Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |
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Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia | |
Grand Ducal Mausoleum , Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg | |
Spouses | Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine (m. 1894; div. 1901) |
Issue | |
Protestant (1876–1907) |
Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia
Born a
Victoria married Kirill in 1905. They wed without the formal approval of Britain's King
Early life
Victoria was born on 25 November 1876 in
As a patrilineal grandchild of the British monarch, Victoria Melita was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Edinburgh. Within her family, she was always known as "Ducky". At the time of her birth, she was 10th in the
After the Duke's service in Malta was over, the family returned to England, where they lived for the next few years. They divided their time between Eastwell Park, their country home in Kent, and Clarence House, their residence in London facing Buckingham Palace. Eastwell, a large estate of 2,500 acres near Ashford, with its forest and park was the children's favorite residence.[3] In January 1886, shortly after Princess Victoria turned nine, the family left England when her father was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean naval squadron, based on Malta. For the next three years, the family lived at the San Anton Palace in Malta, Victoria's birthplace.[4]
The marriage of Victoria's parents was unhappy. The Duke was taciturn, unfaithful, prone to drinking and emotionally detached from his family. Victoria's mother was independent-minded and cultured. Although she was unsentimental and strict, the Duchess was a devoted mother and the most important person in her children's lives.[5] As a child, Victoria had a difficult temperament. She was shy, serious and sensitive. In the judgment of her sister Marie: "This passionate child was often misunderstood."[6] Princess Victoria Melita was talented at drawing and painting and learned to play the piano.[7] She was particularly close to Marie. The two sisters would remain very close throughout their lives.[8] They contrasted in appearance and personality. Victoria was dark and moody while Marie was blonde and easy-going.[6] Although she was one year younger, Victoria was taller and seemed to be the older of the two.[9]
Youth in Coburg
As a son of Queen Victoria's deceased husband,
The teenage Victoria was a "tall, dark girl, with violet eyes ... with the assuredness of an Empress and the high spirits of a
Soon after her sister Marie was married to
Grand Duchess of Hesse
Victoria and Ernest proved incompatible. Victoria despaired of her husband's lack of affection towards her, while Ernest devoted much of his attention to their daughter, who he adored. Elisabeth, who physically resembled her mother, preferred the company of her father to Victoria.[17] Ernest and Victoria both enjoyed entertaining and frequently held house parties for young friends. Their unwritten rule was that anyone over thirty "was old and out."[18] Formality was dispensed with and royal house guests were referred to by their nicknames and encouraged to do as they wished. Victoria and Ernest cultivated friends who were progressive artists and intellectuals as well as those who enjoyed fun and frolic. Victoria's cousin Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark remembered one stay there as "the jolliest, merriest house party to which I have ever been in my life."[19]
Victoria was, however, less enthusiastic about fulfilling her public role. She avoided answering letters, put off visits to elderly relations whose company she did not enjoy, and talked to people who amused her at official functions while ignoring people of higher standing who she found boring.[20] Victoria's inattention to her duties provoked quarrels with Ernest. The young couple had loud, physical fights. The volatile Victoria shouted, threw tea trays, smashed china against the wall, and tossed anything that was handy at Ernest during their arguments.[20] Victoria sought relief in her love for horses and long gallops over the countryside on a hard-to-control stallion named Bogdan.[21] While she was in Russia for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, Victoria's affection for Kirill was also rekindled. She enjoyed flirting with him at the balls and celebrations that marked the coronation.[22]
Divorce
Victoria and Ernest's suffered a further blow in 1897, when Victoria returned home from a visit to her sister Queen Marie of Romania and reportedly caught Ernest in bed with a male servant. She did not make her accusation public, but told a niece that "no boy was safe, from the stable hands to the kitchen help. He slept quite openly with them all."[23][24] Queen Victoria was saddened when she heard of trouble in the marriage from Sir George Buchanan, her chargé d'affaires, but refused to consent to her grandchildren's divorce because of their daughter, Elisabeth.[25] Efforts to rekindle the marriage failed and, when Queen Victoria died in January 1901, significant opposition to the end of the marriage was removed.[26]
Ernest, who had at first resisted the divorce, came to believe it was the only possible step. "Now that I am calmer I see the absolute impossibility of going on leading a life which was killing her and driving me nearly mad," Ernest wrote to his elder sister
After her divorce, Victoria went to live with her mother at Coburg and at her house in the French Riviera.[29] She and Ernest shared custody of Elisabeth, who spent six months of each year with each parent. Elisabeth blamed Victoria for the divorce and Victoria had a difficult time reconnecting with her daughter. Ernest wrote in his memoirs that Elisabeth hid under a sofa, crying, before one visit to her mother. The Grand Duke assured the child that her mother loved her too. Elisabeth responded, "Mama says she loves me, but you do love me." Ernest remained silent and did not correct Elisabeth's impression.[17]
Elisabeth died at age eight and a half of typhoid fever during a November 1903 visit to Tsar Nicholas II and his family at their Polish hunting lodge. The doctor advised the Tsar's family to notify the child's mother of her illness, but it is rumored that the Tsarina delayed in sending a telegram. Victoria received the final telegram notifying her of the child's death just as she was preparing to travel to Poland to be at her bedside.[30] At Elisabeth's funeral, Victoria removed her Hessian Order, a medallion, and placed it on her daughter's coffin as a final gesture "that she had made a final break with her old home."[31]
