Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova

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Katharina Dolgoruki photographed by Sergei Lwowitsch Lewizki and Rafail Sergejewitsch Lewizki in 1880. (The Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection, Toronto, Canada)
Catherine Dolgoruki

Duchess Catherine Dolgorukov , including: Catherine Dolgorukova ( Russian Екатерина Михайловна Долгорукова ; * 2. November . Jul / 14. November  1847 greg. On Castle Teplowka , Volhynia , Russian Empire , now Ukraine ; † 15. February 1922 in Nice , France ) was the youthful lover and later the morganatic wife of Tsar Alexander II of Russia .

Life

Katharina came from the old Russian princely family Dolgoruki , who had achieved fame and honor through their service for the tsars. She was the daughter of Prince Mikhail Dolgoruki and Vera Vishnevskaya . During a maneuver in Volhynia in August 1857, Tsar Alexander II (1818–1881) stayed at Teplowka Castle, the family seat of Prince Dolgoruki, and met their then almost ten-year-old daughter Katharina. When her father became impoverished because of his extravagance and died soon afterwards, the Tsar took care of the children, two girls and four boys.

In order to protect the family property from the creditors, the tsar placed him under imperial guardianship and had the children raised at his own expense. Up to the age of 17 Katharina and her sister received their school education at the Smolny Institute in Saint Petersburg , the brothers went to the military academy . After that she lived with her brother Michael in a villa near the Tsar's court. There the tsar, who had been married to Maria Alexandrovna (1824–1880) from Hesse since 1841 and had eight children with her, revealed his love for the first time without being heard. Nevertheless, Katharina must have accompanied him to Bad Kissingen when he was 16 in 1864 . On June 12, 1866, the Tsar was heard from her in the Belvedere Pavilion near the Peterhof , and in autumn 1866 the first secret meeting took place in the Winter Palace . In the following year, 1867, their affair became public knowledge.

In June 1867, the Tsar was in Paris for the World's Fair and stayed in the Élysée Palace . After a failed assassination attempt on him, the tsar had his lover come to Paris. After returning to St. Petersburg, Catherine lived near the Tsar. In order to give her access to the court, he made her the tsarina's maid of honor , who dismissed her husband's love affair as a simple love affair.

In May 1872 Katharina gave birth to her first son Georgi , and in the summer Katharina accompanied the Tsar to Bad Ems for his summer vacation . From then on she lived constantly near the Tsar. In November 1873 daughter Olga was born. Katharina's older sister married Alexander's wing adjutant General Albedinski, so Katharina could officially live with her sister from now on. In 1876 she was expecting her third child from the tsar, her son Boris . In 1878 their daughter Ekaterina was finally born. In a ukase the tsar elevated his children to princes and princesses and allowed them the patronymic Alexandrovich or Alexandrovna .

Tsarina Maria Alexandrovna died on June 3, 1880. On July 18, Alexander II was married to Katharina in a modest ceremony, named her a princess Jurjewskaja , legitimized the children as his own and thus secured the future of her and their four children. He was even ready to abdicate in order to lead a "civil life" with his family on the French Riviera .

On March 13, 1881, the Tsar fell victim to a bomb attack . Only a few days after his funeral, Katharina left Russia forever, moved to France and in 1888 settled in Nice, where she had wanted to live with her husband after his abdication. There she died largely forgotten and ignored at the age of 74. Some newspapers only wrote three lines of obituary about her death.

Katharina Dolgoruki, drawn by Alexander II.

Her estate was auctioned on June 6, 1941 at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris and in the summer of 1941 at the Hotel Savoy in Nice. In March 2007, seven love letters received from the couple were auctioned off by a Cologne auction house, but with an estimated value of 13,000 to 19,000 euros, they found no buyers. Experts were surprised by the permissive language and detail with which intimate erotic topics are dealt with in the letters, but also attribute this to the influence of contemporary literature. The oil painting "Bathing Naked" , which is supposed to depict Princess Katharina, was made by the painter Timofei Andrejewitsch von Neff (1805–1876) .

progeny

  • Alexander (* 1868; † 1868), Prince Jurjewski
  • Georgi Alexandrowitsch Jurjewski (* May 12, 1872, † September 13, 1913), married Alexandra von Oldenburg, Countess von Zarnekau
  • Olga Alexandrowna Jurjewskaja (born November 9, 1873, † August 10, 1925), married Georg Nikolaus von Nassau , Count von Merenberg
  • Boris Alexandrowitsch Jurjewski (* 1876, † 1876), Prince Jurjewski
  • Yekaterina Alexandrovna Jurjewskaja (born September 20, 1878, † December 22, 1959), married in first marriage Alexander Vladimirovich, Prince Barjatinski and in second marriage Sergei Platonowitsch, Prince Obolensky

filming

The love story between Alexander II and Ekaterina was filmed in the 1959 feature film Katja, the uncrowned Empress . Jekaterina (Katja) is portrayed by Romy Schneider and the Tsar by Curd Juergens .

swell

Web links

Commons : Catherine Dolgorukov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Dolgorukova, Ekaterina Mikhailovna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dolgorukaya, Catherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian lover and future wife of Tsar Alexander II.
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Teplowka Castle , Volhynia , Russian Empire , today Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1922
Place of death Nice , France