Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , called Ducky, VA (born November 25, 1876 in Valletta ( Malta ), † March 2, 1936 in Amorbach ) was Queen Victoria's granddaughter and a member of the British royal family. At the time of her birth she held tenth place in the line of succession to the British throne and therefore the title "Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Edinburgh". Through their marriages, she carried the title of Grand Duchess of Hesse and the Rhine and, under the name of Viktoria Fjodorovna, that of Grand Duchess of Russia .
Childhood and youth
Victoria was born in the San Antonio Palace in Malta, which is where her middle name came from. Her father Alfred , Queen Victoria's second son, was stationed in Malta for several years as an officer in the Royal Navy . Her mother was Maria Alexandrovna , a daughter of Tsar Alexander II and his first wife Marie von Hessen-Darmstadt .
As a child, Victoria was a difficult character. Her older sister Marie later described her as sensitive, reserved and shy. Her mother raised the children strictly and did not tolerate such behavior. She treated little Victoria harshly and tried all kinds of methods to help her overcome her shyness.
Move to Coburg
As the son of the late Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , Victoria's father was second in line to the Duchy's throne after his brother Edward . After his uncle Duke Ernst II died childless and his brother waived his entitlement, Alfred was appointed Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The family then moved to Coburg in 1889 . Duchess Maria loved Germany and insisted that the children adapt to their new home. The girls received a German governess and were confirmed according to Lutheran practice, even though they had grown up in the Anglican faith.
First marriage
After Victoria's sister Marie had married the Romanian Crown Prince Ferdinand von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , a suitable husband for Victoria was now being looked for. The choice fell on Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine. Through his mother, Princess Alice , Grand Duchess of Hesse and near Rhine, he was also a grandson of Queen Victoria and a cousin of Victoria's paternal side.
Queen Victoria was very pleased with the idea of marriage between her two grandchildren. This also applied to Duchess Maria, whose mother Marie was also a Princess of Hesse. Even if neither Victoria nor Ernst Ludwig thought much of this project, they finally gave in to pressure from families. The so-called princely wedding took place on April 19, 1894 among the European nobility in Coburg. The guests included their grandmother, Queen Victoria of Great Britain , their two cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II , and their future brother-in-law, who later became Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.
Their daughter Elisabeth (1895–1903) emerged from the marriage. Elisabeth died of typhus on her way back in Skierniewice (Poland) after traveling to see her aunt Alix, the last Tsarina of Russia. In May 1900, Victoria Melita gave birth to a stillborn boy.
After this stroke of fate and the husband's adultery, the couple separated in 1900. Attempts to bring the couple back together failed. The marriage was divorced on December 21, 1901. The divorce caused a sensation in European aristocratic circles. After the divorce, Victoria moved in with her mother in her mother's house on the French Riviera.
Second marriage and return to Russia
As early as 1891 Victoria had traveled with her mother to the funeral of Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna , the wife of her maternal uncle, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich . There she first met her cousin, Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovich Romanov . The two were very fond of each other, but their grandmother forbade Queen Victoria from marrying into the Russian tsarist family, especially since marriages between first cousins were forbidden under Russian house law.
In 1896 Victoria traveled again to Russia to attend Nicholas' coronation as tsar. During her stay her interest in Kyrill was awakened. As a result, he was also involved in the divorce scandal and Ernst Ludwig's sister, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, demanded that the Tsar send Cyril into exile in the Far East. Kyrill returned to Moscow as a war hero after surviving an attack on the Russian fleet during the 1904 Russo-Japanese War . The tsar allowed him to leave Russia, and Kyrill went to Coburg to be with Victoria.
On October 8, 1905, Victoria, now called Viktoria Feodorovna , and Kyrill married in Tegernsee under strict secrecy according to the Russian Orthodox rite . It was a simple celebration with no royal guests present, and Nicholas II punished Cyril with his royal privileges and his naval title.
The couple had three children together:
- Maria (February 2, 1907; † October 27, 1951) ∞ Karl zu Leiningen (1898–1946)
- Kira (May 9, 1909 - September 8, 1967) ∞ Louis Ferdinand of Prussia (1907–1994)
- Vladimir Kirillowitsch Romanow (born August 30, 1917 - April 21, 1992)
After a few deaths in the Russian tsarist family, Nicholas was forced to re-admit Kyrill to the imperial family. So he was now third in line to the throne. The couple were brought back to Russia, and Victoria was given the title of Grand Duchess of Russia. She quickly settled into Russian society and enjoyed life at court with its glamorous receptions and balls.
During the First World War , Victoria worked as a nurse and organized the first motorized patient transports, which accelerated the work considerably. Like many other members of the family, Victoria and Kyrill were very critical of the couple's relationship with Rasputin . After Rasputin was murdered in December 1916, a petition was submitted to the Tsar asking for a pardon for Rasputin's murderer, Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. The tsar refused. A few weeks later the tsar had to abdicate and the country became a republic. On March 14, 1917, Kyrill and his naval unit swore allegiance to the Duma in the hope of restoring the old order and saving the monarchy. However, the imperial family considered this to be treason. Victoria stood by her husband, who, in her opinion, had done the right thing.
Revolution and escape
During the October Revolution of 1917, Victoria and her family fled to Finland , where they were to stay until 1919. In the following years they lived in Nice and were occasionally in Coburg . They supported Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, who was killed during the Hitler coup in 1923, in collecting donations for the NSDAP .
From 1925 onwards, the couple lived the rest of their lives in their residence in Saint-Briac-sur-mer , France . Victoria died on March 2, 1936 and was buried on March 6, 1936 in the Ducal Mausoleum in Coburg. On March 7, 1995, her remains, along with those of her second husband, Grand Duke Kyrill Vladimirovich Romanov, were transferred to the Romanov family crypt in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg.
literature
- David Duff: Hessian Tapestry. The Hesse Family and British Royalty. David & Charles, Newton Abbot et al. 1979, ISBN 0-7153-7838-4 .
- Harald Sandner: Coburg in the 20th century. The chronicle of the city of Coburg and the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from January 1, 1900 to December 31, 1999 - from the "good old days" to the dawn of the 21st century. Against forgetting. New Press Publishing House, Coburg 2002, ISBN 3-00-006732-9 .
- Thomas Nicklas: The House of Saxony-Coburg. Europe's late dynasty. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-17-017243-3 ( Kohlhammer-Urban-Taschenbücher 583).
- Lars Adler : The medal from 1894 and the commemorative sign from 1905 on the occasion of the two marriages of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine. In: Archive for Hessian History and Archeology NF 75 (2017), pp. 107-136 [in a slightly revised version also published in: OuE-Magazin - DGO - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde e. V. 19th vol., Issue 111 (October 2017), pp. 242-255].
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Victoria Melita von |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Victoria Feodorovna |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Granddaughter of the British Queen Victoria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 25, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Valletta |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 2, 1936 |
| Place of death | Amorbach |