#grand duchess vladimir

[oceanlilacs]

Russia! My astonished child's eyes see huge palaces, beautiful parks, fountains, gardens, amazing gatherings of relatives, military parades, religious services in churches glittering with gold, jewels so breathtaking you can hardly believe they are real [... ] My eyes also see long corridors, vestibules, and halls, of a size beyond compare, opening one into another, and our feet trotting timidly over wide stretches of floors, so unbounded and polished, that we seemed to walk on ice. And everywhere, a very characteristic smell: a mixture of turpentine, Russian leather and cigarette smoke, with a fragrance, unique in its own way, that distinguished the imperial palaces. Imperial is the right word, fantastic, like in fairy tales [...] every superlative is at its place in that Russia of the Tsars, that Russia full of splendour, which today is no more...

－ Queen Marie of Romania, “Story of My Life”

[gemville]

Grand Duchess Vladimir's Sapphire and Diamond Tiara

Source: Pinterest

[adini-nikolaevna]

Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia by Hau.

[lesromanoff]

Grand Duke Vladimir and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna dressed up for a costume ball held in their palace in 1883

[royalpain16]

Royal Tiara Challenge 2024

Day 14 - Favorite Emerald Tiara

Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, Emerald setting

Made for Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia, this tiara was sold by her daughter, Grand Duchess Elena Vladimiranova of Greece (Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent's mother) to Queen Mary in 1921. Inherited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the tiara has been worn with its original pearl drops, without drop stones, and with the pendant emeralds.

Three years after Queen Mary purchased the tiara, she commissioned Garrard to work on the piece. Mary’s collection included the Cambridge emeralds, a cache of gems that had belonged to her mother’s family. She had incorporated many of the stones into the Delhi Durbar Parure, and in 1924, she had the Vladimir Tiara adapted so that it could be worn in a third setting, with a series of fifteen cabochon drops from the Cambridge emerald collection. From then on, the emerald version of the tiara was often worn with pieces from the Delhi Durbar suite.

[loiladadiani]

“Royal Group”

This is an interesting picture, for more than one reason. First, lets see who is in it (I don't recognize them all but I will tell you who I recognize.) From left to right, the second woman in white is Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna; there is a woman I don't recognize behind her and then comes her mother, Miechen ( Grand Duchess Maria Palovna the Elder.) in front of Miechen, sitting on a step is Nicholas Nicholaievich (Nicholasha); slightly behind Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna is Olga Paley, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich’s wife. Pavel is next to her, the only person in the picture sitting on a chair. In front of him there is an older gentleman in military garb, whom I don't recognize. Next to him sits a very young Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich. Sitting slightly behind Andrei is his brother Grand Duke Boris.

There are at least four interspersed ladies I don't recognize, as well as several officers. All the way to the right, stands the unmistakable Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.

When I first saw this picture, I noticed that Miechen is resting her hand on Nicholasha’s neck in what to me appeared like a rather intimate gesture. And of course, some time after that I read that there were rumors that Miechen and Nicholasha had an affair (the source for that is not a consistently reliable one.) I don't believe the rumours. Nicholasha was no fool and in no position to offend his older and more powerful cousin, Vladimir, known for his fiery temper. Plus most of the literature states that Miechen and Vladimir we're very well matched and loved each other. But there is the hand…on…Nicholasha’s…neck…

[ladysophy]

Here’s the American Southern (Confederate) version of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder…

This is Robert Toombs and his beloved wife Martha Juliann (who went by Julia) Debose Toombs. Toombs was the first Confederate Secretary of State under Jefferson Davis. The bits of pieces I learned about them, they remind me of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Elder.

Julia and Maria “Miechen” in particular could honestly be twins. It’s kind of frightening. Julia was a great hostess and was very intelligent, but she had a mean streak. She strongly dislike Edwina Reagan, the Confederate Postmaster’s (John H. Reagan) wife, because Julia thought she wasn’t very educated and looked down on her. She, along with her husband, talked trash about Davis too. Toombs was still pissed off that he lost the presidency to Davis (by making a complete fool of himself by drinking too damn much at the time!).

