Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh and Coburg

[Prince_Lieven]

Heehee, I KNEW Grandduchessella would know.  

[isabel]

Louis de Battenberg was the husband of Victoria of Hesse (Alix´s sister)?

[Prince_Lieven]

Yes, he was, Isabel.

[Svetabel]

Maria Alexandrovna when she did not dream about "English princes"  ...She looks like a boy here.

[isabel]

Beautiful.

She looks like a boy because of her cutted hair, but she has a sweetness in her look that i didn´t saw before in any of others pictures of her.

[YaBB_Jose]

Dis Marie Alexandrovna stay in Coburg after her husband death ?
Did she get along with her nephew Carl-Edward ?

[Yseult]

I´m not sure, but I believe that Marie lived in Coburg after the death of her husband. Around 1918, if I´m not wrong, the new duke Carl-Edward lost his dukedom and all the members of the family became private citizens. Marie was at this time living in Switzerland, where she died in 1920.

[grandduchessella]

I"ve read conflicting reports about the Edinburgh/Albany relations in Coburg. It certainly couldn't have been easy for Marie to see another come into take her late son's position. Helen and Marie were also 2 of the stronger personalities amongst QV's children-in-law. Nonetheless, there are many pictures of the 2 branches of the Coburgs together at family events so there couldn't have been a complete breach.

[Romanov_fan]

Dear Grandduchessella,

I am absolutly agree with your arguments.

Marie Alexandrovna begins to interesed me, because of her gravity and solemnity in all the photographs i saw of her person. I don´t know if it was because of sadness and melancholy or because of her strong caracthere, perhaps a mix of this two?

I think that the destiny of the lives of her children weren´t as brilliant as she expected.

I haven´t see any photograph of her with her grand children, i think that her family life was not very warm.

I belive she died in 1920, does someone knows where??
Was she accompanied by her family??

I think she must have been pleased with what some of her daughters did anyway, or at least that of her eldest, Marie whose marriage she pushed to Ferdinand. She must have been satisfied there, although Ducky's marriage to Kyril was controversial, and her marriage to Ernest of Hesse was not happy. Her youngest daughter's marriages were not perhaps that brilliant. Also, I am sure her son's death affected her. She seems not to have been the warmest of people; she was so Romanov. She certainly didn't like it in England, but as well in not letting the marriage of George and Marie take place, she was wise. Marie belonged more in Romania than in England-her mother might have known that.

[Ena]

Marie Alexandrovna is one of my faves.  However, she always seemed to be taking care of her children into their adulthood; coming to their rescue and worrying financially (in Ducky's case).  Three of her daughters appeared to be unsettled and spurned in love in some way; Sandra in a so-so marriage for the child of a Romanov.  I too wonder why we don't see many photos of her with her grandchildren. 

[grandduchessella]

I'm sure they're out there but attention tends to focus on Missy and Ducky rather than their sisters or their parents so there are a good number of photos that are probably sitting in archives waiting for the right writers.  Plus, she was separated from many of her grandchildren during WW1 and died not too long after (1920) so there aren't the usual 'proud grandmother at the wedding' type of photos since, except for her older Romania grandchildren, her grandchildren were still pre-teen and younger when she died. There are some nice ones of her with two of Bee's children and I've seen some of her with Elizabeth of Hesse. She probably saw Sandra's children the most but, being the least-explored of her children, there just hasn't been the forum for those photos to be published.

As for the marriages, it's ironic--she was so intent on marrying her daughters young, yet the one who took the longest to 'match up', Beatrice, had the happiest marriage. Perhaps there was something to be said for letting the girls age a bit and see what was out there.

[Grace]

Marie Alexandrovna is one of my faves.  However, she always seemed to be taking care of her children into their adulthood; coming to their rescue and worrying financially (in Ducky's case). 

Yes -- but it is strange that her care didn't seem to extend to her only son -- he was palmed off elsewhere as a young child and with tragic results.

[ilyala]

i don't think she had much of a choice there. grandma victoria decided his daddy was gonna be duke of coburg so the son had to be raised as a future duke of coburg.

[Grace]

I believe the decision regarding Young Alfred's education was made by Marie, Duchess of Coburg, Ilyala, certainly not Queen Victoria.  As far as I know, it was Prince Albert, anyway, who promised his brother that his second son (Alfred Snr.) could be his (Ernest's) heir. 

Alfred Junior was removed from his family at the age of only eight to be educated for his future role and that family appeared to have no idea he was being ill-treated by his tutor and the bad company he got into later on.

What about Charles Albany then?  Later on, when he was being groomed to be future Duke of Coburg, his mother and sister moved to be with him.   

[Romanov_fan]

Yes, she was intent on matching up her daughters. Her first daughter's marriage no doubt lived up to her expectations, although her second daughter didn't fare so well, she made good matches, but these weren't always in the best of circumstances, nor did they end well. I think she most likely she was ok with her daughter's marriages, although the younger two could have married better, true. She was always interested in status. What plans did they have for Alfred with regards to marrying? It seems this would have been important. Her relationship with her grandchildren is most likely contained in photos that have not yet been fully published..