Elisa Radziwill and Prince William of Prussia: A Love Found and Lost

Princess Elisa Radziwill as the Goddess Peri by
Wilhelm Hensel. She wore this costume on the
play "Lalla Rookh".
(Courtesy of Getty Images)

Long before Kaiser William I, became King of Prussia and German Emperor, he had been in love with a pretty Polish princess named Elisa Radziwill. Theirs was a touching but poignant story; due to their ranks and the political circumstances surrounding them, the call of duty eventually outweighed their love for each other. Love was not enough to conquer all. 

From Royal to Monastic: Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna of Russia

Alexandra of Oldenburg,
Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna of Russia

Another member of the Romanov family that I am writing about today is the Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna, wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievitch, third son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. The Grand Duchess Alexandra was a scion of the German princely family of Oldenburg, who were descended from Tsar Paul I thru his daughter, Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna. The Grand Duchess Catherine married Duke George of Oldenburg and they had two sons. The youngest one, Peter, was Alexandra's father.

Prince Peter, despite his Oldenburg title, was born and raised in Russia. He married Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg in 1837 and together they had eight children; Alexandra was their eldest child.

Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau,
Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

The first Grand Duchess of Luxembourg was Adelheid-Marie of Anhalt-Dessau. She was the second wife of Luxembourg's first Grand Duke, Adolf of Nassau. Adelheid-Marie was born on Christmas Day 1833 in Dessau, a small duchy in Central Germany, the eldest daughter of Friedrich-August Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and Landgravine Marie-Luise of Hesse-Kassel.

Adelheid-Marie had two younger sisters, Bathildis and Hilda. The children grew up in the Stadtschloss Dessau in Dessau and in the Rumpenheim Castle in Offenbach. It was in Rumpenheim that the 16-year-old Adelheid-Marie met for the first time the Duke Adolf of Nassau. Adolf was 34 years old and he was a widower since 1845. His first wife was the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia but the young grand duchess, who was suffering from tuberculosis, had died in childbirth, less than a year after their marriage. The baby had died as well. Adolf was deeply affected by this tragedy that he remained a widower for almost 5 years but he had to remarry to give his duchy an heir.

Adolf and Adelheid-Marie were married two years after their first meeting, in Dessau, on April 21, 1851. They spent their honeymoon in Oranienstein Castle, and Adelheid-Marie was so enchanted by the beautiful and elegant castle that it was chosen to be their summer residence. The couple set-up their court in Wiesbaden and their official residence was the Biebrich Palace, picturesquely located in the banks of the Rhine River. They had five children:Wilhelm, the future Grand Duke William IV, Friedrich, Mary, Franz, and Hilda, future Grand Duchess of Baden.

During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Adolf sided with Austria and it proved to be a bad decision. Austria was defeated and Prussia henceforth annexed the Duchy of Nassau. Adolf and Adelheid-Marie lost their throne and lived in exile in Vienna and then Frankfurt. In 1870, Adolf bought Schloss Hohenburg in Bavaria and this became the family's new residence; in here, Adolf was able to pursue his passion for hunting while Adelheid-Marie, her love for painting. She painted numerous watercolors of landscapes and nature, and she even participated in the decoration of an Evangelical church built on a donated land; she painted the flowers on the church's pulpit and donated chandeliers for the church.

In 1879, Adolf succeeded in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and Adelheid-Marie became the first Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. After the death of Adolf in 1905, Adelheid-Marie, now the Dowager Grand Duchess, stayed most of her time in Königstein. Her son, now the Grand Duke William IV died in 1912, after being ill for many years, and he was succeeded by his eldest daughter, Marie-Anne. The six princesses of Luxembourg relied heavily on their grandmother, Adelheid-Marie, for support and advice. She was responsible for their education and gave them drawing lessons. She also received numerous visits from her daughter Hilda, Grand Duchess of Baden, who had apartments in Königstein; eventually, Königstein will pass to Hilda after her mother's death. Even in her old age, the plight of the needy was still in her mind and she did not hesitate in giving patronage to various charities. In 1905, her paintings were exhibited, and the proceeds from the exhibit will be given for the benefit of the poor.

