Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (; romanized: Maria Alexandrovna), born Princess Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (8 August 1824 – 3 June 1880), was Empress of Russia as the first wife of Emperor Alexander II.
Known as Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, she was born to Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his wife Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, she was given a good education and raised in relative austerity, with an emphasis on simplicity, piety and domesticity. Her mother died when Marie was only twelve, and when she was fourteen, she caught the eye of Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, who was visiting her father's court while making his Grand Tour of Western Europe. The couple were married after Marie turned sixteen. The new tsesarevna did not initially enjoy court life because of her withdrawn nature, and the fact that she found the splendor and extravagance of the Russian court daunting after the frugality that she was accustomed to. Marie soon grew to identify strongly with her adopted country, and her young age at marriage facilitated this adoption.
After the death of her father-in-law, Nicholas I, in 1855, Alexander became emperor and, now known as Maria, she became empress consort of Russia. After the death of her mother-in-law in 1860, Maria took on a greater role in public life. She became one of the founders of the Russian Red Cross Society, part of the International Red Cross Movement which was founded in 1863 to promote nursing and medical care across the world. She also established Russia's first all-female schools. She gave her husband strong moral support as he navigated the legislations to end serfdom. She also interested herself in the arts: The Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Mariinskyi Palace were built under her patronage and named after her.
Despite identifying strongly with Russia and Russian interests, she visited her native Hesse regularly every year from the early 1860s onward, and kept in touch with her own family, as also with her husband's relatives across Europe. She suffered from tuberculosis from 1863 onwards and spent long periods of time in southern Europe to avoid the harsh winters of Russia. Her health worsened after the death of her eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, who died just before the date of his intended wedding. She was noted for her wisdom and intellect, and her generous devotion to family, including her husband's mistress and her children.
Childhood
thumb|upright|left|Marie of Hesse with her family in 1841: The statue is her grandfather [[Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse|Ludwig I. Her father Ludwig II stands in the left center; her uncle Georg is to the left of Ludwig; her uncle Friderich is between them; and her uncle Emil stands on the extreme right. The portrait is her mother Wilhelmine. Her eldest brother Ludwig III is the tall man in the center behind her sister-in-law, his wife Mathilde. Her brother Karl is on the extreme left, behind his wife Elisabeth and their children, Ludwig IV and Heinrich. Her brother Alexander is standing between his brother and the statue, while Marie herself stands to the right of the statue. Her husband Alexander is between her and Emil.]]
Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie was born on 8 August 1824 in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, the youngest of seven siblings born to Prince Hereditary Ludwig of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, sister of Russian Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. Although her parents were double first cousins, they were a mismatched couple: Ludwig was dull, shy and withdrawn, while Wilhelmine, eleven years his junior, was pretty and charming. Of those four children, Marie and her brother Alexander, who was a year older, lived to adulthood. While Prince Ludwig officially recognized the children as his, In 1830, their paternal grandfather, Ludwig I of Hesse, died and their father became the new reigning Grand Duke. The ducal couple gradually reconciled and used Heiligenberg in the summer months. His parents had preselected Princess Alexandrine of Baden, but he was unmoved. On 13 March, after visiting the courts of Prussia, Württemberg and Baden, Alexander's entourage made an unplanned stop at the court of Hesse. they stopped for one day in Darmstadt because it was on their way and they needed some rest. Alexander's tutor, Vasily Zhukovsky, who was traveling with him, described the Princess as: "modest, charming and even intelligent."
Alexander was smitten and stayed to dine with the boring Ludwig II to see Marie again. Before he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket containing a piece of her hair. That night Alexander wrote to his father: "I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England." In early June, Alexander returned to Darmstadt to propose to Marie, who accepted. As she wasn't yet fifteen, a long engagement period was necessary before the actual marriage would take place.
The engagement between the Princess of Hesse and the Russian Tsesarevich was officially announced in April 1840.
Having been raised in the Lutheran religion, Marie was received into the Russian Orthodox Church on and became Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. On the next day, the official betrothal was held in the presence of the Imperial Family, the whole court, the Russian nobility, many notable foreign guests, and representatives of foreign states. The wedding took place on in the Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, on the eve of Alexander's twenty-third birthday. Maria wore a white dress richly embroidered with silver, a crimson robe with white satin and fine ermine fastened on her shoulders, and diamond jewelry (tiara, earrings, a necklace, and bracelets). Her future mother-in-law decorated her hair with orange blossoms sticking them between the diamonds in her tiara and pinned a small branch on her chest. The wedding was attended by members of the Russian Imperial family, the court and numerous guests and it was followed by a festive dinner ball.
