Video: A love story that alarmed half of Europe: Russian Emperor Alexander II and Queen Victoria of England
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-10 02:10
The love story of the heir to the throne of the Romanovs and the famous English queen made a lot of noise both in the imperial court of Russia and in the English kingdom. How did it end?
Tsarevich Alexander
The eldest son of Nicholas I, Alexander, according to numerous testimonies, was very impressionable and amorous in his youth. More than once the maids of honor of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, his mother, became the objects of his love. One of these novels, with the maid of honor Olga Kalinovskaya, went so far that Alexander was ready to renounce his right to the throne for her sake. The parents, alarmed in earnest, nevertheless insisted on ending these relations, and they decided to send Alexander from St. Petersburg, away from the courtyard - first on a long journey across Russia, and in the spring of 1838 - to Europe. During this trip, the Grand Duke had to look after himself a worthy bride, preferably one of the German princesses. His father even prepared for him an appropriate list of princesses worth paying attention to.
However, everything did not go according to plan - none of the princesses aroused sympathy with Alexander. It was only in the small German duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt that he finally met the one he fell in love with - a very young 15-year-old princess Maximilian Wilhelmina of Hesse. However, she was not on her father's list. The fact is that many talked about her scandalous origin, as if she were not the Duke's own daughter. Naturally, Alexander's parents did not like this choice at all. Nevertheless, Alexander officially wooed the Hessian princess, and before returning home, he decided to spend a few days in London. And something completely unexpected happened there …
Queen Victoria of Great Britain
In Great Britain at this time, the second year was ruled by the young Queen Victoria, who inherited the throne at the age of eighteen.
It is interesting that at baptism she was given two names - Alexandrina (in honor of her godfather, the Russian Emperor Alexander I, who was then highly revered in England for the victory over Napoleon), and Victoria (in honor of her mother). But later, with the deterioration of Russian-British relations, her first name, Alexandrina, was actually abolished. In May 1839, Queen Victoria was supposed to be 20 years old, and she, obeying the expectations of her subjects, was also preoccupied with finding a future spouse, who after marriage became would be a prince consort with her.
Young Victoria was very pretty, "". There was no shortage of applicants for her hand, and her fiancé had already, in principle, been selected - Prince Albert, a very charming young man, the son of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Coburg. However, Victoria was embarrassed by his excessive shyness and slender appearance.
Tsarevich Alexander and Queen Victoria
In April 1839, there was a rumor that the heir to the Russian throne would visit London in the coming days. Victoria was awaiting his arrival with undisguised interest. When they met at Buckingham Palace, a tall, stately, elegant, well-educated crown prince made a very favorable impression on Victoria. And after a few days of closer communication - at balls, receptions and even in private - Victoria realized that she had fallen in love. In her diary, the queen admitted: "".
And the first adjutant of Alexander, Colonel SA Yurievich, also wrote in his diary: "" "".
Alexander's retinue and the royal court were seriously agitated. After all, if it came to the wedding, then Victoria and Alexander would have been faced with a serious choice - one of them would have to renounce the throne. Urgent dispatches were sent to Russia for Nicholas I from the companions of the Tsarevich. The alarmed emperor ordered his son to return home immediately. Now the Hessian princess did not seem such a bad choice to Alexander's parents. Although in the case of Alexander's marriage with Victoria, nothing terrible would have happened for the Russian court - after all, in addition to Alexander, Nicholas I had other heirs, perhaps even more worthy contenders for the throne. But, apparently, Nicholas I had his own reasons for not allowing this union. Victoria, too, was urgently sent to Windsor Castle to limit her meetings with Alexander. In the end, through admonitions from both sides, it was possible to convince Alexander and Victoria that their relationship had no future. And that each of them must first of all think about their country. After a touching farewell to Queen Victoria, the Tsarevich departed for his homeland.
In her diary, Victoria wrote: "". Leaving, Alexander presented the Queen with a shepherd dog named "Kazbek", which until the end of her life was the royal favorite.
How was the further fate of Alexander and Victoria
Literally six months later, in 1840, Victoria nevertheless married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and lived with him in love and harmony for many happy years.
After his untimely death, until the end of her days, the queen was in mourning for her beloved Albert.
And the imperial couple of the Romanovs allowed Alexander to marry the Hessian princess, whom he was fascinated with before his trip to London. Their wedding took place in 1841.
Although at parting, Alexander hoped for the establishment of friendly relations between England and Russia, this did not happen. Relations between these two countries were far from cloudless, and in 1853 it even came to the Crimean War, which Russia lost.
By the way, during this exhausting war, in February 1855, Alexander II came to the Russian throne.
As for Queen Victoria, she was distinguished by Russophobic sentiments until the end of her 64-year reign. And Alexander did not have warm feelings for her.
But, despite the hostile attitude of the English queen to Russia, the fate of her children and grandchildren has more than once crossed with the Romanov family. At first, her eldest son Edward (the future King of Great Britain Edward VII) and the son of Alexander II Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander III) became related, who married their own sisters, the Danish princesses.
Their sons, Nikolai and Eduard, were surprisingly similar to each other.
And in 1874, another son of Victoria, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh, married the daughter of Alexander II, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. Maria Romanova, who became Queen Victoria's daughter-in-law, had to experience all the delights of her mother-in-law's hostile attitude towards the Russian imperial family.
Ten years later, the son of Alexander II, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, married Victoria's granddaughter, Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt.
And finally, in 1894, the grandchildren of Victoria and Alexander II tied themselves by family ties - Alisa of Gessenskaya married Nicholas II and became the Russian empress.
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