The Life of Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Conclusion.

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Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich of Russia, Pavlovsk Palace, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

From The Emperor’s Desk: I got a new Tablet a few days earlier than expected!

Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark

In June 1889, Alexandra’s 18-year-old granddaughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark, returned to Russia to marry Grand Duke Paul, who was the younger brother of Emperor Alexander III. Towards the end of the wedding celebrations, Constantine suffered a stroke. This was followed in August 1889 by a severe stroke, which left him unable to walk or speak.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia

For the remaining three years of his life Constantine lived with his wife in her favourite palace Pavlovsk, having a wing of the building to himself. He was confined to a bath chair, and Alexandra saw to it that Constantine was denied contact with his mistress and illegitimate offspring.

Alexandra’s grandson, Christopher of Greece, wrote in his memoirs that Constantine became so frustrated with being under Alexandra’s control that he one day grabbed her by the hair and beat her with his stick. Seeing as Christopher would have only been four years old at the time of Constantine’s death, it is difficult to know the full truth of this story.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia

Despite his illness, Constantine tried to amuse himself as best he could. His grand-nephew Cyril Vladimirovich remembered skating parties at Pavlovsk, where Constantine would watch from his sledge, and how he always “smelt of cigars”. Cyril found Alexandra a formidable woman, with her “high pitched voice….driving about in an open carriage with a kind of awning over it, which could be opened and closed like an umbrella.

“I have never seen anything quite the same anywhere else, and think that she was the only person in the world who had such an ingenious cover to her carriage”.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia in old age

When Constantine died, in January 1892, Alexandra arranged for his mistress Anna to visit Pavlovsk and pray at Constantine’s bedside.

Eleven years later, Alexandra herself suffered a stroke in 1903, eight years before she died and she lived out her days at the Marble Palace in Saint Petersburg. She died on July 6, 1911.

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.

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

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Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich of Russia, King Charles III of the United Kingdom, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, (July 8, 1830 – July 6, 1911) was the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Duchess Amelia of Württemberg, daughter of Duke Ludwig of Württemberg and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg is an ancestress of the British, Greek, Romanian, Serbian, and Spanish Royal Families through her elder daughter Olga. She was a paternal first cousin of Princess Pauline of Württemberg, as well as her maternal second cousin.

Via that link, those six people (Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt, Ernst Friedrich III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Princess Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar, Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt), are ancestors of almost every single royal family in Europe (exceptions being Liechtenstein and Monaco).

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

Early life

Alexandra’s parents were married on 24 April 1817, at Kirchheim unter Teck. Alexandra had five sisters: Marie, Pauline, Henriette, Elisabeth, and Luise.

Marriage and issue

In the summer of 1846, she met Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich of Russia when he visited Altenburg. He was the second son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, née Princess Charlotte of Prussia, the eldest surviving daughter and fourth child of Frederick 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.

Grand Duke Constantine stayed for a few days at Alexandra’s father’s castle. His visit there had been arranged by Alexandra’s aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who had been born Princess Charlotte of Württemberg. Elena and Alexandra’s mother were both descended from Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg.

Grand Duchess Elena was married to Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the younger brother of Emperor Nicholas I. Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna was therefore Constantine’s aunt by marriage and Alexandra’s aunt by birth.

Elena was a strong influence over Constantine, who admired her intellect and progressive views. She had literary interests and was musical, founding the St Petersburg Conservatoire, and the young Konstantin often spent time at Elena’s home and salon in St Petersburg.

Constantine was intellectual and liberal, whereas Alexandra was conservative and rather high spirited. Although their temperaments differed, they both shared an interest in music, and enjoyed playing duets at the piano.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

Constantine was captivated by Alexandra’s youthful beauty: she being tall, slender and attractive. He quickly became besotted, and was eager to marry her “I don’t know what is happening to me. It is as if I am a completely new person.

Just one thought moves me, just one image fills my eyes: forever and only she, my angel, my universe. I really do think I’m in love. However, what can it mean? I’ve only know her just a few hours and I’m already up to my ears in Passion”. She was only sixteen and Konstantin nineteen; they were engaged but had to wait two more years before they could finally marry.

Alexandra arrived in Russia on October 12, 1847, and was greeted by much fanfare and popular celebration, with jubilant crowds lining the streets and balconies. It was said that Alexandra looked so much like her fiance’s sister, the Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolayevna, who died in childbirth, that her prospective mother-in-law burst into tears at their first meeting.

In February 1848, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, which reflected her father’s name Joseph (unlike many princesses she took a patronymic, choosing to reflect her parentage rather than the usual religious or dynastic associations which was also possible because Iosif was a common name in Russia).

Alexandra and Constantine were married in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, on September 11, 1848. Constantine received the Marble Palace in St Petersburg as a wedding gift from his parents. Strelna on the Gulf of Finland, which Constantine inherited when aged four, was the wedded couple’s country retreat.

Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich of Russia

Grand Duke Constantine was the paternal great-great-grandfather of King Charles III of the United Kingdom, since his daughter Olga married George I of the Hellenes, whose son Prince Andrew married Princess Alice of Battenberg, and they became the parents of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Charles’ father. Through Constantine I of Greece, another son of Olga and George I, Konstantin is also the paternal great-great-grandfather of Queen Sofía of Spain, mother of King Felipe VI of Spain.

The lively Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna took a particular interest in the grounds at Strelna, establishing a free school of gardening, where she taught classes herself. There were also educational toys for the children: a wooden mast and trampoline for gymnastics, and the transplanted cabin of one of Constantine’s frigates.

A year after their marriage Constantine inherited the Pavlovsk Palace, situated 19 miles to the south of St Petersburg, from his uncle Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich. The public was admitted to the fine park in its grounds. The Grand-Ducal family supported an impressive concert hall situated at Pavlovsk station, which proved popular with the middle classes, and attracted names such as Johann Strauss II, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz.

Alexandra and Constantine later acquired the palace of Oreanda in Crimea, which had originally been built by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and left to her second son for his retirement.

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.