First years
After the wedding, the young couple settled in a suite of rooms in the south-west block of the Winter Palace.
Maria Alexandrovna struggled to assimilate herself with the court and make friends. Endless balls and court receptions bored her, but etiquette obliged her to fulfill the duties of representation as the wife of the Tsarevich. She reflected that life at court demanded "daily heroism... I lived like a volunteer fireman, ready to jump up at the alarm. Of course, I wasn't too sure about where to run or what to do." She preferred country life in Tsarskoye Selo, where she enjoyed a more private life.
Maria won the approval of her father-in-law, Nicholas I. Nicholas I forbade anyone from discussing, or even thinking about, any rumors about her.
Like her mother, Maria took great interest in horticulture and imported flowers from her native Germany, such as lilies of the valley and cowslips. In the mornings, she took long walks with her ladies-in-waiting through the parks at the Catherine and Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo.
In this early period of her life in Russia, Maria was guided by her husband's aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. Although seventeen years apart in age, the two women became close friends and frequently ran their salons as a joint venture.
Maria and Alexander made a happy couple, full of tender care for one another. He ordered that banquets of fresh strawberries should be placed on his wife's dining table and enjoyed her company spending his mornings sitting on her bed. Even many years later, she would still cry over the death of her eldest child. In January 1850, she gave birth to a fourth son, Grand Duke Alexei.
Empress
thumb| Portrait by [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1857]]
On 18 February 1855, Nicholas I died of pneumonia and was succeeded by Alexander to the Russian throne as Tsar. It was a turbulent period as Russian troops were being defeated by an international coalition in the Crimean War. After a siege lasting eleven months, Sevastopol fell in September 1855. With a prospect of invasion from the west if the war continued, Russia sued for peace in March 1856 in Paris. The humiliation of defeat was left behind by the coronation festivities that were held with Byzantine splendor from 14 to 26 August 1856. The coronation ceremony lasted five hours took place at the Assumption Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin on . When four court ladies tried to fix the crown to the 30-year-old Empress's head it nearly clattered to the ground, saved only by the fold of her cloak, a bad omen by the time.
Nine months after the coronation, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to a fifth son, Sergei, in April 1857. Suffering from depression, she was sent to Kissingen to recuperate. On 3 October [O.S. 21 September] 1860, she gave birth to Paul, her eighth and final child, but was so weakened that she was forced to spend several months resting on a couch in her boudoir in the Winter Palace. A month later, her mother-in-law died. The women's committees recollected twice the average funds recollected by provincial committees.
Maria Alexandrovna was the supreme patroness of the Red Cross: In total, she patronized 5 hospitals, 12 alms-houses, 30 shelters, 2 institutes, 38 gymnasiums, 156 lower schools, and 5 private charitable societies. Empress Maria expanded charitable activities during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The beginning of a new era in women's education in Russia was marked by her establishment of open all-union women's educational institutions in 1872. By contrast, the Slavophiles, led by Aleksey Khomyakov, the two Aksakov brothers, Konstantine and Ivan, and Ivan Kireyevsky and his brother Pyotr Kireevsky advocated three principles: Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism.
Maria Alexandrovna embraced Slavism with fervor and encouraged capitalism. She also played an important role in the liberation of the serfs that came into fruition with the Emancipation Proclamation on , ending serfdom in Russia. While subzero temperatures and icy winds kept the streets empty, balls and banquets were held indoors in overheated palaces, where their gracious host, Alexander II, gave intimate parties known as Les Bals des Palmières for which hundreds of palm trees were brought to the Winter Palace in horse-drawn boxes. However, Maria Alexandrovna did not share her husband's enthusiasm since she still disliked court events and considered Russian nobility frivolous. Society complained that she seemed cold, distant, and had no taste in dress.
Empress Maria expressed her anger about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russia and her poor treatment of her daughter-in-law and Empress Maria's daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She complained to her brother Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse that England was "certainly hostile to us. That makes the Tsar very anxious, on Marie's account too." When she learned about Queen Victoria's negative view of Russians, she wrote "The insulting things that the Queen says in her letters to Alfred about the Tsar and the Russian people are worthy of a fish-wife. Added to this is her grief that 'our dear Marie' should belong to a nation from whose vocabulary the words truth, justice, and humanity are lacking. Silly old fool." When her daughter Maria complained about Queen Victoria, she sympathized with Maria: "To be quite frank, it is difficult to take such a mother-in-law seriously, and I am sorry on Marie's account."
