Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna of Leuchtenberg

Ramon estate

As a wedding gift, Eugenia's uncle Alexander II of Russia presented the couple the estate of Ramon, in southwestern Russia. in 1883 the couple hired architect Christopher Neysler to build Ramon Palace, a residence resembling an English castle of Gothic architecture; it was completed four years later. Alexander was also third-in-line to the throne of Oldenburg, as Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg had only one young son, Hereditary Grand Duke Nikolaus, plus an unmarried brother Duke Georg Ludwig; were they to die before the Grand Duke, Alexander would have become heir presumptive. In the end, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was chosen, becoming Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.

Arts and philanthropy Eugenia of Leuchtenberg with her only son Peter of Oldenburg. Eugenia was considered by contemporary sources to be the "most cultured and amiable women that could be met with", while Alexander was celebrated as a man with "much intellect and character". As a very popular and educated princess, Eugenia hosted a salon that was the center of literary, philosophical, scientific activity in Russia. By 1907, she and her husband were widely known to devote "all their life and the greater portion of their wealth to philanthropy", according to one source. The general was standing a few steps away from her husband, so that Eugenia, believing at first that Alexander had been the one killed, fell into a faint. His gentleman-in-waiting and others who were traveling with the duke, either in his car or another driving behind them, were also injured in the crash, as it involved both vehicles. Though his selection as a royal duke was unusual to hold such a high medical-related position, there had been another precedent in another royal house, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria, who at that time was serving as surgeon general to the German army.

In exile due to the Russian Revolution, Eugenia died on 4 May 1925 at Biarritz, France. Alexander would die seven years later, on 6 September 1932. Their philanthropy had become so well known, that by 1914, newspaper sources commented that of all the royal personages at St. Petersburg, "there [were] probably not two who are so universally beloved as the Duke and Duchess of Oldenburg".

Ancestry