Anna Feodorovna

[madame_chauchat]

I would like to say hallo to all of you. Im new here, and thats my first thread.  

I'm wondering what really happened between Anna Feodorovna (aunt of QV) and grand duke Constantine. Why did she left him? Was his raw character the only reason?

It's hard to find any information.

[Prince_Christopher]

I've often wondered about her as well, another Coburg relation who made what seemed to be a great marriage.  I know Prince Albert corresponded with her and visited her, I think she returned to Coburg after her divorce.  

Juliana (her given name) was only about 15 when she married Constantine and he was only about 17 himself, they were both very young, even by the standards of the day.  They married in 1796 and divorced in 1820, so maybe it had to do with the fact she had no children, I don't know.

However, Grand Duke Constantine remarried the same year he divorced Juliana (Anna Feodorovna), to Joanna Grudna-Grudzinski, Princess Lowicz.  Maybe Constantine was casting an aging, barren wife aside for a fresher bride?

[umigon]

Well, in fact, when they were divorced in 1820 they had already been separated for almost a decade. Juliana had a relationship between 1806 and 1810 with Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux (1768-1834), with whom she had an illegitimate son: Eduard Edgar von Löwenfels (1808-1892).

She then started a new affair with Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli (1775-1837), with whom she had a daughter: Louise Milda Agnes de Schiferli (1812-1837).


Both of Juliana's illegitimate children left issue.

[Prince_Christopher]

That's interesting, Umigon.  I'd never heard of this, in fact very little on Juliana.  What kind of person was she? did she raise her children herself? Who did her children marry?  I wonder what QV and PA thought about their aunt?

[umigon]

Juliana was willing to get her divorce as much as Konstantin was (he also had an illegitimate son during their marriage). I don't know if she raised her children, but in her last years she was quite close to Eduard).


Eduard was much closer than many think to Prince Albert, they were not only cousins, but also brothers-in-law, as Eduard married Berta Ernestine von Schauenstein (1817-1896), who was an illegitimate daughter of Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Sophie Fermepin de Marteaux. They had five children together:

1. Moritz (d. young)

2. Sophie (1836-1920). With issue.

3. Emma (1838-1905). With issue.

4. Ernst (1843-1921). With issue.

5. Albert (1848-1870). Childless.


Juliana's daughter, Louisa, married Jean Samuel Edouard Dapples (+1887), with whom she had at least three children. I don't know their names nor if they left any issue.

[cimbrio]

Princess Julianne (aka Anna Feodorvna) helped to found the Russian Orthodox which can be found in the Vieille Ville of Geneva (Switzerland) which I've visited often. I've also found a good (but expensive) bio on her here in Geneva, but I haven't bought it... I'm chewing on it She must have been very linked to Russians in Switzerland... I know that the afct that GD Konstantin Nikolaievich divorced her made Queen Victoria mistrust Russians, and I think I've read that Queen Victoria hated Russians as much as she did Prussians...

[sisterx]

Hello All

I'm also new here, but when I found your threat I decided to enter Alexander Palace for answering your questions. I'm garden historien in Switzerland and I'm researching about the garden of Anna Feodorowna

Anna Feodorowna escaped from Russia 1801 to Coburg, after the murder of Paul I. Her husband Duke Constantin is described as a cruel and sadistic person. So she suffered a long time. Between 1805-1810 she had an affair with Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux (he was married with Christiane Friederike von Anhalt and divorced 1805). The first child Eduard seems to be their love-child.

Konstantin wanted to get divorced early (to marry Princess Czertwertinska) but his mother was against it to save the reputation of the Russian Court. So Konstantin travelled to Berne 1818 to visit Anna. Also the Car of Russia travelled anonymous through Switzerland 1814.

1810 Rudolf von Schiferli, Swiss medicine and lord stuart of Anna went to Coburg. They became friends and lovers, so Anna get second child, a daughter called Louise Hilda Agnes. The following yearshe moved with him back to Switzerland. There she bought a mansion, called Elfenau and built a landscape garden during the years between 1814-1825. The plan was created by the royal landskip gardener Joseph Bernand Baumann from Alsace / France, he was connected with Coburg, but I don't know how.

After the death of Schiferli and their daughter at the same year she travelled to Geneva. Any month before death she came "home" to Elfenau, where she died 1860. Her son inherited Elfenau but sold it immetiately.

