Grand Duke Dmitriy Pavlovitch, his wife Audrey Emery, and descendants

[grandduchessella]

Good bio right on this site:
 http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/Dmitri.html
Also this site has good photos with a bio (pictures are .bmp so I can't post them here):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Pavlovitch_Romanov

I was able to visit Mainau when I lived in Germany and it is SO gorgeous. He must have the most beautiful resting spot of any of the exiled Romanovs. Mainau is known for it's beautiful flowers and it lives up to its reputation. I know I have a picture somewhere, just let me search for it.

[bookworm]

I've always thought Dimitri and his sister Marie had one of the saddest stories in the family. His mother died giving birth to him, which probably caused him some guilt, and then his father chose to marry someone the Tsar didn't approve of. Dimitri probalby felt at some level that he wasn't good enough for his father. Sergei loved them, but he was apparently also very strict and Ella was sometimes cold. Poor little rich boy and girl!
But Dimitri was also apparently dissolute and aimless and unable to make a life for himself after the Revolution.

I think the murder of Rasputin was quite brutal and sickening and in the end it didn't do a whole lot of good. But in 1916, if I were in Dimitri's shoes, I might have thought it was necessary to save my country and the Romanovs. I think Dimitri was probably right there and quite possibly fired the fatal shot, despite Felix Youssopov's reticence. It may have been the one courageous act of his life. Who knows what would have happened if he had done it a year earlier? Tsar Dimitri and Tsarina Olga Nicholaivna? Their plan to marry him to Olga and put him on the throne doesn't sound bad to me. He could hardly have done worse than Nicholas.

[Mary]

I've always felt nothing but sympathy for Dimitri.
He had the shell shocked look of someone from under whom life made a habit of pulling the proverbial rug.

And so it did!

From the loss of his parents one to death, which while painful IS at least understandable (especially considering the childbed mortality rate of the times) and one to far more ambiguous fate--to the complete dissolution of his world Dimitri had to cope with much.

I find it hard, however to believe that he and GD Misha's wife actually...er...crossed the Rubicon.
Strikes me as a bit more of a "flirtation" than anything else, but since I wasn't invited to any of their tete-a-tetes (what's up with THAT?) I can't say for sure.

Mary

[LisaDavidson]

I'm glad you liked my biography of Grand Duke Dmitri.

I don't think there is any evidence of an affair between Natalia Brassova and Dmitri. He was a big flirt, but she was committed to Michael and would have been foolish to sleep around. I don't think she was foolish.

Dmitri most definitely was not dissolute and did make as much of a life for himself as he could as an exile. The thing is, he was an exile. He never stopped wanting to go home to Russia - a feeling he shared with nearly everyone who had to leave due to the Revolution - whether they were a Romanov or not.

I know it fits the stereotype to say he was dissolute and couldn't adjust - but it's simply not true. Dmitri was ill for many of his years in exile - and his marriage did not last. Other than that, he was able to live life as it happened to him. He left a son, his sister, and many friends, all who remembered him with great warmth and affection. I received a very sweet note from a man whose father had been one of Dmitri's ADCs. The son had been named Dmitri in the Grand Dukes' honor.

[Martyn]

Personally I think that Dimitri was very taken with Natasha Brassova in the same way that he had been taken with Irina Alexandrovna; there might have been an element of wanting something that you can't have.
From Natasha's point of view, Dimitri was a useful tool for making Misha jealous.  She very much enjoyed the attentions of other men and enjoyed flirting but I think she drew the line at anything more; I believe that she had to make it clear that their relationship could go no further than friendship.
Interestingly, when they met up again in England after the Revolution and the death of Misha, when seemingly thre was an opportunity to form a relationship, the attraction seems to have dissipated and they went their separate ways.
"Lily-of-the-valley" was a vaguely patronising nickname for Dimitri that Natasha and Misha used in private; I'm not sure that she used it to his face..............

[Guest]

Does anyone here have a scan of the picture from Michael and Natasha where Dmitri is sitting on a couch with her? He looks very handsome and alluring. No one else is in the room, except whomever took the photo!

[Hellfire]

For me the story of Dimitri is one of sadness because he sounds like a person wo only was looking for love.  since his birth he wa deprived of his parents his mothe rdied and his father was sent inot exile.  he with his sister was sent to live with his aunt and uncle but still that was denied him his uncle was assasinated and his aunt dedicated herself to the church.  the he was sent to liv ewith his cousins no doubt they loved him and had a special care for him but their first concern was alexsei and his illness.  he then turn to felix which yes had peculiar taste offered him love of a brother or even a father.  the love Dimitri was denied all his life.  his asistance in the plot to assasinate rasputin was yes to save the empire and hid beloved ousin but maybe it would give him the love he desreately needs from either his cousins or other members of the imperial family.  in the end he got none.  he was sent away from everyone including felix.  in the end he died just like he live alone with no wife and son by himside.  for me his story is one that is really sad among others of the Romanov's.  To me he was only looking for love any love given he was grateful for it  

[AnBhanfhaidh]

Also, the tuberculosis might have had something to do with how ravished he looks in that picture.

[olga]

Are there some photos of him pre-revolution? I don't recall seeing many.

[grandduchessella]

Yes, the tuberculosis was part of the 'toll' I mentioned. He suffered a lot emotionally & physically in his short life.

[Lisa]

[grandduchessella]

I posted the photo of his and his sister's crypt at Mainau under the Marie Pavlovna & Lennart thread if anyone wants to see it.

[Leuchtenberg]

After their divorce, did Audrey marry a peer?  I ask this because the posted photograph of her in this thread shows her wearing the robes of a baroness.

[grandduchessella]

After their divorce, did Audrey marry a peer?  I ask this because the posted photograph of her in this thread shows her wearing the robes of a baroness.

She married in 1939 Dmitri, Prince Dzhordzhadze at Maidestone, England. One notation said he was 'crated' Prince Dzhordzhadze so I don't know if he was 'real' nobility or not.

I thought that photo looked very British, but that's who it was ID'd as.  

[Alexa]

She married in 1939 Dmitri, Prince Dzhordzhadze at Maidestone, England. One notation said he was 'crated' Prince Dzhordzhadze so I don't know if he was 'real' nobility or not.
 
I thought that photo looked very British, but that's who it was ID'd as.  

Maidstone, huh?  That's just down the road, so to speak, from my mom's hometown, and I've spent many a day there since childhood.  Intersting to see a Romanov connection so close to "home." (Yeah, there are a lot of Romanov connections in my home town of NYC, but somehow it seems more intersting when it's rinky-dink Maistone.)

Alexa