Remarriage
After Victoria's divorce from Ernest, Grand Duke Kirill, whom she had seen on all her subsequent visits to Russia, was discouraged by his parents from trying to keep a close relationship with her. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna told Kirill to keep Victoria as his mistress and marry someone else.[32]
A few months later, war broke out between Russia and Japan. As a senior member of the navy, Kirill was sent on active service to the front in the
The couple married on 8 October 1905 in
Victoria, who had matured as she entered her 30s,
Grand Duchess of Russia
Nicholas II reinstated Kirill after deaths in the Russian imperial family promoted Kirill to third in the line of succession to the Russian throne. Kirill and Victoria were allowed in Russia, Victoria was granted the title of Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna,[42] and in May 1910 the couple arrived in St Petersburg.[43] The new grand duchess enjoyed entertaining at evening dinners and lavish balls attended by the cream of Saint Petersburg society.[44] Victoria had an artistic talent that she applied to home decoration in her several elaborate residences, which she arranged attractively. She decorated, gardened, and rode, and also enjoyed painting, particularly watercolors.[45]
Victoria fit in within the Russian aristocracy and the circle of her mother-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.[16] As French was frequently spoken in high circles, Victoria never completely mastered the Russian language.[46] Although she was a first cousin of both Nicholas II, on her mother's side, and to Empress Alexandra, on her father's side, the relationship with them was neither close nor warm. As Kirill became a keen auto racer, the couple often took trips by car; a favorite pastime was traveling through the Baltic provinces. Victoria dreaded the long Russian winter with its short days, and she traveled abroad, frequently visiting her sister Marie in Romania and her mother in the south of France or in Coburg. Victoria and her husband had a close relationship with their daughters, Maria and Kira. The family was spending the summer of 1914 on their yacht in the Gulf of Finland. The family arrived in Tartu on 24 July for the third Victoria Prize motor race which finished in Riga when the war broke out. Kirill was the Honorary President of the Baltic Automobile and Aero Club and participated in the race along with Baltic and German nobility.[47][48]
War
During
When Rasputin was murdered in December 1916, Victoria and Kirill signed a letter along with other relatives asking the Tsar to show leniency to Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, one of those implicated in the murder. The Tsar denied their request. Twice during the war Victoria visited Romania, where her sister Marie was now queen, volunteering aid for war victims. Victoria returned to Saint Petersburg in February 1917. Kirill had been appointed commander of the Naval Guards, quartered in Saint Petersburg, so he could be with his family for some time. Although publicly loyal to the Tsar, Victoria and Kirill began to meet in private with other relatives to discuss the best way to save the monarchy.[citation needed]
Revolution
At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and political turmoil followed.[52] Victoria wrote to Queen Marie of Romania in February 1917 that their home was surrounded by a mob, "yet heart and soul we are with this movement of freedom which at the time probably signs our own death warrant ... We personally are losing all, our lives changed at one blow and yet we are almost leading the movement."[53] By March 1917, the revolution had spread all over Petrograd (Saint Petersburg).
Kirill led his naval unit to the Provisional Government on 14 March 1917, which was obliged to share headquarters with the new Petrograd Soviet, and swore loyalty to its leadership, hoping to restore order and preserve the monarchy. It was an action which later provoked criticism from some members of the family, who viewed it as treason.[54] Victoria supported her husband and felt he was doing the right thing.[55] She also sympathized with the people who wanted to reform the government. Kirill was forced to resign his command of the Naval Guards, but nevertheless his men remained faithful and they continued to guard Kirill and Victoria's palace on Glinka Street. Close to despair, Victoria wrote to her sister Marie of Romania that they had "neither pride nor hope, nor money, nor future, and the dear past blotted out by the frightful present; nothing is left, nothing."[56]
Anxious for their safety, Kirill and Victoria decided that the best thing to do was to leave Russia. They chose Finland as the best possible place to go. Although a territory of the Russian Empire, Finland possessed its own government and constitution, so in a way it would be like being in Russia and not being at the same time. They had already been once invited to Haikko, a beautiful estate, near Porvoo, a small town on the south coast of Finland, not far away from Helsinki. The Provisional Government permitted them to leave, though they were not allowed to take anything of value with them. They sewed jewels into the family's clothing, hoping they would not be discovered by the authorities.[57]
Exile
After two weeks in Haikko, the family moved to a rented house in
Victoria pleaded with her cousin
After more than two years living under strained conditions, in the autumn of 1919 Victoria and Kirill left Finland and went to Germany.[62] In Munich they were reunited with Victoria's mother and the family group moved to Zürich in September 1919.[63] With the death of Victoria's mother, she inherited her villa, Chateau Fabron in Nice and her residence in Coburg, the Edinburg Palais. In the following years the exiled family divided their time between these two places.[64][65]
While in Germany, Victoria showed an interest in the
Claims to the Russian throne
Kirill suffered a nervous breakdown in 1923 and Victoria nursed him back to health. She encouraged his dreams of restoring the monarchy in Russia and becoming tsar.
