Princess Charlotte of Württemberg

Princess Charlotte of Württemberg (Stuttgart, 9 January 1807 – Stuttgart, 2 February 1873) was, as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia, the wife of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia. He was the youngest son of Tsar Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Life

She was born as Princess Friederike Charlotte Marie of Württemberg, eldest daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest compared to royal standards. It was in Paris that Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.

In 1822, she was engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia. It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15. The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations. In 1823, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Elena Pavlovna. In 20 February 1824, the couple married in Saint Petersburg and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters:

• Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (9 March 1825 Moscow – 19 November 1846 Vienna); died unmarried
• Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (26 May 1826 Moscow – 28 January 1845 Wiesbaden); married Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg and died in childbirth
• Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna of Russia (28 August 1827 Saint Petersburg – 12 May 1894 Saint Petersburg), married Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831 Moscow – 27 March 1832 Moscow)
• Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834 Moscow – 22 March 1836 Saint Petersburg)

Elena was a close friend of her brother-in-law, Alexander I of Russia and his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the then Tsarevich Alexander. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire as well as a group of nursing sisters which would eventually become the forerunners of the Red Cross in Russia.

As a patroness of the composer Anton Rubinstein, she commissioned his first three operas: Fomka the Fool (1853), The Siberian Hunters, and Vengeance. ^[1]

Elena died at the age of 66.

Ancestry

Bibliography

• Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russians. 1983
• Taylor, Philip S., Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music, Indianapolis, 2007
• Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn. 2001

Notes