Who They Might Have Married

LouisFerdinand · January 21, 2018, 09:12:35 PM

Princess Alexandra of Denmark was fifth on a list of seven princesses selected as possible brides for Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII of Great Britain.
Princess Marie Alexandrine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1849-1922) was the daughter of Charles Alexander, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. She was considered as a possible bride for Prince Albert Edward.
Princess Pauline (1852-1904) was the daughter of Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. She was considered as a possible bride for Prince Albert Edward.

:random44: :random44: :random44: :random44: :random44: :random44: :random44: :random44:

LouisFerdinand · January 23, 2018, 09:23:25 PM

Princess Helene of Orleans, the daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, was a possible bride for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Princess Margaret of Prussia, the sister of Emperor Wilhelm II, was a possible bride for Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

LouisFerdinand · January 28, 2018, 09:40:33 PM

Possible brides for King Frederik IX of Denmark
In the 1910s Queen Alexandrine of Denmark considered Grand Duchess Marie and Grand Duchess Anastasia, the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia as possible wives for Frederik. However, Romanovs were executed in 1918.
In 1922 Prince Frederik was engaged to Princess Olga of Greece.

LouisFerdinand · February 03, 2018, 08:48:44 PM

Possible bride for Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany: Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine
Wilhelm proposed to Princess Elizabeth in 1878, only for her to reject him.

Curryong · February 03, 2018, 09:16:24 PM

No, she didn't want him. Ella was already intrigued by the deeply religious Sergei, who had known her since early childhood. Wilhelm retained feelings for Ella all his life though. He (along with all the other relatives) was deeply worried when she was arrested by the revolutionary authorities.

LouisFerdinand · February 04, 2018, 08:03:00 PM

@Curryong, Where did Grand Duke Sergei first meet Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and by Rhine?

Curryong · February 04, 2018, 08:34:01 PM

They knew each other all Ella's life. Sergei and his siblings were the children of Tsar Alexander II (Liberator of the serfs) and his wife Tsarina Marie, who had been Marie of Hesse, daughter of the Grand Duke of the time. (There was a question mark over who had fathered her, though.) Marie was extremely delicate and like Alexandra was stiff and shy as Tsarina.

She kept in close contact with her birth family and would make regular visits to Hesse with her children when she was well. (She and Alexander's marriage came under great strain later as she sought treatment for her TB in warm places like Italy and was away for months at a time.)

Sergei had a jokey side. He would always make the very prim and proper Alexandra blush when he talked about the first time he saw her. She was a baby and being given a bath!

LouisFerdinand · February 12, 2018, 08:20:37 PM

Possible bride for Edward VII of Great Britain
Princess Anna of Hesse and by Rhine (1843-1865) was the daughter of Prince Karl of Hesse and by Rhine. As a young girl, Anna was considered as a possible bride for Albert Edward, The Prince of Wales. While his mother, Queen Victoria, was in favor of Anna, Edward's sister Victoria was opposed to the match.

LouisFerdinand · February 18, 2018, 07:47:39 PM

Possible bride for King Charles I of Spain. He was also Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
In 1505, 11 year old Princess Mary of England had been betrothed to five year old Charles, then King of Castile and heir to the throne of Aragon and Holy Roman Empire.

LouisFerdinand · February 25, 2018, 08:53:21 PM

Possible spouse for Queen Christina of Sweden.
Christina became secretly engaged to her first cousin Charles before he left in 1642 to serve in the Swedish army in Germany for three years.
Charles Gustav was the son of Catherine of Sweden, the daughter of King Charles IX of Sweden.

LouisFerdinand · March 09, 2018, 08:02:09 PM

Possible spouses for King Frederick William I of Prussia (1688-1740)
When a marriage was to be arranged for Frederick William, he was given three alternatives:
1 Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden (Queen Regnant of Sweden)
2 Princess Amalia of Nassau-Dietz, the daughter of Johan Willem Friso of Orange-Nassau
3 Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the daughter of King George I of Great Britain
Frederick William married Sophia Dorothea on November 28, 1706.

LouisFerdinand · March 19, 2018, 07:20:40 PM

Possible brides for Leopold III of Belgium:
The two eldest daughters of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
Princess Yolanda of Savoy (1901-1986)
Princess Mafalda of Savoy (1902-1944)

LouisFerdinand · April 01, 2018, 10:44:15 PM

Infanta Maria Anna of Spain (1606-1646) was the daughter of King Philip III and Queen Margaret of Spain. She was considered a possible wife for Charles, Prince of Wales.
Maria Anna married the future Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III in 1631.

LouisFerdinand · April 06, 2018, 09:41:50 PM

On March 19, 1898 The Chicago Daily Tribune had received word from Rome that Prince Eugene, the youngest son of King Oscar II of Sweden, is engaged to Duchess Olga of Wurttemberg. Olga's mother was the former Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinova of Russia. Her father was Duke Eugen of Wurttemberg.
:nocomment: :nocomment: Olga married Prince Maximilian of Schaumburg-Lippe.

LouisFerdinand · April 14, 2018, 12:14:55 AM

Eleutherios Venizelos, the Prime Minister had hoped to arrange a marriage between King Alexander I of Greece and Princess Mary of the United Kingdom, the daughter of King George V. Alexander married Aspasia Manos.

LouisFerdinand · April 24, 2018, 12:15:18 AM

By the time King Richard I of England was ten, his father, King Henry II had betrothed Richard to the daughter of Count Richmond of Barcelona. Nothing came of this engagement. In 1168 he was betrothed to Princess Alys of France, the daughter of King Louis VII.
King Richard married Berengaria of Navarre on May 12, 1191 while still officially engaged to Alys.

