(Redirected from Maria Alexandrovna of Russia)
'Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia' (later 'Duchess of Edinburgh' and 'Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha';
17 October 1853 –
24 October 1920) was a daughter of
Alexander II of Russia and his first
empress,
Marie of Hesse. Maria became the wife of
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen
Victoria of the United Kingdom and
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
From 1893 until her death, she had the distinction of being a Russian grand duchess (by birth), a British royal duchess (by marriage), and the consort (and later widow) of a German sovereign duke (by marriage).
Early life
The Duchess was born at
Tsarskoye Selo, Russia, the second daughter of
Alexander II, Emperor of Russia (who was assassinated in 1881) and his wife
Marie of Hesse and by Rhine who was the daughter of
Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. She was the aunt of Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia who was murdered in 1918. Her brother,
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was assassinated in
Moscow in
1905, and another brother,
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia was shot in
Saint Petersburg in
1919.
Marriage
On
23 January,
1874 at the
Winter Palace,
St. Petersburg, the Grand Duchess Marie married His Royal Highness
The Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of
Queen Victoria. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into
London on
12 March. The marriage, however, was not a happy one, and the bride was thought haughty by London society. Furthermore, Tsar Alexander II's insistence that his daughter be styled "Her Imperial Highness" and have precedence over the then
Princess of Wales infuriated Queen Victoria. The Queen insisted that style "
Her Royal Highness" Marie Alexandrovna acquired upon marriage, should always precede the style "Her Imperial Highness," which was hers by birth. For her part, the new Duchess of Edinburgh apparently resented the fact that the Princess of Wales, who was the daughter of King
Christian IX of Denmark, took precedence over her, the daughter of the Russian Tsar. After the marriage, Marie was varyingly referred to as ''Her Royal Highness'', ''Her Royal & Imperial Highness'', and ''Her Imperial & Royal Highness''.
Queen Victoria granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales. Her father gave her the then staggering sum of £100,000 as a dowry plus an annual allowance of £28,000.
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
On the death of his uncle,
Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on
22 August 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since his elder brother the
Prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. He surrendered his British allowance of £15,000 a year and his seats in the
House of Lords and the
Privy Council, but retained the £10,000 granted on his marriage in order to maintain
Clarence House as his London residence. Upon her husband's ascension to the ducal throne, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna became Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in addition to being Duchess of Edinburgh. As the consort of a sovereign German duke, she technically outranked her sisters-in-law at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The couple's only son,
Hereditary Prince Alfred, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and shot himself in January 1899, in the midst of his parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations. He survived, but his embarrassed parents sent him off to
Merano to recover, where he died two weeks later, on 6 February. The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died of throat cancer on
30 July 1900 at Rosenau Castle in
Coburg. The ducal throne passed to his nephew,
Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany. The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha continued to reside in Coburg.
Later life
She died in October 1920 in
Zürich,
Switzerland and was buried in the ducal family's cemetery outside Coburg.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles
★ '1853-1874': ''Her Imperial Highness'' Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia
★ '1874-1893': ''Her Imperial & Royal Highness'' The Duchess of Edinburgh
★ '1893-1900': ''Her Imperial & Royal Highness'' The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
★ '1900-1920': ''Her Imperial & Royal Highness'' The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|
| Hereditary Prince Alfred ("Young Affie") | 15 October 1874 | 6 February 1899 | Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893 |
| Princess Marie | 29 October 1875 | 18 July 1938) | married, 10 January 1893, King Ferdinand I of Romania (1865-1927); had issue |
| Princess Victoria Melita ("Ducky") | 25 November 1876 | 2 March 1936 | married (1), 19 April 1894, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue; divorced 21 December 1901(2) 8 October 1905, the Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia; had issue |
| Princess Alexandra | 1 September 1878 | 16 April 1942 | married, 20 April 1896, Prince Ernst of Hohenloe-Langenburg; had issue |
| Stillborn son | 13 October 1879 | 13 October 1879 | |
| Princess Beatrice | 20 April 1884 | 13 July 1966 | married, 15 July 1909, Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Galliera; had issue |
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