The Alexander Palace Time Machine Discussion Forum

Could someone identify the people in the wedding photo of Peter and Alexandra?

Well, Marina returned in 1914, she had her affair with Dimity and after that, she got married again in May 1915.

Who did Marina marry in 1915?  How did her life play out?

[Princess Irina Felixovna Yussupova]

Update from Wikipedia:

Descendants of Felix and Irina are:

Princess Irina Felixovna Yussupova, (March 21, 1915, Saint Petersburg, Russia- August 30, 1983, Cormeilles, France), married Count Nikolai Dmitrievich Sheremetev (October 28, 1904, Moscow, Russia - February 5, 1979, Paris, France), son of Count Dmitri Sergeievich Sheremetev and wife Countess Irina Ilarionovna Vorontzova-Dachkova and a descendant of Boris Petrovich Sheremetev; had issue:

Countess Xenia Sheremeteva (born March 1, 1942, Rome, Italy), married on June 20, 1965 in Athens, Greece, to Ilias Sfiris (born August 20, 1932, Athens, Greece); had issue:

Tatiana Sfiris (born August 28, 1968, Athens, Greece), married on May 1996 in Athens, Greece, to Alexis Giannakoupoulos (born 1963), divorced, no issue; married Anthony Vamvakidis and has issue:

Marilia Vamvakidis (July 17, 2004)
Yasmine Xenia Vamvakidis (May 7, 2006)

What role, if any, did the Greek royals play in Marie and Dmitri's childhood? Did they visit their grandparents often as children at Tatoi? I haven't read any mention of them doing so anywhere. I believe their uncle Prince Christopher mentioned their mother's death in his own memoirs, but I don't think he discussed them visiting his family in Greece or at Pavlovsk. It's been years since I read his book, though.


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Marie has always fascinated me as well.  I think she was emotionally very immature (and remained that way throughout her life) because of never having known her mother and being distanced from her father.  Although Serge may have been affectionate at times, I think he probably treated her more as sort of a dress up doll than as a daughter.  Ella, I believe was emotionally distant as well due to her own issues.  Marie was certainly spoiled beyond belief and I think her education was not attended to at hardly any level.  All of this equaled disaster for a woman of her natural intellect and artistic abilities.  She probably had no grasp of reality until the revolution.  William and she were both virtually children, at least emotionally, when they married, and Marie did not know how to bond even with her own child.  She fell victim to a cycle--her father really did not bond with her, she did not bond with Lennart.  This sounds cheesy but in most of her pictures, it looks like she needs a big hug.

I never really understood her lack of connectedness to her Greek relatives.  I think she did visit or see her grandmother (Olga) and great-grandmother occasionally at Pavlovsk, but not that often.

It is a shame they weren't closer because the Greeks were such a large and loving family, she probably would have found a home and acceptance among them.

I think Nicky was once angaged to Irene of Greece. He later married a commoner. 

What happened with this engagement?

Was Nicholas ever linked to any other royal princesses?

I'm still wondering about their courtship.  Napoleon III was living in England at the time of their marriage.  Was he friends with the Duke's family and arranged a marriage between his cousin and friend? Did the Duke (Marquess at the time) have business in Baden, how did the pair meet and become engaged?  The only thing I remember reading is in some bio of QV, that QV was distressed at the problems the marriage would cause the order of precedence.

I believe the reason that Dimitri ended up in Ohio was that his father-in-law owned a company in Cincinnati.  I have read that he was quite rich.  So that is probably why we have Romanovs in Ohio.

Audrey Emery was from Cincinatti and her money was based there, that is the reason for the family's ties to that city and state.

Does anyone know what kind of relationship, if any, Queen Olga had with her oldest granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger? I know that after Olga's daughter, Grand Duchess Alexandra, died and Grand Duke Paul remarried morganically, Maria and her brother Grand Duke Dmitri were raised by their uncle, Grand Duke Serge and his wife, Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Did Maria have much access to her Greek relatives. I know she was in Hesse-Darmstadt for the wedding of Prince Andrew to Princess Alice of Battenburg in 1903.
According to Maria, after Serge was assasinated, Elizabeth married her off to Prince Wilhelm of Sweden. What did Olga think of Maria's marriage?
Also, how did Maria feel about her mother's remains being moved from Russia to Greece?

I don't think Maria Pavlovna had a very close relationship with her Greek relatives and I've often wondered why that is.  She talks little about them in her autobiographies although I believe she did interact with Olga and her great-grandmother somewhat in Russia.

Marie spent so much of her life sort of wandering, "lost", or detached from her family members.  The Greek RF was so different than the Russian one, and I think Marie would have found a strong sense of family, acceptance, and love among them had she chose to identify with them.

However, the many exiles of the Greek RF may have made this somewhat difficult....

He has a name now

James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor

I was hoping for Christopher, after Sophie's father, but I do like James Alexander Philip.  Theo I'm not so sure about.  So many people nowadays give their children diminutives for proper names, I guess the practice has spread to royalty as well....

The duchess's marriage was arranged by Napoleon III?

The dates don't seem to fit.  Napoleon became emperor long after the duchess's marriage.

She was 24 at her marriage, seems rather old for the time....

I bumped this topic up because I was thinking about how, although the Duchess of Hamilton was so well-connected, little seems to be known about her.  She is mentioned in passing here and there, but she must have been an interesting, vibrant personality.  Does anyone know of any biographies?  Or how she met and became engaged to her duke?

When will we know the name?

Or has it already been announced?

Some links to photos from the Amarillo Public Library:

Cecilie with a baby Kira (notice the Kaiser in the background):
http://images.amarillolibrary.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/PhotoArchiv&CISOPTR=863&REC=9


Baby Kira with her German nanny
http://images.amarillolibrary.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/PhotoArchiv&CISOPTR=880&REC=18

How did Calma's life play out?  She was divorced from her third husband in 1949, and lived into the 80's.  Did she continue to make shoes?

The Fifes may also have been against a foreign match for their daughter, especially one that would have sent her to a less than stable country such as Greece.