Louise of Baden
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Alexeievna was the wife of Emperor Alexander I of Russia
.
, on 24 January 1779 as Princess Louise Maria Auguste of Baden
of the House of Zähringen
. She was the third of the seven children of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden
and his wife Amelia Frederica of Hesse-Darmstadt
. Her grandfathers were Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden and Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
.
Princess Louise of Baden grew up in a close, warm family environment. She would remain particularly attached to her mother, with whom she maintained an intimate correspondence until her death. (The Margravine of Baden outlived her daughter). Princess Louise was only twelve years old when her fate was determined. Empress Catherine II "the Great" of Russia
was looking for a bride for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I
, and set her eyes on the Princesses of Baden. After receiving favorable impressions, Catherine invited Princess Louise and her younger sister Frederica
, to Russia. In the autumn of 1792, the two sisters arrived in St. Petersburg.
The Empress Catherine was delighted by Louise, finding her a model of beauty, charm, and honesty. Louise herself was attracted to Alexander; he was tall and handsome. At first, Alexander was shy with his future bride—very young and inexperienced, he did not know how to treat her—and she mistook his reserve for dislike. However, the young couple soon grew fond of each other. "You tell me that I hold the happiness of a certain person in my hands," she wrote to Alexander. "If that is true, then his happiness is assured forever… this person loves me tenderly, and I love him in return, and that will be my happiness…you can be certain that I love you more than I ever can say," she added. They were engaged in May 1793.
The Princess of Baden learned Russian
, converted to the Orthodox Church
, took the title of Grand Duchess of Russia and traded the name Louise Maria Auguste for Elizabeth Alexeievna. The wedding took place on 28 September 1793 . "It was a marriage between Psyche and Cupid
" Catherine wrote to the Prince of Ligne. Elizabeth was only fourteen, her husband a year older.
, even tried to seduce Elizabeth Alexeievna.
The Grand Duchess felt lonely and homesick, particularly after her sister Frederica returned to Baden. Elizabeth was abandoned in an alien world where she could never be herself, even among her servants and ladies-in-waiting. The relationship with Alexander was her only source of solace. "Without my husband, who alone makes me happy, I should have died a thousand deaths"
The first years of the marriage were relatively happy, but the Grand Duchess disappointed Catherine II, who did not live to see a son be born to the young couple. The death of Catherine the Great in November 1796 brought Elizabeth's father-in-law, Paul I
, to the Russian Throne. During the years of his reign, Elizabeth avoided Paul's court. She utterly disliked her father-in-law, disapproved the injustices of his government and the bluntness of his character.
The first cracks in Elizabeth's marriage began to appear. She did not find fulfillment for her romantic nature in a husband who neglected her. Elizabeth looked for emotional solace elsewhere. She first found refuge for her loneliness in a close intimate friendship with the beautiful Countess Golovina. Later, she started a romantic liaison with Alexander's best friend, the dashing and clever Polish Prince, Adam Czartoryski
. Their relationship lasted for three years.
After more than five years of a childless marriage, on 29 May 1799, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. At court, some attributed the paternity to the Polish Prince. The child had black hair and dark eyes and at the baptism, Tsar Paul I
did not fail to remark his amazement that two blonde, blue eyed parents had had a dark-haired child. Elizabeth Alexeievna soon lost both her lover and her daughter. Adam Czartoryski was sent in a diplomatic mission abroad, and Elizabeth's baby daughter did not live long. "As of this morning, I no longer have a child, she is dead" she wrote to her mother on 27 July 1800. "Not an hour of the day passes without my thinking of her, and certainly not a day without my giving her bitter tears. It cannot be otherwise so long as I live, even if she were to be replaced by two dozen children."
Charming, generous and intellectual, Elizabeth Alexeievna loved literature and the arts. She took music lessons from Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson
(1768-after 1824). Unfortunately, she possessed a shy, withdrawn personality which failed to endear her to either the Russian Court or her in-laws. She preferred simplicity and solitude to the pomp and ceremony of life at Court.
