A Fatal Passion: The Story of Victoria Melita

[Eric_Lowe]

It is worth noting Missy's portrait of her sister in her memoirs. Ducky was a complex character, one does rebels against injustice but also prone to lose causes. However that also couples with a high standard of love and fidelity. The marriage with Ernie failed not because of the-boys on the side thing, but mostly because Ernie cannot return the burning love and the desire to share souls aspect in a marriage. In this aspect, she was in unsion with Alicky (Who wrote to her husband "I love you...those words have my life in them" kind of mentality). Ernie's happy-go-lucky mentality was not competable to Ducky's grande Passion. She gave up after her marriage near the end of the century. With Kyrill she did have high hopes. The co-partnership and commadrary appealed to the idealistic Ducky. They shared their ups and downs in life togather. Suddenly to have discovered that she was not enough woman for him (or man depending on which version you hear) must have been desvesating to someone who is strong, but also sensative like Ducky. To her there is no question of forgive or forget. All or nothing...

[ilyala]

Cheating ? For heaven's sakes, these are Romanovs !  Simply cheating was not the problem here I suspect.  People make mistakes, are forgiven and life moves on. Betrayal must have been a more serious insult than  some toss in the whatever.  After all, VM was pretty sophisticated herself, and as has been mentioned, subject of scandal herself. I suppose we will never know just what it was that alienated her affections, but it had to be more than mere infidelity. After all, they remained married until their respective deaths. And, as far as I know, their children remained devoted to both of them.

victoria was a source of scandal but every scandal she caused, she did due to her love for kyril. by cheating on her he pretty much let her know she did it all for someone who was not worth it. and while what she did was scandalous for her times, i for one do not blame her one bit and don't think would have done anything different. cause i don't think there's anything wrong with divorce and it's better than settling in a marriage of convenience and having dozens of lovers, the way royals did for centuries.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes Ducky did loved and adored him (Kyrill)...But she was very led down by him as well. 

[imperial angel]

You are correct Eric_ Lowe when you say that the grand passion of Ducky's that was so evident in her marriage and courtship with Grand Duke Kyril, was what she wanted in her first marriage. And that more than some of the other reasons cited ( Ernest's infidility, and that it was an arranged marriage, they were different personalities, she was in love with Kyril, and that she wasn't happy in Hesse), is perhaps the true intellectual reason, if not the practical one that she got out of her first marriage. I coudn't have said it better. Ducky was not only the fighting Grand Duchess, but she was also very passionate.

[Eric_Lowe]

Indeed ! That was the reason why she took Kyrill's betrayal so badly...She thought her relationship with her husband was perfect. It was cruel for her to find out...

[imperial angel]

She did everything right in her estimation, and then it went wrong- a fatal passion indeed.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes...love and loyalty cannot be gained but given voluntarily. 

[imperial angel]

Yes, and I think she thought they could be gained, or perhaps worked for, and in that way gained.

[Eric_Lowe]

Kyrill abused her trust...Ducky just cannot take it. 

[imperial angel]

That broke her, realizing she had tried so hard, worked to gain what she had, and that never made any difference. It was gone anyway, very gone. We will never know what he did, but we know her reaction.

[Eric_Lowe]

It must have been pretty bad...

[imperial angel]

Yes, although more conventional royal wives might have dealt with it differently.

[Eric_Lowe]

That was why her mother fret about Ducky more than her other daughters. 

[imperial angel]

Yes- Ducky was not like other royal women of that era.

[Eric_Lowe]

She was one of a kind...