Early Life
Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna was born on 20 September 1839, in Karlsruhe as Cäcilie Auguste, Princess and Margravine of Baden. She was the youngest daughter among the seven children of Grand Duke Leopold of Baden and Princess Sophie Wilhelmine of Sweden. She was a descendant of King George II of England and the Russian dynasty Rurik Dynasty through Anne of Kiev, Queen of France and daughter of the Kievan Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise.
Cecilie’s father, Grand Duke Leopold, descended from a morganatic branch of the Baden family (his mother was Luise von Heyer, a commoner) and thus did not have rights to a princely status or the sovereign rights of the House of Zähringen of Baden. However in 1830 he ascended to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Baden after the main male line of his family died out. Leopold was considered the first German ruler who held in his country's liberal reforms.
Cecilie’s mother Sophie Wilhelmine of Sweden, was a daughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden and Frederica of Baden, a sister of Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden). Unlike her husband, Sophie Wilhelmine supported conservative policies. During the tumult caused by the appearance of Kaspar Hauser, Sophie was rumoured to have ordered Hauser's assassination in 1833. This damaged the relationship between the couple and Sophie was said to have had an affair. Court rumours attributed the paternity of Cecilie, the couple’s last child, to a Jewish banker named Haber. No historical evidence has surfaced to confirm this allegation.
During Cecilie’s childhood, the 1848-49 revolution forced the Grand ducal family to flee from Karlsruhe to Koblenz. Cecilie was twelve years old at the death of her father in 1852. Princess Cecilie received a Spartan upbringing. Her relationship with her parents was formal rather than affectionate. She would later apply these same principles raising her own children. She grew into a sharp-tongued girl, witty and well-educated. With high cheekbones and oblique eyes she had striking Eurasian looks.
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