By the mid-1920s, Victoria worried over the prospects of her children. Maria, her eldest daughter, married the head of one of Germany's
In the mid-1920s, the German government established relations with Moscow and the presence of Kirill and his wife, pretenders to the Russian throne, became an embarrassment.
Victoria was exceedingly protective of her son Vladimir, upon whom her hopes for the future rested. She would not let him attend school because she was worried about his safety and because she wanted him to be brought up as Romanov grand dukes were prior to the revolution. Instead, she hired a tutor for him. She also refused to let him be educated for a future career.[79] In return for her devotion, Vladimir loved and respected his mother. "We adored our parents and their love for us was infinite," Vladimir wrote after their deaths. "All the hardships and bitterness we had to endure in the years were fully covered by our mutual love. We were proud of (them)."[80]
Last years
In Saint-Briac, during the summer, Kirill played golf and he and Victoria joined in picnics and excursions.[75] They were part of the social life of the community, going out to play bridge and organizing theatricals.[75] During the winter Victoria and her husband enjoyed visiting nearby Dinard and invited friends home for parties and games.[75] However, it was rumored in town that Kirill went to Paris "for the occasional fling".[81] Victoria, who had devoted her life to Kirill, was devastated when she discovered in 1933 that her husband had been unfaithful to her, according to correspondence of her sister Marie of Romania.[82] She kept up a façade for the sake of her children, including her teenage son Vladimir, but was unable to forgive Kirill's betrayal.[83] Victoria suffered a stroke soon after attending the christening of her fifth grandchild, Mechtilde of Leiningen, in February 1936. Family and friends arrived, but nothing could be done. When her closest sister reached her bedside Victoria was asked if she was glad Marie had come, to which Victoria haltingly replied, "It makes all the difference." However, she "shuddered away from Kirill's touch," wrote Marie.[84] She died on 1 March 1936. Queen Marie eulogized her sister in a letter after her death: "The whole thing was tragic beyond imagination, a tragic end to a tragic life. She carried tragedy within her – she had tragic eyes – always – even as a little girl – but we loved her enormously, there was something mighty about her – she was our Conscience."[85]
Victoria was buried in the ducal family mausoleum at
Archives
Victoria Melita's letters to her sister Alexandra are preserved in the Hohenlohe Central Archive (Hohenlohe-Zentralarchiv Neuenstein) in Neuenstein Castle in the town of Neuenstein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[90] [91]
Honours and arms
Honours
- United Kingdom:
- CI: Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, 11 December 1893[92]
- VA: Dame of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 1st Class[93]
- GCStJ: Dame Grand Cross of the
- RRC: Member of the Royal Red Cross[49][94]
- CI: Companion of the
- Kingdom of Prussia: Dame of the Order of Louise, 1st Division
- Ernestine duchies: Dame of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order[96]
- Grand Duchy of Hesse:
- Dame of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of the Golden Lion, in Brilliants, 19 April 1894[97]
- Dame Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig, in Brilliants, 25 November 1898[97]
- Medal of the Merit Order of Philip the Magnanimous[31]
- Kingdom of Romania: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania
- Russian Empire:
- Restoration (Spain): Dame of the Royal Order of Noble Ladies of Queen Maria Luisa, 31 October 1913[100]
British arms
As a male-line grandchild of the British monarch, Victoria Melita bore the
Coat of arms of Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Ancestry
Ancestors of Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine | | ||||||||||||
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15. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden | |||||||||||||
Notes
- ^ Michael John Sullivan, A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, Random House, 1997, p. 7
- ^ Yvonne's Royalty Home Page — Royal Christenings Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, uniserve.com; accessed 22 March 2014.
