Princess Cecilie of Baden
Princess Cäcilie | |||||
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Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna of Russia | |||||
Kharkov, Russian Empire | |||||
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Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna of Russia (
She received a strict education at the court of Baden in Karlsruhe, becoming a cultured woman. On 28 August 1857, she married Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich of Russia, the youngest son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Upon her marriage, she converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and took the name Olga Feodorovna with the title of Grand Duchess of Russia.[1] Unusually among the Romanovs of her generation, her marriage was a long and happy union. The couple remained devoted to each other. She raised their seven children with an iron hand.
Between 1862 and 1882, she lived with her husband and their children in the
Early life
Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna was born on 20 September 1839, in
Cäcilie's father, Grand Duke Leopold, descended from a morganatic branch of the Baden family (his mother was Luise Geyer von Geyersberg, a noblewoman) and thus did not have rights to a princely status or the sovereign rights of the House of Zähringen of Baden. However, in 1830 he ascended to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Baden after the main male line of his family died out. Leopold was considered the first German ruler who held in his country's liberal reforms.[2]
Cäcilie's mother, Sophie Wilhelmine of Sweden, was a daughter of King
During Cäcilie's childhood, the 1848-49 revolution forced the Grand Ducal family to flee from
Marriage
Princess Cäcilie was 17 years old when her family arranged her marriage to
When Olga came to Russia as Cäcilie, her husband did not like her birth name and chose for her the name Olga Feodorovna, which she took upon her conversion to the Orthodox faith. The marriage took place on 28 August 1857 at the Chapel of
The couple remained close and theirs was a happy marriage.[6] They lived in their own large residence in Saint Petersburg, the New Mikhailovsky Palace, which was built for them in 1861.[5] They also had a summer residence, Mikhailovskoe on the Baltic in Peterhof, and Grushevska, a vast rural estate in southern Ukraine.[7] The couple had seven children. Grand Duchess Olga, with a stronger personality than her husband, was the dominating force in the family. She raised her seven children with an iron hand.
Issue
Name | Birth | Death | Spouse (dates of birth & death) and children[8][9] | |
Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia |
1859 |
26 April1919 |
28 JanuaryUnmarried. He was killed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution; no issue | |
Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia | 1860 |
28 July1922 |
11 March Married 1879 (24 January), Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1851–1897);1 son, 2 daughters. | |
Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia | 1861 |
16 October 1929 |
26 AprilMarried 1891 (26 February), Sophie of Merenberg (1868–1927);1 son, 2 daughters. | |
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia | 1863 |
23 August1919 |
28 JanuaryMarried 1900 (12 May), Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark (1876–1940); 2 daughters. He was killed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution | |
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia | 1866 |
13 April1933 |
26 FebruaryMarried 1894 (6 August), Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia (1875–1960); 1 daughter, 6 sons. | |
Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich of Russia | 1869 |
7 October1918 |
18 JulyUnmarried. He was killed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution; no issue | |
Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of Russia | 1875 |
28 December1895 |
2 MarchUnmarried; no issue |
Grand Duchess
In the fall of 1860 Olga and her husband visited England. Queen Victoria described their meeting in a letter to her daughter Victoria, Crown Princess of Prussia Windsor, 24 October 1860:
They (Michael and Cecile) came to luncheon on Monday and stayed till yesterday. Dear Marie L (Leiningen, née Baden, Cecile's sister) came with them. They were both most amiable and friendly. Cecile is as unlike her sister as possible--but Marie says her features are like their brother Karl. The features are fine but the figure is not good and she stoops and bends which spoils her very much; she is very good humored, merry and agreeable and clever, and the sisters were so happy together...The Grand Duke is really quite charming--so mild and gentle and gemütlich--always speaking German, and so unlike his brother Konstantin and his sisters. We were charmed with him, and I hear wherever he goes--high and low, love him...he looks very delicate, and so I think does she...They say that the little boy of Cecile's (Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia) is lovely. Unfortunately I could not see him.[3]
In 1862 Grand Duke Michael Nikolayevich's brother,
Grand Duchess Olga took part in ceremonies as the viceroy's wife and in supporting many charities, especially in the field of female education.
Final years
With the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the governorship ended in the Caucasus. During the reign of the new Tsar Alexander III of Russia, Grand Duke Michael Nikolayevich served as chairman of the Imperial Council and the family moved back permanently to Saint Petersburg. Alexander III, who did not like Olga, sometimes referred to her behind her back as "Auntie Haber", hinting at her alleged Jewish heritage and illegitimacy. Such rumors of Jewish paternity followed Olga through her life. Her husband was protective of her. The Romanovs were anti-Semitic and Olga, who was not a popular member of the family, was mocked as "Frau Haber."[2]
Grand Duchess Olga was witty and had a strong personality. Her sharp tongue brought her a lot of trouble at the Russian court. She despised the morganatic wife of Alexander II and later she was particularly indignant at Alexander III's decision to limit the number of Grand Dukes, a title her own grandchildren would be deprived of. While her husband busied himself with his military and governmental career, Grand Duchess Olga ruled her family with an iron hand.
In his journals, Alexander Polovtsov, State Secretary during Alexander III's reign, left an unsympathetic portrayal of Grand Duchess Olga. Although he admitted she was clever, he described her as an acid-tongued, quarrelsome, idle woman, who did nothing but sit in her palace on the bank of the Neva river and gaze through the window onto the walking people and speak nasty things about them. Just a sharp-tongued high-society lady without any other hobbies but gossiping and caring about privileges for her children.
Death
Olga, who was tradition-conscious and deeply devout, suffered a terrible blow when her second son, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich contracted an unequal marriage in San Remo on 26 February 1891. The marriage was not only morganatic but also illegal under the statute of the Imperial Family and caused a great scandal at the Russian court. Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich was deprived of his military rank and of his position as adjutant at the Imperial Court and also forbidden to return to Russia for life. When Olga heard of her son's morganatic marriage, she was deeply wounded and fell ill. A few days later, at the insistence of her doctors, she set out for her estate in Crimea, near the Cape of Ai-Todor, to recover her health.[15]
Around noon on 9 April 1891, the express train in which Olga was riding passed through
Ancestry
Ancestors of Princess Cecilie of Baden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
- ^ C. Arnold McNaughton, The Book of Kings: A Royal Genealogy, in 3 volumes (London, U.K.: Garnstone Press, 1973), volume 1, page 320.
- ^ a b c d Cockfield, White Crow, p. 9
- ^ a b Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars, p. 42
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 15
- ^ a b Beéche, The Grand Dukes, p. 83.
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 29
- ^ Beéche, The Grand Dukes, p. 84.
- ISBN 0-11-702247-0, p. 86
- ISBN 0-85021-232-4), pages 134–136
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 12
- ^ a b Cockfield, White Crow, p. 10
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 11
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 17
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 16
- ^ a b Cockfield, White Crow, p. 64
- ^ Cockfield, White Crow, p. 65
Bibliography
- Beéche, Arturo. The Grand Dukes, Eurohistory, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9771961-8-0
- Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia, Once a Grand Duke, Cassell, London, 1932.
- Cockfield, Jamie H, White Crow, Praeger, 2002, ISBN 0-275-97778-1
- King, Greg, Wilson, Penny. Gilded Prism, Eurohistory, 2006, ISBN 0-9771961-4-3
- Perry, John and Pleshakov, Konstantin. The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 0-465-02462-9.
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. The Camera and the Tsars, Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7.