Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg
Encyclopedia
Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia (8 July 1830 Altenburg
– 6 July 1911 Saint Petersburg
), born Princess Alexandra Friederike Henriette of Saxe-Altenburg
was the fifth daughter of Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
and Amelie Theresa Luise, Duchess of Württemberg.
They had six children, all daughters:
1. Alexandrine Marie Wilhelmine Katharine Charlotte Therese Henriette Luise Pauline Elisabeth Friederike Georgine
(b. Hildburghausen, 14 April 1818 - d. Gmunden, 9 January 1907), married on 18 February 1843 to King George V of Hanover
.
2. Pauline Friederike Henriette Auguste (b. Kirchheim unter Teck, 24 November 1819 - d. Hildburghausen, 11 January 1825).
3. Henriette Friederike Therese Elisabeth (b. Hildburghausen, 9 October 1823 - d. Altenburg, 3 April 1915).
4. Elisabeth Pauline Alexandrine
(b. Hildburghausen, 26 March 1826 - d. Oldenburg, 2 February 1896), married on 10 February 1852 to Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
.
5. Alexandra Friederike Henriette Pauline Marianne Elisabeth [upon her marriage, she took the name Alexandra Iosifovna in a Russian Orthodox baptism] (b. Altenburg, 8 July 1830 - d. St. Petersburg, 6 July 1911), married on 11 September 1848 to Constantine Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia
.
6. Luise (b. Altenburg, 4 June 1832 - d. Hummelshain, 29 August 1833).
Alexandra's portrait was painted by the fashionable court artist Joseph Karl Stieler
.
when he visited Altenburg. He was the second son of Nicholas I
, Emperor of Russia, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, née Princess Charlotte of Prussia.
Konstantin stayed for a few days at Alexandra’s father’s castle. His visit there had been arranged by Alexandra’s aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who had been born Princess Charlotte of Württemberg. Elena and Alexandra's mother were both descended from Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. Elena was married to Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich
, the younger brother of Tsar Nicholas I. Elena Pavlovna was therefore Konstantin’s aunt by marriage and Alexandra’s aunt by birth. Elena was a strong influence over Konstantin, who admired her intellect and progressive views. She had literary interests and was musical, founding the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire
, and the young Konstantin often spent time at Elena's home and salon in Saint Petersburg
.
Konstantin was intellectual and liberal, whereas Alexandra was conservative and rather high spirited. Although their temperaments differed, they both shared an interest in music, and enjoyed playing duets at the piano. Konstantin was captivated by Alexandra's youthful beauty: she being tall, slender and attractive. He quickly became besotted, and was eager to marry her "I don't know what is happening to me. It is as if I am a completely new person. Just one thought moves me, just one image fills my eyes: forever and only she, my angel, my universe. I really do think I’m in love. However, what can it mean? I've only know her just a few hours and I'm already up to my ears in Passion". She was only sixteen and Konstantin nineteen; they were engaged but had to wait two more years before they could finally marry.
Alexandra arrived in Russia on 12 October 1847, and was greeted by much fanfare and popular celebration, with jubilant crowds lining the streets and balconies. It was said that Alexandra looked so much like her fiance's sister, the Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolayevna
, who died in childbirth, that her prospective mother-in-law burst into tears at their first meeting.
In February 1848, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, which reflected her father's name Joseph (unlike many princesses she took a patronymic, choosing to reflect her parentage rather than the usual religious or dynastic associations which was also possible because Iosif was a common name in Russia).
Alexandra and Konstantin were married in the The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg
, on 11 September 1848. Konstantin received the Marble Palace
in Saint Petersburg as a wedding gift from his parents. Strelna
on the Gulf of Finland, which Konstantin inherited when aged four, was the wedded couple's country retreat. The lively Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna took a particular interest in the grounds at Strelna, establishing a free school of gardening, where she taught classes herself. There were also educational toys for the children: a wooden mast and trampoline for gymnastics, and the transplanted cabin of one of Konstantin’s frigates.
