Maria 1853-1920

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna Romanova of Russia.

The Duchess was born at Tsarskoye Selo, the second daughter of Alexander II and his wife Marie of Hesse. She was the aunt of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia who was murdered in 1918.

On 23 January 1874 the Grand Duchess Marie married the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made their public entry into London on 12 March. The marriage, however, was not to become a happy one, and the bride was thought haughty by London Society. Furthermore, Tsar Alexander II's insistence that his daughter be styled "Her Imperial Highness" and have precedence over the then Princess of Wales infuriated Queen Victoria. The Queen insisted that the style "Her Royal Highness" Marie Alexandrovna acquired upon marriage, should always precede the style "Her Imperial Highness," which was hers by birth. For her part, the new Duchess of Edinburgh apparently resented the fact that the Princess of Wales, who was the daughter of The King of Denmark, took precedence over her, the daughter of The Emperor of Russia.

On the death of his uncle in 1893 the Duchy of Saxe-Coburgh-Gotha fell to the Duke of Edinburgh. Upon her husband's ascension to the Ducal throne, the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna became Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in addition to being Duchess of Edinburgh.

The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died of throat cancer in 1900 and the Ducal throne passed to his nephew. The Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha continued to reside in Coburg. She died in October 1920 in Zürich.