Love and Marriage Prospects of the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna of Russia
Detail from a portrait by Christina Robertson
(State Hermitage Museum, Russia)

Beautiful, elegant, imposing and intelligent – these were just some of the words used to describe the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, the second daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna.

As a young grand duchess in the Russian court, she was the focus of admiration among courtiers and members of the nobility. Contemporaries described her as tall and slender, graceful, blonde, with long eyelashes and a “divine” gleam in her eyes. There was kindness and gentleness in her expression, but she was also proud and judicious.

Despite her beauty, virtues, and her status as the daughter of the Russian emperor, Olga was not lucky in love, unlike her sisters. She married a future king and became a queen, just as her parents hoped, but the relationship with her husband was far from ideal.

Olga’s older sister, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna, had married a prince of low rank, Maximilian of Leuchtenberg. Consequently, the Emperor and Empress hoped that their second daughter, would make a more brilliant match. They cherished the hope to someday see Olga marry a future king, however they did not want to force her to marry someone against her will.

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna in England

The Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna of Russia and her husband, Charles, Crown Prince of Wurttemberg visited England in August 5, 1853. They were warmly received by Queen Victoria at Osborne House a few days after their arrival. The young Queen wrote to his uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians about Olga:

"Olga is still very handsome as to features, figure, but she is a wraith which is a sad thing for one who was so beautiful and is so young. She is terribly thin and pale... Her manners are very dignified and pleasing."

(Photo courtesy of The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Quote courtesy of The Royal Collection)

First Anniversary of the Death of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaievna

Grand Duchesses Olga and Alexandra Nikolaievna by Christina Robertson (Hermitage Museum)

In the excerpt below, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, Queen of Wurttemberg, remembers the first death anniversary of her beloved sister, Alexandra. The 19-year-old Grand Duchess Alexandra, who was suffering from consumption, died after prematurely giving birth to her son. The baby died as well soon afterwards, and this tragedy profoundly affected the imperial family.

"By the day of the death of Adini, Fritz of Hesse came. We went with him to Tsarskoye Selo, where in a small chapel at the pond was placed a statue of Adini. In the pavilion, which was built for her, waiting to be fed, are black swans. But at the top of the palace there was no longer a balcony in front of her bathroom and the lilac under her windows with their flowering branches reach the window. In the palace chapel a requiem was held. All these memories of last year came bursting in my heart: she was lying with her baby in a sea of colors and it seemed to me that with my beloved sister, I also buried my youth. Then we went to the Fortress [of Peter and Paul] and on that same night we went back to Yelagin [Palace]. When I think about my last summer in my homeland, I am seized with an inexpressible longing for all those who have gone before me to another life.