A year after their marriage Konstantin inherited the palace of Pavlovsk
, situated 19 miles to the south of Saint Petersburg, from his uncle Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich. The public was admitted to the fine park in its grounds. The Grand-Ducal family supported an impressive concert hall situated at Pavlovsk station, which proved popular with the middle classes, and attracted names such as Johann Strauss II
, Franz Liszt
, and Hector Berlioz
.
Alexandra and Konstantin later acquired the palace of Oreanda, located in the Crimea, which had originally been built by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and left to her second son for his retirement.
Konstantin and Alexandra had 6 children:
, married King George I of Greece
. She was only sixteen, and Konstantin was initially reluctant for her to marry so young. In July 1868, Olga's first child was born and was named Konstantin after his grandfather. The beginning of their daughter's family coincided with the start of the breakdown of Alexandra and Konstantin's marriage.
Although he was only forty, Konstantin's struggles and travails of the previous decade—naval and judiciary reforms, the freeing of the serfs—had prematurely aged him. As his brother Tsar Alexander II
turned away from the reform that had marked his first decade on the throne, Konstantin's influence began to wane and he began to focus more on his personal life. After twenty years of marriage he had drifted away from his wife. Konstantin's heavy workload, and the couple's divergent political views and interests had over the years slowly torn away at their relationship. Alexandra was as conservative as her husband was liberal, and she had learnt to concern herself with her own society and mysticism. Soon, Konstantin turned elsewhere for sexual intimacy.
At the end of the 1860s, Konstantin embarked on an affair and conceived an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. In the 1880s, Marie was sent to Greece, later serving as lady in waiting to her half sister, Queen Olga. Marie eventually married a Greek banker.
Soon after the birth of Marie, Konstantin began a new liaison. Around 1868, Konstantin began to pursue Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, a young dancer from the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire. She was the illegitimate daughter of ballerina Tatyana Markyanovna Kuznetsova and actor Vasily Andreyevich Karatygin. Anna was twenty years younger than Konstantin and in 1873 she gave birth to their first child. Four more would follow.
Konstantin bought his mistress a large, comfortable dacha on his estate at Pavlovsk; thereby lodging his second family in close proximity to Alexandra, whom he now referred to as his "government–issue wife". By this act Konstantin gave ammunition to his political enemies, with Russian society reacting to the scandal by siding with his suffering wife, Alexandra, who tried to bear his infidelity with dignity.
In 1874, fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Konstantin's eldest son, Grand Duke Nikolay Konstantinovich
, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra's private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan. Alexandra's twenty-four-year-old son was found guilty, declared insane, and banished for life to Central Asia
. Alexandra suffered another bitter blow when in 1879, her youngest son, Vyacheslav, died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage.
, who was the younger brother of Tsar Alexander III
. Towards the end of the wedding celebrations, Konstantin suffered a stroke. This was followed in August 1889 by a severe stroke, which left him unable to walk or speak.
For the remaining three years of his life Konstantin lived with his wife in her favourite palace Pavlovsk, having a wing of the building to himself. He was confined to a bath chair, and Alexandra saw to it that Konstantin was denied contact with his mistress and illegitimate offspring.
Alexandra’s grandson, Christopher of Greece
, wrote in his memoirs that Konstantin became so frustrated with being under Alexandra’s control that he one day grabbed her by the hair and beat her with his stick. Seeing as Christopher would have only been four years old at the time of Konstantin’s death, it is difficult to know the full truth of this story.
Despite his illness, Konstantin tried to amuse himself as best he could. His grand-nephew Cyril Vladimirovich remembered skating parties at Pavlovsk, where Konstantin would watch from his sledge, and how he always "smelt of cigars". Cyril found Alexandra a formidable woman, with her "high pitched voice....driving about in an open carriage with a kind of awning over it, which could be opened and closed like an umbrella. I have never seen anything quite the same anywhere else, and think that she was the only person in the world who had such an ingenious cover to her carriage".
When Konstantin died, in January 1892, Alexandra arranged for his mistress Anna to visit Pavlovsk and pray at Konstantin’s bedside.
