Marriage
She was initially engaged to Prince Max of Baden, but Max backed out of the engagement. Elena's mother was furious and society gossiped about Elena's difficulty in finding a husband. At one point in 1899, the seventeen year old Elena was reputedly engaged to Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, however this came to nothing as he became in love with Countess Sophie Chotek. Prince Nicholas of Greece first proposed in 1900, but Elena's mother was reluctant to allow her daughter to marry a younger son with no real fortune or prospects of inheriting a throne. She finally agreed to let Elena marry Nicholas in 1902 after it became clear that no other offers were on the horizon. The couple were married on 29 August 1902 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. The Dowager Empress wrote that Elena "has a very brusque and arrogant tone that can shock people" and expected trouble in the marriage. Elena's "grand manner" did irritate some people at the court, but her marriage was a happy one.
Prince and Princess Nicholas had three daughters:
- HRH Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903–1997); later Princess Paul of Yugoslavia
- HRH Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (1904–1955); later Countess of Toerring-Jettenbach
- HRH Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906–1968); later Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
Read more about this topic: Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“With my desire to write he seemed in full sympathy, and in urging our early marriage he argued that my first necessity was leisure in which to develop and to master my craft. It appeared to me that with such a man as teacher and guide I could not fail, and it was in a queer mixture of young love and vaulting ambition that I became a wife.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)
“Only one marriage I regret. I remember after I got that marriage license I went across from the license bureau to a bar for a drink. The bartender said, “What will you have, sir?” And I said, “A glass of hemlock.””
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“For the marriage bed ordained by fate for men and women is stronger than an oath and guarded by Justice.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)