Elizaveta Alekseevna - Russian Empress, wife of Emperor Alexander I. She is German by nationality, born Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt. We will tell about the main stages of her biography, interesting facts of their life as the wife of the Russian emperor in this article.
Childhood and youth
Elizaveta Alekseevna was born in 1779. She was born in the city of Karlsruhe, located on the territory of modern Germany. Her father was Crown Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden. As a child, she was a weak and sickly child, the doctors even seriously feared for her life.
The future Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna grew up in a warm family environment. She was especially close to her mother, with whom she corresponded until her death. She received a brilliant home education, spoke excellent French. She also studied history and geography, world and German literature, the foundations of philosophy. At the same time, her grandfather Karl Friedrich was very poor, so the family lived extremely modestly.
Her name whenbirth was Louise Maria Augusta of Baden. At the same time, she repeated the fate of her mother, who, together with her two sisters, claimed to become the bride of Pavel Petrovich.
Alexander's Choice
In 1790, Empress Catherine II paid close attention to the Baden princesses, who was looking for a worthy couple for her grandson Alexander. She sent Rumyantsev to Karlsruhe, so that he would study not only the appearance of the princesses, but also take an interest in their morals and upbringing.
Rumyantsev watched the princesses for two years. From Louise-Augusta, he almost immediately became delighted. As a result, Catherine II ordered to invite the sisters to Russia. After the sisters arrived in St. Petersburg, Alexander had to choose one of them. He chose Louise, and the youngest, having stayed in Russia until 1793, returned to Karlsruhe. Princess Louise Maria Augusta of Baden simply charmed Alexander.
In May 1793, Louise converted to Orthodoxy from Lutheranism. She received the name of Elizabeth Alekseevna. On May 10, she was already engaged to Alexander Pavlovich. In September, the young played a wedding. The festivities continued for two weeks, culminating in large-scale fireworks at Tsyritsyn Meadow.
Happy Life
The newlyweds almost immediately plunged into a happy life together, which was filled with pleasures and endless holidays. It turned out that the shy Elizaveta Alekseevna was not ready for such a status. She was struck by the splendor of the Russian court, while she was frightened by court intrigues. For herPlaton Zubov began courting, but she categorically refused him.
She was constantly homesick, especially when her sister Frederica left. The only consolation was the relationship with Alexander, whom she really fell in love with.
Discord in the family
However, their family happiness did not last long. Over time, the romantic Elizabeth stopped finding a kindred spirit in Alexander. Her husband began to openly avoid her.
The heroine of our article has become as closed and dreamy as possible, surrounding herself only with a narrow circle of the closest people. She began to read a lot of serious studies on geography, history and philosophy. She studied so hard that even Princess Dashkova, who at that time was in charge of two academies at once and had a caustic character, spoke very warmly of her.
The situation became more complicated when Catherine II died, and Paul I ascended the throne. Her relationship with Alexander's parents deteriorated. In St. Petersburg, Elizaveta Alekseevna felt very uncomfortable, and besides, there was no support from Alexander. At first, she sought support in friendship with Countess Golovina, and then in a romantic relationship with Prince Adam Czartoryski.
Birth of a daughter
After five years of marriage, Elizabeth in May 1799 gave birth to a daughter, Mary. In honor of this event, a cannon was fired 201 times in St. Petersburg. During the baptism at the court, there was gossip that a dark baby was born to a husband and wife of blonds. Elizabeth was seriously suspected of treason with Prince Czartoryski. ATas a result, he was appointed minister of the king in Sardinia, he urgently left for Italy.
Elizaveta was offended by distrust, practically stopped leaving her apartment and nursery. At court, she began to feel useless and lonely. All her attention was now turned only to her daughter, whom she affectionately called "mouse." But maternal happiness turned out to be short-lived and fragile. Having lived only 13 months, Princess Maria passed away.
Maria Naryshkina
The death of her daughter briefly brought her closer to Alexander, who was very worried about his wife. But as soon as the first sadness passed, he became interested in the Polish maid of honor Maria Naryshkina. The girl was young, graceful and charming, as her contemporaries speak of her.
For 15 years, this novel made Elizabeth the so-called straw widow. Naryshkina became not just Alexander's favorite, but in fact his second wife. In order to maintain all propriety, she was given in marriage to Dmitry Lvovich Naryshkin, who at court was almost openly called the head of the "order of cuckolds." Everyone, without exception, knew about the relationship between the sovereign and his wife. Naryshkina bore him three children, who actually was their father, remained unknown.
Two girls died in infancy, and the third - Sofya - Alexander loved very much. But she passed away on the eve of her 18th birthday.
Relations between the spouses were cold, but Alexander always came to his wife in difficult times, remembering her moral purity and strong and independent character. On the night of the assassination of Emperor Paul IElizabeth was one of the few who managed to keep a cool head and a sober mind at court. Throughout that night, she remained close to her husband, supporting him morally, only occasionally going at his request to check on the condition of Maria Feodorovna.
The wedding on the kingdom
The wedding of Alexander to the kingdom took place on September 15, 1801. This happened in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin in Moscow. On the occasion of the coronation of Empress Elizabeth Alekseevna and Alexander, balls were given all over Moscow, more than 15,000 people gathered for the masquerade.
The first years of Alexander's reign became joyful both for Russia and for the family of Elizabeth herself. In addition, her relatives from Karlsruhe came to visit her.
