Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia - Marriage

Marriage

Grand Duke Michael lived in St. Petersburg's Mikhailovsky Palace with his parents, but he intended to marry soon, and to house his expected family, he started building a large residence in the Imperial Capital. In his search of a wife, he made unsuccessful overtures for the hand of Princess Mary of Teck in 1886 and later he asked Princess Irene of Hesse Darmstadt. In 1887 he proposed to Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales and was turned down for a third time. After that, he attempted to marry within the Russian Nobility, which caused confrontations with his parents. In 1888, he had an affair with Princess Walewski. Later, he fell in love with Countess Katya Ignatieva, the daughter of the former Minister of Interior, Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev. He tried to get permission to marry her and he went with his father to talk to Tsar Alexander III. However, his mother and the Empress Maria Feodorovna made it impossible for him to marry Katya. Olga Feodorovna opposed the misalliance vehemently. “He has so openly provoked me" she wrote of her son, mentioning his “lack of respect, affection and attention”. To break off the relationship, the parents decided to send him abroad.

While in Nice in 1891 Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich fell in love with Countess Sophie of Merenberg, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and his morganatic wife, née Natalie Alexandrovna Pushkin. Sophie’s maternal grandfather was the renowned poet-author Alexander Pushkin; through him, she had black African ancestry (one part in 32) as a direct descendant of Peter the Great's protégé, Abram Petrovich Gannibal. The Grand Duke met Sophie when he saved her from a horse that had run away with her. He did not bother to ask for the necessary permission for the marriage from the Tsar or his parents because he knew it would not be granted. They were married in San Remo on 26 February 1891.

The marriage was not only morganatic but also illegal under the statute of the Imperial Family and caused a great scandal at the Russian court, despite the bride's dynastic paternal ancestry. Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich was deprived of his military rank and of his position as adjutant at the Imperial Court. He was also forbidden to return to Russia for life. When his mother heard of his morganatic marriage, she collapsed with shock and went by train to the Crimea to recover, but then had a heart attack and died, for which Michael was blamed. Banished from entering Russia, Michael was not allowed to attend his mother's funeral.