Why Nicholas II did not marry his three eldest daughters

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

As you know, Nicholas II had four daughters and a son. The Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia were all very different, each with its own character. During the reign of their father, three of them reached the age when they could already marry. Anastasia, the youngest, did not even have time to fall in love, but the elders were extremely disappointed when Nicholas II refused to marry them. It is worth noting that the last Russian emperor himself once married against the will of his parents.

Olga Nikolaevna

The eldest daughter in the royal family stood out, first of all, for her stubbornness and disobedience. She was smart, inquisitive, had an ability for music and foreign languages, adored cats and often entered into an argument with her parents if something was not to her liking. No one could be deceived by her gentle features, for Olga Nikolaevna's hard gaze invariably betrayed her steely character. She did not trust anyone with her revelations, but she constantly kept a diary, which served as an outlet for young Olga.

Olga Nikolaevna met Pavel Voronov on the Tsar's yacht Shtandart. The midshipman was a truly heroic person. At the age of 20, even five years before meeting the Grand Duchess, he took part in rescuing the inhabitants of Messina from the rubble caused by the earthquake. 17-year-old Olga fell in love. She wrote in her diary every meeting with Paul, who appeared in her notes at first as “Paul. Al. ", And later -" S. " And each time the young Grand Duchess thanked the Lord for the granted meeting with "S."

Pavel Voronov did not hide his sympathy for Olga. He often waltzed with the tsar's eldest daughter at the balls that took place on the "Standart". During all sorts of evenings, when a company of young people gathered, Olga and Pavel invariably turned out to be near. It was a touching unspoken novel, in which there was nothing but the love of young people, no passionate confessions, no fleeting touches.

The sympathy between the young people was noticed by the tsar and his wife. But the parents were not going to encourage this relationship, because Pavel Voronov was not a family so noble that he could claim the hand and heart of the Grand Duchess. Therefore, as historians suspect, Nicholas II and his wife "had a conversation" with the midshipman, as a result of which Pavel Voronov was married to Countess Olga Kleinmichel. By the way, after the revolution, he was able to take his wife abroad. But Olga, whose feelings were treated so rudely by her parents, never got married, but was shot together with the whole family in the basement of the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg.

Tatiana Nikolaevna

She was two years younger than Olga Nikolaevna, loved to do needlework and was modest and shy. However, these qualities of the Grand Duchess were often mistaken for arrogance, although it was not at all characteristic of Tatiana, named by her father in honor of Pushkin's heroine from Eugene Onegin.

Her first love came to her in 1914. Together with her mother Alexandra Fedorovna and her sisters, Tatyana Nikolaevna came to visit the wounded in the hospital and all the time sat at the bedside of the cornet Dmitry Malam. The sympathy between the young people was noticed. Alexandra Fyodorovna even wrote in a letter to her husband about the cornet, called him an adorable boy and lamented that foreign princes could not compare with him in beauty, and a wonderful son-in-law could come out of Malama.

The crowned parents were not going to encourage their daughter's love, and therefore soon after the cornet was discharged from the hospital, the lovers parted forever. Probably, Tatiana could run away to the end of the world for her beloved, but she was too obedient to take such a decisive step.

Maria Nikolaevna

Simple, very kind and open, the third daughter of the emperor was a real beauty. She was stately, devoid of any guile and strong so much that she calmly carried in her arms her younger teenage brother, who had stopped walking during an illness.

Maria Nikolaevna also met her love at the "Standart". Nikolai Demenkov bore the rank of senior lieutenant, was overweight and extremely charming. The good-natured, merry fellow invariably became the soul of the company, and young Maria Nikolaevna fell in love with him without memory. The older sisters, who had by that time, if not reconciled, then at least experienced all the bitterness of their upset first love, chuckled good-naturedly, seeing how Maria rejoices every time the object of her passion.

It seems that the daughter's sympathy was not hidden from her parents either. How else can one explain the fact that Nikolai Demenkov, the only one from the entire Consolidated Regiment, who was exclusively engaged in the protection of the royal family, was suddenly sent to the front. Maria sewed him a shirt, which Nikolai, who had moved to Paris after the revolution, carefully kept all his life.

It is no secret that Nicholas II dreamed of marrying his daughters to overseas princes, and no one could interfere with his plans. True, he himself at one time married Alexandra Fedorovna against the will of his parents and not intending to pay attention to the fact that the Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt was not liked by the people from the moment of its first appearance in Russia.