Altenburg
Altenburg is a town in the German federal state of Thuringia, 45 km south of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district.-Geography:...
– 6 July 1911 Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
), born Princess Alexandra Friederike Henriette of Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Altenburg was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia.-History:The duchy originated from the medieval Burgraviate of Altenburg in the Imperial Pleissnerland , a possession of the Wettin Margraves of Meissen since 1243...
was the fifth daughter of Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg , was a duke of Saxe-Altenburg....
and Amelie Theresa Luise, Duchess of Württemberg.
Early life
Alexandra's parents were married on 24 April 1817, at Kirchheim unter Teck.They had six children, all daughters:
1. Alexandrine Marie Wilhelmine Katharine Charlotte Therese Henriette Luise Pauline Elisabeth Friederike Georgine
Marie of Saxe-Altenburg
Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg was Queen of Hanover and the consort of George V, a grandson of George III of the United Kingdom and Queen Charlotte.-Early life:Marie was born at Hildburghausen, as Princess Marie of...
(b. Hildburghausen, 14 April 1818 - d. Gmunden, 9 January 1907), married on 18 February 1843 to King George V of Hanover
George V of Hanover
George V was King of Hanover, the only child of Ernest Augustus I, and a grandchild of King George III of the United Kingdom. In the peerage of Great Britain, he was 2nd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, 2nd Earl of Armagh...
.
2. Pauline Friederike Henriette Auguste (b. Kirchheim unter Teck, 24 November 1819 - d. Hildburghausen, 11 January 1825).
3. Henriette Friederike Therese Elisabeth (b. Hildburghausen, 9 October 1823 - d. Altenburg, 3 April 1915).
4. Elisabeth Pauline Alexandrine
Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg (1826–1896)
Princess Elisabeth Pauline Alexandrine of Saxe-Altenburg was a daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife Duchess Amelia of Württemberg. By marriage, she became Grand Duchess of Oldenburg....
(b. Hildburghausen, 26 March 1826 - d. Oldenburg, 2 February 1896), married on 10 February 1852 to Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
Peter II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg was the ruler of Oldenburg from 1853 to 1900.-Family:Duke Nikolaus Friedrich Peter was the only son of Augustus, Grand Duke of Oldenburg by his second wife Princess Ida of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym. He was born on 8 July 1827 in Oldenburg. In his youth, he...
.
5. Alexandra Friederike Henriette Pauline Marianne Elisabeth [upon her marriage, she took the name Alexandra Iosifovna in a Russian Orthodox baptism] (b. Altenburg, 8 July 1830 - d. St. Petersburg, 6 July 1911), married on 11 September 1848 to Constantine Romanov, Grand Duke of Russia
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia was the second son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.During the reign of his brother Alexander II, Konstantin was an admiral of the Russian fleet and reformed the Russian Navy. He was also an instrumental figure in the emancipation of the serfs...
.
6. Luise (b. Altenburg, 4 June 1832 - d. Hummelshain, 29 August 1833).
Alexandra's portrait was painted by the fashionable court artist Joseph Karl Stieler
Joseph Karl Stieler
Joseph Karl Stieler was a German painter. Born in Mainz to a family of engravers and die-cutters, Stieler received some artistic training from his father, August Friedrich Stieler...
.
Marriage and issue
In the summer of 1846, she met Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of RussiaGrand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia
Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia was the second son of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.During the reign of his brother Alexander II, Konstantin was an admiral of the Russian fleet and reformed the Russian Navy. He was also an instrumental figure in the emancipation of the serfs...
when he visited Altenburg. He was the second son of Nicholas I
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
, Emperor of Russia, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, née Princess Charlotte of Prussia.
Konstantin stayed for a few days at Alexandra’s father’s castle. His visit there had been arranged by Alexandra’s aunt, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who had been born Princess Charlotte of Württemberg. Elena and Alexandra's mother were both descended from Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. Elena was married to Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich
Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia was the tenth child and fourth son of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.-Marriage and issue:In St...
