Olga's official suitors, marriage prospects, and proposals

[matushka]

I looked at the pictures of this state visit (from our member site Geglov) and came to the conclusion that the king came alone. So, my mistake, sorry, or, more exactly, N. V. Sablin's mistake, who probably mixed differents events! An interesting one, by the way, revealing the rumors, the spirit of the time: people probably expected a soon marriage and were intensively gossiping about it!

[Kalafrana]

Having done a bit of looking up, the two elder Saxon princes, born in January and December 1893, seem to have been decent young men (the third was born in 1896 so too young for marriage at this stage), but religion would have been a serious obstacle, especially with the Crown Prince (who later became a Jesuit priest, so must have neen particularly devout, quite apart from his position).

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

I don't think the Saxon princes would have worked with OTMA. 

[Kalafrana]

Olga and the Saxon princes seem never to have met, so we don't know whether they would have been interested in one another or not. There are two different things involved in any royal matchmaking. The first is whether the parents thought that their respective son and daughter were potential marriage partners, the second is whether the young people themselves were interested in marrying. The first requirement was met in the case of Olga and Carol of Romania, the second was not. In the case of Olga and the Saxon princes, it seems possible that the parents weren't keen, for reasons already discussed, but if Olga and the devout and serious-minded Crown Prince Georg had actually met, who knows? After all, Viktoria Luise and Ernst August of Brunswick met almost by chance and promptly fell in love, and Margaret of Connaught and Gustav Adolf of Sweden also met off the beaten track (in Cairo) and ended up by marrying.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. But religion did not play a part in those weddings. As OTMA are devout Orthodox Christians, it is rather unlikely they will marry out of the faith. The experiment in the case of Affie & Marie Alexandrovna was not the success that one would recommend a cross religion wedding. That leaves only Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia for wedding choices.

[Kalafrana]

If Olga and Crown Prince Georg had met and fallen in love, religion would have been an issue, but it would have been somewhat hypocritical for Nicholas and Alexandra to object to Olga converting - after all, Alexandra did just that!

And the Saxon house converted to Rome in order for Augustus the Strong to become King of Poland.

We are talking hypotheticals, of course, but if Olga asnd a non-Orthodox prince of a ruling family had liked one another enough, something would have been sorted out. I think Nicholas and Alexandra would have expected their eldest daughter to marry a prince of a ruling royal house, not necessarily an eldest son, but certainly a king's son or male-line nephew.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

No hope for Olga. Remember "I am a Russian and would remain a Russian". Maybe Tatiana or Marie. Also the Constantionvitch boys arealso available not to mention the Oldenburgs, Obolenskies...etc. TheSaxon is still a long short. Catholicism is a bit of a trouble. Remember the Marie Christine & Prince Michael of Kent trouble ? That was 1980's...You are talking much earlier.

[matushka]

Eric, I am not sure we should emphazise on this romantic statement  " I am russian and I want to stay in Russia". That was certainly her deep faith and feeling, but I am not sure it would have been decisive. There are differents factors, such as "fall in love", "politic reasons" ( I mean in french "la raison d'etat") which would have probably force her to change her mind... or to resign with a smile. No problem for her to come regularlly back home, as did Olga Konstantinovna. That's of course only my opinion, and another "what if"...
As for the "problematic catholic faith" (from a russian imperial point of you!), I think you are quite right. For political and religious reason, catholicism was seen as something quite dangerous; there was indeed not a single russian impress from catholic origine. In the other side, things probably started to change since Maria Feodorovna thougt about a marriage with Helene d'Orleans for the future Nikola II.

[Kalafrana]

'Catholicism is a bit of a trouble. Remember the Marie Christine & Prince Michael of Kent trouble ? That was 1980's...You are talking much earlier.'

As I remember, the issue with Marie Christine was that she was divorced (in fact, the first divorcee to marry a Prince of the Blood since the Abdication), and the fact that the Act of Settlement meant that Prince Michael had to renounce his rights of succession. Since then, several minor royalties have married Catholics and renounced the succession with very little fuss.

Interestingly, both the Bulgarian and Romanian royal families were recent converts from Catholicism, and the Greeks were former Protestants. In 1912, the original converts were all still on their thrones.

As to Olga wanting to stay in Russia, I think, had she lived longer, and liked a foreign prince enough to want to marry him, she would have accepted that she had to leave. And Dresden was, conveniently, the closed capital to St Petersburg, apart from Berlin.

Ann

[Janet Ashton]

If Olga and Crown Prince Georg had met and fallen in love, religion would have been an issue, but it would have been somewhat hypocritical for Nicholas and Alexandra to object to Olga converting - after all, Alexandra did just that!

True enough, if it was simply a matter of personal preference, but the religious issue is about Russia's political standing - and the attitude of both churches to conversion, as well as their historical relationship, which was a  kind of stand-of between Rome and Moscow - and still is. Relationships with Protestant families were much easier, because they tended to be more relaxed about conversion (i.e. they were happy for their daughters to change religion for a grand marraige, and happy for imperial daughters-in-laws NOT to, for the same reason - viz. Maria Pavlovna in Weimar, Maria Alexandrovna in England, with their Orthodox chapels, as against the girls who married Russian heirs, and, in earlier days, lesser grand dukes as well). Nicholas would never have considered placing his eldest daughter in a position where she was likely to fall for a Catholic - and a mere Royal Highness - unless she were allowed to retain her own faith, but I can certainly see him being more relaxed had Marie or Anastasia elected to marry a Protestant or member of the Church of England and take his religion by choice.

[Kalafrana]

'Nicholas would never have considered placing his eldest daughter in a position where she was likely to fall for a Catholic - and a mere Royal Highness - unless she were allowed to retain her own faith.'

Maybe this was why the King of Saxony came on his 1914 visit without his sons!

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes Ann I guess the Sexons are a no go. Maybe Marie for Edward of Wales (Alicky would love that) and Ileana of Romania for Alexei. I still believe that Olga would prefer to live in Russia. Her first failed romance had confirmed it and when she spoke those words to Gaillard, it had a kind of final...

[LisaDavidson]

Young adults such as Olga often make statements that do not hold up over time. My theory is that Olga would most likely have married an Orthodox prince, perhaps Alexander of Yugoslavia, as she was a true Orthodox Christian and had already begun a flow of communication with him that could have lead to marriage had the Revolution not intervened.

[Kalafrana]

I am inclined to think of Alexander as the most likely candidate. He was the right sort of age, he was Orthodox and Serbia was an ally. He also knew Olga and seems to have been fond of her. Do we know anything of Olga's feelings towards him?

Olga didn't hit it off with Carol of Romania, and seems never to have met Boris of Bulgaria, who was also a little on the young side for a quick marriage (interesting that he didn't marry until he was 36 - perhaps he waited to meet the right woman).

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

I agree with Lisa & Ann. Alexander was the similar age and right religion.