| Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna | |
|---|---|
| Princess of Leiningen | |
| Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna | |
| Spouse | Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen |
| Issue | |
| Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen Prince Karl of Leiningen Kira, Princess Andrej of Yugoslavia Margarita, Princess of Hohenzollern Princess Mechtilde of Leiningen Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Leiningen Prince Peter of Leiningen |
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| Full name | |
| Maria Kirillovna Romanova | |
| House | House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov |
| Father | Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia |
| Mother | Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Born | 2 February 1907 Coburg, Bavaria, Germany |
| Died | 25 October 1951 (aged 44) Madrid, Spain |
Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, (2 February 1907 – 25 October 1951) was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. She was born in Coburg when her parents were in exile because their marriage had not been approved by Tsar Nicholas II. She was generally called "Marie," the French version of her name, or by the Russian nickname "Masha." The family returned to Russia prior to World War I, but was forced to flee following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
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Maria was raised in Coburg and in Saint-Briac, France. She was born Princess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, but her father granted her the title of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia when he declared himself Guardian of the Throne in 1924. As a child, the dark-haired, dark-eyed Maria [1] took after her maternal grandmother Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia in appearance, with a wide, round face [2] and a tendency to be overweight and to look older than her actual age when she was still a teenager.[3] She was described as "shy and easy-going" [2] but also had her share of mishaps. In 1924, when she was seventeen, the "flighty" [4] Maria visited her aunt Queen Marie of Romania and carried on a flirtation with the son-in-law of a lady-in-waiting at the Romanian court.[4] Her fifteen-year-old cousin, Princess Ileana of Romania, spread rumors about the flirtation when Maria returned home, resulting in strained relations between Marie of Romania and Maria's mother Victoria.[4] Eventually the conflict was smoothed over.
The following year, on 24 February 1925, Maria was engaged to a relatively minor prince, Friedrich Karl (13 February 1898 – 2 August 1946), the hereditary Prince of Leiningen.[5] Victoria was at her daughter's bedside when she gave birth to her first child, Emich Kirill, in 1926.[6] She also attended the subsequent births of Maria's children. Maria had seven children in all, one of whom died in infancy during World War II. Her husband was forced to join the German army and was taken captive by the Soviets at the end of World War II. He died of starvation in a Russian concentration camp in 1946. Maria, left with little money, struggled to support her surviving six children. She died five years later of a heart attack at age forty-four.[7]
Maria had seven children:
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