- ^ Sullivan, p. 34
- ^ Sullivan, p. 63
- ^ John Van der Kiste, Princess Victoria Melita, Sutton Publishing, 1991, p. 15
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 37
- ^ Sullivan, p. 56
- ^ Sullivan, p. 38
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 14
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 80–82
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 87–88
- ^ Sullivan, p. 115
- ^ John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999, p. 83
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 93, 114
- ^ Sullivan, p. 113
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 126
- ^ a b Sullivan, pp. 217–218
- ^ Sullivan, p. 146
- ^ Sullivan, p. 148
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 152
- ^ Sullivan, p. 153
- ^ Sullivan, p. 157
- ^ Terence Elsberry, Marie of Romania, St. Martin's Press, 1972, p.62
- ^ Sullivan, p. 182
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 189–190
- ^ Van der Kiste, pp. 60–61
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 208
- ^ Sullivan, p. 209
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 81
- ^ Sullivan, p. 223
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 224
- ^ Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, Sutton Publishing, 2004, p. 107
- ^ Sullivan, p. 229
- ^ Sullivan, p. 230
- ^ Sullivan, p. 233
- ^ Sullivan, p. 236
- ^ Sullivan, p. 237.
- ^ Sullivan, p. 243
- ^ Sullivan, p. 246
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 247
- ^ Sullivan, p. 252
- Feodorovna as a Romanov patronymic
- ^ Sullivan, p. 253
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 274–275.
- ^ Sullivan, p. 262
- ^ Sullivan, p. 254
- ^ Sullivan, p. 283
- ^ Reneé Levoll, The Last Motor Race of The Empire 2014 ISBN 9789949380602 accessed 15 Dec 2023.
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 288
- ^ Sullivan, p. 271
- ^ Sullivan, p. 272
- ^ Sullivan, p. 313
- ^ Zeepvat, p. 214
- ^ Sullivan, p. 314
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 311–312
- ^ Van der Kiste, 105
- ^ Sullivan, p. 321
- ^ Sullivan, p. 325
- ^ Sullivan, p. 333
- ^ Sullivan, p. 341
- ^ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 228
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 145
- ^ Sullivan, p. 343
- ^ Sullivan, p. 349
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 147
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 353–354
- ^ Sullivan, p. 354
- ^ Sullivan, p. 355
- ^ Sullivan, p. 357
- ^ Sullivan, 364
- ^ Sullivan, p. 371
- ^ Sullivan, p. 379
- ^ Sullivan, p. 374
- ^ a b Sullivan, p. 377
- ^ a b c d Van der Kiste, p. 163
- ^ Sullivan, p. 375
- ^ Sullivan, p. 376
- ^ Perry and Pleshakov, pp. 307–308
- ^ Van der Kiste, p. 139
- ^ Sullivan, p. 390
- ^ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 308
- ^ Sullivan, p. 393
- ^ Sullivan, p. 395
- ^ Sullivan, 404
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 403–404
- ^ Klüglein, Norbert (1991). Coburg Stadt und Land (German). Verkehrsverein Coburg.
- ^ Sullivan, pp. 406–407
- ^ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 309
- ^ Sullivan, p. 234
- ^ "Briefe an Alexandra von ihrer Schwester Großherzogin Viktoria von Hessen und bei Rhein (später Großfürstin von Russland) (1876–1936), 1893–1899".
- ^ "Briefe an Alexandra von ihrer Schwester Großherzogin Viktoria von Hessen und bei Rhein (später Großfürstin von Russland), 1900–1905".
- ^ "No. 26467". The London Gazette. 15 December 1893. p. 7319.
- ^ Joseph Whitaker (1897). An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord ... J. Whitaker. p. 110.
- ^ a b "Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh & Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1844–1900)". 13 October 2007. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007.
- ^ "Queen Marie of Romania (when Crown Princess) and her sister Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Hesse | Grand Ladies | gogm". www.gogmsite.net.
- ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (1900), Genealogy p. 2
- ^ a b Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1907, pp. 2, 5
- ^ "Historical review of the Order of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine or the Order of Liberation". The Court Calendar for 1911. St. Petersburg: Suppliers of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Vol. R. Golike and A. Wilborg, 1910. p. 589
- ISBN 5786700488, 9785786700481.
- ^ "Real orden de Damas Nobles de la Reina Maria Luisa". Guía Oficial de España (in Spanish). 1914. p. 219. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ^ "marks of cadency in the British royal family". www.heraldica.org.
- ISBN 978-1-85605-469-0
Bibliography
- Van der Kiste, John. Princess Victoria Melita, ISBN 0-7509-3469-7
- Maylunas, Andrei and Sergei Mironenko. A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, ISBN 0-385-48673-1
- Perry, John Curtis and Constantine Pleshakov. The Flight of the Romanovs, ISBN 978-0-465-02462-9
- Sullivan, Michael John. A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, ISBN 0-679-42400-8
- ISBN 0-7509-3049-7
External links
- "Victoria Melita of Edinburgh (1876–1936)" at the Wayback Machine (archived 27 October 2009), by Jesus Ibarra.
- Portraits of Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Russia at the National Portrait Gallery, London