Empress Maria Alexandrovna (wife of Alexander II): biography, photo

The future Empress Maria Alexandrovna was born in 1824 in Darmstadt, the capital of Hesse. The baby was named Maximilian Wilhelmina Augusta Sofia Maria.

Origin

Her father was German Ludwig II (1777-1848) - the Grand Duke of Hesse and the Rhine. He came to power after the July Revolution.

The mother of the girl was Wilhelmina of Baden (1788-1836). She was from the Baden house Tseringen. There were rumors at court that her younger children, including Maximilian, were born from a relationship with one of the local barons. Ludwig II - the official husband - recognized her as his daughter in order to avoid a shameful scandal. Nevertheless, the girl with her brother Alexander began to live separately from his father and his residence in Darmstadt. This place of "reference" was Heiligenberg, which was the property of the mother of Wilhelmina.

Meeting with Alexander II

The Romanov dynastic marriages with German princesses were popular. For example, the predecessor of Mary - Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas I) - was the daughter of a Prussian king. Yes, and the wife of the last Russian emperor was also from the Hessian home. So, against this background, Alexander II's decision to marry a German from a small principality does not seem strange.

Empress Maria Alexandrovna met her future husband in March 1839, when she was 14 years old, and he was 18. At that time, Alexander, as heir to the throne, made a traditional European tour to get acquainted with the local ruling houses. The daughter of the Hessian Duke he met at the play "Vestalka".

How to reconcile the marriage

After acquaintance, Alexander began in his letters to persuade his parents to give permission to marry a German woman. However, the mother was against such a connection of the prince. She was embarrassed by rumors about the illegitimate origins of the girl. Emperor Nicholas, on the contrary, decided not to hack from the shoulder, but consider the matter more closely.

The fact is that his son Alexander already had a bad experience in his personal life. He fell in love with Olga Kalinovskaya, the lady's maid of honor . Parents were strongly against such a connection for two principal reasons. First, this girl was of simple origin. Secondly, she was also a Catholic. So Alexander with her forcibly separated and sent to Europe, just in order that he could find a suitable party.

So Nikolai decided not to risk and do not break his heart again. Instead, he began to ask in detail about the girl guardian Alexander Kavelin and the poet Vasily Zhukovsky, who accompanied the heir on his journey. When the emperor received positive feedback, immediately followed the order throughout the court that it was now forbidden to spread any rumors about the Hessian princess.

This order had to submit even to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Then she decided to go to Darmstadt herself to get acquainted with the daughter-in-law in advance. This was an unheard of event - this has not happened in Russian history yet.

Appearance and interests

The future Empress Maria Alexandrovna made a wonderful impression on her predecessor. After a full-time meeting, consent was obtained for the marriage.

What is so attracted to others in this German girl? The most detailed description of her appearance was left in her memoirs by her maid of honor Anna Tyutcheva (the daughter of the famous poet). According to her, the Empress Maria Alexandrovna had a delicate skin color, wonderful hair and a mild look of large blue eyes. Against this background, her thin lips looked a little strange, which often represented an ironic smile.

The girl had deep knowledge in music and European literature. Her education and breadth of interests made an impression on everyone around her, and many people later left their rave reviews in the form of memoirs. For example, the writer Alexei K. Tolstoy said that the empress her knowledge not only stands out against the background of other women, but even noticeably beats many men.

Appearance at court and wedding

The wedding took place shortly after all the formalities were settled. The bride arrived in Petersburg in 1840 and was most shocked by the splendor and beauty of the Russian capital. In December she took Orthodoxy and in baptism received the name of Maria Alexandrovna. The next day there was a betrothal between her and the heir to the throne. The wedding took place one year later, in 1841. She passed in the Cathedral Church, which was in the Winter Palace of Petersburg. Now this is one of the premises of the Hermitage, where regular exhibitions are held.

It was hard for the girl to get wedged into a new life because of ignorance of the language and fear of not being liked by her father-in-law and mother-in-law. As later she herself confessed, every day Maria spent as if on needles, felt like a "volunteer", ready to rush anywhere by a sudden command, for example, to an unexpected reception. Secular life in general was a burden for the tsarevna, and then the empress. She was primarily attached to her husband and children, tried to do only to help them, and not to waste time on formalities.

