Marriage
While traveling through Germany with his family in June 1871, Grand Duke Vladimir met Duchess Marie Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (14 May 1854 – 6 September 1920), daughter of Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz. She was seventeen years old and was already engage to a distant relative, Prince George Schwarzburg. Grand Duke Vladimir was then twenty four. They were smitten with each other. Maria was a great-granddaughter of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia, herself a daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia. Therefore, Vladimir was a second cousin of Maria's father Friedrich Franz II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. However, in descent from Frederick William III of Prussia, the couple were second cousins. In order to marry Vladimir, Maria broke off her previous engagement, but she refused to yield to the necessary conversion to the Orthodox religion. This delayed the couple's engagement for almost two years. Finally, Tsar Alexander II consented the marriage allowing Marie to keep her Lutheran faith and Vladimir would not lose his rights to the Russian throne. The engagement was announced in April 1874.
The wedding took place in Saint Petersburg on 28 August 1874 at the Winter palace. Vladimir's wife adopted the patronymic Pavlovna upon her marriage and was known as Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia. Only decades later, after Vladimir's death, she converted to the Russian Orthodox confession, then, Emperor Nicholas II bestowed her the title "the Orthodox Grand Duchess". Grand Duke Vladimir and his wife were both witty and ambitious. They enjoy entertaining and their residence in St. Petersburg became the heart of the Imperial capital social life. Well suited to each other, they had a long and happy marriage.
Read more about this topic: Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—John Updike (b. 1932)
“Marriage is the clue to human life, but there is no marriage apart from the wheeling sun and the nodding earth, from the straying of the planets and the magnificence of the fixed stars.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)