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Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (later Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; 17 October 1853 - 24 October 1920) was a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Maria became the wife of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and 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). Early life The Duchess was born at Tsarskoye Selo, Russia, the second daughter of Alexander II, Emperor of Russia (who was assassinated in 1881) and his wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, legal daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, yet it was openly rumoured her father was actually Baron Augustus de Senarclens, her mother's chamberlain. She was the aunt of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia who was murdered in 1918. Her brother, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was assassinated in Moscow in 1905, and another brother, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia was shot in Saint Petersburg in 1919. 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. To commemorate the occasion, a small English bakery made the now-internationally popular Marie biscuit, with the Duchess' name imprinted on the its top. 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 the 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. 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, Hereditary 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 Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died of throat cancer on 30 July 1900 at Rosenau Castle in Coburg. The Ducal throne passed to his nephew, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany. The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha continued to reside in Coburg. Later life She died in October 1920 in Zürich, Switzerland apparently after receiving a telegram addressed to her as "Frau Coburg"; she was buried in the Ducal Family's cemetery outside Coburg. Of her four daughters, the Queen of Rumania was forbidden to attend or to travel to Germany due to the recent war, in which Germany and Romania had fought on opposite sides. Titles and styles 17 October 1853 - 23 January 1874: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia 23 January 1874 - 22 August 1893: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh 22 August 1893 - 11 October 1905: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 11 October 1905 - 24 October 1920: Her Imperial & Royal Highness The Dowager Duchess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Issue Hereditary 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 Vladimirovich 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 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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