Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

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Maria Alexandrovna
Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; Duchess of Edinburgh
Spouse	Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Issue
Prince Alfred of Edinburgh Marie, Queen of Romania Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera
Titles
HI&RH The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha HI&RH The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha HI&RH The Duchess of Edinburgh HIH Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia
Royal House	House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Alexander II of Russia
Mother	Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse
Born	17 October 1853 Tsar's Village, Russia
Died	24 October 1920 Zürich, Switzerland

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (later Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; 17 October 1853 – 24 October 1920) was a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and his first Empress consort Marie of Hesse. Maria became the wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

From 1893 until her death, she had the distinction of being a Russian grand duchess (by birth), a British royal duchess (by marriage), and the consort (and later widow) of a German sovereign duke (by marriage).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Marriage 3 Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 4 Later life 5 Titles, styles, honours and arms 5.1 Titles 6 Issue

[edit] Early life

The Duchess was born at Tsarskoye Selo, Russia, the second daughter of Alexander II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias (who was assassinated in 1881) and his wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, the daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. She was the aunt of Tsar Nicholas II, who was murdered in 1918. Her brother, Grand Duke Serge, was assassinated in Moscow in 1905, and another brother, Grand Duke Paul, was shot in Petrograd in 1919.

[edit] Marriage

On 23 January 1874 at the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, the Grand Duchess Marie married His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into London on 12 March. The marriage, however, was not a happy one, and the bride was thought haughty by London society. Furthermore, Tsar Alexander II's insistence that his daughter be styled "Her Imperial Highness" and have precedence over the then Princess of Wales infuriated Queen Victoria. The Queen insisted that style "Her Royal Highness" Marie Alexandrovna acquired upon marriage, should always precede the style "Her Imperial Highness," which was hers by birth. For her part, the new Duchess of Edinburgh apparently resented the fact that the Princess of Wales, who was the daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, took precedence over her, the daughter of the Russian Tsar. After the marriage, Marie was varyingly referred to as Her Royal Highness, Her Royal & Imperial Highness, and Her Imperial & Royal Highness. Queen Victoria granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales. Her father gave her the then staggering sum of £100,000 as a dowry plus an annual allowance of £28,000.

[edit] Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

On the death of his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, on 22 August 1893, the vacant duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since his elder brother the Prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession. He surrendered his British allowance of £15,000 a year and his seats in the House of Lords and the Privy Council, but retained the £10,000 granted on his marriage in order to maintain Clarence House as his London residence. Upon her husband's ascension to the ducal throne, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna became Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in addition to being Duchess of Edinburgh. As the consort of a sovereign German duke, she technically outranked her sisters-in-law at Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

The couple's only son, Prince Alfred, became involved in a scandal involving his mistress and shot himself in January 1899, in the midst of his parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary celebrations. He survived, but his embarrassed parents sent him off to Merano to recover, where he died two weeks later, on 6 February. The Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha died of throat cancer on 30 July 1900 at Schloss Rosenau in Coburg. The ducal throne passed to his nephew, Prince Carl Edward, Duke of Albany. Now the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha continued to reside in Coburg.

Styles of Maria, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as consort
Reference style	Her Imperial & Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Imperial & Royal Highness
Alternative style	Ma'am

[edit] Later life

She died in October 1920 in Zürich, Switzerland and was buried in the ducal family's cemetery outside Coburg.

[edit] Titles, styles, honours and arms

[edit] Titles

• 1853-1874: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia
• 1874-1893: Her Royal & Imperial Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh
• 1893-1900: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
• 1900-1920: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

[edit] Issue

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
Prince Alfred ("Young Affie")	15 October 1874	6 February 1899	Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 22 August 1893
Princess Marie	29 October 1875	18 July 1938)	married, 10 January 1893, King Ferdinand I of Romania (1865-1927); had issue
Princess Victoria Melita ("Ducky")	25 November 1876	2 March 1936	married (1), 19 April 1894, Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue; divorced 21 December 1901 (2) 8 October 1905, the Grand Duke Cyril of Russia; had issue
Princess Alexandra	1 September 1878	16 April 1942	married, 20 April 1896, Prince Ernst of Hohenloe-Langenburg; had issue
Stillborn son	13 October 1879	13 October 1879
Princess Beatrice	20 April 1884	13 July 1966	married, 15 July 1909, Don Alfonso, Infante of Spain, 3rd Duke of Galliera; had issue