Anastasia Mikhailovna Romanova
Anastasia Mikhailovna Romanova ( Russian Анастасия Михайловна * July 16 jul. / 28. July 1860 greg. In Peterhof , Russian Empire ; † 11. March 1922 in Eze , France ) was a member of the House of Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp and Marriage Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg .
Life
Anastasia was the only daughter of Grand Duke Michael Nikolajewitsch Romanow (1832-1909) and his wife Princess Cäcilie von Baden (1839-1891), who in turn was a daughter of Grand Duke Leopold I of Baden and his wife Princess Sophie Wilhelmine von Holstein-Gottorp and Sweden. In 1862 her father was named Viceroy of the Caucasus and Georgia . Anastasia grew up with her six brothers in Tbilisi and Saint Petersburg . Within the family she was called "Stassie" and she was her father's favorite. She had a special relationship with her older brother, Nikolai Michailowitsch Romanow , and both shared an artistic interest.
In 1878 her mother and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1854–1920), wife of Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Romanow (1847–1909), arranged the marriage between Anastasia and Maria's older brother, Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III. from Mecklenburg , a. Their two grandmothers, Alexandrine and Charlotte , were sisters (daughters of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III and his first wife Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz ). In the spring of 1878 Friedrich Franz arrived in Tbilisi and asked her parents for Anastasia's hand. The engagement was announced on May 4, and in October she and her family traveled to Saint Petersburg to prepare for the wedding.
On January 24, 1879, Anastasia married Hereditary Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III in the Winter Palace according to the Russian Orthodox and Protestant rites . von Mecklenburg , son of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II and his first wife Auguste Reuss zu Schleiz-Köstritz .
On February 8, 1879, Anastasia and Friedrich Franz arrived in Schwerin and the young couple settled in the Marienpalais . But the old-fashioned and cool atmosphere at the Schweriner Hof only made their aversion to their new home worse. Since her husband suffered from severe health problems (he had severe asthma and heart disease), they often traveled to milder climates and stayed in Italy for long periods. On one of these trips she received news of the death of the Mecklenburg Grand Duke in Palermo . He died on April 15, 1883 and it was necessary to return to Schwerin to see her husband ascend to the throne. However, the health of the new Grand Duke soon forced them to travel to a milder climate again. A compromise was reached in that the grand ducal couple stayed in Schwerin for five months and the other months of the year were free to choose their stay. Between 1887 and 1895 they lived in Cannes from November to May . Anastasia's remaining letters reveal a warm, loving person who enjoyed life. Despite her extravagance, she never lost her husband's affection. Friedrich Franz's homosexuality was an open secret.
Scandal at court
Her husband's health deteriorated over the years, but his sudden death while staying in Cannes turned into a scandal. In the early morning hours of April 10, 1897, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz was found unconscious under a balcony parapet on the street by a coachman. Obviously it was a suicide attempt . He was taken back to the villa, where he died as a result of the fall. The night before, Anastasia had given a soirée that her husband could not attend because of his poor health. Since Anastasia was very unpopular in Schwerin, she was associated with the death of her husband in Cannes, France. The Grand Duke's death was attested as an accident , even if it was a suicide. Grand Duchess Anastasia inherited his private fortune and the villa in Cannes, her brother-in-law, Duke Johann Albrecht zu Mecklenburg, took over the reign for her underage son Friedrich Franz . After the death of her husband she was rarely in Schwerin, she preferred to live on the Côte d'Azur , in Saint Petersburg , Paris or in London .
A little later, her private secretary, Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Paltow (1874–1944), became her lover. In 1902 she became pregnant by him. At first, she pretended to suffer from chickenpox on a tumor in the abdomen shortly before the birth , and that she had to be quarantined as a result. Their illegitimate son, Alexis Louis von Wenden, was born on December 23, 1902 in Nice . This later studied in a boarding school in Normandy .
Later years
In the summer of 1914, shortly before the outbreak of World War I , Grand Duchess Anastasia visited her brother Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov and his family in England . Since most of them eagerly awaited the outbreak of war after the Austrian ultimatum, she wrote in a letter to her cousin, the Russian Tsar Nicholas II , “( ...) I hope the war will not happen, and one day we will all see again. ” The conflict put her in a terrible position. Two of her children sided with Germany while her brothers fought in Russia. She, by marrying a German princess of Russian origin, could neither live in France nor in Schwerin. That is why she decided on neutral Switzerland and so she spent the war years in the Savoy Hotel in Lausanne . She released her villa in Cannes for a hospital.
During the war she hoped to receive news from her daughter Crown Princess Cecilie and her son Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV through their daughter Queen Alexandrine of Denmark . The Bolsheviks killed their brothers, Nikolai , Georgi and Sergei , during the Russian Revolution . The fall of the German monarchy at the end of the war resulted in the loss of her son and daughter's crown.
After the end of the war, she decided to return to France with Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukaya . She spent her last years in the Villa Fantasia in Èze near Nice. On March 11, 1922, she died of a stroke in Èze. She was buried next to her husband in the Helenen Paulownen Mausoleum in Ludwigslust. Her death brought her children back together for the first time since 1914.
progeny
From the marriage with Grand Duke Friedrich Franz III. three children emerged:
- Alexandrine (1879–1952) ⚭ 1898 King Christian X of Denmark (1870–1947)
- Friedrich Franz (1882–1945) ⚭ 1904 Princess Alexandra of Hanover and Cumberland (1882–1963)
- Cecilie (1886–1954) ⚭ 1905 Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (1882–1951)
From a connection with her personal secretary Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Paltow (1874–1944) a son emerged:
- Alexis Louis von Wenden (1902–1976) ⚭ 1929 Paulette Seux (1908–1975)
Anastasia's great-granddaughter Margrethe is the reigning Queen of Denmark.
Worth mentioning
- Grand Duchess Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was quite unpopular in Germany because of her French affection. Kaiser Wilhelm II only allowed her to be at the Berlin court twice, in 1905 when her youngest daughter married the Crown Prince and a second time in 1906 when their first son, Wilhelm, was born . After that she was undesirable.
Web links
- Literature on Anastasia Mikhailovna Romanova in the state bibliography MV
- Je.W. Ptschelow: Monarchs of Russia (Монархи России), Olma-Press, Moscow 2003, page 571 (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller : Man for man. A biographical lexicon , Frankfurt / M. 2001, p. 253
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Anastasia Mikhailovna Romanova |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Анастасия Михайловна; Anastasia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | by marriage to the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 28, 1860 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Peterhof , Russian Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 11, 1922 |
| Place of death | Èze , France |