The Dowager Grand Duchess Adelheid-Marie  died at the age of eighty-three years in Königstein on November 24, 1916. A funeral service was held in the village church in the middle of World War II, and among the present was the son of Emperor Wilhelm II. The people of Königstein sincerely mourned Adelheid-Marie's death and her memory is still alive today. After the funeral, her body was buried alongside her husband in the crypt of the Weilburg castle.

In Remembrance of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth

I had a dream last night. I dreamed about the Grand Duchess Elizabeth having a conversation with her husband. She had a sweet, gentle voice and a loving expression on her face. Her smile was very pretty and her long eyelashes flutter delicately each time. She was wearing the mourning clothes like in the picture on the right. When I woke up, it felt strange to be able to have a glimpse of what could she be like in the past. I never dreamed about her before, which was quite odd, until I realized that today was the 18th of July, the 97th anniversary of her death. Perhaps, it was like she was reminding me, with all the things that are happening currently in my life, to remember her. She fills my heart with warmth and comfort, which is what I exactly need today. No matter where life takes me, she would always be my inspiration.

Sisters-in-Law at the Russian Court: Elizabeth Alexeievna and Anna Feodorovna

In the last decade of the 18th century, two very young German princesses separately made a long and tiring journey from their homeland to the vast Russian empire. The first princess, Louise, came from Baden in 1793 to marry the heir to the Russian throne, Alexander. The second princess, Juliane, came to Russia in 1796 from Coburg to marry Alexander's younger brother, Constantine. Both princesses came to Russia when they were only adolescents - Louise was 13 and Juliane was 15 - and in order to become full-fledged member of the Imperial Family both were required to give up not only their names but also their religion. Upon their conversion to the Russian Orthodox Church, Louise of Baden became Elizabeth Alexeievna and Juliane of Coburg became Anna Feodorovna.

For the first three years of her married life, Elizabeth had no closed female friend at Court to whom she could share her intimate thoughts and feelings. She had no one to turn to for a 'girl talk' since she was not even particularly closed to Alexander's sisters. But everything changed with Anna's arrival in Russia. Here was a new girl who also came from Germany and who was also subjected to the same bride-choosing ordeal as Elizabeth was when she came to Russia with her sister three years ago. They had so much to share with each other - news from Germany, the latest fashion trend, the music and the dances, the balls...and they could converse to each other in German. Elizabeth was more than happy to welcome the newcomer and soon she was writing an enthusiastic letter to her mother about her new sister-in-law:

"Julia is such a wonderful child: kind, polite, trustworthy, and she is the best friend I could ever dream of. She is cheerful and amusing... She has brown hair, brown dazzling eyes, and a pretty mouth..."

As for Anna, she likewise immediately felt comfortable with Elizabeth. Only two days after her arrival, she suddenly approached Elizabeth during a ball, held her hands, and called her in a German endearment equivalent to "darling". This vivacity initially surprised Elizabeth but she felt quite amused of Anna's naivete and spontaneity.

Grand Duchesses Elizabeth Alexeievna and Anna Feodorovna as young wives

Elizabeth and Anna were actually poles apart. In terms of physical appearance, Elizabeth was blonde while Anna was a brunette. Temperamentally, Anna was more vivacious and exuberant, while Elizabeth was the serene and soft-spoken one. But they have a thing in common: the two grand duchesses were highly acknowledged for their pretty faces and charming manners. Prince Eugen of Wurttemberg wrote about the two grand duchesses when he met them in St. Petersburg:

…During these early days of my life in St. Petersburg, I was introduced to Grand Duchesses Elizabeth and Anna, the wives of Alexander and Konstantin. The first, a former Princess of Baden, was lovely and kind, and at the same time possessed the most gentle character. The latter was probably even more a striking beauty, but still she could not overshadow the charms of Elizabeth…”

The then ruler of the Russian Empire was the indomitable Empress Catherine the Great. She was the one, through her careful machinations, who was largely responsible for these two early marriages of her grandsons. She was nonetheless delighted of her granddaughters-in-law and asked Mme. Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun to do a portrait of them.