Her marriage also failed to bring her fulfillment. Although Elizabeth Alexeievna loved her husband, and encouraged him in many personal and political crises, Alexander neglected her. Their relationship was harmonious, but emotionally distant, with each engaging in love affairs outside their marriage.
led to a plot to overthrow him and place Alexander on the Russian throne. Elizabeth was well aware of this scheme and on the night of Paul's assassination, she was with her husband giving him support.
Once Alexander I
became Emperor, Elizabeth Alexeievna encouraged him to leave behind the trauma of Paul's I murder and dedicate himself to serve Russia. As Empress Consort, she took part in Court life and the duties of representation, but the first female rank in the Empire was reserved for her mother-in-law Maria Feodorovna.
Alexander I treated his wife indifferently, he was polite toward her in public ceremonies and made an effort to have his meals in her company. Elizabeth was too soft and placid to keep a hold on a restless and soul tortured man such as her husband. In 1803, Alexander began a love affair that would continue for more than fifteen years with the Polish Princess Maria Czetwertynska, wife of Prince Dmitri Naryshkin. Princess Maria Naryshkina flaunted her liaison at Court in a tasteless, blatant fashion.
Elizabeth Alexeievna, for her part, found solace in her relationship with Adam Czartoryski, who had returned to Russia at Alexander I's ascension to the throne. This liaison ended when she started a love affair with a handsome staff-captain, Alexis Okhotnikov. All the correspondence between Elizabeth and Alexis Okhotnikov (and some of her diaries) were destroyed by the Emperor Nicholas I
after her death.
The affair with Okhotnikov had a tragic end. The staff-captain died in 1807 after an attempt on his life. Many contemporaries considered that Alexander I or his brother Grand Duke Konstantin
had ordered him killed.
On 16 November 1806, Elizabeth gave birth to a second daughter. There were rumors that the newborn, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna, was not a child of Emperor Alexander but of Okhotnikov. After his death, Elizabeth Alexeievna felt more abandoned than ever and poured out all her affection on her daughter Elizabeth, "Lisinka." Fifteen months later, the little girl died suddenly of an infection blamed on teething. "Now," wrote Elizabeth to her mother, "I am not longer good for anything in this world, my soul has no more strength to recover from this last blow."
The death of their daughter temporarily brought husband and wife closer. Although Elizabeth Alexeievna was not yet thirty years old, neither she nor Alexander had further hopes of a family and they would have no more children.
During the Napoleonic Wars
, Elizabeth Alexeievna was a reliable supporter of her husband's policies as she had been in other personal and political crises. After the fall of Napoleon, she joined her husband and many of the crowned heads of Europe in the Congress of Vienna
(1814), there she was reunited with her old paramour, Adam Czartoryski
. He was still in love with her and forgave her past infidelity with Okhotnikov. Their re-encounter was short-lived.
Once she reached forty, Elizabeth Alexeievna's beauty was largely faded; she left behind any romantic pretensions. Her husband also experienced a personal transformation that drove the couple closer than they ever were. In 1819, Alexander I, immersed in religious mysticism, broke his long relationship with Maria Narishkina. From then on, husband and wife started to spend more time together. The Empress sympathized deeply with him and Alexander found her supportive when he lost his beloved natural daughter, Sophia. The marked reconciliation between the Emperor and the Empress caused general surprise "I am reduced to thinking of myself sometimes as Alexander's mistress, or as if we had been married secretly..." Elizabeth wrote to her mother.
By 1825, Elizabeth Alexeievna's health was frail; she suffered from a lung condition and a nervous indisposition. The doctors recommended her to take a rest in a temperate climate and suggested the southern city of Taganrog
, by the sea of Azov
. With no comfortable Palace, the Imperial Couple were established in a modest house in Taganrog
by 5 October. They were happy together living in intimate simplicity. On 17 November 1825 Alexander returned to Taganrog from visiting Crimea with a cold, which developed into typhus, from which he died that December in the arms of his wife. Elizabeth was stricken by her loss, writing ‘I do not understand myself, I do not understand my destiny." And later " What am I to do with my will, which was entirely subjected to him, with my life, which I loved to devote to him?"
