Video: Shy or femme fatale? Maria Naryshkina: the most brilliant favorite of Alexander I
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Emperor Alexander I became famous not only for his military exploits - he is called one of the most loving Russian rulers. He had a beautiful wife, who drove poets and courtiers crazy, and several favorites. His romance with Maria Naryshkina was the longest and most serious - they spent 15 years together, Maria gave birth to Alexander I of three children. In some sources, she is described as a modest, silent beauty, in others - as a self-confident and arrogant femme fatale. What was actually the most brilliant favorite of Alexander I?
Alexander I was the grandson of Catherine II and the eldest son of Paul I. Catherine II was involved in the upbringing of the future emperor, she also chose a wife for him - Louise-Maria-Augusta of Baden, after baptism in the Orthodox Church - Elizaveta Alekseevna. She was meek, delicate, impeccably well-mannered, and also very beautiful. But her virtues were appreciated by everyone except Alexander I.
Maria Naryshkina was not the first favorite of the emperor, but it was her that many call the only strong passion of Alexander I. All of his previous novels were short-lived, and this one lasted 15 years. How could Maria Naryshkina conquer the emperor?
Maria was Polish, she came from the princely family of Svyatopolk-Chetvertinsky. At the age of 15, she became a maid of honor at the Russian court, at 16 she was married to Prince Naryshkin. Many wrote about her beauty, G. Derzhavin compared her with the famous heterosexual Aspazia, the wife of Pericles: All Aspasia is dear: With black eyes with fires, With her foamy chest, Surprising Athena, Surpasses everyone; The eyes of an eagle, the soul of a lion Burns like the sun with beauty.
The English envoy F. Vigel wrote that “her beauty was so perfect that it seemed impossible, unnatural. Perfect facial features and impeccable figure acted even brighter with the usual simplicity of her outfit. We cannot fully judge the beauty of the famous favorite - unfortunately, only a few portraits of Maria Antonovna have come down to us.
There were various rumors about the moral qualities of Naryshkina. According to some contemporaries, she was silent, calm, restrained, kind and tactful. In other sources, she is characterized as a self-confident and impudent young lady. Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna was indignant at her behavior once at a ball and complained in a letter to her mother: “For such an act one must have shamelessness, which I could not even imagine. It happened at the ball. I talked to her, like everyone else, asked about her health, she complained about the malaise: "I think I'm pregnant" … She knew very well that I knew who she could be pregnant with."
Maria Naryshkina had 6 children, 3 of them died in infancy. Officially, everyone was considered the children of her lawful spouse, although it was no secret to anyone that the emperor was the father of three of them. In 1824, at the age of 16, the daughter of Maria and Alexander I Sophia died, a year later they parted. In 1825, the emperor died of typhoid fever (according to another version, he became a hermit and lived in Siberia under the name of Elder Fyodor).
Maria Naryshkina lived to be 75 years old, according to some sources, there were still many love adventures in her life, according to others, she spent almost a year among the novices of the monastery. Obviously, only the fact of her rare beauty and the love of the emperor for her will remain indisputable for us, in whose life she left a noticeable mark, as well as favorite and secret wife of Louis XIV
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