Declining health
thumb|right|Empress Maria Alexandrovna wearing a mourning dress.
left|thumb|The Mariinskyi Palace as it appeared in 1918.
As Empress consort, Maria Alexandrovna had to attend many state functions, but from the 1860s her health declined. The doctors advised her to spend the winters in a warm climate and stop
intercourse with her husband in an effort to prolong her life. Preferring to remain in Russia, she agreed to the suggestion of recuperating in Crimea. Alexander II then bought for his wife the Livadia villa, a two-story wooden villa from the heirs of Polish Count Lev Potocki. At the end of August 1861, Maria, her husband, and their children Alexei, Sergei and Paul visited Crimea for the first time. The modest villa was expanded with the additions of a large palace, a small palace, and a church. Construction took place between 1862 and 1866 under the direction of Ippolito Monighetti, a Russian architect who had redecorated her apartments in the Catherine Palace in the 1850s.
Feeling better, Maria Alexandrovna financed the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Peterburg in 1859–1860, built according to the plans of architect Albert Cavos as an opera and ballet house. The theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness. (The name was changed into Kirov Theatre during the Soviet period, but the original name was restored in 1992, and at present there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer.)
The humid summers in Saint Petersburg began to take a toll on Maria's frail constitution, to the point she was absent from Russia's capital for long periods of time. In June 1864, she left Russia, accompanied by her husband and their three youngest children, to take the waters in the Bavarian spa of Bad Kissingen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria came to meet his distant aunt and became infatuated with her. In late July, Alexander II returned to Russia, but Maria traveled to Bad Schwalbach, where she celebrated her birthday with Ludwig II. In late August, the whole family was reunited in Darmstadt.
As she was still sick, Maria Alexandrovna spent the winter in Nice, where she received the announcement of the Tsarevich's engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Nicholas was nevertheless in frail health and joined his mother in Nice in early 1865, but was seriously ill with meningitis of the spine by then. Attended by her brother Alexander and her sister-in-law, the Empress did not leave her son's side during his illness. Nicholas was initially misdiagnosed with simple rheumatism and deteriorated rapidly. The whole family gathered around his deathbed on . Princess Dagmar, who was with the Romanovs during her fiancé's final days, was quickly engaged to his brother, the future Emperor Alexander III, whom she would marry the following year. Both Alexander II and Maria were devastated by the death of their eldest son on whom their hopes for the future lay. The Tsarina spent the following year grieving and found some solace with her family in Hesse, since her brother Karl had recently lost his only daughter Anna. It was in total disrepair and abandoned for almost half a century after the palace burned down in a series of fires in the early 19th century. The commission was assigned in 1867 to the architect Konstantin Mayevsky, using old drawings and watercolors as guide. Work took place from 1868 to 1870 and the Kievan palace was then renamed Mariinskyi Palace after the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. By her wish, a large park was established off the southern side of the palace. The palace was used as a residence for visiting members of the imperial family until 1917.
Last years
thumb|right|Empress Maria Alexandrovna with two of her children: Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna and Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich.
From the early 1860s through the 1870s, Maria Alexandrovna began to pay extended visits to her homeland. Usually accompanied by her husband, children and their Russian entourage, she stayed at Schloss Heiligenberg, the small castle of her brother Alexander, who lived with his morganatic wife and their children at Jugenheim outside Darmstadt. There she met Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of her nephew Louis of Hesse. She resisted Alice's suggestion that her brother, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, marry her only daughter Maria, but the couple would wed anyway in 1874. In December 1875, Empress Maria visited England to meet her first British grandchild. Queen Victoria wrote in her diary: "I thought her very ladylike, kind and amiable. We were at ease at once, but she has a sad expression and looks so delicate. I think we should get on very well together, poor thing. I pity her much."
After Princess Alice died in 1878, it was Maria Alexandrovna's turn to pity the British royal family. She invited her motherless relatives to visit during the holidays she spent with brother Alexander at Heiligenberg. It was during these visits that her second youngest son Sergei met his future wife, Alice's second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. It was also here that Maria met Elisabeth's youngest surviving sister, Princess Alix, who would eventually become the devoted and ill-fated wife of Maria's eldest grandson, Emperor Nicholas II.