Mme. Le Brun described Elizabeth to be 'ravishing' and a 'heavenly figure'
while she described Anna to be 'sweetly pretty' and with features of 'life and mirth'.

After her death, the throne was inherited by her despotic son who became Paul I. Paul resented his mother and upon his accession he was swift to enact changes and undo some of her mother's legacy. The brilliance and opulence of Catherine's reign was quickly replaced by military-structured and austere Court life which proved to be exceedingly stifling and boring for his two older sons and their wives. Court life was never the same as before. In this highly oppressive environment, coupled by Paul's temperamental and volatile nature and his wife Maria Feodorovna's obvious dislike of her daughters-in-law who treated them a little more than ladies-in-waiting, it was not surprising that the two young wives, Elizabeth and Anna, drew closer to each other. Elizabeth wrote to her mother several weeks after Catherine's death:

" I am certain, dear Mother, that the death of the good Empress affected you deeply. As for me, I can assure you that I cannot cease thinking of it. You have no idea how every little thing has been turned upside down. All this made such a wretched impression on me, especially in the first days, that I scarcely recognized myself. Oh, how awful those first days were! Anna was my only consolation, as I was hers. She practically lived with me, coming here in the morning, dressing here, having dinner on most occasions and remaining all day until we would go together in attendance on the Emperor. Our husbands were hardly ever at home and we could find little to do with ourselves, the way of life not having been regulated in every aspect."

In these early years of their life in Russia, Elizabeth was happily married to Alexander. They were a good-looking couple and their marriage was clearly based on friendship and mutual respect, if not love. But the same cannot be said of Anna and Constantine. Their married life was becoming increasingly unhappy as the months went by. From the beginning, Constantine was indifferent from his wife, and made no efforts to gain, at least, her friendship. He was moody and bad-tempered, totally dedicated to his military career, and Anna was too outspoken not to berate him about it and his lack of affection. This almost always resulted in quarrels between husband and wife. Despite his disinterest in his wife, Constantine proved to be an extremely jealous and insecure boy who exercised a very tight control over his wife. He was jealous of his brother Alexander's close friendship with her and he resented her increasingly popularity at Court. Whenever Anna earned admiring glances and remarks, he would forbade her to leave her rooms. In her misery, the usually cheerful and witty Anna soon became sickly and dispirited. She relied heavily on Elizabeth for moral and emotional support, as she was the one who could relieve the tension and smooth things out between the frequently quarreling couple. Throughout the duration of Paul's reign, Anna led a miserable married life.

After the death of Tsar Paul in 1801, Anna decided once and for all that her marriage is over. She left Russia and once in Coburg refused to return to Russia. She was determined not to go back to her unhappy life and immediately she started divorce proceedings against her husband. It was a bold move in her part despite her family's initial lack of support. It certainly says something about her character. She never returned to Russia but she and Elizabeth continued writing to each other well until Elizabeth's death in 1826. In the absence of Anna, Elizabeth once again felt lonely and deprived of a closed female friend within the imperial family. The new Empress certainly missed Anna, who settled permanently in Switzerland, that when she had a new sister-in-law, Charlotte of Wurttemberg later Elena Pavlovna, she confided to her mother how Elena reminded her so much of Anna and how her tender feelings for the new grand duchess were reminiscent to that she had for Anna more than twenty years ago.

Despite the subsequent breakdown of her marriage and the many other tribulations in her life, Elizabeth was determined not to follow Anna's example and leave Russia. She was fully resolved to stick to her husband and her marriage, knowing that he would one day finally come to his senses and return to her.

The close friendship between Elizabeth and Anna was the result of those early years they spent in Russia when they first knew opulence under Catherine the Great and which eventually gave way to a time of uncertainty and stifling formality under Paul I. In those uncertain times, they found comfort and solace with each other, and these helped them get through to their early life in the intimidating grandeur and magnificence of the Russian court.

Elizabeth and Anna in later life. Elizabeth would die at 47 and Anna at 79.