LouisFerdinand · May 05, 2018, 11:44:29 PM

At one point it was mentioned that Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine (1864-1918) might marry Frederick II of Baden (1857-1928). In 1885 Frederick married Princess Hilda of Nassau.

LouisFerdinand · June 13, 2018, 12:11:10 AM

In 1521, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (King Charles I of Spain) became engaged to Princess Mary of England, the daughter of King Henry VIII. In 1525 he cancelled his engagement to Mary. Instead he married Princess Isabella of Portugal.

LouisFerdinand · July 04, 2018, 01:08:38 AM

Infanta Maria Ana of Portugal (1861-1942) was considered by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria as a suitable bride for his son, Crown Prince Rudolf. However Rudolf did not like her. Instead he married Princess Stephanie of Belgium.

amabel · July 06, 2018, 05:00:29 AM

Quote from: Curryong on February 04, 2018, 08:34:01 PM
They knew each other all Ella's life. Sergei and his siblings were the children of Tsar Alexander II (Liberator of the serfs) and his wife Tsarina Marie, who had been Marie of Hesse, daughter of the Grand Duke of the time. (There was a question mark over who had fathered her, though.) Marie was extremely delicate and like Alexandra was stiff and shy as Tsarina.

S

Im surprisied that Ella actauly wanted to marry him, as I believe he was very anti Semitic and reactionary...

Curryong · July 06, 2018, 05:37:02 AM

Yes, he was. When Serge, as Governor of Moscow, exiled all the Jews from the city to beyond the Pale she is said to have stated 'God will punish us for this', a rare moment of questioning her husband's actions. (But then most of the Romanovs were of the same ilk.)

However, I doubt that Serge showed much of that side to her, ever. He seemed to always regard her as his little wifie and she rarely defied him, and kept reassuring everyone from Queen Victoria down how happy she was with her Serge. QV apparently wasn't convinced. She remarked to Vicky 'If a person is truly happy they don't feel the need to keep reiterating it'. However, for the most part Ella seems to have been content with her husband.

He was deeply religious and Ella apparently admired that. He read widely and was fond of the Arts which she may have found intriguing. He could present as a very gentle person. Ella was fascinated by Russia when she visited, and of course the world that Serge could offer was so much more expansive than the provincial little Court at Hesse.

Also she was very young. She wouldn't have heard anything of course of his rather sinister reputation within Russia, stories of his severity, his penchant for young army officers and perhaps confused sexuality. Various bios have put forward the theory that their marriage was never consummated.

Double post auto-merged: July 06, 2018, 05:57:08 AM

Forgot to put in that at the time of their engagement Sergei, always highly strung, was distraught over the fatal attack upon his father 'Alexander the Liberator', which he also regarded as a sacrilege. So Ella would have felt deeply sorry for him as well.

amabel · July 06, 2018, 07:55:30 PM

Im rather shocked..I thought she was so saintly.. and even by the standards of the time, Sergie was pretty unpleasant and extreme in his anti Semitism.. I assumed that it had been an arranged marriage and she had to put up with him ,not that she had wished to marry him....

Curryong · July 06, 2018, 09:49:25 PM

Yes, Serge was a very complex figure. He was certainly nationalistic, prudish, at least in public, (always carrying on about the louche behaviour of St Petersburg Society,) and deeply anti Semitic, though as I've said he wasn't alone in that in Russia at that time.

Ella and Serge were second cousins. Her grandfather was the brother of Marie of Hesse, the Tsarina of Alexander II, and Serge's mother. He adored his mother and was disgusted by Alexander starting a second family with his mistress, whom he later married.

However, I'm not so sure that Ella was that saintly earlier in her life. She was certainly capable of great coldness towards her young niece and nephew, the children of Serge's younger brother Paul. They became Serge and Ella's foster children for several years and her niece complained of her nastiness and disinterest towards them. Although Serge demanded complete obedience from everyone in his home he was apparently much more affectionate. He and Paul had been very close.

amabel · July 07, 2018, 05:40:29 AM

Interestigng. Of course anti Semitism was rife In most Euroepan countries at the time.. but Russaia was probably one of the worst, where it was most violent.. and in the UK, it was probably mildest.. and mostly "genteel" and more about snobbery than religious or racial hatred. I've never heard of Alix of Hesse who became Empress of Russia being particularly anti Semitic but I may be wrong. But I was rather shocked to hear that Ella was really in love with Sergei.. It seems that she was uneasy about the degree of his Anti Semitism and harshness in his public persona.
I think Q Vic is right and that if Ella was really happy with her life, she wouldn't be always saying how happy she was...

Curryong · July 07, 2018, 07:40:29 AM

I have to say that I too have never heard of Alix being anti-Semitic, nor indeed of her father Louis or brother Ernie being so. (Alice was friendly with some Jewish intellectuals during her marriage which I don't expect she would have been if her husband objected.)

I have the feeling that Alix didn't regard Jews as her equals (she was too devout a Christian and woman of her times for that) but did feel that the virulent anti-Semitism espoused in Russia and among the extended Romanov family was rather common and low-class.

Incidentally, the question of people and accents came up in one of the Meghan threads, and so I'm just noting here that as late as 1917 Kerenky of the Provisional Government met Alix and noted that she spoke Russian with a strong English accent. So did an young American woman who met Alix in 1905. Of course she wrote her diaries in English and spoke to Nicky in that language all through her marriage.