, the younger brother of Tsar Nicholas I. Elena Pavlovna was therefore Konstantin’s aunt by marriage and Alexandra’s aunt by birth. Elena was a strong influence over Konstantin, who admired her intellect and progressive views. She had literary interests and was musical, founding the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
, and the young Konstantin often spent time at Elena's home and salon in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
.
Konstantin was intellectual and liberal, whereas Alexandra was conservative and rather high spirited. Although their temperaments differed, they both shared an interest in music, and enjoyed playing duets at the piano. Konstantin was captivated by Alexandra's youthful beauty: she being tall, slender and attractive. He quickly became besotted, and was eager to marry her "I don't know what is happening to me. It is as if I am a completely new person. Just one thought moves me, just one image fills my eyes: forever and only she, my angel, my universe. I really do think I’m in love. However, what can it mean? I've only know her just a few hours and I'm already up to my ears in Passion". She was only sixteen and Konstantin nineteen; they were engaged but had to wait two more years before they could finally marry.
Alexandra arrived in Russia on 12 October 1847, and was greeted by much fanfare and popular celebration, with jubilant crowds lining the streets and balconies. It was said that Alexandra looked so much like her fiance's sister, the Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolayevna
Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia
Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, and his wife, Princess Charlotte of Prussia.-Biography:...
, who died in childbirth, that her prospective mother-in-law burst into tears at their first meeting.
In February 1848, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, which reflected her father's name Joseph (unlike many princesses she took a patronymic, choosing to reflect her parentage rather than the usual religious or dynastic associations which was also possible because Iosif was a common name in Russia).
Alexandra and Konstantin were married in the The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, on 11 September 1848. Konstantin received the Marble Palace
Marble Palace
Marble Palace is one of the first Neoclassical palaces in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is situated between the Field of Mars and Palace Quay, slightly to the east from New Michael Palace....
in Saint Petersburg as a wedding gift from his parents. Strelna
Strelna
Strelna is a municipal settlement in Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, situated about halfway between St. Petersburg proper and Petergof and overlooking the shore of the Gulf of Finland...
on the Gulf of Finland, which Konstantin inherited when aged four, was the wedded couple's country retreat. The lively Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna took a particular interest in the grounds at Strelna, establishing a free school of gardening, where she taught classes herself. There were also educational toys for the children: a wooden mast and trampoline for gymnastics, and the transplanted cabin of one of Konstantin’s frigates.
A year after their marriage Konstantin inherited the palace of Pavlovsk
Pavlovsk Palace
Pavlovsk Palace is an 18th-century Russian Imperial residence built by Paul I of Russia near Saint Petersburg. After his death, it became the home of his widow, Maria Feodorovna...
, situated 19 miles to the south of Saint Petersburg, from his uncle Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich. The public was admitted to the fine park in its grounds. The Grand-Ducal family supported an impressive concert hall situated at Pavlovsk station, which proved popular with the middle classes, and attracted names such as Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, and Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
.
Alexandra and Konstantin later acquired the palace of Oreanda, located in the Crimea, which had originally been built by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and left to her second son for his retirement.
Konstantin and Alexandra had 6 children:
- Nikolai Konstantinovich 1850-1918; married Nadedja Alexandrovna von Dreyer.
- Olga Konstantinovna, Queen of the Hellenes 1851-1926; married George I of GreeceGeorge I of GreeceGeorge I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
and is a grandmother of Prince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of EdinburghPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
. - Vera Konstantinovna 1854-1912; married Duke Eugen of Württemberg.
- Constantin Konstantinovich 1858-1915; married Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg.
- Dmitry Konstantinovich 1860-1919; died unmarried.
- Vyacheslav Konstantinovich 1862-1879; died unmarried.
Family crisis
In 1867, Alexandra's eldest daughter, OlgaOlga Konstantinovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia , later Queen Olga of the Hellenes , was the queen consort of King George I of Greece and briefly in 1920, Queen Regent of Greece...
