Olga's official suitors, marriage prospects, and proposals

That picture of Crown Prince Georg must have been taken during WW1, as he is in field grey and wearing the Iron Cross.

By then 16 was unusually young for marriage. In 1914 Olga was certainly marriageable.  Tatiana (who had her 17th birthday in the summer of 1914) was not fully marriageable but old enough to start thinking of suitors, though it was proper for her to wait until her sister was betrothed at least.

Ann

I think royal standard tend to marry early. By late 19th to early 20th century, they tend to marry later. Both Princess Irina & Princess Tatiana of Russia (both cousins of Olga) married before the revolution.

16 was unusually young even in the 1890s. By 1910-14 20-22 was typical.

And we should bear in mind that Marie of Rumania was a pretty poor precedent for very early marriage!

So Nicholas and Alexandra were hardly being remiss in taking things slowly.

Ann

I think Sisi, Stephanie and even Queen Olga of Greece married early.

But quite a bit earlier in the nineteenth century. The point I'm making is that by 1914 20-22 was typical and marriage below 18 had pretty much disappeared.

And Nicholas and Alexandra were surely aware that the marriages of Elizabeth and Stephanie were not a great success - in fact, Stephanie's can fairly be said to be a disaster.

Ann

Yes. But I think Olga should have been married off as her close in age cousins Irina and Tatiana had been married before the revolution. The only reason I can find is that both the Tsar & the Tsarina did not want their children to marry early. So they isolated the two girls from the extended Imperial Family where match could be made. The result was that they fell in love with the guards instead.

Tatiana Konstantinovna was, however, 21 when she married in 1911, so quite a bit older than Olga was in 1914. Irina was only a few months older than Olga, but, unlike Olga (but like Tatiana K), she had found a man she wanted to marry.

In 1914 Olga was old enough to marry, but, first, she had to find someone suitable. Suitable had two elements:
1) Status, age, religion and character sufficient for Olga's parents to approve:
2) Olga needed to be in love with him

It didn't happen.

I've always been a bit shocked by Princess Sophie of Greece and Denmark getting married at 16 to the 29 yr old Prince Christoph of Hesse! that was in 1930 so a later period than when Olga was considering marriage but still it must have raised a few eyebrows even then.

Indeed, but marrying young  and to ran in the family...her grandmother  ,Olga Konstantinova  married at 16 and I believe, even  brought along her teddy bear . But one would think in 1930, royals would marry later than they did in Queen Olga's day. However  I would think the children of that marriage might well  marry fairly young so they may have a stable home...that was rough time for the family .

Olga N was such a patriot  and really, what's better than being a Russian Grand Duchess before the war? She was just learning to enjoy the full import of being an adult GD. I can see not trading that in right away.... In fact during the war when the question of marriage came up with her nurse friends , Olga said "oh there's no danger of that during the war". Danger? Someone else might have said , "There was  no chance" .

I think the fault lies with the Empress who did not allow her children to mixed with those of high aristocracy. Princess Irina's husband was Russian and from the Highest Aristocracy. Alicky was not popular with the noble class and so limited her daughters exposure to them. She also did not encourage matches with her cousins too. Missy when she visited the Empress in Russia, found out that the girls were more nature without their mother being there. They were purposely kept childish and naive.

Well I believe you have a point. But I find mothers who lost thier own mother when children themselves , seem to struggle when it comes to seeing thier own children  as adults...it's as if no one showed them how that works. So  I don't think it was totally  conscious effort on Alix's part...but there was a missing component in a way.  However  certainly Alix did not wish to move in Russian society. She loved Russia., that is,  her idea of Russia.  But not the Russian  aristocracy , which of course was the only Russia her children  could socialize in, much less marry into. The timing of the war adds another layer of tragedy...because I believe the girls would have moved on of thier own accord given a few more years.  At least the girls did get to socialize somewhat. And that was thanks entirely to thier grandmother and Aunt Olga A. Those Sunday afternoons at Aunt Olga's , really stand out in thier short lives

Interestingly, when Olga's K's son Andrew of Greece wanted to marry the 17-year-old Alice of Batternberg when he was 20, both families opposed it! Of course, Olga K, having married at 16, might well have thought it was better to wait a bit.

Andrew and Alice are another example of royal relations meeting up and falling in love - they met at Edward VII's coronation. They were quite distantly related in terms of blood - Andrew was Queen Alexandra's nephew and Alice Edward's great-niece.

Ann

Again, Alice Battenberg had the mobility of a minor royal, she did travel with her mother and sister to visit her relatives. Olga did not have such opportunities. The net of isolation her mother put her into meant the only young men she could meet were guards. In fact, she did fell for one of them. If the girls had survived the revolution, most likely they would have married Russian commoners like their Aunt Olga and Uncle Michael.

I cant help thinking that Alice's daughter Sophie got married so young partly because that family was so dysfunctional. In the year Sophie married (1930) her parents separated as Alice was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Andrew was off living with another woman. Marrying Sophie off as the youngest daughter was probably because she was too old to be sent off to school like Philip but still too young to fend for herself. Still, until Prince Christoph died it was a happy marriage.

Alexandra by contrast was quite happy for Olga and Tatiana to remain at home as long as possible.

Yes. Had Alicky marry at least Olga off, she might have had a chance to survive the revolution. I wonder had she known what was to happen, would she had change her mind about Carol ? Anyway Carol did make a proposal of marriage to Marie. I wonder would she had accepted had she been consulted.