When Tsarina Catherine II The Great was looking for a wife for one of her cherished grandsons, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich (1779–1831), she invited the Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to bring their 3 daughters to Russia. It was said that when Catherine and Constantine watched them arrive at the Winter Palace, the elder two Princesses tripped as they dismounted from the carrige, but the third, Juliane, stepped down without mishap. "Al right," said Constantine, "if it must be so, I'll have the little monkey. It dances prettily." On 15 February 1796, Constantine married 14-year-old Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1781-1860), now Grand Duchess Anna Fyodorovna. Constantine spent their wedding night railing against some guards who had committed a minor infraction, and failed to perform his “marital duties”.
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| Constantine of Russia |
Constantine, known to be a violent man, and fully dedicated to his military career, made his young wife intensely miserable. Soon their marriage was deeply unhappy. It was even said that Constantine went to bed in his boots. Anyway, he continued to lead a disorderly bachelor life, while his military career occupied his full attention.
Anna returned to Coburg in 1801. In 1808 she gave birth to an illegitimate son, named Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe. The father of this child may have been Jules Gabriel Émile de Seigneux, a minor French nobleman and officer in the Prussian army. In 1835 Eduard married his cousin Bertha von Schauenstein, an illegitimate daughter of Juliane's brother Ernest.
After 19 years of separation, the marriage of Constantine and Juliane was formally annulled on 20 March 1820. Two months later, on 27 May, Konstantin married the Polish Countess Joanna Grudzińska (1791-1831), his mistress since 1815. She was given the title of "Her Serenity" Princess of Lowicz. The new Princess's health was poor; she had migraines, fevers and rheumatism, and led a quiet life.
Grand Duke Constantine died of cholera in Vitebsk (now Belarus) on 27 June 1831. Joanna accompanied his body to Saint Petersburg, dying the same year.
Sources:
- Simon Sebag Montefiore: The Romanovs 1613-1918, W&N, 2017.
- Arturo E. Beéche, Greg King: The Grand Dukes (Sons and Grandsons of Russia's Tsars since Paul I), Volume 1, EuroHistory.com, 2010.
- Wikipedia.
