Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia is the name and title used by three relatively prominent members of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov family.
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[edit] Daughter of Paul I of Russia
- Main article: Maria Pavlovna of Russia
[edit] Daughter-in-law of Alexander II of Russia
Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, known as "Miechen" or "Maria Pavlovna the Elder" (May 14, 1854 - September 6, 1920) was born Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz.
She married the third son of Alexander II of Russia, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (April 22, 1847 - February 17, 1909) on August 28, 1874. They had four sons, Alexander Vladimirovich, Kirill Vladimirovich, Boris Vladimirovich, and Andrei Vladimirovich, and one daughter, Elena Vladimirovna. She was the grandest of the grand duchesses.
[edit] Granddaughter of Alexander II of Russia
Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, known as "Maria Pavlovna the Younger" (In Russian Великая Княгиня Мария Павловна) (April 6/April 18, 1890 - December 13, 1958) was a daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and Alexandra Georgievna of Greece.
Her paternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Her maternal grandparents were George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, his queen consort.
Her mother, Alexandra Georgievna of Greece died after she had given birth to Maria's brother Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia and the two children were left alone with their father. Until she was six, she didn't speak a word in Russian as all of her governesses spoke English. Later she had another governess, mademoiselle Hélène who taught her French and stayed with her until her marriage.
In 1902 her father married Olga Valerianovna Paley; as the marriage was unapproved by Nicholas II, he was exiled. Maria and Dmitri were placed in the custody of their childless uncle, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia and his wife Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna. The children had previously stayed with them for long periods after the death of their mother. However, Maria had a somewhat strained relationship with her aunt, who was the only mother she had ever really known. Maria wrote in her memoirs that her aunt was somewhat cold with her and she felt that Grand Duchess Elizabeth had rushed her into marriage. Maria had a half-brother and two half-sisters from her father's second marriage, but didn't have much contact with them until all of them were grown because of the circumstances of her father's second marriage. In 1905 her uncle was killed by a bomb during the 1905 Revolution.
A year later she was engaged to Prince Wilhelm, Duke of Sudermannia (June 17, 1884 - June 5, 1965), whom she married on May 3, 1908 and divorced in 1914. Wilhelm was the second son of King Gustav V of Sweden and Victoria of Baden. Maria herself was a daughter of the ducal house of Holstein-Gottorp, which holds its rights to the Swedish throne, inherited from her ancestress Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, eldest sister of the childless Charles XII of Sweden.
Maria and Wilhelm had a single son: Lennart, Duke of Smalandia and later Count Bernadotte af Wisborg (1909-2004). Maria left her son behind in Sweden after the divorce and saw him rarely thereafter. In an interview as an adult, her son indicated that he had a distant relationship with his mother and she didn't relate well to her grandchildren.
During World War I she worked as a nurse in Pskov. After the revolution Maria fled to Paris and later moved to London where she met her brother Dmitri. Maria's first years of exile were financed by the jewels she had had smuggled to Sweden before escaping Russia. She was deprived of her properties and opened a quality sewing and textile shop "Kitmir" in Paris, becoming a somewhat successful entrepreneur in the Parisian fashion industry.
She also met crown prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden in London who gave her back her smuggled jewelry. She went back to Paris and lived in Europe including Germany, Sweden and in Biarritz and in Spain on the invitation of the Spanish queen. She lived 12 years in the United States before moving to Argentina because the USA was a country that recognized Soviet Union. She lived in Buenos Aires and after World War II in Europe.
She married her second husband His Illustriousness Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Putiatine in September 1917. They had one son, His Illustriousness Prince Roman Sergeievich Putiatine (June 1918-1919). Maria and her second husband left baby Roman in the care of his paternal grandparents when they fled the country. The baby later died of an illness.
She died in 1958 in the border town of Konstanz in Germany. Later on Maria's surviving son, Lennart, buried her brother Dmitri next to her.
[edit] References
- Genealogy of the Romanov Imperial House [1].
