Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, Queen of Wuerttemberg

In her memories THE GOLDEN DREAMS OF YOUTH queen olga told about all the attempts to marry her off.

In 1838 the imperial family visited berlin. she was 16. bavarian royal family wanted the crown prince max to marry olga. it was a special wish of his aunt loiuse, nee princess of prussia. in fact, the  bavarian family initially thought about maria  nikolaevna but max decided that it was to be only olga. max detected similarity between olga and a lady on an old painting in one of his castles.that`s how he fell in love with olga. olga didn`t even suspect what max`s intentions were, what`s more she didn`t even suspect that max was courting her because he concentrated his attention on himself talking only about himself, his castles, his dreams, legends, misunderstanding between him and his father. how could she imagine that the young man was courting her.she danced with nobody but max because everybody thought that olga and max would soon announce their engagement. olga was the only person who didn`t suspect what was going going. the next day as olga and max were coming back home after breakfast in charlottenburg olga ran away from max and ran towards uncle wilhelm thus seeking protection from max. it was only a few hours later that her mother,empress alexandra feodorovna,explained what was going on and olga screamed no!no!no!


when she was 17 another suitor appeared-Archduke Albrecht. he was in love with Olga, she liked him but her feelings towards him were purely friendly. she wasn`t attracted to him physically.
 

later there appeared another suitor, elena pavlovna`s brother.or,rather, it was elena pavlovna who wanted to help her brother. prince fridriech of wurttemberg who wanted to avoid marriage with his wurttemberg cousin. elena pavlovna decided to play a matchmaker to help her brother. she even claimed that prince friedrich fell in love with olga during his visit in russia in 1837. elena pavlovna praised her brother and tried to encouraged olga towards her brother promising her that prince friedrich would ascend the wurttemberg throne because the heir to the throne (i e prince carl, olga`s future husband ) was to weak to ascend the throne.  the prince visited the imperial family alsmost daily. olga was desperate as she didn`t want to marry him.for her, she was more like an uncle, he was her parents` age! he danced with her mother when she was a young prussian princess.when elena pavlovna informed the tzar about her brother`s intentions nikolay 1 said that olga was free to choose whoever she wanted and didn`t insist on this marriage.olga didn`t like this prince, also, she felt too young to marry.

After prince friedrich`s visit olga confessed to her father that she felt well at home and didn`t want to leave her parents and suggested that probably they had to make a decision for her. nikolay 1 answered: WHO YOU MARRY DOESN`T DEPEND ON ME OR YOU.IT`S ALL IN GOD`S HANDS. i like this opinion because some issues in our lives do not depend on us , they depend on some supernatural forces whtever we calll them

in 1841  maria pavlovna of saxe-weimar visited her family in russia. she came with her husband and younger son with the intention of finding a russian bride for her son. she thought about alexandra or olga.she talked about this matter with her brother the emperor but he he didn`t agree. marila pavlovna,however, wasn`t discouraged and decided to talk face-to-face to olga nikolaevna. she proposed to olga on behalf of her son.olga refused on the grounds they were first cousins. these are superstitions - answered mariya pavlovna.
-but my father doesnt support this idea!
- he has backward views!
-but our church doesn`t support marriages between first cousins.

the conversation lasted 1 hour and olga tried to politely refuse this proposal.

the same conversation took place the next day with alexandra nikolaevna who turned the young weimar prince down,too. mariya pavlovna was so distressed that she felt ill and had o stay in bed for some time.

the weimar prince knew what was going on but pretended that he didn`t behaving as a good friend

What hair colour did Olga have? Because in every painting its different...

violetta, your account of Olga's suitors is really interesting, please tell how she ended up choosing Karl.

continuation of a story of olga of wurttemberg and her suitors.

in 1841 the imperial family officially turned down albrecht`s hand.

olga felt like marrying stefan, the hungarian palatin, but the imperial family received a letter from metternich stating that people in their country would not like a princess with orthodo background. also, an orthodox princess would lead to social unrest with the minorities.

in 1841 it turned out that crown prince max of bavaria bacame engaged and olga signed with relief cause she called max "a nightmare of my life".

 

next, the family thought about adolph of nassau. this led to a serious conflict with mikhailovskiy palace i.e. the family of grand duke mikhail pavlovich. elena pavlovna wanted her daughter lilly ( it was her nickname, i think her name was elizaveta.correct me i f  i`m wrong). nikolay I ,on learning about elena pavlovna`s plans, said that his daughters and his nieces were grand duchesses with equal rights hence adolph of nassau had the right to choose between his and mikail pavlovich`s daughters. mikhail pavlovich calmed down on learnin his brothr`s point of view.elena pavlovna,however, still felt deeply hurt by olga` s refusal to marry her brother that`s why she asked her sister pauline to go to any lengths to prevent adolph from visiting russia.elena pavlovna was successful, and soon afterwards the imperial family received a letter which stated that adolph of nassau couldn`t visit russia because of his poor health and necessity to go to a spa.
olga was distressed because she had to go through a period of uncertainty again

Interesting story violetta! You're right that Elena Pavlovna's daughter's name was Elizaveta. She was called Lili or Lily in the family.

the next prospective suitor of olga nikolaevna was fritz of hessen-kassel.he came to russia and during dinner he was introduced to olga nikolaevna.they met in peterhof.fritz seemed to be very nice,and olga enjoyed time with him.during the first day of fritz`s stay olga`s younger sister, alexandra (adini) was absent because she had a cold.the two met the next day and olga instatly felt that "something important happened between them".they fell in love.olga realized that she  couldn`t be her sister`s rival and stand on the way to her happiness.fritz was nice to olga but whenever adini appeared he became radiant.

once adini,when she thought that she was not heard by anyone, started playing the piano. but olga was nearby by accident and realize that adini expressed all her feelings through music.she was definitely in love.

olga came to her mother and said SHE LOVES HIM!

on the day of adini`s engagement nikolay 1 came to his daughter`s room and asked if she needed to talk to him. the tzar suffered because olga was somehow hurt.

adini died less than a year after her marriage.her prematurily born so died,too. she was buried with her son in her arms

olga nikolaeva was 23 when the king of wurttemberg asked if his son,the crown prince karl, could preset himself to olga nikolaevna.the emperor agreed.olga nikolaevna defined his voice as "gentlle".she was completely excited. five days after their first meeting it was clear that the couple would be engaged.olga nikolaevna perceived karl as someone perfect.
in her memroies olga nikolaevna admitted that her maied life was full of disappointmets and "severe blows".but her childhood and youth were so happy that they helped her to survive.as she was writing her memories she was able to etun to the most cherished days of her life.she wished that olga ad elsa had as happy childhood as she did because it formed the basis of someone`s life

This was labelled Olga Nicholaevna .

Olga Nikolayevna, daughter of Nicholas I, was Chief of Elisavetgradskiy Hussar Regiment.

Olga as queen of Wurttemberg.

Queen Olga in 1870s