The now-Dowager-Tsarina was too frail to come back to St. Petersburg for the funeral. When Elizabeth Alexeievna finally started her returning journey to the capital, she felt so sick that had to stop at Belev, Tula Province, on the road from Taganrog
to St. Petersburg just a few hours before she was to meet her mother-in-law, who was coming south to greet her. In the early hours of 16 May 1826, towards four-thirty in the morning, when her lady's maid went to check on the Empress, she found her dead in bed. Elizabeth Alexeievna had died of heart failure.
Three days after her husband's death Elizabeth had written her mother, "Do not worry too much about me, but if I dared, I would like to follow the one who has been my very life."
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
.
Princess of Baden
Elizabeth Alexeievna was born in KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, on 24 January 1779 as Princess Louise Maria Auguste of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
of the House of Zähringen
Zähringen
Zähringen is the name of an old German family that founded a large number of cities in what are today Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg. While the junior line that first assumed the title Duke of Zähringen, a cadet branch of the House of Baden, became extinct in 1218, the senior line persists and...
. She was the third of the seven children of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden
Karl Ludwig of Baden
Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden was heir apparent of the Margraviate of Baden. He was born in Karlsruhe....
and his wife Amelia Frederica of Hesse-Darmstadt
Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt was the daughter of Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt and Henriette Karoline of Palatine-Zweibrücken.-Marriage and issue:...
. Her grandfathers were Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden and Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
Louis IX of Hesse-Darmstadt was the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1768 - 1790. He was a son of Louis VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, and Charlotte of Hanau-Lichtenberg and Müntzenberg....
.
Princess Louise of Baden grew up in a close, warm family environment. She would remain particularly attached to her mother, with whom she maintained an intimate correspondence until her death. (The Margravine of Baden outlived her daughter). Princess Louise was only twelve years old when her fate was determined. Empress Catherine II "the Great" of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
was looking for a bride for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
, and set her eyes on the Princesses of Baden. After receiving favorable impressions, Catherine invited Princess Louise and her younger sister Frederica
Frederica of Baden
Friederike Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden was Queen consort of Sweden from 1797 to 1809. Daughter of Karl Ludwig of Baden and Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt, she was the younger sister of Empress Elisabeth Alexeievna , wife of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.-Biography:She was born in Karlsruhe...
, to Russia. In the autumn of 1792, the two sisters arrived in St. Petersburg.
The Empress Catherine was delighted by Louise, finding her a model of beauty, charm, and honesty. Louise herself was attracted to Alexander; he was tall and handsome. At first, Alexander was shy with his future bride—very young and inexperienced, he did not know how to treat her—and she mistook his reserve for dislike. However, the young couple soon grew fond of each other. "You tell me that I hold the happiness of a certain person in my hands," she wrote to Alexander. "If that is true, then his happiness is assured forever… this person loves me tenderly, and I love him in return, and that will be my happiness…you can be certain that I love you more than I ever can say," she added. They were engaged in May 1793.
The Princess of Baden learned Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, converted to the Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, took the title of Grand Duchess of Russia and traded the name Louise Maria Auguste for Elizabeth Alexeievna. The wedding took place on 28 September 1793 . "It was a marriage between Psyche and Cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
" Catherine wrote to the Prince of Ligne. Elizabeth was only fourteen, her husband a year older.
Grand Duchess of Russia
Very young when she was married, shy and naïve, Elizabeth Alexeievna was ill-prepared for her new position. She was overwhelmed by the splendor of the Russian Court and frightened by the vicious intrigues waged there with cold calculation. She was appalled by the intense sexual intrigues that flourished all around her in a court where adultery was an accepted form of entertainment. The Empress herself, Catherine II, set the example for the licentious ways of the court. Catherine's II young lover, Platon ZubovPlaton Zubov
Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov was the last of Catherine the Great's favourites and the most powerful man in Russian Empire during the last years of her reign....
, even tried to seduce Elizabeth Alexeievna.
The Grand Duchess felt lonely and homesick, particularly after her sister Frederica returned to Baden. Elizabeth was abandoned in an alien world where she could never be herself, even among her servants and ladies-in-waiting. The relationship with Alexander was her only source of solace. "Without my husband, who alone makes me happy, I should have died a thousand deaths"
The first years of the marriage were relatively happy, but the Grand Duchess disappointed Catherine II, who did not live to see a son be born to the young couple. The death of Catherine the Great in November 1796 brought Elizabeth's father-in-law, Paul I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
, to the Russian Throne. During the years of his reign, Elizabeth avoided Paul's court. She utterly disliked her father-in-law, disapproved the injustices of his government and the bluntness of his character.
