Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
| Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |
|---|---|
| Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia | |
 Photograph by Hugo Thiele, c. 1900 | |
| Grand Duchess consort of Hesse and by Rhine | |
| Tenure | 19 April 1894 – 21 December 1901 |
| Consort to the Head of the House of Romanov | |
| Tenure | 31 August 1924 – 2 March 1936 |
| Born | Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh 25 November 1876 San Anton Palace, Attard, British Malta |
| Died | 2 March 1936 (aged 59) Amorbach, Nazi Germany |
| Burial | 10 March 1936 Friedhof am Glockenberg, Coburg 7 March 1995 Grand Ducal Mausoleum, Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | |
| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Father | Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Mother | Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia |
| Religion | Russian Orthodox (1907–1936) prev. Protestant (1876–1907) |
Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia (Russian: Виктория Фёдоровна; 25 November 1876 – 2 March 1936) was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and Emperor Alexander II.
Born a British princess, Victoria spent her childhood in England and lived in Malta for three years, where her father served in the Royal Navy. When Victoria became a teenager, she fell in love with her maternal first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, but his Orthodox Christian faith discouraged marriage between first cousins.
Due to family pressure, Victoria married her paternal first cousin Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, in 1894. The marriage failed and she caused a scandal among the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901. They had one child together named Princess Elisabeth, who died of typhoid fever in 1903.
Victoria married Kirill in 1905, without the formal approval of King Edward VII and in defiance of Tsar Nicholas II. They had two daughters together named Maria and Kira, and relocated in Paris before being allowed to visit Russia in 1909. In 1910, they moved to Russia, where Nicholas formally recognized Victoria as Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna.
After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, they escaped to Finland where Victoria where would give birth to her only son Vladimir in August 1917. In exile they lived with her relatives in Germany, and from the late 1920s on an estate they bought in Saint-Briac in Brittany. Victoria died in 1936 after suffering a stroke while visiting her daughter Maria in Amorbach.
Honours
[change | change source]
United Kingdom:
- CI: Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, 11 December 1893[1]
- VA: Dame of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 1st Class[2]
- GCStJ: Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem[3][4]
- RRC: Member of the Royal Red Cross[5][3]
Kingdom of Prussia: Dame of the Order of Louise, 1st Division- Template:Country data Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Template:Country data Saxe-Altenburg Template:Country data Saxe-Meiningen Ernestine duchies: Dame of the Saxe-Ernestine House Order[6]
Grand Duchy of Hesse:
- Dame of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of the Golden Lion, in Brilliants, 19 April 1894[7]
- Dame Grand Cross of the Grand Ducal Hessian Order of Ludwig, in Brilliants, 25 November 1898[7]
- Medal of the Merit Order of Philip the Magnanimous[8]
Kingdom of Romania: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania
Russian Empire:
- Dame Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine, November 1894[9]
- Decoration of the Military Order of Saint George[10]
- Template:Country data Restoration (Spain): Dame of the Royal Order of Noble Ladies of Queen Maria Luisa, 31 October 1913[11]
British arms
[change | change source]As a male-line grandchild of the British monarch, Victoria Melita bore the royal arms, with an inescutcheon for Saxony, the whole differenced by a label of five points argent, the outer pair bearing hearts gules, the inner pair anchors azure, and the central point a cross gules.[12] In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant. Her arms from that point on are duplicated in the arms of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy.
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "No. 26467". The London Gazette. 15 December 1893. p. 7319.
- ↑ Joseph Whitaker (1897). An Almanack for the Year of Our Lord ... J. Whitaker. p. 110.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh & Saxe-Coburg Gotha (1844–1900)". 13 October 2007. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007.
- ↑ "Queen Marie of Romania (when Crown Princess) and her sister Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Hesse | Grand Ladies | gogm". www.gogmsite.net.
- ↑ Cite error: The named reference
Sullivan, p. 288was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page). - ↑ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (1900), Genealogy p. 2
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1907, pp. 2, 5
- ↑ Cite error: The named reference
Sullivan, p. 224was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page). - ↑ "Historical review of the Order of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine or the Order of Liberation". The Court Calendar for 1911. St. Petersburg: Suppliers of the Court of His Imperial Majesty. Vol. R. Golike and A. Wilborg, 1910. p. 589
- ↑ Fedorchenko, Valery. Imperial house. Outstanding dignitaries. Encyclopedia of Biographies. OLMA Media Group, 2003. 1, pp. 203–204. 1307 p. ISBN 5786700488, 9785786700481.
- ↑ "Real orden de Damas Nobles de la Reina Maria Luisa". Guía Oficial de España (in Spanish). 1914. p. 219. Retrieved 21 March 2019.
- ↑ "marks of cadency in the British royal family". www.heraldica.org.