Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Grand Duchess Elisabeth

February 18, 1905

The Chicago Tribune reports today that the many cable dispatches on the assassination of Grand Duke Serge "are expressions of thankfulness of the people of Moscow that the Grand duchess Elizabeth was not with her husband when the bomb was thrown. Her charity work has endeared her to the Russian people, and it is not improbable that her husband's life was lengthened by the fact that he was usually accompanied by his wife when driving."
The Grand Duchess is the daughter of Edward VII's late sister, Princess Alice, who married the Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and is a sister of the Russian empress.
According to this report, the Grand Duke forced Ella to renounce her Lutheran faith, and become Orthodox "on the advice of Father John, the miracle worker of Cronstadt, who laid the nonbirth of a boy in the grand duke's family to the grand duchess' religion. While residing in the same palace, the grand duke and grand duchess had not for years lived together as man and wife."

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