Tsar Alexander had three children with Princess Dolgorukova, When the Grand Duchess Marie made a visit to her mother in May 1880, she was horrified to learn of the imperial mistress' living arrangements and confronted her father. Courtiers spread stories that the dying Empress was forced to hear the noise of Catherine's children moving about overhead, but their rooms were actually far away from each other. After Maria Alexandrovna asked to meet her husband's children with Catherine, he brought their two older children, George and Olga, to her deathbed, where she kissed and blessed both children. Both rulers were in tears during the meeting. With her blessing, the couple entered into a morganatic marriage on .
Empress Maria Alexandrovna died on 3 June 1880, aged 55. She was buried with full dignity with her children present and remembered for her wisdom and grace. In later years, Nicholas II's eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga, claimed that as a small child she saw the ghost of her great-grandmother, according to her nanny Margaretta Eagar.
Issue
thumb|320px|left|Empress Maria Alexandrovna with her husband and children. Seated in the first row, left to right are: [[Alexander II of Russia|Emperor Alexander II, Tsarevna Maria Feodorovna with her son Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich on her lap, and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. In the second row, same order: Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich, Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich, and Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. c 1870.]]
Through her marriage with Alexander II, Maria Alexandrovna gave birth to and raised eight children, which consisted of six sons and two daughters:
{| border=1 style="border-collapse: collapse;"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
!Name!!Birth!!Death!!Notes
|-
|Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna||30 August 1842||10 July 1849||nicknamed Lina, died of infant meningitis in St. Petersburg at the age of six
|-
|Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich||20 September 1843||24 April 1865||engaged to Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna)
|-
|Emperor Alexander III||10 March 1845||1 November 1894||married 1866, Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna); had issue
|-
|Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich||22 April 1847||17 February 1909||married 1874, Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna); had issue
|-
|Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich||14 January 1850||14 November 1908||
|-
|Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna||17 October 1853||20 October 1920||married 1874, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; had issue
|-
|Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich||11 May 1857||17 February 1905||married 1884, Elisabeth of Hesse (Elizabeth Feodorovna);
|-
|Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich||3 October 1860||24 January 1919||married 1889, Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Alexandra Georgievna); had issue – second marriage 1902, Olga Karnovich; had issue
|}
Honours
- : Dame of the Order of Queen Saint Isabel, 20 February 1861
- : Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa
The city of Mariinsk in Kemerovo Oblast, and the city of Mariehamn in Åland are named after Empress Maria.
Ancestry
Notes
References
- Banks, ECS. Road to Ekaterinburg: Nicholas and Alexandra's Daughters 1913–1918. SilverWood Books 2012.
- Cowles, Virginia. The Romanovs. Harper & Ross, 1971.
- Gilbert, Paul. My Russia: The Children's Island, Alexander Park, Tsarkoye Selo. Published in Royal Russia: a Celebration of the Romanov Dynasty & Imperial Russia in Words & Photographs. No 4. Gilbert's Books, 2013.
- Gilbert, Paul. Alexander II and Tsarkoe Selo. Published in Royal Russia Annual: a Celebration of the Romanov Dynasty & Imperial Russia in Words & Photographs. No 2. Gilbert's Books, 2012.
- King, Greg. Livadia in the Reign of Alexander II. Published in Imperial Crimea: Estates Enchanment & The Last of the Romanovs. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.
- Markelov I.I. Memories of 1839. The first meeting of Emperor Alexander II and the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Russian Antiquity., 94, No.4 .. – 1898. – 19–22 p.
- Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. Burke's Royal Families of the World: Volume I Europe & Latin America, 1977, pp. 212–215, 474–476.
- Nelipa, Margarita. Alexander III His Life and Reign. Gilbert's Books, 2014.
- Radzinsky, Edvard. Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar. Free Press, 2006.
- Tiutcheva, Anna Feodorovna. At the court of two Emperors. Moscow, Novosti. 1990.
- Suleymanov, Irek. "Empress Maria Alexadrovna (1824-1880)". Moscow. ESPO, 2024.
- Van der Kiste, John. The Romanovs 1818–1959. Sutton Publishing, 1999. .
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. Heiligenberg: Our Ardently Loved Hill. Published in Royalty Digest. No 49. July 1995.
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. The Camera and the Tsars, Sutton Publishing, 2004. .
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn:Stories from the last century of Imperial Russia. Sutton Publishing, 2000.
External links
- Profile, Mariagessen.narod.ru
- Манифестъ. — О кончинѣ Ея Императорскаго Величества Государыни Императрицы Маріи Александровны.