, married King George I of Greece
George I of Greece
George I was King of Greece from 1863 to 1913. Originally a Danish prince, George was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers...
. She was only sixteen, and Konstantin was initially reluctant for her to marry so young. In July 1868, Olga's first child was born and was named Konstantin after his grandfather. The beginning of their daughter's family coincided with the start of the breakdown of Alexandra and Konstantin's marriage.
Although he was only forty, Konstantin's struggles and travails of the previous decade—naval and judiciary reforms, the freeing of the serfs—had prematurely aged him. As his brother Tsar Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
turned away from the reform that had marked his first decade on the throne, Konstantin's influence began to wane and he began to focus more on his personal life. After twenty years of marriage he had drifted away from his wife. Konstantin's heavy workload, and the couple's divergent political views and interests had over the years slowly torn away at their relationship. Alexandra was as conservative as her husband was liberal, and she had learnt to concern herself with her own society and mysticism. Soon, Konstantin turned elsewhere for sexual intimacy.
At the end of the 1860s, Konstantin embarked on an affair and conceived an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. In the 1880s, Marie was sent to Greece, later serving as lady in waiting to her half sister, Queen Olga. Marie eventually married a Greek banker.
Soon after the birth of Marie, Konstantin began a new liaison. Around 1868, Konstantin began to pursue Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, a young dancer from the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire. She was the illegitimate daughter of ballerina Tatyana Markyanovna Kuznetsova and actor Vasily Andreyevich Karatygin. Anna was twenty years younger than Konstantin and in 1873 she gave birth to their first child. Four more would follow.
Konstantin bought his mistress a large, comfortable dacha on his estate at Pavlovsk; thereby lodging his second family in close proximity to Alexandra, whom he now referred to as his "government–issue wife". By this act Konstantin gave ammunition to his political enemies, with Russian society reacting to the scandal by siding with his suffering wife, Alexandra, who tried to bear his infidelity with dignity.
In 1874, fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Konstantin's eldest son, Grand Duke Nikolay Konstantinovich
Grand Duke Nikolai Konstantinovich of Russia
Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia was the first-born son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia and a grandson of Nicholas I of Russia.-Early life:...
, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra's private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan. Alexandra's twenty-four-year-old son was found guilty, declared insane, and banished for life to Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
. Alexandra suffered another bitter blow when in 1879, her youngest son, Vyacheslav, died unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage.
Husband's illness and death
In June 1889, Alexandra’s 18-year-old granddaughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece, returned to Russia to marry Grand Duke PaulGrand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia was the eighth child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by his first wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna. His birth was commemorated by the naming of the city of Pavlodar in Kazakhstan...
, who was the younger brother of Tsar Alexander III
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...
. Towards the end of the wedding celebrations, Konstantin suffered a stroke. This was followed in August 1889 by a severe stroke, which left him unable to walk or speak.
For the remaining three years of his life Konstantin lived with his wife in her favourite palace Pavlovsk, having a wing of the building to himself. He was confined to a bath chair, and Alexandra saw to it that Konstantin was denied contact with his mistress and illegitimate offspring.
Alexandra’s grandson, Christopher of Greece
Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark
Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Royal House.-Family background:...
, wrote in his memoirs that Konstantin became so frustrated with being under Alexandra’s control that he one day grabbed her by the hair and beat her with his stick. Seeing as Christopher would have only been four years old at the time of Konstantin’s death, it is difficult to know the full truth of this story.
Despite his illness, Konstantin tried to amuse himself as best he could. His grand-nephew Cyril Vladimirovich remembered skating parties at Pavlovsk, where Konstantin would watch from his sledge, and how he always "smelt of cigars". Cyril found Alexandra a formidable woman, with her "high pitched voice....driving about in an open carriage with a kind of awning over it, which could be opened and closed like an umbrella. I have never seen anything quite the same anywhere else, and think that she was the only person in the world who had such an ingenious cover to her carriage".
When Konstantin died, in January 1892, Alexandra arranged for his mistress Anna to visit Pavlovsk and pray at Konstantin’s bedside.