Marriage
In 1881 there had been talks of a possible marriage to Princess Caroline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein. Emperor Alexander II had hoped that at least one of his sons would marry with a princess of Hesse as he had done. Sergei eventually chose as his bride, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, a daughter of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. She was an older sister of both Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Alix of Hesse, later the Empress consort of Nicholas II of Russia. They were first cousins once removed (i.e., Elizabeth's great grandfather, Ludwig II of Hesse was Sergei's grandfather, in that the latter's daughter Marie had married Alexander II, Sergei's father) and had known each other all their lives. There were hesitations on both sides and Elizabeth first rejected his proposal of marriage. Queen Victoria, who had anti-Russian sentiments, opposed the marriage of her motherless granddaughter. Elizabeth and her sisters were not pressured into following political marriages; they were allowed to follow their own inclination. After the couple spent some time together at Schloss Wolfsgarten in Darmstadt in September 1883, Elizabeth agreed to marry him. Their engagement was announced publicly on February 26, 1884 when Sergei returned to visit her in Darmstadt. Upon her marriage, Princess Elizabeth took the name of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia. The wedding took place on June 15, 1884 in the Winter Palace.
They spent their honeymoon in Ilinskoye, Sergei’s 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) country estate forty miles west of Moscow on the left bank of the Moskva River, that he inherited from his mother. The couple later settled in Saint Petersburg in a mansion occupying the southeast corner of the Fontanka Canal and the Nevsky Prospekt, a short drive from his former apartments in the Winter Palace. The Beloselsky Belozersky mansion, bought by Sergei to live with his wife, was renamed Sergeivsky Palace. The couple also had Ferme, a villa located in the grounds of Peterhof that Sergei had inherited from his mother. They usually entertained at Ilinskoe during the summer months, with guests occupying various wooden villas dotted around the park. There was also Usovo, a substantial stone and brick house with an innovative central heating, that Sergei had had built on the opposite bank of the Moskva River.
The couple were close to Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna and the Tsar trusted Sergei more than his other brothers. In 1886, Alexander III appointed him Commander of the Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment, entrusting him with introducing the Tsarevich (the future Nicholas II) to army life. Sergei and Ella represented Russia in 1887 during Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and in 1888, they were sent to the Holy Land on the occasion of the consecration of the church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem, built in memory of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. By 1892, six years into the marriage, Sergei was already certain that they would not have children and he left a will making the children of his brother Paul his heir after his and his wife’s deaths.
Read more about this topic: Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“The parent who loves his child dearly but asks for nothing in return might qualify as a saint, but he will not qualify as a parent. For a child who can claim love without meeting any of the obligations of love will be a self-centered child and many such children have grown up in our time to become petulant lovers and sullen marriage partners because the promise of unconditional love has not been fulfilled.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Let a man do what he will by a single woman, the world is encouragingly apt to think Marriage a sufficient amends.”
—Samuel Richardson (1689–1761)
“The concerts you enjoy together
Neighbors you annoy together
Children you destroy together
That make marriage a joy”
—Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930)