| Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna | |
|---|---|
| Archduchess Alexandra of Austria | |
| Portrait by Vladimir Borovikovsky, 1796. Oil on canvas from the Gatchina Palace Museum, St Petersburg, Russia | |
| Spouse | Archduke Joseph of Austria |
| Issue | |
| Archduchess Alexandrine of Austria | |
| House | House of Habsburg-Lorraine House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Paul I of Russia |
| Mother | Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg |
| Born | 9 August 1783 |
| Died | 16 March 1801 (aged 17) |
Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, (Russian: Александра Павловна: Tsarskoye Selo 9 August 1783 – 16 March 1801 in Vienna) was a daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and sister of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. She became Archduchess of Austria upon her marriage to Archduke Joseph of Austria, Governor of Hungary.
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Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was the third child and eldest daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia and his second wife Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. She received the usual education of Russian princesses and was taught French and German as well as music and drawing. Alexandra was very close to her younger sister Elena, and they were often painted together.
In 1796, Alexandra's grandmother, the Russian Empress Catherine II, considered the then 18-year-old King Gustav IV of Sweden as a possible husband for Alexandra (who was 13 years old) in order to solve many political problems between Russia and Sweden. Catherine liked the young king very much because he was said to have "a very pleasing face, in which wit and charm were portrayed." Alexandra, on the other hand, was described by contemporaries as "the lovable, caring and most thoughtful of the available princesses in Europe."
Negotiations for the marriage soon started. When the King of Sweden arrived in Russia in August 1796, he and Alexandra fell in love at first sight. He was charmed by her naivete, and he went straight to the Empress Catherine to declare his love for Alexandra and asked for her hand. The Empress was delighted joy. In all the excitement, Catherine had seemed to overlook the matter of religion: as Queen of Sweden, Alexandra would have to convert from her Russian Orthodox faith to Lutheranism. However, Catherine considered that Gustav had implicitly agreed to allow Alexandra to keep her Orthodox faith when he told Alexandra that he loved her. After lengthy negotiations, their betrothal was set for 11 September. On that very day, before taking their vows, Gustav read in the engagement contract that Alexandra would keep her Orthodox faith even after marrying. The young king exploded with anger, declaring that a trap had been laid for him, and he swore that he would never agree to give his people an Orthodox queen. He did not appear at the betrothal ceremony, and Alexandra was grief-stricken. Catherine died of a stroke less than two months after the marriage negotiations. Gustav later married Princess Frederica of Baden, a younger sister of Alexandra's sister-in-law, Elizaveta Alexeievna.
In 1799, three years after the death of Empress Catherine, Tsar Paul decided to join Austria and Prussia in a coalition against the rising power of the French Republic. To cement the alliance, Alexandra was married to Archduke Joseph of Austria, a younger brother of the Emperor Franz II. Archduke Joseph had been made Palatine (Governor) of Hungary. The wedding took place on 30 October 1799, in St Petersburg. The young couple settled in the castle of Alcsút in Hungary.
Alexandra's life in the Austrian court was unhappy. Empress Maria Theresa, the second wife of Emperor Franz II, was jealous of Alexandra's beauty and her fine jewels. Not only that, Alexandra very closely resembled the emperor's first wife, Elizabeth of Wurttemberg, who was Alexandra's maternal aunt. Furthermore, her Orthodox faith aroused the hostility of Roman Catholic Austrian court.
A year and a half later, Alexandra died in Vienna on 16 March 1801, of puerperal fever shortly after giving birth to a daughter, who died on the day of her birth. Alexandra was only 17 years old, and her death occurred during the same week as her father's murder. Both were terrible blows for the Romanov family.
Archduke Joseph built a mauseleom dedicated to his wife, but the Austrian Court refused her burial in any Catholic cemetery. Therefore, Alexandra's coffin remained unburied until the Russian government had her interred in Hungary. During the Vienna Congress, Alexander I and the Grand Duchesses Maria Pavlovna and Ekaterina Pavlovna visited the grave of their sister.Burried later in her own classistic Mausoleum in the German village Üröm (North of Budapest) that stays even today. Her Husband Palatine Joseph of Habsburg (see his statue in Pesth) - foundator of the "Hungarian Habsburgs" and maker of Pesth-Buda to a future capital of Hungary - and his second wife are burried in the Royal Castle of Buda upon the Danube.
Archduke Joseph married twice more and left many descendants.
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