Coronation of the spouses occurred in 1856 after the death of Nicholas I. Thirty-year-old Maria Alexandrovna received a new status, which frightened her all the time that she was the daughter-in-law of the emperor.

Character

Contemporaries noted the numerous virtues that the Empress Maria Alexandrovna possessed. This kindness, attention to people, sincerity in words and deeds. But the most important and notable was the sense of duty with which she was at court and carried the title throughout her life. Each of her actions corresponded to the imperial status.

She always abided by religious dogma and was extremely pious. This trait was so strongly distinguished in the character of the empress that it was much easier to imagine her as a nun than as a reigning person. For example, Ludovig II (king of Bavaria) noted that Maria Aleksandrovna is surrounded by a halo of a saint. This behavior in many respects did not converge with her status, since in many state (even formal) cases her presence was required, despite her detached behavior from worldly vanity.

Charity

Most of all Empress Maria Alexandrovna - the wife of Alexander 2 - was known for her broad charity. Throughout the country at her expense, hospitals, shelters and gymnasiums were opened that received the epithet "Mariinsky". In total, she opened and monitored 5 hospitals, 36 shelters, 12 almshouses, 5 charity societies. Nor did she deprive the Empress of her attention and education: two institutes, four dozen gymnasiums, hundreds of small schools for artisans and workers, etc. were built. Maria Aleksandrovna spent both her state and her own means (she was given 50,000 silver rubles a year For personal expenses).

Public health has become a special sphere of activity, which the Empress Maria Aleksandrovna was engaged in. The Red Cross appeared in Russia precisely on its initiative. His volunteers helped the wounded soldiers during the war in Bulgaria against Turkey in 1877-1878.

Death of daughter and son

A great tragedy for the royal family was the death of the heir to the throne. The Empress Maria Alexandrovna - the wife of Alexander 2 - gave her husband eight children. The eldest son Nikolai was born in 1843, two years after the wedding, when his grandfather-namesake was still king.

The child was noted for his sharp mind and pleasant character, for which all members of the family loved him. He was already engaged and educated when, as a result of an accident, he injured his back. There are several versions of what happened. Either Nikolai fell from his horse, or hit the marble table during a comic fight with his friend. At first the trauma was invisible, but eventually the heir grew paler and felt worse. In addition, doctors treated him incorrectly - prescribing medicines for rheumatism that did not bring good, because the true cause of the ailment was not revealed. Soon Nikolai was chained to a stroller. This became a terrible stress, which the Empress Maria Alexandrovna suffered. The son's illness followed the death of Alexandra's first daughter, who died of meningitis. My mother was always with Nikolai, even when it was decided to send him to Nice for treatment for tuberculosis of the spine, where he died at the age of 22.

Cooling the relationship with her husband

Both Alexander and Maria in their own way had a hard time surviving this loss. The emperor blamed himself for having made his son do a lot of physical training, partly because of what an accident happened. Anyway, but the tragedy alienated the couple from each other.

The trouble was that all their further life together consisted of the same rituals. In the mornings it was a regular kiss and ordinary conversations about dynastic affairs. During the day, the couple met another parade. The Empress spent the evening with the children, and her husband constantly disappeared on state affairs. He loved the family, but his time simply was not enough for relatives, which could not be missed by Maria Alexandrovna. The Empress tried to help Alexander in matters, especially in the early years.

Then (at the beginning of the reign) the tsar gladly consulted his wife about many decisions. She was always up to date with the latest ministerial reports. Most often, her advice related to the education system. This was largely due to the charitable work that the Empress Maria Alexandrovna was engaged in. And the development of education in these years has received a logical push forward. Schools were opened, peasants had access to them, which, among other things, were also liberated from serfdom under Alexander.

The Empress herself had on this account the most liberal opinion, which she shared, for example, with Kavelin, telling him that she fervently supported her husband in his desire to give freedom to the most numerous estate of Russia.

However, with the advent of the Manifesto (1861), the Empress increasingly concerned state affairs due to some cooling relations with her husband. This was due to the wayward character of Romanov. The king more and more often overtook the whisper in the palace that he too often looks back at the opinion of the spouse, that is, is under her heel. This irritated the freedom-loving Alexander. In addition, the title of autocrat obliged him to make decisions only by his will, without advice from anyone. This concerned the very nature of power in Russia, which, it was believed, was given from God to the one anointed one. But the real gap between the spouses was yet to come.

