The Romance of an Empress

The Romanov Family was infamous for its story of drama and tragedy. It was this aspect that probably fascinates people the most. Each member of the family, whether they were born into it or married into it, seems to have his or her own unique story to tell. And so for today, I'd like to explore one of the least known member, Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna, wife of Alexander I.

Emperor Alexander I's life was a mystery and continues to be so. His upbringing, his role in his father's death, his domestic and foreign policies, his personality, and the circumstances of his death are all shrouded in enigma. His wife Elizabeth and her life also has its own fair share of drama, tragedy, romance, and mystery. When I was reading about Elizabeth's life, it was like watching a soap-opera and a legend rolled into one. I could not help but be fascinated with this lady, although largely unknown to most history buff, was still quite a personality. She was adored by poets and musicians, and contemporaries and later historians and authors are drawn to her; and it's quite understandable why. Elizabeth was an attractive woman. Her beauty was often described as the angelic kind and this gave her an almost unearthly and ethereal appearance. She was both beautiful and intelligent but sad and inaccessible. She was the perfect muse for an uninspired artist, the perfect heroine of a doomed love story, and the perfect angel to a lost man.

An Ambassador's Recollection

The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia

"I remember dining with her in Paris…in about 1891. I can still see her as she was then: tall, stern, with shining blue, naive eyes, her tender mouth, the soft features of her face and her straight slender nose…the charming rhythm of her carriage and movements. In her conversation one intuited a marvelous feminine mind-natural, serious, and full of hidden goodness." - Maurice Paleologue, French ambassador at the Russian court

The Grand Duchess and Her Palace

The Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, eldest daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, was a gifted artist. Her artistic and aesthetic inclinations led her to do numerous paintings in watercolor and she delightfully engaged in interior decoration; she decorated her own rooms and when she received a palace of her own, the Mariinsky Palace in St. Petersburg, as a wedding present, she transformed it into one of the most imposing in the city. As a lover of the arts, Grand Duchess Maria built a beautiful collection of paintings from Russia and from different parts of  Europe. A lady-in-waiting recalled the time when she went to the Mariinsky palace for the first time and she was struck by the splendid interiors and the grand duchess's taste for beauty and the arts.

"... I went to the Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna... I found her in her luxurious winter garden, surrounded by exotic plants, fountains, waterfalls and birds; a mirage of spring in a January frost. The palace of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaeivna was truly a magical castle, thanks to the generosity of the Emperor Nicholas to his beloved daughter, and the taste of the grand duchess, who managed to subdue the wealth and luxury which she was surrounded, shows the diversity of her artistic imagination. She was generously endowed by nature, which is coupled by a striking beauty of her subtle mind, friendly nature and excellent heart, but she lacked the lofty ideals of spiritual and intellectual interests... "

-From the recollection of Anna Feodorovna Tyutchev, 

lady-in-waiting at the Russian court

The Daughters of Emperor Paul I of Russia

The daughters of Emperor Paul I: (From left to right:)
Alexandra, Elena, Maria, Catherine and Anna 

Emperor Paul I of Russia and his second wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna, née Princess Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg, had six daughters: Alexandra, Elena, Maria, Catherine, Olga, and Anna. All of the grand duchesses, with the exemption of Olga who died when she was only two years old, married into the royal houses of Europe. Shy and gentle Alexandra married the Archduke Joseph of Austria and lived in Hungary; sensitive and altruistic Elena became a Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin when she married Friedrich-Ludwig, Hereditary Prince of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; intelligent and artistic Maria married Grand Duke Karl Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and presided over the cultural development of Weimar; vivacious and strong-willed Catherine was first married to Prince George of Oldenburg and after his death she married the future King William I of Württemberg; and the youngest and sombre Anna became a Dutch queen when she married King William II of the Netherlands.

Emperor Paul, beyond his purported eccentricities and cruelty, was a doting and devoted father to his children, while the Empress Maria was a woman of strong character who was determined to maintain unity and order within her large family. The grand duchesses thus grew up in an idyllic atmosphere of happy family life. They were educated to a high standard, and were taught the necessary skills for their future roles as consorts. Duty has always comes first before one's self. But behind the glittering palace rooms and dazzling court life where these grand duchesses spent their childhood, their lives would never be easy. As they faced a future of uncertainty, it was but their only desire to be of good use to their adoptive countries that made them strive, above all else, to be dedicated consorts and overcome their ever-present longing for their beloved Russia.

"A world of our own..."

Louis IV and Princess Alice, Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Hesse

"If I say I love my dear husband, that is scarcely enough - it is a love and esteem which increase daily, hourly; which he also shows to me by such consideration, such tender loving ways. What was life before to what it has become now? There is such blessed peace being at his side, being his wife, there is such a feeling of security; and we two have a world of our own when we are together, which nothing can touch or intrude upon. My lot is indeed a blessed one; and yet what I have done to deserve that warm and ardent love which my darling Louis ever shows me? I admire his good and noble heart more than I can say."

-Princess Alice's letter to her mother Queen Victoria, 1862.