Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna
Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Duchess of Edinburgh
by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky.(1870) The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection, Toronto, Canada)
Spouse	Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Issue
Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Marie, Queen of Romania Victoria, Grand Duchess of Russia Alexandra, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Princess Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera
House	House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Alexander II of Russia
Mother	Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
Born	17 October 1853(1853-10-17) Tsarskoye Selo, Russian Empire
Died	24 October 1920(1920-10-24) (aged 67) Zürich, Switzerland

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 Empress Maria Alexandrovna. 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.

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 Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, legal daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, yet it was openly rumoured her father was actually Baron Augustus de Senarclens, her mother's chamberlain. 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 to become 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 the 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 The King of Denmark, took precedence over her, the daughter of The Emperor of Russia. 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 Meran 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 The Rosenau 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.

Royal styles of Maria Alexandrovna Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Reference style	Her Imperial & Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Imperial & Royal Highness
Alternative style	Ma'am

Later life

She died in October 1920 in Zürich, Switzerland apparently after receiving a telegram addressed to her as "Frau Coburg"; she was buried in the Ducal Family's cemetery outside Coburg. Of her four daughters, the Queen of Romania was forbidden to attend or to travel to Germany due to the recent war, in which Germany and Romania had fought on opposite sides.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 17 October 1853 – 23 January 1874: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
• 23 January 1874 – 22 August 1893: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh
• 22 August 1893 – 11 October 1905: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• 11 October 1905 – 24 October 1920: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Honours

• Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert (first class)

Gallery

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky 1865 (The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection, Toronto, Canada)

Grand Duchess Maria as a teenager

Marie and Alfred with their first child, Alfred

Issue

Image	Name	Birth	Death	Notes
	Prince Alfred ("Young Affie")	15 October 1874	6 February 1899	Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893
	Princess Marie ("Missy")	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 ("Sandra")	1 September 1878	16 April 1942	married, 20 April 1896, Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg; had issue
	Stillborn son	13 October 1879	13 October 1879
	Princess Beatrice ("Baby Bee")	20 April 1884	13 July 1966	married, 15 July 1909, Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Galliera; had issue

Ancestry

References

British princesses by marriage 1st generation Margravine Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach 2nd generation Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha 3rd generation Maria Walpole · Anne Luttrell 4th generation Duchess Caroline of Brunswick · Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia · The Princess Mary* · Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen · Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld · Duchess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz · Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel 5th generation Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg 6th generation Princess Alexandra of Denmark · Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia · Princess Louise Margaret of Prussia · Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont · Princess Thyra of Denmark 7th generation Princess Mary of Teck · Princess Victoria Adelaide of Schleswig-Holstein · Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife* · Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia 8th generation Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon · Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott · Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark · Princess Ortrud of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg · Countess Monika of Solms-Laubach · Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark 9th generation Birgitte Henriksen · Katharine Worsley · Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz 10th generation Lady Diana Spencer · Camilla Shand · Sarah Ferguson · Sophie Rhys-Jones * also princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in her own right.