Ekaterina Dolgorukova

In 1859 Alexander II conducted maneuvers in the southern part of the empire (the territory of present-day Ukraine) - the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava was celebrated. The Emperor stopped at a visit to the estate of the famous Dolgorukovs' house. This family was a branch from the princes of the Rurik. That is, his representatives were distant relatives of the Romanovs. But in the middle of the XIX century the family was in debt as in silks, and its head, Prince Michael, had only one estate - Teplovka.

The emperor went into position and helped Dolgorukov, in particular, arranged his sons for the Guard, and sent his daughters to the Smolny Institute, promising to pay the expenses from the royal purse. Then he met with thirteen-year-old Ekaterina Mikhailovna. The girl surprised him with her curiosity and love of life.

In 1865, the autocrat traditionally visited Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens. Then he after a long break again saw Catherine, who turned 18 years old. The girl was amazing beauty.

The emperor, who possessed an amorous temper, began sending gifts to her through his assistants. He even went to visit the institute incognito, but it was decided that it was too much, and the girl was expelled on the pretext of ill health. Now she lived in Petersburg and saw the king in the Summer Garden. She was even made a maid of honor hostess of the Winter Palace, which was the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. The wife of Alexander II was seriously worried about rumors swarming around a young girl. Finally, Catherine went to Italy, so as not to cause a scandal.

But Alexander was serious. He even promised the favorite that he would marry her as soon as possible. In the summer of 1867, he arrived in Paris at the invitation of Napoleon III. Dolgorukov went to Italy from there.

In the end, the emperor tried to explain himself to his family, wanting to be first heard by Maria Alexandrovna. The Empress, the wife of Alexander II and the mistress of the Winter Palace, tried to observe decency and did not allow the conflict to go beyond the residence. However, her eldest son and heir to the throne rebelled. It was not surprising. The future Alexander III was very cool, even at a very young age. He scolded his father, and he, in turn, was enraged.

As a result, Catherine nevertheless moved to the Winter Palace and gave birth to four children from the tsar, who later received princely titles and were legalized. This happened after the death of the lawful wife of Alexander. The funeral of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna enabled the Tsar to make a marriage with Catherine. She received the title of the fairest princess and the name of Yurievskaya (like her children). However, the emperor was not happy for long in this marriage.

Disease and death

The health of Maria Alexandrovna was undermined for many reasons. This is a frequent birth, betrayal of her husband, the death of her son, as well as the damp climate of St. Petersburg, to which the native German was not ready in the first years of the move. Because of this, her consumption began, as well as nervous exhaustion. According to the recommendation of a private doctor, the woman went every summer south to the Crimea, whose climate was supposed to help her overcome the disease. Over time, the woman almost retired. One of the last episodes of her participation in public life was visiting military councils during the confrontation with Turkey in 1878.

In these years, Alexander II was constantly committed assassination of revolutionaries and bombers. Once the explosion occurred in the dining room of the Winter Palace, but the Empress was so sick that she did not even notice it, lying in her rooms. And her husband survived only because he stayed in his office, contrary to the habit of dining at the set time. The constant fear for the life of a beloved husband was eaten by the remnants of health, which Maria Alexandrovna still owned. The Empress, whose photo at that time shows a clear change in her appearance, was extremely skinny and looked more like her shadow than the person in the body.

In the spring of 1880 she finally fell asleep, while her husband moved to Tsarskoe Selo with Dolgorukova. He made short visits to his wife, but could do nothing to somehow improve her health. Tuberculosis was the reason why Empress Maria Aleksandrovna died. The biography of this woman says that her life was cut off the same year, on June 3, according to a new style.

The last refuge of the spouse of Alexander II was found by the dynastic tradition in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The funeral of the Empress Maria Alexandrovna became a mourning event for the whole country, who sincerely loved her.

Alexander briefly survived his first wife. In 1881, he died after being injured in a bomb attack thrown at his feet by a terrorist. The Emperor was buried next to Maria Alexandrovna.