Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Krill weds despite Nicholas's disapproval

Embed from Getty Images 

 October 5, 1905

The Tageblatt, a Munich newspaper, published today the news of the marriage of Grand Duke Kirill of Russia and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, the divorced wife of the Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.  They were married "quietly a few days ago at the Hotel Russie," in Munich.

The civil ceremony was performed by an official from the Coburg government, and a  Russian Orthodox priest officiated at the religious service, held in the presence of Victoria Melita's mother, the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, "who came from Paris in an automobile."

The Dowager Duchess is the former Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, daughter of Alexander II.  

The wedding was conducted with the "greatest privacy" ` After the ceremony, the newlyweds and their families left Munich.

Grand Duke Kirill and Princess Victoria Melita are first cousins.  Kirill's father, Grand Duke Vladimir, and Victoria Melita's mother, Marie, are brother and sister.  Nicholas II is also their first cousin, and he is "bitterly opposed" to Kirill's marriage to a "divorced Princess."   It was said that Kirill was "sent to the Far East "in order to cure him of his infatuation.:

Grand Duchess Victoria is the daughter of the late Prince Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria. She is the niece of King Edward VII.  She was born at Valetta, Malta, in 1876, and married her first cousin, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine in 1894.   Victoria Melita and Ernst Ludwig were divorced four years ago.  Their only daughter, Princess Elisabeth, died last year from typhoid.

The details of the divorce were kept "secret," but it was said that "invincible mutual antipathy" caused the marital breakdown.  

Nicholas II is married to Ernst Ludwig's sister, Alix.

2 comments:

John said...

Wasn't the Duchess of Coburg opposed to first cousins marrying? I thought she squashed Missy's romance with Georgie for that reason.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

She did not want her daughter to marry the heir to the British throne because she hated the British.