Anna Pavlovna of Russia

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Anna Pavlovna of Russia (18 January 1795, Saint Petersburg - 1 March 1865, The Hague) was Queen of the Netherlands.

She was born as the eighth child and sixth daughter of Paul I of Russia and Empress Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg, and thus was Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia. In the Netherlands, due to 19th century Dutch transliteration conventions, she is better known as Anna Paulowna.

She was a younger sister to Alexander I of Russia; Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, Viceroy of Poland; Alexandra Pavlovna, Archduchess of Austria; Elena Pavlovna, Hereditary Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; Catherine Pavlovna, Queen of Württemberg; and Olga Pavlovna, who died as a child. She was also an older sister to Nicholas I of Russia and Michael Pavlovich.

On 21 February 1816, she married Prince William VII of Orange, later King William II of the Netherlands. On 7 October 1840, on the abdication of her father-in-law William I of the Netherlands, she became Queen Consort of the Netherlands. She was the mother of the later King William III.

The municipality Anna Paulowna in the Dutch province of Noord Holland is named for her, as is the genus of trees Paulownia.

[edit] Children

Anna and William II of the Netherlands had four children:

William II had four children:

• William III of the Netherlands (1817 - 1890).
• William Alexander Sascha (1818-1848).
• William Frederick Henry "the Navigator" (1820-1879). Married firstly Princess Amalia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and secondly Princess Marie of Prussia, but had no issue.
• Wilhelmina Marie Sophie (1824-1897). Married Karl Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.