The first cracks in Elizabeth's marriage began to appear. She did not find fulfillment for her romantic nature in a husband who neglected her. Elizabeth looked for emotional solace elsewhere. She first found refuge for her loneliness in a close intimate friendship with the beautiful Countess Golovina. Later, she started a romantic liaison with Alexander's best friend, the dashing and clever Polish Prince, Adam Czartoryski
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was a Polish-Lithuanian noble, statesman and author. He was the son of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Izabela Fleming....
. Their relationship lasted for three years.
After more than five years of a childless marriage, on 29 May 1799, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. At court, some attributed the paternity to the Polish Prince. The child had black hair and dark eyes and at the baptism, Tsar Paul I
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
did not fail to remark his amazement that two blonde, blue eyed parents had had a dark-haired child. Elizabeth Alexeievna soon lost both her lover and her daughter. Adam Czartoryski was sent in a diplomatic mission abroad, and Elizabeth's baby daughter did not live long. "As of this morning, I no longer have a child, she is dead" she wrote to her mother on 27 July 1800. "Not an hour of the day passes without my thinking of her, and certainly not a day without my giving her bitter tears. It cannot be otherwise so long as I live, even if she were to be replaced by two dozen children."
Personality
Elizabeth Alexeievna was distinguished by a soft, melodious voice, and a beautiful oval face, with delicate features, a Greek profile, large almond-shaped blue eyes and curly ash blond hair, which she usually left floating on her shoulders. With an elegant figure, regal carriage and a beautiful angelic face, she was regarded by contemporaries as one of the most beautiful women in Europe and probably the most beautiful consort at that time.Charming, generous and intellectual, Elizabeth Alexeievna loved literature and the arts. She took music lessons from Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson
Tepper de Ferguson
Ludwig-Wilhelm Tepper de Ferguson , 10/18 December 1768, Warsaw - 12 September 1838, Paris...
(1768-after 1824). Unfortunately, she possessed a shy, withdrawn personality which failed to endear her to either the Russian Court or her in-laws. She preferred simplicity and solitude to the pomp and ceremony of life at Court.
Her marriage also failed to bring her fulfillment. Although Elizabeth Alexeievna loved her husband, and encouraged him in many personal and political crises, Alexander neglected her. Their relationship was harmonious, but emotionally distant, with each engaging in love affairs outside their marriage.
Russian Empress
The eccentricities of Tsar Paul IPaul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
led to a plot to overthrow him and place Alexander on the Russian throne. Elizabeth was well aware of this scheme and on the night of Paul's assassination, she was with her husband giving him support.
Once Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
became Emperor, Elizabeth Alexeievna encouraged him to leave behind the trauma of Paul's I murder and dedicate himself to serve Russia. As Empress Consort, she took part in Court life and the duties of representation, but the first female rank in the Empire was reserved for her mother-in-law Maria Feodorovna.
Alexander I treated his wife indifferently, he was polite toward her in public ceremonies and made an effort to have his meals in her company. Elizabeth was too soft and placid to keep a hold on a restless and soul tortured man such as her husband. In 1803, Alexander began a love affair that would continue for more than fifteen years with the Polish Princess Maria Czetwertynska, wife of Prince Dmitri Naryshkin. Princess Maria Naryshkina flaunted her liaison at Court in a tasteless, blatant fashion.
Elizabeth Alexeievna, for her part, found solace in her relationship with Adam Czartoryski, who had returned to Russia at Alexander I's ascension to the throne. This liaison ended when she started a love affair with a handsome staff-captain, Alexis Okhotnikov. All the correspondence between Elizabeth and Alexis Okhotnikov (and some of her diaries) were destroyed by the Emperor 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...
after her death.
