Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Maria Pavlovna
(
Russian
:
Мария Павловна
; 16 February [
O.S.
5 February] 1786 ? 23 June [
O.S.
11 June] 1859) was a
grand duchess
of
Russia
as the daughter of
Paul I
,
Emperor of all the Russias
, and later became the
Grand Duchess
of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
by her marriage to
Charles Frederick of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
(1783?1853).
Early life
[
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]
Grand Duchess
Maria Pavlovna
Romanova
of
Russia
was born on 16 February 1786 in
Saint Petersburg
as the fifth child and third daughter of
Tsesarevich
Paul Petrovich
of Russia and his second wife,
Tsesarevna
Maria Feodorovna
(1754?1801), born
Duchess
Sophie Dorothea of
Wurttemberg
(1759?1828). She was named after her mother.
Maria Pavlovna spent her childhood in the
Pavlovsk Palace
and the
Great Gatchina Palace
. As a child, she was not considered pretty as her face had been disfigured as a result of being
variolated
. She was a talented pianist, for which her paternal grandmother,
Catherine the Great
(1729?1796) admired her, even though she thought that Maria Pavlovna would have been better off had she been born a boy. Her music instructor was
Giuseppe Sarti
, an Italian composer and the
kapellmeister
of the Russian court. From 1798, she was taught music by
Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson
.
Life in Weimar
[
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]
On 3 August 1804, Maria Pavlovna married
Charles Frederick
, Hereditary Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1783?1853). The couple stayed in Saint Petersburg for nine months before departing for
Weimar
. There, Maria Pavlovna was greeted with festivities as described by
Christoph Martin Wieland
: "The most festive part of all the magnificence of balls, fireworks, promenades, comedies, illuminations was the widespread and genuine joy at the arrival of our new princess".
As grand duchess, she took care of the poor of the country. She last visited Russia at the occasion of the coronation of her nephew,
Alexander II of Russia
in 1855.
Patronage of arts and sciences
[
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]
Maria Pavlovna was interested in both
art
and
science
. She maintained a lifelong correspondence with
Vasily Zhukovsky
, and
Friedrich Schiller
dedicated one of his last poems to her. Schiller praised her "talents in music and painting and genuine love of reading", while
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
hailed her as one of the worthiest women of his time.
According to
Mary Leveson-Gower
,the duchess by the 1820s had grown "very deaf, but had delightful manners"
[1]
Most famously, she held "literary evenings"
("Literarische Abende")
where scholars both from and outside of the neighbouring
University of Jena
were invited to give lectures on various topics. The grand duchess herself attended ten courses at the university, some delivered by
Alexander von Humboldt
(1769?1859). Several collections of the institution benefitted of her patronage, among them the
Grandducal Oriental Coin Cabinet
founded in 1840 by the
orientalist
Johann Gustav Stickel
(1805?1896). She also played an instrumental role in establishing the
Falk Institute
in Weimar.
In her later years, Maria Pavlovna invited
Franz Liszt
to her court and appointed him
"
Kapellmeister
extraordinaire"
in 1842. In 1850,
Richard Wagner
's opera
Lohengrin
premiered in Weimar, but her growing
deafness
prevented the grand duchess from enjoying it.
Issue
[
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]
Maria Pavlovna had four children by her husband,
Charles Frederick of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
(1783?1853), three of whom survived to adulthood:
Letters
[
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]
Maria Pavlovna's letters to her maternal grandfather,
Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Wurttemberg
written between 1795 and 1797 are preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart.
[2]
Her letters from between 1800 and 1859 are preserved in the
"Maria Paulowna letters"
collection of the
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
of
Stanford University
.
[3]
Ancestry
[
edit
]
Ancestors of Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
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References
[
edit
]
- ^
of), Elizabeth Mary Leveson-Gower Grosvenor Westminster (2d Marchioness (1879).
Diary of a Tour in Sweden, Norway, and Russia, in 1827, with Letters
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Herzog Friedrich Eugen (1732-1797) - Briefwechsel des Herzogs mit dem kaiserlichen Hause von Russland, 1795-1797 - 3. Schreiben der jungen Großfursten Alexander und Konstantin und Großfurstinnen Alexandrina, Anna, Katharina, Elisabeth, Helene, Maria"
. Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
. Retrieved
22 November
2021
.
- ^
"Maria Paulowna letters"
. Hoover Institution Library & Archives
. Retrieved
1 October
2021
.
- Jena, Detlef, Maria Pawlowna. Großherzogin an Weimars Musenhof, Regensburg 1999.
- Ihre Kaiserliche Hoheit
. Maria Pawlowna. Zarentochter am Weimarer Hof, ed. Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Weimar, Weimar 2004.
- Jeanne Huc-Mazelet,
Je suis moi, ils sont eux. Lettres et journal d'une gouvernante a la cour de Russie, 1790-1804
,
fr:Ethno-Doc
, 2018, 256 p. (
ISBN
978-2-8290-0584-8
). (Jeanne Huc-Mazelet was at Maria Pavlovna's service).
External links
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]
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1st generation
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2nd generation
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4th generation
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5th generation
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6th generation
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7th generation
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8th generation
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9th generation
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- *
title granted by Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich
- **
title granted by Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich
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Generations are numbered from the ascension of
Karl August
as Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1809 and later
Grand Duke
in 1815
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1st generation
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2nd generation
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3rd generation
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5th generation
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7th generation
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- 1
recognized as a princess by marriage in the
United Kingdom
- 2
also a Princess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach by birth
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International
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