Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna, wife of Alexander I

[Svetabel]

Svetabel,

Elisabeth Alexeevna's main lover was her husband's best friend, the prince Adam czatoryski...A polish prince, very handsome and clever.. and the first child of Alexander and Elisabeth (called Marie) was in fact the daughter of Adam and Elisabeth... a funny story talks about it...At the baptism of the little Marie, Paul, sniggering, asked to the princess Lieven "do you really think  that two fair-haired persones can give birth to a  dark-haired child"??

When Adam returned in Poland, Elisabeth found herself very lonely and she had a few love matches, not very long...and between them Okhotnikov...

I have just finished to read the wonderful biography of Alexander I by Henri Troyat... I love this book, and I advice it to everybody... The end of Elisabeth and Alexander 's lifes is very sad and romantic... after 32 years of a unhappy married life, they were very close from each other at the end, Alexander died in the arms of his wife ... Elisabeth died 3 months after

Leanora, I just have finished a biography on Empress Elizaveta in Russian . It contains a chapter about her romance with Okhotnikov. Even GD Nikolay Mikhailovitch (who was able to search in the Imperial Archives) wrote about that romance. The book is "The Empress Elizaveta Alexeevna" by D.Ismail-Zade - very informative and worth-to-read edition!

[Marc]

[Marc]

Prince Adam Czartoryski!

[Marc]

[Marc]

And one more portrait of Elizabeth's lover...  

[Lisa]

ELISABETH ALEXEIEVNA, Alexander I's wife:

circa 1795, by VIGEE LEBRUN, sorry for the quality: ; a rare portrait at the Pskov museum after Vigée Lebrun (?)

1800's: by ROSSI ; ; ; 1802 MONIER ; 1805 MONIER

1810's: ; ; 1814 BOROVIKOVSKI ; STRIKHOBRASOV ; ; ; 1815 At the Vienna Congress by ISABEY

1820-25: ;

[Stanczyk]

This is not a portrait of Czartoryski (the first one). Another is the portrait of Adam Zamoyski. As I know, the original disappeared  during WWII  from  Blue Palace in Warsaw (Zamoyski Mansion). If You find the color reproduction of this portrait, could you  indicate, where are.

[Romanov_fan]

You never hear much about these girls, and no doubt they died from some common illness, and it may not even be known what. Since they were not male heirs such things went unrecorded, at least widely. I don't think this stuff is rather unknown because they were illegitimate. It is hard to say if they were, but it might not be likely, he might not have been her lover until later. Even if they were illegitimate they would have been called legitimate, so this doesn't explain the lack of information on them. No doubt it wasn't seen as important.

[gogm]

In the picture 1814 BOROVIKOVSKI of Elisabeth Alexeivna posted by Lisa, the sleeves look like a flashback to the 1750s while the bodice looks like a preview of the 1840s.

[img=http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9196/1814elisabethalexeievna7uw4wx.th.jpg]

[Marc]

[Marc]

I found this portrait somewhere on the web as Prince Adam Czartoryski

[Maria_Pavlovna]

Am glad that Elizaveta had a lover, because back then "men" only were allowed to have mistresses, but i love it when a royal lady founds herself a lover. sadly she known as a whore. unfair!

[Romanov_fan]

She was quite a beautiful Empress, that's true. She did have those lovers, and it's very likely that neither of her children ''with Alexander'' were his.  He had bastard children as well, I've read, but they never had children together, more than officialy. Yet both seemed able to have children. This marriage which was hailed as such a great match quickly went sour, although he was closer to Elizabeth before his death, or was that before he disapeared to became Feodor Kuzmitch? There is a sad lack of biographies of her in English.

[Robert_Hall]

I agree, turn about is fair play. Glad she had "boyfriends".  AND, I do not know who the porrtait depicts in post #33, but I would have had an affair with him !

[Romanov_fan]

It seems that many Royal women in Russia had affairs within marriage early on, and not so much later. I think they had in general many more extra marital affairs than most Royal women of the time. It seemed to be  more acceptable in Russia than elsewhere. What does anybody else think?