While Robert was highly intelligent, a loving friend, a loving husband, and loving father, he was also a handful. He was very sarcastic and argumentative and loved the bottle too much. The only comparison I can make with Robert and Vladimir is that they had strong personalities. And possibly the wish to get higher office (The Confederate Presidency in Robert’s case and being Tsar In Vladimir’s case).

However, the Toombs dealt with tragedy too. The only son Laurence died from scarlet fever in childhood. Their daughters, Mary Louisa and Sarah, both died from childbirth. So this is where my sympathy lays with the challenging couple.

[nobletruths]

Julian Calder (1926-2022) | Official Portrait | Elizabeth, Queen of Scots, Sovereign of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle and Chief of the Chiefs | 2010

The Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara (1874) set with the Cambridge Emeralds (15, cabochon cut emeralds, 20-30 cts each, 1921-1922)

[europesroyalsjewels]

Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara ♕ King Charles III

[graceofromanovs]

Members of the House of Romanov, the last reigning Dynasty of Russia.

From the first Romanov Russian Tsar Michael I (reigned 1613-1645) until the last Emperor Nicholas II (reigned 1894-1917). Including the 18 members of the house executed from 1918 until 1919; Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (13 June 1918). Nicholas II, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duchesses Olga Nikolaevna, Tatiana Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna, Anastasia Nikolaevna, and Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich (17 July 1918). Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Prince Ioann Konstantinovich, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich, Prince Igor Konstantinovich, and Prince Vladimir Paley (18 July 1918). Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich, Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and Grand Duke George Mikhailovich (28 January 1919).

[lesyoussoupoff]

"The Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess Vladimir spent their summers at Tsarskoe Selo. The Grand Duchess had the graceful bearing of a great lady of the Renaissance. She was born a Princess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and ranked immediately after the two Empresses. She was very able and intelligent and carried out all the duties of her position with perfect tact. She was always very kind to me, and was much entertained by accounts of my adventures. For a long time, I was in love with her daughter the Grand Duchess Helen Vladimirovna, later Princess Nicholas of Greece, whose beauty fascinated me. She had the loveliest eyes imaginable, and everyone fell under their charm." -Prince Felix Youssoupoff, Lost Splendor

[oceanlilacs]

💌 “We must expect anything, even a disaster. All I ask of Russia is to hold fast. She will hold. Don't doubt it!” － Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna (Miechen) to Maurice Paléologue

💌 “It seems that all are mad... I am absolutely depressed. All that happened is so terrible... My God, what awaits us and what will that end with?” － Marie Feodorovna, in a message to Xenia, after the Archduke's assasination, 1914

[adini-nikolaevna]

Grand Duchesses Maria and Olga Nikolaevna of Russia (later Duchess of Leuchtenberg and Queen of Wurttemberg) by Hau.

[elsalouisa]

"In Peterhoff during the hot June weather the little Grand Duchess Marie was born. She was born good, | often think, with the very smallest trace of original sin possible. The Grand Duke Vladimir called her “The Amiable Baby” for she was always so good and smiling and gay. She is a very fine and pretty child, with great, dark-blue eyes and the fine level dark brows of the Romanoff family. Lately speaking of the child, a gentleman said that she had the face of one of Botticelli’s angels. But good and sweet-tempered as she is, she is also very human, as the following stories will show. When she was a very little child, she was one day with her sister in the Empress’s boudoir, where the Emperor and Empress were at tea. The Empress had tiny vanilla-flavoured wafers called biblichen, of which the children were particularly fond, but they were not allowed to ask for anything from the tea table. The Empress sent for me, and when | went down little Marie was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes drowned in tears and something was swallowed hastily. “There! I’ve eaten it all up,” said she, “you can’t get it now.” | was properly shocked, and suggested bed at once as a suitable punishment. The Empress said, “Very well, take her,” but the Emperor intervened, and begged that she might be allowed to remain, saying, | was always afraid of the wings growing, and I am glad to see she is only a human child.” She was constantly held up as an example to her elder sisters. They declared she was a step-sister. Vainly I pointed out that in all fairy tales it was the elder sisters who were step-sisters and the third was the real sister. They would not listen, and shut her out from all their plays. I told them that they could not expect her to stand that kind of treatment, and that someday they would be punished. One day they made a house with chairs at one end of the nursery and shut out poor Marie, telling her she might be the footman, but that she should stay outside. | made another house at the other end for baby, then a few months old, and her, but her eyes always kept travelling to the other end of the room and the attractive play going on there. She suddenly dashed across the room, rushed into the house, dealt each sister a slap in the face, and ran into the next room, coming back dressed in a doll’s cloak and hat, and with her hands full of small toys. “I won’t be a footman, I’ll be the kind, good aunt, who brings presents,” she said. She then distributed her gifts, kissed her “nieces,” and sat down. The other children looked shamefacedly from one to the other, and then Tatiana said, “We were too cruel to poor little Marie, and she really couldn’t help beating us.” They had learned their lesson-from that hour they respected her rights in the family".