Tsaritsa Elizaveta Alekseevna began to do charity work, taking several St. Petersburg schools and an orphanage under her patronage. She paid particular attention to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum.
One of the Masonic lodges that existed in Russia was founded with the permission of the emperor himself, and was named after the wife of Alexander 1, Elizabeth Alekseevna. In 1804, the city of Ganja, located on the territory of modern Azerbaijan, was conquered. It was renamed Elizavetpol.
A. Hunters
By that time, the war with Napoleon began in Europe. Alexander left St. Petersburg, going to the active army, as he was drawn into the war. Elizabeth was left alone, out of boredom she became interested in the young staff captainAlexey Okhotnikov.
At first, the relationship between them did not cross the line of romantic correspondence, but then they were captured by a stormy romance. They met almost every evening. It is believed that he was the father of the second daughter of Elizabeth Alekseevna, whose biography is described in this article.
In October 1806, he was killed while leaving the theater after the premiere of Gluck's opera Iphigenia in Tauris. According to rumors, the assassin was sent by Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, brother of Alexander I. At least, they were convinced of this at court. However, there is another version, according to which Okhotnikov died of tuberculosis, calling it the reason for his resignation, which took place shortly before.
Elizaveta at that moment was in her ninth month of pregnancy, most likely from him. The empress, ignoring the conventions, rushed to her lover.
After his death, she cut her hair and put it in the coffin. Okhotnikov was buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery. Elizabeth installed the grave on his monument at her own expense. The monument was a woman weeping over an urn, and next to it was a tree broken by lightning. It is authentically known that she often came to the grave of her lover.
The born daughter was named after her. Alexander recognized the child, although it is believed that Elizabeth confessed to her husband who the true father of her child was. She affectionately called her daughter "kitten", she was the subject of her passionate and constant love. The child lived for a year and a half. The girl's teeth were hard to cut. Dr. Johann Frank failed tocure, gave only tonics, which only increased irritation. The princess' convulsions disappeared, but no means helped her, the girl died.
Beginning of the Patriotic War
The outbreak of the Patriotic War forced her to come to her senses after a 5-year stupor. Elizabeth supported Alexander, who fell into despair, being at first unprepared for an attack on his country.
However, the war ended successfully. Elizabeth went with her husband on a foreign campaign, literally basking in the glory of her husband. She was greeted with enthusiasm by both Russian soldiers and her German compatriots. After the victory over the French Emperor Napoleon, all of Europe applauded her. In Berlin, coins-tokens were even issued in her honor, poems were written to her, and triumphal arches were erected in her honor.
Triumph in Europe
In Vienna, the Russian empress sat side by side with the Austrian. In honor of her arrival, a guard of honor was lined up along the entire route of the open carriage and a military band played. Thousands of local residents poured into the street to greet the wife of the Russian Tsar.
Back in St. Petersburg, she could not come to terms with what was happening to her husband. He constantly feared the fate that befell his father, it became a phobia that he suffered from for the rest of his life.
In addition, after 1814, the king began to rapidly lose popularity within the country. The emperor broke with all his mistresses, including Maria Naryshkina,immersed in mystical quest. In a difficult period of his life, he united with his wife. It is worth noting that Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, who warmly treated Elizabeth, played a certain role in this. He categorically stated that Alexander should end his reign with a good deed - reconciliation with his wife.
Elizabeth's daughters
Elizaveta Alekseevna did not have children who would live to adulthood. In her marriage to the emperor, she gave birth to two daughters. But both Mary and Elizabeth died in infancy.
Both were buried in the Church of the Annunciation of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
At the end of life
After the death of the second daughter, the he alth of the Empress, who had always been painful, finally undermined. She began to constantly suffer from problems with nerves and breathing.
Doctors strongly advised her to go to Italy to change the climate, but Elizabeth categorically refused to leave Russia, to leave her husband. As a result, it was decided to go to Taganrog. Alexander was the first to go there to make sure that everything was ready on the spot. The emperor was worried about how his wife would endure the road, constantly sending her touching letters and notes. He watched every little thing - the arrangement of furniture in the rooms, he hammered in nails to hang her favorite paintings.
Elizaveta happily left St. Petersburg, hoping to spend as much time as possible with her husband away from the bustle of the capital. She arrived in Taganrog in September 1825. When her condition improved,the imperial couple went to the Crimea. In Sevastopol, Alexander caught a cold. Every day he was getting worse, he was overcome by bouts of fever. At first, he refused medication, only Elizabeth was able to convince him to start treatment, but precious time was lost.
From fever, they used a common remedy at that time: they put 35 leeches behind the patient's ears. But this did not help, the strongest fever persisted all night. Soon he was in agony. On November 19, he died at the age of 47.
The Mystery of the Death of the Empress
Elizabeth outlived her husband by only six months. Without leaving a will, she died on May 4, 1826. She was also 47 years old. She only ordered the diaries to be handed over to Karamzin. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The sudden departure from the life of the spouses gave rise to many versions, the mystery of the death of the emperor and empress excited minds. Alexander himself was identified with the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, it was believed that he survived, having gone to wander around the country.
According to the official version, Elizabeth died of chronic diseases. According to another version, she went after Alexander under the guise of Vera Silent. According to another assumption, she was killed.
