King Milan of Serbia and his spouse Nathalie Keshko

[L.]

  Why we didnt speak about this interesting lady before?
  She was wife of King Milan Obrenovitch and mother of King Alexander I of Serbia. She was born 1859. She was daughter of some Russian nobleman John Keshko from Bessarabia (today Moldova) and some Moldavian Princess Marie (or Pulcheria?) who hed some family  relationships with Romanian ducal family Ghika. Does somebody know more about origin of Queen Nathalia?
  She marieed King Milan of Serbia on October 17, 1875 in Belgrade. They hed one son -King Alexander I of Serbia (murdered with his wife Draga on May 26, 1903). Relationship between Nathalie and Milan was very bad, so they divorced in 1889. After that Nathalie was in exile in Biariz (French riviera). She had very close realationship with her son. She died in Biariz 1934. Before her death, when she came in France she converted from Orthodoxy and become a Catolic nun. Does somebody know the reason of that?

[Marc]

Her father was a russian and in some sources he was described as Russian boyar!Queen Nathalie's mother was Princess Pulcheria Strudza!Strudza's were at one time reigning family of Moldavia and have descended from Komnenos dynasty who ruled Byzantine Empire!She and her husband King Milan were related(think they are second cousins and their marriage was arranged by his grandmother Esmeralda Katargiu)!

[Yseult]

I have news...

Good news: queen Nathalie wrotte her memoirs, so one day we will know why she renounced to Orthodoxy and became not merely a Catholic, but a dame of Sion.

Bad news: the unpublished memoirs of Nathalie are kept in the Vatican.  

She was really an interesting woman. I have read that during her childhood a fortuneller predicted that she will wear a crown but later she will lost it. Her marriage with Milan was not a succesful one, they were mismatched both personally (I suppose that Nathalie resented because Milan was anything but a faithful husband, having a lot of mistresses) and politically (he was influenced by the austrians and had strong russian sympathies). It seems that scenes of domestic discord were frequent and violent. After their divorce, Nathalie lived between Vienna, Wiesbaden and, later, Biarritz, where she had a wonderful palace. It was at the French Riviera where her only son Alexander fall madly in love with her lady-in-waiting Draga Mashin. Nathalia fervently opposed to the marriage of Alexander with Draga, a woman older than him, widow and unable to have children, but Alexander made his will. I suppose that after the murdering of Alexander and Draga, Nathalie needed the comfort that provides the religion.

[Marc]

There is a biography of her,although in Serbian...

[L.]

  Who wroted that biography of her?
  
  Do you consider her beautiful?

[L.]

  Do you have some images of her parents?

[Marc]

It is written by her!It's called ''My memoires'' and it is translated from french...there are just pictures of her with her brother,sister and cousins in Odesa!One her aunt was Princess Muruzi of Moldavia,her other aunt was Princess Stirbei,her third aunt was french countess de Bouie(or something like that) who married french atache in Germany,her fourth aunt was Princess Rosetti,her sister Katharina was Princess Ghika and her family Keshko were friends with Princes Gagarin,Troubetsky,Cantacuzen,Counts Besobrasov and Barons von Ungern-Sternbergs...

[L.]

  Does that Princess Stirbei hed some relationship with Prince Stirbey, lover of Queen Marie of Romania?
  Can you scan some photos from her memoirs (if you have them of course) and post on forum, please?
  When the memoirs was published in Serbia and are they still accessible in bookshops in Belgrade?

[Marc]

I really don't know that...You must go to National Library-they must have it!!!I don't know either about Prince Stirbei...some photos I already posted in Obrenovich thread-they are from that book!

[Rebecca]

[size=14]Did not queen Natalija and king Milan also have another son (I think he was younger than Alexander) who died in infancy? Or am I misremembering something?  :-/[/size]

[Marc]

Yes,you are right!His name was Sergei!It was his mothers wish to call him like that since she was a great Russophile!On the contrary her husband King Milan was a great Austrophile...

[L.]

  But, I think that we still know so little about Queen Nathalie... Can we speak about her everyday life, like we talk about Missy? What she loved to eat, which kind of books she read, which parfume she used...?

[Vassili_Vorontsoff]

Luka ,have you ever seen le Pavillon royal in Biarritz Qwhere Queen Nathalie used to go?

Vassili

I hope you receive my personal message,I don't have any news from you...

[L.]

Luka ,have you ever seen le Pavillon royal in Biarritz Qwhere Queen Nathalie used to go?

Vassili

I hope you receive my personal message,I don't have any news from you...

  Soory, I didnt recived mesage.
  Yes, I sow some images of Pavillon, but only exterior. I would like to see some photos of interior.

[L.]

  Queen Nathalie was very cold in her accting, so many Serbian politicans thinked that she was a lesbian. They call her Cold Rose. What do you think about it?