Margaret Eager "Six years at the Russian court"

[royalpain16]

Royal Tiara Challenge 2024

Day 10 - Favorite Pearl Tiara

Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara, Pearl option

Smuggled out of Russia following the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. It belonged to the... Grand Duchess Vladimir, the wife of the Tsar’s uncle, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia.

Known for her impressive collection of jewels (she was dubbed the ‘grandest of Grand Duchesses’)... the tiara was made for the Duchess by court jewellers Bolin. When the Tsar was forced to abdicate in favour of Lenin’s new Communist government in 1917, she hid with her sons in the Caucasus, hoping for a coup to help one of them gain control over the county.

Following her death in 1920, the Duchess’s pieces were sold to support her children, with many European royals buying pieces. Queen Mary purchased the Vladimir tiara...

The Vladimir tiara had been damaged in transit, so Queen Mary elected to have it repaired by Garrard, also adding 15 of her own emeralds, plus a mechanism to make it possible to switch from emeralds to the original pearls easily...

[loiladadiani]

Photographs: 1. Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich; 2. Pavel's first wife: Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna (Nee Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark); 3. Pavel's morganatic wife: Olga Valerianovna, Princess Paley (nee Olga Valerianovna Karnovich).

Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich (1860 - 1919) and his children

Grand Duke Pavel was the youngest son of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna. As a child and even as an adult, he had very frail health (but that did not prevent him from being very successful with the ladies and a great dancer.) Politically, Pavel would play his most important role toward the end of the Romanov dynasty, when he largely acted as a liaison between Empress Alexandra and Emperor Nicholas II and the rest of the Romanov family. It was Grand Duke Paul who informed the Empress of the abdication.

Pavel was married twice and had five children. His first wife was Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna (nee Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark.) He had two children with her, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (the younger) and Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich (Alexandra died giving birth to him.) Several years later, Pavel married Olga Valerianovna Karnovich morganatically and was exiled from Russia by the Emperor; the couple had a comfortable exile since Paul had money out of Russia. Olga would be made Princess Paley when the couple was allowed to return to Russia. By the time they returned to Russia, they had three children: Vladimir, Irina, and Natalia.

Grand Duke Pavel's five children were remarkably good-looking. One of his daughters, Natalia, became a model and actress in the United States. It is a shame that they had to live through such horrible times; none of them seem to find lasting stability in the area of relationships throughout their lives. But this post is just about what a good example of the general good looks of the Romanov family Pavel's children were.

Following are some photographs of Pavel's beautiful offspring:

Photographs: Pavel and Olga's children: 1. Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley; 2. Princesses Natalia and Irina Pavlovna Paley; 3. Prince Vladimir with his two little sisters; 4. Prince Vladimir; 5. Princess Irina Pavlovna; 6. Princess Natalia Pavlovna

Photographs: Pavel and Alexandra's children: 1. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna the Younger; 2. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna; 3. Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich