Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia

Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (: – ) was a daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and sister of emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. She married Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary. Her marriage was the only Romanov-Habsburg marital alliance to date.

Birth Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was born in Tsarskoye Selo as the third child and eldest daughter of Tsesarevich Paul and his second wife Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (renamed Maria Feodorovna after her wedding). The gender of the child disappointed her paternal grandmother, Catherine the Great. She wrote:

The Empress' secretary Alexander Khrapovitsky wrote that the Empress considered the newborn Grand Duchess Alexandra very ugly, especially compared with her older brothers. The comparison with her younger sister Elena, was also unfavorable to her: the Empress noted that the six-month-old Elena was much smarter and more charming than the two-year Alexandra. The meeting between them was successful. In mid-February, the betrothal ball was held. Later, a marriage contract was signed in which Alexandra would be allowed to kept her Russian Orthodox faith. In October, Count Fyodor Rostopchin wrote:

On 25 September, a decree was published about the royal title of Alexandra. In Russia, she was referred to as "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess the Archduchess of Austria" with the French prefix of "Palatine d'Hongrie". Maria Amalia and Alexandra became friends during this time; and the Princess of Naples wrote in her journal that the Russian Grand Duchess and her husband had a friendly relationship with the rest of the imperial family and took part in the family gatherings, parties and balls in Vienna, which contrasts with the version given by Andrei Samborski. For instance, in January 1801, Maria Amalia wrote in her journal that the imperial family used to attend balls in Archduke Joseph's residence in Vienna, where "beautiful Alexandra, always serious and sad, has a magnificent household."

When she was presented to Emperor Francis II, she reminded him of his first wife Elisabeth of Württemberg, who was her maternal aunt; this caused the jealousy of Empress Maria Theresa, Francis II's second wife, who was also envious of Alexandra's beauty and fine jewelry. Imperial confessor Andrew Samborski wrote:

Remembering the happy cohabitation with her led him (the Emperor) in extreme confusion of mind which afflicted the heart of the Empress, his present wife. After this, she became in the innocent victim of the Empress' implacable vengeance...The Empress not forgotten and humiliated her parents and siblings when she called them a family of freaks, due to the treatment that Grand Duke Constantine gave to his wife. Hungarians had been using red and silver, then red and white as their national colors for centuries at the time. However, in the late 18th century, a third color was proposed to be added to the flag, to follow the style of the French tricolor. Pavlovna suggested green as a symbol for hope. By the mid-19th century, the red-white-green Hungarian tricolor became widespread.

Death

Due to his responsibilities as Palatine, after a short stay in the Imperial court, Archduke Joseph and his wife moved to Hungary, where they settled in the Alcsút Palace, although they also normally returned to Vienna to spend time with the imperial family.

On 7 May 1800, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven played in the presence of Archduke Joseph and his wife Alexandra at the Buda Castle. This was part and main event of a week-long celebration organized by the Archduke in honor of his beautiful wife Alexandra.

Soon Alexandra was expecting her first child. The pregnancy was hard, as she was tormented by bouts of nausea. The doctor, following the orders of Empress Maria Theresa, was "more skilled in intrigues than in medicine, and moreover, with rude manners"; in addition, the cook prepared meals that she could not eat.

The childbirth, which lasted several hours, tormented Alexandra. Imperial confessor Andrew Samborski wrote:

A daughter, Archduchess Alexandrina Paulina of Austria, was born on 8 March 1801, but died within hours. She was named after her mother. Upon learning of the death of her daughter, Alexandra Pavlovna said:

On the eighth day after the birth, Alexandra was allowed to get up, but in the evening she developed puerperal fever, which finally caused her early death on 16 March 1801 aged 17.

Hungarian historian Sándor Domanovszky related the event as follows:

Her death occurred a week before her father's murder, which happened on 23 March 1801. News of her death reached her mother and siblings in Russia only at the end of the month. Both the events were terrible blows for the Romanov family.

Burial

On 12 May, the body of the Archduchess was placed in the crypt of the Capuchin monastery of Víziváros (now Main Street 20).

Because the Austrian court refused her burial in any Catholic cemeteries, Alexandra's remains remained unburied at Víziváros monastery until 1803, when her widower built a mausoleum dedicated to her in Üröm near Pest, following the late Archduchess' wishes, and after her definitive burial in this place, an Eastern Orthodox service was held in her memory. In 1809, during the invasion of Napoleon's troops, Archduke Joseph ordered that the coffin with his wife's remains must be placed in Buda Castle for precaution, with a special Orthodox chapel prepared for this purpose. Once the threat of war was over, Alexandra's coffin was returned to the Üröm Mausoleum, which became a place of pilgrimage for the local Orthodox community. During the Congress of Vienna, Alexander I and the Grand Duchesses Maria Pavlovna and Ekaterina Pavlovna visited the grave of their sister.

Archduke Joseph remained a widower for several years, and only in 1815 remarried Princess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, who died two years later in 1817, also after giving birth, though this time fraternal twins who survived. In 1819 the Archduke contracted his third and last marriage with Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, who bore him five children, of whom three survived infancy.

Archives Alexandra's letters to her grandfather Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, together with letters from her siblings, written between 1795 and 1797 are preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart) in Stuttgart, Germany.

Alexandra's letters to her sister-in-law Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily are preserved in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, Austria.

Ancestry

Honours