Princess Charlotte of Württemberg

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia

Princess Charlotte

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia

Elena Pavlovna in 1840, painted by Vladimir Ivanovich Hau

Born| (1807-01-09)9 January 1807
Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, Confederation of the Rhine
Died| 2 February 1873(1873-02-02) (aged 66)
Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Burial|

Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire

Spouse|

Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia

(m. 1824; died 1849)​

Issue| Grand Duchess Maria
Elizabeth, Duchess of Nassau
Catherine, Duchess Georg of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Grand Duchess Alexandra
Grand Duchess Anna
| Names

German: Friederike Charlotte Marie
House| Württemberg
Father| Prince Paul of Württemberg
Mother| Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Religion| Russian Orthodox Church
prev. Lutheranism

Princess Charlotte of Württemberg (9 January 1807 - 2 February [O.S. 21 January] 1873), later known as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was the wife of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

## Early life[edit]

She was born in Stuttgart, as Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, the eldest daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and of Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest by royal standards. In Paris, Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.

## Marriage and issue[edit]

In 1822, she became engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed (Mikhail's mother was her father's aunt). It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15.[1] The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations.[1] On 17 December 1823, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Elena Pavlovna.[2] On 20 February 1824, the couple married in Saint Petersburg and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army, and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters, only two of whom lived to mature adulthood:

* Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (9 March 1825, Moscow – 19 November 1846, Vienna); died unmarried.
* Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (26 May 1826, Moscow – 28 January 1845, Wiesbaden); married Adolf, Duke of Nassau and died in childbirth.
* Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), married Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
* Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831, Moscow – 27 March 1832, Moscow), died in childhood
* Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834, Moscow – 22 March 1836, Saint Petersburg), died in childhood

## Influence at court and in society[edit]

Russian Sisters of Mercy in the Crimea, 1854-1855

Elena became a close friend of her brother-in-law, Emperor Alexander I of Russia and of his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, who married the then Tsarevich Alexander in 1841. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and of the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and co-founded (1854) a group of nursing sisters (Society of the Sisters of Marcy [ru]) which would eventually become the forerunners of the Red Cross in Russia. During her time in Russia she became known as the "family intellectual", and was considered[by whom?] the most exceptional woman in the imperial family since Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796). She founded the Russian Musical Society (1859) and the Russian Conservatoire (1862), and was liberal on serfdom. She helped to push her nephew Alexander II to abolish serfdom while he stayed with her.[3][need quotation to verify]

As a patroness of the composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894), she commissioned some of his early operas: Fomka the Fool (1853), The Siberian Hunters (1852), and Vengeance (1852/1853).[4]

Elena died in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 66.

## Ancestry[edit]

Ancestors of Princess Charlotte of Württemberg

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | 8\. Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

| 4\. Frederick I of Württemberg|

|  |  |
| 9\. Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt

| 2\. Prince Paul of Württemberg|

|  |  |  |  |
| 10\. Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick

| 5\. Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel|

|  |  |
| 11\. Princess Augusta of Great Britain

| 1\. Princess Charlotte of Württemberg|
|  |  |  |  |  |  |
| 12\. Ernest Frederick III, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen

| 6\. Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg|

|  |  |
| 13\. Princess Ernestine of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

| 3\. Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen|

|  |  |  |  |
| 14\. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

| 7\. Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz|

|  |  |
| 15\. Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt

|  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## Bibliography[edit]

* Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias. 1983
* Sebag Montefiore, Simon. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. 2016. Knopf Publishing Group.
* Taylor, Philip S., Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music, Indianapolis, 2007
* Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn. 2001

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b Zeepvat, p. 19.
2. ^ Zeepvat, p. 20.
3. ^ Sebag Montefiore, Simon (28 January 2016). The Romanovs: 1613-1918. Hachette UK (published 2016). p. 546\. ISBN 9781474600279. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
4. ^ Taylor (2007), 39.

## External links[edit]

* v
* t
* e

Princesses of Württemberg by birth

The generations are numbered from the ascension of Frederick I as King of Württemberg in 1805.

1st Generation|

* Catharina, Queen of Westphalia

2nd Generation|

* Sophie, Queen of the Netherlands
* Catherine, Princess Frederick of Württemberg1
* Augusta, Princess Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
* Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia
* Pauline, Duchess of Nassau

3rd Generation|

* none

4th Generation|

* Pauline, Princess of Wied

1also a Princess of Württemberg by marriage

* v
* t
* e

Grand Duchesses of Russia by marriage

1st generation|

* Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel*

2nd generation|

* Catherine Alexeievna (Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst)

3rd generation|

* Natalia Alexeievna (Wilhelmina of Hesse-Darmstadt)
* Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)

4th generation|

* Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden)
* Anna Feodorovna (Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld)
* Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia)
* Elena Pavlovna (Charlotte of Württemberg)

5th generation|

* Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)
* Alexandra Iosifovna (Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg)
* Alexandra Petrovna (Alexandra of Oldenburg)
* Olga Feodorovna (Cäcilie of Baden)

6th generation|

* Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)
* Maria Pavlovna (Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
* Elizabeth Feodorovna (Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine)
* Alexandra Georgievna (Alexandra of Greece and Denmark)
* Elizaveta Mavrikievna (Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg)
* Anastasia Nikolaevna (Anastasia of Montenegro)
* Militza Nikolaevna of Montenegro (Milica of Montenegro)
* Maria Georgievna (Maria of Greece and Denmark)
* Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia**

7th generation|

* Viktoria Feodorovna (Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha)

8th generation|

* Leonida Georgievna (Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani)***

* * never converted to Orthodoxy
* ** also a Grand Duchess of Russia by birth
* *** title granted by Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich

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