Twice a Grand Duchess: Victoria Melita

Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna with her daughters Maria and Kira, c1913. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Princess Victoria Melita was born on November 25, 1876, the second daughter and third child of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and his wife Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was the granddaughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.  Her birthplace was at the San Anton Palace in Attard, Malta, where her father, a Royal Navy officer, was stationed at the time. The princess was affectionately called “Ducky” within the family circle. As a child, Princess Victoria Melita was shy, sensitive, serious, and had a difficult temperament, though she excelled in playing the piano, painting, and drawing. "This passionate child was often misunderstood," her sister Marie once said about her.

A thirteen-year-old Victoria was described by British memorialist Meriel Buchanan as a budding lady possessing "of the good looks, the tall, perfectly developed figure, the deep-set, almost violet, blue eyes, the imperious carriage of the head that distinguished her in later life." Her "dark, sallow complexion," was, however, contrasted with that of her sister Marie's "brilliant colouring" and "radiant animation." "But had a certain' regal magnificence that made her outshine every other woman in the room; strangers immediately asked who she was," wrote Buchanan. She eventually grew up to be a “tall, dark girl” who possessed the “high spirits of a tomboy”. A biographer once commented she had "too little chin to be conventionally beautiful", but was complimentary about her figure and complexion.

Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna before 1914. Image from Wikimedia Commons

While attending the funeral of a maternal aunt in 1891, Princess Victoria Melita met and felt an instant attraction towards her first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirocivh. Her mother, however, was reluctant about the budding romance as Russian Orthodox faith did not allow marriage between first cousins. Queen Victoria, instead, played matchmaker for her grandchildren Princess Victoria Melita and Ernst Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, who both shared the same birthday. The two eventually relented to family pressures and married in a massive affair held at the Schloss Ehrenburg in Coburg on April 19, 1894. The union produced two children, though one of whom was a stillborn.

Ernst and Victoria, sadly, proved to be a one big mismatch. The former had little to no affection to his wife and would devote most of his time to their daughter. "From the outset she had found exasperating Ernst Ludwig's exuberance, his restless activity, his occasional fits of melancholy, or lethargic indolence, while his aversion to any form of violent exercise, and his almost timid apprehension of horses, filled her with contempt," Meriel Buchanan described of the match. The two would always figure in rowdy physical fights, with Victoria shouting, throwing trays, and even smashing pieces of chinaware against the wall.

The final straw of Princess Victoria Melita’s tumultuous relationship with Ernst came in 1897 when she caught her husband in an intimate situation with a male servant after returning from a visit to her sister, then Crown Princess of Romania. Though she never went direct about it, she was documented telling her niece, “No boy was safe, from the stable hands to the kitchen help. He slept quite openly with them all." The marriage was officially dissolved by the Supreme Court of Hesse on December 21, 1901 despite Queen Victoria’s efforts to save the failed union.

Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia with daughter Princess Marie of Russia on her lap, ca. 1909. Image from Wikimedia Commons

She married, for the second time, her old flame Grand Duke Kirill on October 8, 1905 in a simple ceremony held at Tergensee in Bavaria, Germany. The union produced three children, but not without opposition from the Czar and Czarina.  The Empress Alexandra of Russia, who was Ernst Ludwig's youngest sister, had never liked her ex-sister-in-law. She never concealed her dislike and it turned into full rage following their divorce. The Czar, meanwhile, displeased at the publicity surrounding the divorce of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Hesse, yielded to his wife's cajoling and banished the Grand Duke Kirill from Russia.

Kirill's father, the bear-like Grand Duke Vladimir, was quick to come to his son's defense. Known for his fiery temper, the grand duke "stormed into the Emperor's room, towering in his great height over his nephew's slender figure," wrote Buchanan. "No member of the Imperial family had ever been so grossly ill-treated, he roared in that stentorian voice of his." But even the grand duke's demands were no match to the Emperor's firm decision. It would take them until 1908 before the the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill were permitted to return to the country.

Now known as Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, she worked as a Red Cross nurse and organized a motorized ambulance unit during the First World War. She was massively devastated upon learning of his husband’s unfaithfulness in 1933. She never forgave him for his betrayal. She suffered a stroke in February 1936 and died not long after in March. She was 59 years old.  She was initially buried in the family mausoleum in Friedhof am Glockenberg in Coburg. Her remains as well as those of the rest of the family were transferred to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg in March 1995.

