Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia

Birth

Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was born in Tsarskoye Selo as the third child and eldest daughter of Tsesarevich Paul and his second wife Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg (renamed Maria Feodorovna after her wedding). The gender of the child disappointed her paternal grandmother, Catherine the Great. She wrote:

A third child was born and was a girl, which was named Alexandra in honor of her older brother. To tell the truth, I infinitely more like boys than girls.

The Empress' secretary Alexander Khrapovitsky wrote that the Empress considered the newborn Grand Duchess Alexandra very ugly, especially compared with her older brothers. The comparison with her younger sister Elena, was also unfavorable to her: the Empress noted that the six-month-old Elena was much smarter and more charming than the two-year Alexandra. However, as a gift for the birth of Alexandra, Catherine II gave her son Gatchina Palace.

Gradually the Empress started to have better feelings about her granddaughter. On 12 March 1787, she wrote to her:

Alexandra Pavlovna, I'm always pleased that you're clever, don't cry and was always funny; you're smart, and I'm happy with that. Thank you, that you love me, I'll love you.

In turn, Alexandra was particularly attached to her grandmother. Catherine II noted:

She loves me more than anyone in the world, and I think she's ready for anything just to please me, or at least for had my attention even for a moment.

Education

She received the usual education of Russian princesses and was taught French and German as well as music and drawing. Alexandra was very close to her younger sister Elena, and they were often painted together.

Alexandra's upbringing, as well as her sister's, was entrusted to Charlotte von Lieven, who acted as governess.

The older Grand Duchess was a very diligent student. In 1787, her mother proudly wrote about her four-year-old daughter, that "she continues to be diligent, making notable advances and begins to translate from German". Alexandra was fascinated by drawing and "I think she has a great talent in this art", and the music and singing, and "in these arts has found remarkable abilities".

In 1790, in her letter to the Baron von Grimm, Catherine II gave a description of her granddaughter:

The third is a portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra. During her first six years of life, I didn't find any special on her, but since a year and a half ago, suddenly she made a surprising change: she became more prettier and took a posture that seems older than her years. She speaks four languages, had a good writing and drawing, playing with the harpsichord, singing, dancing, learning easily and show a great gentleness of character.

Gustav IV

In 1794, the Empress began to think about the future of the Grand Duchess. Alexandra Pavlovna was eleven years old, and "that summer a girl should be considered an adult." In the letters of those years Catherine II expresses the idea of bringing to Russia "landless princes", who after marrying her granddaughters would get the position and means for life in their new homeland.

It is time for the older one to get married. She and the other sister, beautiful. They are all good, and all find them charming. Bridegrooms will have to look for them in the afternoon with fire. Ugly we do not need, fools – also; but poverty – not a vice. Well they must have body and soul.

But the fate of Alexandra turned out differently. In 1792, news arrived at the Russian court regarding the murder of King Gustav III of Sweden (who was the Empress' first-cousin) and the accession to the throne of his 14-year-old son Gustav IV Adolf. Reportedly, the desire of the late Swedish monarch was to make an alliance with the Russian Imperial family by marrying his only son to one of the granddaughters of the Empress; however, according to another version, the idea of marriage belonged to the Empress, and even became one of the secret conditions of the Treaty of Värälä. The idea of this alliance was supported by the Swedish regent, the new King's uncle Charles, Duke of Södermanland.

In October 1793, on the occasion of the marriage of the Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich with Princess Louise of Baden, Count Stenbock arrived in St. Petersburg with congratulations from the Swedish court, and started the official talks about marriage. Alexandra began to learn the Swedish language, as well as to prepare to think about her future husband.

Negotiations went with varying success. In January 1794, Catherine II wrote to her first-cousin, the Duke of Södermanland:

As with politics, and with a family point of view, I always looked up and now look at this alliance as the most desirable in all respects.

But on two issues the parties could not reach an agreement: The religion of the future Queen and the fate of Count Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, member of the conspiracy against the Swedish regent, who took refuge in Russia. In retaliation, the regent began to negotiate a marriage between Gustav IV Adolf and Duchess Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Pretending to ignore the machinations of the Swedish regent, the Empress wrote in April 1795 to Baron von Grimm:

Marriage

In 1799, three years after her failed betrothal with the King of Sweden, another marital project originated for Alexandra. Previously in 1798, Dukes Ferdinand Augustus and Alexander Frederick of Württemberg who were the brothers of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, arrived in St. Petersburg to serve in the Imperial Russian Army. They expressed the interest of Austria to join with Russia in a coalition against the rising power of the French Republic and Napoleon, and to cement this alliance, it was decided to arrange a marriage between Alexandra and Archduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine (Governor) of Hungary and younger brother of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Archduke Joseph personally came to Russia to see his bride. The meeting between them was successful. In mid-February, the betrothal ball was held. Later, a marriage contract was signed in which Alexandra would be allowed to kept her Russian Orthodox faith. In October, Count Fyodor Rostopchin wrote:

Believe me, that's not good started to strengthen the alliance with the Austrian court by ties of blood... Of all the sisters she will be given the least successful marriage. She will have nothing to wait for, and her children even more so.

On 25 September, a decree was published about the royal title of Alexandra. In Russia, she was referred to as "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess the Archduchess of Austria" with the French prefix of "Palatine d'Hongrie". The wedding took place on 30 October at Gatchina Palace, one week after the wedding of her sister Elena. To celebrate both events, poet Gavrila Derzhavin wrote the ode "the wedding celebrations of 1799".

On 21 November, the couple went to Austria. Countess Varvara Golovina remembered that Alexandra was sad to leave Russia, and her father Emperor Paul I "constantly repeated, would not see her since her sacrifice."

According to Alexandra's confessor, Andrei Samborski, Alexandra was given a cold reception in Vienna. However, other sources offer a different view. Queen Maria Carolina of Naples (the Emperor's mother-in-law) and her daughters arrived in Vienna in August 1800 for a long stay. Maria Carolina's daughter, Princess Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, wrote in her journal that on 15 August the Queen and her daughters were introduced to Alexandra, whom she described as "very beautiful". Maria Amalia and Alexandra became friends during this time; and the Princess of Naples wrote in her journal that the Russian Grand Duchess and her husband had a friendly relationship with the rest of the imperial family and took part in the family gatherings, parties and balls in Vienna, which contrasts with the version given by Andrei Samborski. For instance, in January 1801, Maria Amalia wrote in her journal that the imperial family used to attend balls in Archduke Joseph's residence in Vienna, where "beautiful Alexandra, always serious and sad, has a magnificent household."

Death

Due to his responsibilities as Palatine, after a short stay in the Imperial court, Archduke Joseph and his wife moved to Hungary, where they settled in the Alcsút Palace, although they also normally returned to Vienna to spend time with the imperial family.

On 7 May 1800, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven played in the presence of Archduke Joseph and his wife Alexandra at the Buda Castle. This was part and main event of a week-long celebration organized by the Archduke in honor of his beautiful wife Alexandra.

Soon Alexandra was expecting her first child. The pregnancy was hard, as she was tormented by bouts of nausea. The doctor, following the orders of Empress Maria Theresa, was "more skilled in intrigues than in medicine, and moreover, with rude manners"; in addition, the cook prepared meals that she could not eat.

The childbirth, which lasted several hours, tormented Alexandra. Imperial confessor Andrew Samborski wrote:

When the midwife noticed that the natural forces of the Grand Duchess left her, then she presented it to the Palatine and talk to him about the exhaustion of his wife and received from His Highness the consent to use tools, which he pulled out a child who lived only a few hours.

A daughter, Archduchess Alexandrina Paulina of Austria, was born on 8 March 1801, but died within hours. She was named after her mother. Upon learning of the death of her daughter, Alexandra Pavlovna said:

Thank God that my daughter was now with the angels, without experiencing the misery that we are exposed to.

On the eighth day after the birth, Alexandra was allowed to get up, but in the evening she developed puerperal fever, which finally caused her early death on 16 March 1801 aged 17.

Hungarian historian Sándor Domanovszky related the event as follows:

Burial

On 12 May, the body of the Archduchess was placed in the crypt of the Capuchin monastery of Víziváros (now Main Street 20).

Because the Austrian court refused her burial in any Catholic cemeteries, Alexandra's remains remained unburied at Víziváros monastery until 1803, when her widower built a mausoleum dedicated to her in Üröm near Pest, following the late Archduchess' wishes, and after her definitive burial in this place, an Eastern Orthodox service was held in her memory. In 1809, during the invasion of Napoleon's troops, Archduke Joseph ordered that the coffin with his wife's remains must be placed in Buda Castle for precaution, with a special Orthodox chapel prepared for this purpose. Once the threat of war was over, Alexandra's coffin was returned to the Üröm Mausoleum, which became a place of pilgrimage for the local Orthodox community. During the Congress of Vienna, Alexander I and the Grand Duchesses Maria Pavlovna and Ekaterina Pavlovna visited the grave of their sister.

Archduke Joseph remained a widower for several years, and only in 1815 remarried Princess Hermine of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, who died two years later in 1817, also after giving birth, though this time fraternal twins who survived. In 1819 the Archduke contracted his third and last marriage with Duchess Maria Dorothea of Württemberg, who bore him five children, of whom three survived infancy.

Archives

Alexandra's letters to her grandfather Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg, together with letters from her siblings, written between 1795 and 1797 are preserved in the State Archive of Stuttgart (Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart) in Stuttgart, Germany.

Alexandra's letters to her sister-in-law Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily are preserved in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna, Austria.

Honours

Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of Saint Catherine (1783)