There are some books about Anna Feodorowna, written in French by Swiss Author Alville (Alix de Watteville). She wrote about her mansion Elfenau, about her Swiss years and about the visitors at Elfenau. You can find it at any library searching tool.

Des cours princières aux demeures helvétiques / Alville 1962
Die Schweizerjahre der Grossfürstin Anna Feodorowna von Russland / Alville 1947 (shortened translation of: )
La vie en Suisse de S.A.I. la grande-duchesse Anna Feodorovna, née princesse de Saxe-Cobourg-Saalfeld / Alville 1943

Don't pay too much for it, you can buy it around 30-50 Swiss Franks at www.ZVAB.com

Greetings
SisterX

[Prince_Christopher]

Thank you, SisterX, and welcome to the forum!

What an informative post!  I just learned more about Juliana than I ever had before!

I was recently reading some of the earlier letters of QV, and in one she writes to King Leopold about Juliana.  Apparently, QV had gone to Belgium for a visit, and while there, she met her Aunt Juliana for the first time, who was sick and staying with Leopold.  She seems to have made a favorable impression on Victoria, as she inquired into her health and well-being in the next several letters.  At this time, Victoria was already grown and married.  I guess growing up, she (Victoria) was cut off from most of her Coburg relatives.

[Prince_Christopher]

SisterX,
Do you know if she raised her children herself, or pawned them off on someone else?

[sisterx]

Hello all

Thank you for your kind compliments. Searching for more information I found the following link. It describes the marriage life between Constantine and Anna and helps you to find out the places where her children grew up:

"Constantine and Juliane, or Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna, did not get on very well. Constantine was licentious, had many affairs and was described as "rude, impossible, totally lacking in tact".
According to a sister-in-law, Constantine was "an ugly caricature of his father". The Russian nobles detested him as he was ruthless and a rigid disciplinarian.
After only about five years, Grand Duchess Anna left Constantine and a few years after that, in 1808, gave birth to a son (Eduard von Loewenfels) fathered by Constantine's brother, Emperor Alexander I. But I know that Eduard lived in Elfenau at the age of 18 years, because I've seen some of his early-sketches, however.
Just as his estranged wife had given birth to an illegitimate child, he, too, fathered an illegitimate son in the same year. However, even after Grand Duchess Anna had left for Europe, they would
meet regularly and there was even talk of a reconciliation; but finally they would divorce in 1820."



Hilda was adopted by a french refugee, living in Switzerland. He's called Jean François Joseph d'Aubert. Hildas official name was Hilda d'Aubert.  I think she was grown up in Switzerland but I cannot find anything about the step-father. The father of the groom Eduard Dapples was a medicine, so maybe Schiferli and Dapples were connected, but thats all guesswork. =)

Greetings from Switzerland.

[thijs]

I read somewhere that Constantine was really crazy and sadistic like his father. He put Juliane (anna) on one occassion in a huge China vase and then shot at the vase. Cruelty was in the family: Paul l had also his strange customs.

[crazy_wing]

I read somewhere that Constantine was really crazy and sadistic like his father. He put Juliane (anna) on one occassion in a huge China vase and then shot at the vase. Cruelty was in the family: Paul l had also his strange customs.

At least Paul wasn't that cruel!  

[Daniela]

He put Juliane (anna) on one occassion in a huge China vase and then shot at the vase.

Did he realy, realy did that!?

Then five years being with him, it was realy to much!!!

Daniela

[Svetabel]

I read somewhere that Constantine was really crazy and sadistic like his father. He put Juliane (anna) on one occassion in a huge China vase and then shot at the vase. Cruelty was in the family: Paul l had also his strange customs.

Konstantin was really not a lovely and easy-going person but I believe the story about the vase is just a conjecture.

[sisterx]

hello together

I found in a letter from 1820, that Rudolf von Schiferli was married, but not with Anna Feodorowna. So their relationship in Switzerland was not as a couple, I guess to avoid rumours. The fact that people found out that Anna Feodorowna and Schiferli had a child, was a result of reading their letters later. So it was a secret in Berne, that they had a relationship in Coburg.

No romantic shelter in sweet-sweet Switzerland.
=)

Best wishes.
SisterX