 1830, led by rebelling army cadets, Grand Duke Constantine, Poland’s Russian governor, managed to escape, but Julia’s father was shot dead by the cadets on a Warsaw street. Her mother died of shock shortly afterwards, and their children were made wards of the Emperor.

Julia served as lady-in-waiting to Empress Marie Alexandrovna, wife of Emperor Alexander II and a sister of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. She met Prince Alexander while performing her duties at court in St. Petersburg. The Emperor did not approve of a courtship between his son’s brother-in-law and a noblewoman, and so the two arranged to leave the St. Petersburg court.

By the time Julia and Alexander were able to marry, she was six months pregnant with their first child, Marie. They were married on October 25, 1851 in Breslau in Prussian Silesia (now called Wrocław and in Poland).

Since Julia did not belong to a reigning or mediatized family, which were the only ones considered equal for royal marriage purposes, she was considered to be of insufficient rank for any of her children to qualify for succession to the throne of Hesse and by Rhine; the marriage was considered morganatic.

Her husband’s brother, Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hesse and by Rhine created her Countess of Battenberg in 1851, with the style of Illustrious Highness (Erlaucht), and in 1858 further elevated her to Princess of Battenberg with the style of “Her Serene Highness”, (Durchlaucht).

The children of Julia and Alexander were also elevated to princely rank. Thus, Battenberg became the name of a morganatic branch of the Grand Ducal Family of Hesse and by Rhine.

Julia converted from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism on May 12, 1875. Princess Julia died at Heiligenberg Castle, near Jugenheim, Hesse, aged sixty-nine, on September 19, 1895, the age of 70.

Prince Alexander of Hesse died of cancer in 1888. They lived to see four of their five children, who had no rights of succession to the Hessian throne, mount a throne or marry dynastically, and to become welcome in-laws to Queen Victoria, whose correspondence reflected a consistent respect and fondness for the Battenberg family.

There were five children of the marriage, all princes and princesses of Battenberg:

• Princess Marie of Battenberg (1852–1923), married in 1871 Gustav, Prince of Erbach-Schönberg (d. 1908), with issue.
• Prince Louis of Battenberg (1854–1921), created first Marquess of Milford Haven in 1917, married in 1884 Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863–1950), with issue (including Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Queen Louise of Sweden, and Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma). In 1917, he and his children gave up their German titles and took the surname Mountbatten. He was the maternal grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
• Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1857–1893), created reigning Prince of Bulgaria in 1879, abdicated in Bulgaria and created Count of Hartenau, married morganatically in 1889 Johanna Loisinger (1865–1951), with issue.
• Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896), married in 1885 Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857–1944), youngest child and daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; with issue (including Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg later Queen of Spain). His children resided in the UK and became lords and ladies with the surname Mountbatten in 1917 (see “Name change” below). His eldest son was created the first Marquess of Carisbrooke in 1917.
• Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg (1861–1924), married in 1897 Princess Anna Petrovich-Njegosh of Montenegro (1874–1971), with no issue.

Name change to “Mountbatten”

Julia’s eldest son, Ludwig (Louis) of Battenberg, became a British subject, and during World War I, due to anti-German sentiment prevalent at the time, anglicised his name to Mountbatten (a literal translation of the German Battenberg), as did his nephews, the sons of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice.

The members of this branch of the family also renounced all German titles and were granted peerages by their cousin King George V of the United Kingdom: Prince Louis became the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry’s eldest son, became the 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke.

September 3, 1851: Birth of Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen consort of the Hellenes.

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Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Olga Constantinova of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Revolution, Russian Empire

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926) was Queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920.

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Olga Constantinovna of Russia

A member of the Romanov dynasty, she was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Amelie Theresa Luise, Duchess of Württemberg. She is an ancestor of the British, Greek, Romanian, Yugoslavian and Spanish Royal Families through her elder daughter Olga.

Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

She spent her childhood in Saint Petersburg, Poland and the Crimea. Her father was a younger brother of Alexander II, and her mother was considered one of the most intelligent and elegant women of the court. Olga was particularly close to her older brother, Nicholas, and was one of the few members of the imperial family to keep in touch with him after he was banished to Tashkent.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (Mother)

The young King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga’s uncle Emperor Alexander II for his support during George’s election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time.

George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.

Olga fell in love with George, but she was nevertheless anxious and distraught at the thought of leaving Russia. Her father was initially reluctant to agree to their marriage, thinking that at the age of fifteen she was too young and, being close to his daughter, concerned by the distance between Greece and Russia.

For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.

Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children.

At first, she felt ill at ease in the Kingdom of Greece, but she quickly became involved in social and charitable work. She founded hospitals and schools, but her attempt to promote a new, more accessible, Greek translation of the Gospels sparked riots by religious conservatives.

On the assassination of her husband in 1913, Olga returned to Russia. When the First World War broke out, she set up a military hospital in Pavlovsk Palace, which belonged to her brother. She was trapped in the palace after the Russian Revolution of 1917, until the Danish embassy intervened, allowing her to escape to Switzerland. Olga could not return to Greece as her son, King Constantine I, had been deposed.

In October 1920, she returned to Athens on the fatal illness of her grandson, King Alexander. After his death, she was appointed regent until the restoration of Constantine I the following month. After the defeat of the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 the Greek royal family were again exiled and Olga spent the last years of her life in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.