Marriage
The male members of the Romanov family were famous for their good looks and their height, but Konstantin was rather short and ugly. He was described by one observer: " His complexion was sallow, the color of his hair was rather neutral, and resembled the sand of the seashore. His eyes were gray, dreamy, and half closed and an enormous wooden looking nose took the place of his father's Grecian outline". He had a loud voice, imposing personality and brusque manners. With a quick temper, Konstantin was a difficult man and often unpleasant.
In 1846 Konstantin's sister, Grand Duchess Olga, married Crown Prince Charles of Württemberg. He went with her to Stuttgart then he continued to Altenburg to be introduced to Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. His parents had arranged the meeting thinking that Alexandra might make a good match for Konstantin. Alexandra was strikingly beautiful, tall and slim and Konstantin was immediately eager to marry her. "I don't know what is happening to me. It is as if I am a completely new person. Just one thought moves me, just one image fills my eyes: forever and only she, my angel, my universe. I really do think I’m in love. However, what can it mean? I've only know her just a few hours and I'm already up to my ears in Passion".
Konstantin was nineteen and Alexandra three years younger; they were engaged but had to wait two more years to get married. On 12 October 1847, she arrived in Russia. In February she converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna. They were married six months later on 11 September 1848 in the Winter Palace. Both were musical: he played the cello and she the piano. They seem to have been a good match. For the first years of their marriage, they were a devoted couple, starting their married life happily. In the following years, they had six children. The couple lived in some of the most luxurious palaces of the Empire: Pavlovsk, Strelna, and the Marble Palace. Konstantin received the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg as a wedding gift from his parents with Strelna, on the Gulf of Finland, as their country retreat. A year after his marriage Konstantin inherited Pavlovsk from his uncle Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, and, at the death of his mother, the palace of Oreanda in Crimea.
Read more about this topic: Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“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)
“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)
“After the first couple of months, she and Charlie didn’t see much of each other except at breakfast. It was a marriage just like any other marriage.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1985)