The Vladimirovitchi - discussion and pictures, Part 2

Yes. I mean of his generation. Both his parents were Royal & Orthodox. Not even Kyrill can boast that (his mother converted much later)

Just to ask what were the names of Grand Duke Boris's estates?

Not sure...I don't think he sold them before he was forced to exile.

Elena Vladimirovna, Grand Duchess of Russia and Princess of Greece and Denmark



as a baby with her Mama and brothers







I cant wait until "Dear Ellen" is out, i been waiting for someone to write and make an album of my favorite Vladimirovichi for years!

Thank you Mandie! Those are wonderful photos, especially the first photo. I too cannot wait for "Dear Ellen"

does anyone have a wedding picture or portrait of Maria Pavllovna and Vladimir Alexandrovich in  1874?

Thanks for those lovely pics of Ellen ! 

One thing though, why is it so hard to marry her off ? Ellen was pretty & rich, that should be a good combination for any royal suitor. Also didn't know why Max broke off the engagement, was it because of the bossiness of Miechen ? I could understand if one prefers the gentle Thyra to Miechen as mother-in-law.

It was difficult to Marry Elena off due to her overly pompous and imperious behavior......it came across being very agitating and annoying hardly any royal suitor wanted a snob for a wife. But Prince Nicholas and Elena made off very well.

Really ? Was Elena that bad ? I heard many praised her beauty (including Prince Felix Yussopov) and especially her friendship later with Kate Fox that according to her, class was not a deterrent to friendship...

Yep...even her aunt Minnie the Dowager Empress found her behavior appalling.  Like mother like daughter Elena was a snob this trait even passed down to her daughter Marina, the Duchess of Kent when she referred to her sisters-in-laws as "common little scotch girls."

From what I've read, this whole branch of the family was pretty snobbish. IMHO, it stems from the fact that Vladimir always believed that he would have been a better Tsar than his older, more gauche brother Alexander III. Miechen believed this too, and tried to out-Tsaritsa Minnie and Alix at every opportunity. (One of the few things Minnie and Alix stood shoulder to shoulder on was their intense dislike of Miechen!) Vladimir and Miechen brought their children up to this, especially Eleana, IMHO, since Miechen made no secret of the fact that she wanted a brilliant match for her and not some minor Greek prince. I personally think of them as the "Vladimiro-trashy!" 

Yep...even her aunt Minnie the Dowager Empress found her behavior appalling.  Like mother like daughter Elena was a snob this trait even passed down to her daughter Marina, the Duchess of Kent when she referred to her sisters-in-laws as "common little scotch girls."

This would probably be best asked in the "George & Marina" thread, but to take advantage of Marina´s famous quote here, does anybody know how she reacted when her daughter married a common little Scotch man??

Thanks

I think it is not fair to trash Elena just on that. Read "From Cradle to Crown" about the sincere friendship between Elena and Kate Fox. Miechen tried to break that friendship, but eventually it failed and Kate Fox remained part of the family. Elena also opposed her brother Vladimir's grandiose gestures on "being Tsar" and broke off communications with her brother's family. The wedding of Marina & George was the healing gesture on the part of Elena. No I don't think she was that bad. Miechen was a law unto herself.

Who was Kate Fox?

Kate Fox was the British nanny for Elena's children. All the Nicholas girls (Olga, Elizabeth & Marina) were devoted to her and Elena trusted her implicitly. However Miechen did not like the friendship and sought to get her fired. Elena resisted this even when her mother stopped her income from Russia. Eventually Kate has to go, but the minute the coast was clear, she became reunited with the Nicholas family. In the book, Elena beamed and wave wildly once she saw Kate Fox in the crowd during a parade. I don't think that makes her a nasty person like Miechen. The thing with her was that she was bought up with a hierarchy of order in what royalty is all about and stuck to it. Indeed, she was correct in the continental sense since the royals today (Hohenzollern, Bourbon-Orleans & Romanov) continued "equal marriages". That was the case even in Britain until WW I, when George V open the way for local female aristocrats to marry into the royal family. Of course that belief in the order of things worked both ways, which explains why Elena sided with the Dowager Empress on the pretensions of her brother Cyril.