The affair with Okhotnikov had a tragic end. The staff-captain died in 1807 after an attempt on his life. Many contemporaries considered that Alexander I or his brother Grand Duke Konstantin
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
Constantine Pavlovich was a grand duke of Russia and the second son of Emperor Paul I. He was the Tsesarevich of Russia throughout the reign of his elder brother Alexander I, but had secretly renounced his claim to the throne in 1823...
had ordered him killed.
On 16 November 1806, Elizabeth gave birth to a second daughter. There were rumors that the newborn, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna, was not a child of Emperor Alexander but of Okhotnikov. After his death, Elizabeth Alexeievna felt more abandoned than ever and poured out all her affection on her daughter Elizabeth, "Lisinka." Fifteen months later, the little girl died suddenly of an infection blamed on teething. "Now," wrote Elizabeth to her mother, "I am not longer good for anything in this world, my soul has no more strength to recover from this last blow."
The death of their daughter temporarily brought husband and wife closer. Although Elizabeth Alexeievna was not yet thirty years old, neither she nor Alexander had further hopes of a family and they would have no more children.
During the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
, Elizabeth Alexeievna was a reliable supporter of her husband's policies as she had been in other personal and political crises. After the fall of Napoleon, she joined her husband and many of the crowned heads of Europe in the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
(1814), there she was reunited with her old paramour, Adam Czartoryski
Adam Jerzy Czartoryski
Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski was a Polish-Lithuanian noble, statesman and author. He was the son of Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and Izabela Fleming....
. He was still in love with her and forgave her past infidelity with Okhotnikov. Their re-encounter was short-lived.
Once she reached forty, Elizabeth Alexeievna's beauty was largely faded; she left behind any romantic pretensions. Her husband also experienced a personal transformation that drove the couple closer than they ever were. In 1819, Alexander I, immersed in religious mysticism, broke his long relationship with Maria Narishkina. From then on, husband and wife started to spend more time together. The Empress sympathized deeply with him and Alexander found her supportive when he lost his beloved natural daughter, Sophia. The marked reconciliation between the Emperor and the Empress caused general surprise "I am reduced to thinking of myself sometimes as Alexander's mistress, or as if we had been married secretly..." Elizabeth wrote to her mother.
By 1825, Elizabeth Alexeievna's health was frail; she suffered from a lung condition and a nervous indisposition. The doctors recommended her to take a rest in a temperate climate and suggested the southern city of Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
, by the sea of Azov
Sea of Azov
The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...
. With no comfortable Palace, the Imperial Couple were established in a modest house in Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
by 5 October. They were happy together living in intimate simplicity. On 17 November 1825 Alexander returned to Taganrog from visiting Crimea with a cold, which developed into typhus, from which he died that December in the arms of his wife. Elizabeth was stricken by her loss, writing ‘I do not understand myself, I do not understand my destiny." And later " What am I to do with my will, which was entirely subjected to him, with my life, which I loved to devote to him?"
The now-Dowager-Tsarina was too frail to come back to St. Petersburg for the funeral. When Elizabeth Alexeievna finally started her returning journey to the capital, she felt so sick that had to stop at Belev, Tula Province, on the road from Taganrog
Taganrog
Taganrog is a seaport city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, located on the north shore of Taganrog Bay , several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don River. Population: -History of Taganrog:...
to St. Petersburg just a few hours before she was to meet her mother-in-law, who was coming south to greet her. In the early hours of 16 May 1826, towards four-thirty in the morning, when her lady's maid went to check on the Empress, she found her dead in bed. Elizabeth Alexeievna had died of heart failure.
Three days after her husband's death Elizabeth had written her mother, "Do not worry too much about me, but if I dared, I would like to follow the one who has been my very life."
Children
Alexander I and Elizabeth Alexeievna had two daughters, both died in early childhood. Their common sorrow drew husband and wife closer together for a brief time.- Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (St.Petersburg 29 May 1799 - St. Petersburg 8 July 1800)
- Elizabeth Alexandrovna of Russia (St. Petersburg 15 November 1806 - St. Petersburg 12 May 1808)
Titles and styles
- Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Louise of Baden (1779–1793)
- Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexeievna of Russia (1793–1801)
- Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of all the Russias (1801–1825)
- Her Imperial Majesty Dowager Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna of Russia (1825–1826)