, birth_date = , birth_place =

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the Sw ...

Kingdom of Württemberg The Kingdom of Württemberg (german: Königreich Württemberg ) was a German state that existed from 1805 to 1918, located within the area that is now Baden-Württemberg. The kingdom was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which existe ...

Confederation of the Rhine The Confederated States of the Rhine, simply known as the Confederation of the Rhine, also known as Napoleonic Germany, was a confederation of German client states established at the behest of Napoleon some months after he defeated Austria a ...

, death_date = , death_place =

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

, burial_place = Peter and Paul Cathedral,

, Russian Empire , religion =

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

''prev.''

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...

Princess Charlotte of Württemberg (9 January 1807 – 2 February O.S._21_January.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 21 January">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 21 January1873), later known as Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, was the wife of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia, the youngest son of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg), Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Early life

She was born in

, as Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, the eldest daughter of

Prince Paul of Württemberg Prince Paul of Württemberg (Paul Heinrich Karl Friedrich August; 19 January 1785 – 16 April 1852) was the fourth child and second son of King Frederick I and his wife, Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Early life Paul was born in St ...

and of

Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen (17 June 1787 Hildburghausen – 12 December 1847 Bamberg) was the child of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and his wife, Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. She was the wife of Prince Pau ...

. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest by royal standards. In

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.

Marriage and issue

In 1822, she became engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed (Mikhail's mother was her father's aunt). It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15.Zeepvat, p.19. The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations. On 17 December 1823, she was received into the

Russian Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

and was given the name Elena Pavlovna. On 20 February 1824, the couple married in

and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the

Dowager Empress Empress dowager (also dowager empress or empress mother) () is the English language translation of the title given to the mother or widow of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese emperor in the Chinese cultural sphere. The title was al ...

Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army, and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters, only two of whom lived to mature adulthood: *

Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (Russian language, Russian: Мария Михайловна) (9 March 1825 – 19 November 1846) was the firstborn child and first daughter of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, the youngest son of Paul I of R ...

(9 March 1825,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

– 19 November 1846,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

); died unmarried. *

Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mikhailovna of Russia (Moscow, 26 May 1826 – Wiesbaden, 28 January 1845) was the second child and daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia and Princess Charlotte of Württemberg who took the name ''Elena Pavl ...

(26 May 1826,

– 28 January 1845,

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

); married Adolf, Duke of Nassau and died in childbirth. *

Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia (russian: Великая Княжна Екатерина Михайловна) (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), was the third of five daughters of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia (youngest son ...

(28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), married

Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , spouse = Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia , house = House of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , father = George, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , mother = Princess Marie of Hesse-Kassel , birth_date = , birth_place ...

* Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831,

– 27 March 1832,

), died in childhood * Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834,

– 22 March 1836,

), died in childhood

Influence at court and in society

Elena became a close friend of her brother-in-law, Emperor

Alexander I of Russia Alexander I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. The son o ...

and of his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, who married the then Tsarevich Alexander in 1841. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and of the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and co-founded (1854) a group of nursing sisters () which would eventually become the forerunners of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

in Russia. During her time in Russia she became known as the "family intellectual", and was considered the most exceptional woman in the imperial family since

Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...

(). She founded the Russian Musical Society (1859) and the Russian Conservatoire (1862), and was liberal on

serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

. She helped to push her nephew Alexander II to abolish serfdom while he stayed with her. As a patroness of the composer

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sa ...

(1829-1894), she commissioned some of his early

operas Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libret ...

: '' Fomka the Fool'' (1853), '' The Siberian Hunters'' (1852), and ''Vengeance'' (1852/1853).Taylor (2007), 39. Elena died in

, at the age of 66.

Gallery

Image:Портрет великой княгини Елены Павловны.jpg, Elena Pavlovna as a young woman, 1824. Image:Elena Pavlovna of Russia by Brullov (1829, Tretyakov gallery).jpg, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by

Karl Bryullov Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (russian: Карл Па́влович Брюлло́в; 12 December 1799 – 11 June 1852), original name Charles Bruleau, also transliterated Briullov and Briuloff, and referred to by his friends as "Karl the Great", was a ...

, 1829. Image:Elena Pavlovna of Russia with daughter Maria by Brullov (1830, Russian museum).jpg, Elena with her eldest daughter Maria, 1830s. Image:Елена Павловна (великая княгиня), 1842.jpg, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia (née Princess Charlotte of

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Württ ...

), 1842 Image:Elena Pavlovna by Joseph-Desire Court.jpg, Elena Pavlovna by Joseph-Desire Court (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), 1842. Image:Grand duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia.jpg, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna in middle age, by

Christina Robertson Christina Robertson RSA (''née'' Saunders; 17 December 1796 – 30 April 1854) was a Scottish painter generally remembered for her portraits of Russian imperial family, representative of Academical tradition. She was the first woman honorary ...

, 1850s Image:Elena Pavlovna by Winterhalter (1862, Hermitage).jpg, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by Winterhalter (1862,

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

). Image:Elena Pavlovna1.jpg, Elena Pavlovna in old age, late 1860s Image:Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia in her final years.jpg, A photograph of Elena Pavlovna in her final years, 1872.

Ancestry

Bibliography

*Lincoln, W. Bruce. ''The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russians''. 1983 *Sebag Montefiore, Simon. ''The Romanovs: 1613-1918''. 2016. Knopf Publishing Group. *Taylor, Philip S., ''Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music'', Indianapolis, 2007 *Zeepvat, Charlotte. ''Romanov Autumn''. 2001

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlotte Of Wurttemberg, Princess 1807 births 1873 deaths House of Württemberg Princesses of Württemberg House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov Russian grand duchesses by marriage Nobility from Stuttgart Burials at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Saint Petersburg