Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia

Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia (Russian: Анастасия Михайловна; 28 July 1860 – 11 March 1922) was by birth member of the House of Romanov and a Grand Duchess of Russia and by marriage Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia
Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna in 1889
Grand Duchess consort of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Tenure15 April 1883 – 10 April 1897
Born(1860-07-28)28 July 1860
Peterhof Palace, Peterhof, Saint Petersburg, Empire of Russia
Died11 March 1922(1922-03-11) (aged 61)
Èze, French Third Republic
Spouse
(m. 1879; died 1897)
IssueAlexandrine, Queen of Denmark
Friedrich Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Cecilie, Crown Princess of Germany
Alexis Louis de Wenden
HouseRomanov
FatherGrand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia
MotherPrincess Cecilie of Baden
ReligionRussian Orthodox

Early life

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Anastasia was born as the only daughter and second child of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife, Princess Cecilie of Baden. Emperor Nicholas I of Russia was her paternal grandfather.

Biography

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She was raised in the Caucasus, where she lived between 1862 and 1878 with her family. In 1879, aged only eighteen, she married Friedrich Franz III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who in 1883 became the reigning Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She was described in her brother Sandro's memoirs: "We worshipped that tall, dark-haired girl, who was the exclusive favourite of our father; but when talking to her, we liked to pose as faithful knights ready and willing to execute the orders of our "dame sans merci". We put at her feet all the love stored during months and years of dull military drills. We were extremely jealous of her and felt a terrific heartache when the young Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin came to Tiflis."[1]

The couple had three children, but her husband was plagued by ill health and they spent most of the year living abroad. The Grand Duchess never became used to her new country where she was unpopular. After the death of her husband in 1897, her visits to Schwerin were sparse. From 1898, she preferred driving her own automobiles over using carriages.

A strong-willed, independent and unconventional woman, she caused a royal scandal when in 1902 she had a child fathered by her personal secretary. In her widowhood, she lived most of the year in the South of France. During World War I, she decided to settle in neutral Switzerland, living in Lausanne. She died following a stroke a few years later.

Issue

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Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia with her three children: Cecilie, Alexandrine and Friedrich Franz.

Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna and her husband, Friedrich Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, had three children:

Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna also had an illegitimate son with Vladimir Alexandrovich Paltov (1874 – 1944):

  • Alexis Louis de Wenden (23 December 1902 – 7 July 1976), who married Paulette Seux on 25 January 1929. They had two daughters: Xénia Anastasie Germaine Louis de Wenden (born 1930, who married Alain Brulé), and Anastasie Alexandrine Paule Louis de Wenden (1935–1995).

Legacy

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Her nephew-by-marriage, Felix Yusupov, described the Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna in his memoirs:

"Although well over forty, she had lost none of her high spirits; she was kind and affectionate, but her eccentric and despotic nature made her rather formidable. She was an early riser and she used to telephone me at eight in the morning. If I happened to be out, she sent her servants all over Paris to look for me and sometimes took part in the search herself. I had to lunch, dine, go to the theater and supper with her almost every day. She usually slept through the first act of a play, and then woke up with a start to declare that the performance was stupid and that she wished to go somewhere else. We often changed theaters two or three times in one evening."[2]

Her daughter, Crown Princess Cecilie, also wrote about her in her memoirs:

"She was like an ivory statue, delicate and transparent, and at the same time tall and slender and stately in her bearing; she was possessed of great charm and was kind and friendly with everyone. [...] My grandmother, after whom I was named, had brought up her only daughter with exceptional strictness and had accustomed her to submit unconditionally to the will of her mother and of her governess."[3]

Ancestry

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Notes

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  1. ^ Romanov, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich (1931). Once A Grand Duke. British Library. p. 21. ISBN 9781528772068.
  2. ^ Yusupov, Felix (1953). Lost Splendor. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons. pp. 176–177.
  3. ^ of the German Empire and Prussia, Crown Princess Cecilie (1952). Remembrances. London: V. Gollancz, Ltd. pp. 25–27.

Bibliography

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  • Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia. Once a Grand Duke. Cassell, London, 1932.
  • Beéche, Arturo. The Grand Duchesses. Eurohistory, 2004. ISBN 0-9771961-1-9
  • Domin, Marie-Agnes. Anastasia Mikailovna Romanova, Editions Atlantica, 2002. ISBN 2-84394-546-1.
  • Cockfield, Jamie H. White Crow. Praeger, 2002.
  • Mateos Sainz de Medrano. Ricardo. A Child of The Caucasus. Royalty Digest, Vol 3, N 1. July 1993.
  • Michael, Prince of Greece. Jewels of the Tsars. The Vedome Press, 2006.
  • Yussupov, Felix. Lost Splendor, 1952.
  • Zeepvat, Charlotte. The Camera and the Tsars. Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7.
  • Zeepvat, Charlotte. The other Anastasia: A woman who loved and who lived. Royalty Digest Quarterly. N2 2006. ISSN 1653-5219.
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  Media related to Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia at Wikimedia Commons

Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia
Born: 28 July 1860 Died: 11 March 1922
German royalty
Preceded by Grand Duchess consort of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
15 April 1883 – 10 April 1897
Vacant
Title next held by
Princess Alexandra of Hanover