Princess Charlotte of Württemberg

She was born in Stuttgart, as Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, eldest daughter of Prince Paul of Württemberg and of Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Hildburghausen. As a child, Charlotte lived in Paris with her father and her younger sister Pauline. Their home was quite modest by royal standards. In Paris Charlotte came under the tutelage of several intellectuals.

In 1822, she became engaged to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich of Russia, her first cousin once removed (Mikhail's mother was her father's aunt). It was said that Charlotte was an exceptional girl, highly intelligent and mature for her age of 15.[1] The Grand Duke was obviously impressed by her beauty and her poise, and during a reception held in her honor, she charmed all the guests with her conversations.[1] On 17 December 1823, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and was given the name Elena Pavlovna.[2] On 20 February 1824, the couple married in Saint Petersburg and settled in the Mikhailovsky Palace. When the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna died in 1828, the palace of Pavlovsk passed on to Mikhail and he and Elena visited it often. Their marriage was not a happy one: Mikhail's only passion was for the army and he neglected Elena. Nevertheless, he and Elena had five daughters:

• Grand Duchess Maria Mikhailovna of Russia (9 March 1825 Moscow – 19 November 1846 Vienna); died unmarried.
• Grand Duchess Elizabeta Mikhailovna of Russia (26 May 1826 Moscow – 28 January 1845 Wiesbaden); married Adolf, Duke of Nassau and died in childbirth.
• Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna of Russia (28 August 1827 – 12 May 1894), married Duke Georg August of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
• Grand Duchess Alexandra Mikhailovna of Russia (28 January 1831 Moscow – 27 March 1832 Moscow)
• Grand Duchess Anna Mikhailovna of Russia (27 October 1834 Moscow – 22 March 1836 Saint Petersburg)

Russian Sisters of Mercy in the Crimea, 1854-1855

Elena was a close friend of her brother-in-law, Alexander I of Russia and his wife the Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna. She was also quick to befriend the shy Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of the then Tsarevich Alexander. When Princess Charlotte's husband died, in 1849, she became a patron of several charitable organizations and the arts. She founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire as well as a group of nursing sisters which would eventually become the forerunners of the Red Cross in Russia. During her time in Russia, she became known as the "family intellectual", and was considered the most exceptional woman in the family since Catherine the Great. She founded the Russian Musical Society and the Conservatoire, and was also liberal on serfdom. She helped to push Alexander II to abolish serfdom while he stayed with her.[3]

As a patroness of the composer Anton Rubinstein, she commissioned his first three operas: Fomka the Fool (1853), The Siberian Hunters, and Vengeance.[4]

Elena died in Saint Petersburg, at the age of 66.

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  Elena Pavlovna as a young girl, 1824.
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  Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by Karl Bryullov, 1829.
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  Elena with her eldest daughter Maria, 1830s.
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  Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna of Russia (nee Princess Charlotte of Württemberg), 1842
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  Elena Pavlovna by Joseph-Desire Court (Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), 1842.
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  Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna in middle age, by Christina Robertson, 1850s
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  Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna by Winterhalter (1862, Hermitage Museum).
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  Elena Pavlovna in old age, late 1860s
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  A photograph of Elena Pavlovna in her final years, 1872.

• Lincoln, W. Bruce. The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russians. 1983
• Sebag Montefiore, Simon. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. 2016. Knopf Publishing Group.
• Taylor, Philip S., Anton Rubinstein: A Life in Music, Indianapolis, 2007
• Zeepvat, Charlotte. Romanov Autumn. 2001