This photo of Grand Duke Kirill of Russia, Grand Duchess Victoria Melita and their daughter Marie was taken in about 1909. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Kirill and Victoria had always shared their relatives' distaste for the Tsar and Tsarina's friendship with the starets Grigori Rasputin and his murder was a relief for them although not for too long. The monarchy was already on the verge of collapse. By this time, Kirill had been appointed commander of the Naval Guards, quartered in Saint Petersburg, so he could be with his family for some time. Although publicly loyal to the Tsar, Victoria and Kirill began to meet in private with other relatives to discuss the best way to save the monarchy.

At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917, Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and political turmoil followed.  By this time, Kirill led his naval unit to the Provisional Government on 14 March 1917. His act of swearing loyalty to its leadership in the hopes of  restoring order and preserving the monarchy, provoked criticism from some members of the family, who viewed it as treason. Victoria stood by her husband and she even sympathized with the people who yearned for drastic changes in the government. Kirill was forced to resign his command of the Naval Guards but his men remained loyal to him and maintained their rounds at the grand duke's palace at Glinka Street. With situations turning from bad to worse, Victoria felt desperate, wroting to her sister Crown Princess Marie of Romania, telling her "neither pride nor hope, nor money, nor future, and the dear past blotted out by the frightful present; nothing is left, nothing."

With Russia no longer safe for the Imperial Family, Kirill and Victoria decided to move to Finland, which was then an autonomous territory within the Russian Empire. While the Provisional Government allowed them to leave, they were forbidden to bring anything with them. They successfully managed to smuggle their jewels by sewing them into the family.  In Finland, they finally settled at a rented house in Porvoo where, in August 1917, Victoria gave birth to Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, her only son and the heir to the dynasty.

 Grand Duke Kirill his wife and two youngest children, c1920s.

The circumstances that have befallen them affected Victoria terribly that it manifested in her physical appearance. She"looked aged and battered and has lost much of her beauty, which is not astonishing considering all that she has gone through," wrote Lord Acton. After two years of strained living conditions, the family moved to Germany where they were reunited with Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. While in Germany, the grand duke and grand duchess developed their interest towards the Nazi Party, thanks to their anti-Bolshevik stance. Victoria hoped that the movement might help restore the Russian monarchy appealed to them. The couple even once joined a Nazi rally in Coburg and Victoria even gave them financial support. She must have been highly unaware of the most sinister aspects of the Nazi Party.

With the death of Victoria's mother, she inherited Chateau Fabron in Nice and her residence in Coburg, the Edinburg Palais. In the following years the exiled family divided their time between these two places. As Germany had established relations with Soviet Russia in the mid-1920s, pressures aroused to expel the Romanovs from Germany. In the summer of 1926, the family finally moved to St. Briac on the Breton coast. They acquired an unpretentious home, "but with her gift for colour and decoration the Grand Duchess made it individual and charming," wrote Meriel Buchanan,  "turning a wilderness into a beautiful garden, doing all the work herself." The grand duchess also spent her time painting and she even sold some of her lovely pictures of flowers. With strained finances, extra income was most welcomed and the money she earned from selling her works were used to support her household and pay for the cost of her children's education. Around this time, she became overly protective of Grand Duke Vladimir, living "in constant dread that her son, in whom she saw the heir to the Imperial crown, would be kidnapped by their enemies." She hardly "allowed him out of her sight, would not send him to school but engaged a private tutor for him, would not let him learn a trade or profession, but brought him up as if he was to inherit the wealth of his ancestors."

Victoria's devotion to her husband ended after she discovered his dalliance in 1933. She decided to keep a façade for the sake of her children but deep inside, she never forgave her husband. She suffered a stroke after attending the christening of her fifth grandchild, Mechtilde of Leiningen, in February 1936. Her closest sister rushed to her side and reached to her, asking her if she was glad Marie had come. Victoria muttered: "It makes all the difference." Up until her last breath, she "shuddered away from Kirill's touch," wrote Marie. She passed away on March 1, 1936. Queen Marie eulogized her sister in a letter after her death: "The whole thing was tragic beyond imagination, a tragic end to a tragic life. She carried tragedy within her – she had tragic eyes – always – even as a little girl – but we loved her enormously, there was something mighty about her – she was our Conscience."