Princess Charlotte of Württemberg
Princess Charlotte | |||||
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Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia | |||||
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Born | Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, Confederation of the Rhine | 9 January 1807||||
Died | 2 February 1873 Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | (aged 66)||||
Burial | Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire | ||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue | Grand Duchess Maria Elizabeth, Duchess of Nassau Catherine, Duchess Georg of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Grand Duchess Alexandra Grand Duchess Anna | ||||
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House | Württemberg | ||||
Father | Prince Paul of Württemberg | ||||
Mother | Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen | ||||
Religion | Russian Orthodox prev. Lutheranism |
Princess Charlotte of Württemberg (9 January 1807 – 2 February [O.S. 21 January] 1873), later known as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was the wife of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.
Early life[]
She was born in Stuttgart, as Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, eldest daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and of Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest by royal standards. In Paris Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.
Marriage and issue[]
In 1822, she became engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed (Mikhail's mother was her father's aunt). It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15.[1] The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations.[1] On 17 December 1823, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Elena Pavlovna.[2] On 20 February 1824, the couple married in Saint Petersburg and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters:
- Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (9 March 1825 Moscow – 19 November 1846 Vienna); died unmarried.
- Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (26 May 1826 Moscow – 28 January 1845 Wiesbaden); married Adolf, Duke of Nassau and died in childbirth.
- Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), married Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
- Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831 Moscow – 27 March 1832 Moscow)
- Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834 Moscow – 22 March 1836 Saint Petersburg)
Influence at court and in society[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/%D0%A1%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D1%8B_%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B%2C_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%2C_1855.jpg/220px-%D0%A1%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D1%8B_%D0%9A%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B4%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B6%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%89%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B%2C_%D0%A1%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%2C_1855.jpg)
Elena became a close friend of her brother-in-law, Emperor Alexander I of Russia and of his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, who married the then Tsarevich Alexander in 1841. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and of the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and co-founded (1854) a group of nursing sisters ( ) which would eventually become the forerunners of the Red Cross in Russia. During her time in Russia she became known as the "family intellectual", and was considered[by whom?] the most exceptional woman in the imperial family since Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796). She founded the Russian Musical Society (1859) and the Russian Conservatoire (1862), and was liberal on serfdom. She helped to push her nephew Alexander II to abolish serfdom while he stayed with her.[3][need quotation to verify]
As a patroness of the composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), she commissioned some of his early operas: Fomka the Fool (1853), (1852), and (1852/1853).[4]
Elena died in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 66.
Gallery[]
Elena Pavlovna as a young girl, 1824.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by Karl Bryullov, 1829.
Elena with her eldest daughter Maria, 1830s.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia (nee Princess Charlotte of Württemberg), 1842
Elena Pavlovna by Joseph-Desire Court (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), 1842.
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna in middle age, by Christina Robertson, 1850s
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by Winterhalter (1862, Hermitage Museum).
Elena Pavlovna in old age, late 1860s
A photograph of Elena Pavlovna in her final years, 1872.
Ancestry[]
showAncestors of Princess Charlotte of Württemberg |
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Bibliography[]
- Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russians. 1983
- Sebag Montefiore, Simon. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. 2016. Knopf Publishing Group.
- Taylor, Philip S., Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music, Indianapolis, 2007
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn. 2001
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Zeepvat, p.19.
- ^ Zeepvat, p.20.
- ^ Sebag Montefiore, Simon (2016). The Romanovs: 1613-1918. Hachette UK. p. 546. ISBN 9781474600279. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ Taylor (2007), 39.
External links[]
- 1807 births
- 1873 deaths
- House of Württemberg
- Princesses of Württemberg
- House of Romanov
- Russian grand duchesses by marriage
- Nobility from Stuttgart