In the book The court of the last tsar by Greg King (Wiley, 2006) I came across the name of princess Marie Golitsyn. For most of Nicholas II's reign she was the mistress of the robes of empress Alexandra. On her death in 1909, her function was offered to princess Elizabeth Naryshkin-Kuryakin.
On page 105 of the book mentioned before, there is an interesting piece of information:
"Sixty-six of the 240 ladies in the Empress's Suite held the rank of kaval'er-dama and the Order of St. Catherine. The most powerful was the ober-gofmeisterina starshaya dama, the empress's mistress of the robes, and the senior lady-in-waiting, held for most of Nicholas II's reign by Princess Marie Golitsyn. Appointed by Alexandra's mother in law, the princess, noted one critic, was "ambitious, intriguing, and unsparing in her criticisms." She "acted as if it was beneath her to show kindness to those persons with whom she came into contact, and did what she could to accentuate the cold way in which Society was held at a distance by the Empress."
I think it would be interesting to start a topic about this woman who had an important function at court. Does anyone of you has more information about princess Marie Golitsyn??
