Elizabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden)

Infobox Russian Royalty|empress|consort
name =Elizabeth Alexeievna
birth name =Louise Maria Auguste
title =Empress consort of All the Russias


caption =Elizabeth Alexeievna by Madame Vigee Le Brun, 1795, Castle of Wolfsgarten. Elisabeth sent this portrait as a gift to her mother
spouse =Alexander I
issue =
imperial house =House of Romanov
House of Baden
house-type =House
father =Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden
mother =Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
date of birth =January 24, 1779
place of birth =Karlsruhe
date of death =May 16, 1826
place of death =Belev|

Elizabeth Alexeievna (Russian: Елизавета Алексеевна) (13/24 January 1779 - 4 May/16 May, 1826) was the wife of Tsar Alexander I of Russia.

Princess of Baden

Elizabeth Alexeievna was born in Karlsruhe, on 24 January, 1779 as Princess Louise Maria Auguste of Baden of the House of Zähringen. She was the third of the seven children of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden and his wife Amelia Frederica of Hesse-Darmstadt. Her grandfathers were Charles Frederick, Margrave of Baden and Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Princess Louise of Baden grew up in a close, warm family environment. She would remain particularly attached to her mother, with whom she maintained an intimate correspondence until her death. (The Margravine of Baden outlived her daughter). Princess Louise was only twelve years old when her fate was determined. Empress Catherine II "the Great" of Russia was looking for a bride for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I, and set her eyes on the Princesses of Baden. After receiving favorable impressions, Catherine invited Princess Louise and her younger sister Frederica, to Russia. In the fall of 1792, the two sisters arrived in St. Petersburg.

The Empress Catherine was delighted by Louise, finding her a model of beauty, charm, and honesty. Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 385 ] Louise herself was attracted to Alexander; he was tall and handsome. At first, Alexander was shy with his future bride -- very young and inexperienced, he did not know how to treat her -- and she mistook his reserve for dislike. However, the young couple soon grew fond of each other. “ You tell me that I hold the happiness of a certain person in my hands,” she wrote to Alexander. “ If that is true, then his happiness is assured forever… this person loves me tenderly, and I love him in return, and that will be my happiness…you can be certain that I love you more than I ever can say,” she added. They were engaged in May 1793.

The Princess of Baden learned Russian, converted to the Orthodox Church, took the title of Grand Duchess of Russia and traded the name Louise Maria Auguste for Elizabeth Alexeievna. The wedding took place on 28 September 1793 . Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 385 ] “It was a marriage between Psyche and Cupid” Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 385 ] Catherine wrote to the Prince of Ligne. Elizabeth was only fourteen, her husband a year older.

Grand Duchess of Russia

Very young when she was married, shy and naïve, Elizabeth Alexeievna was ill-prepared for her new position. She was overwhelmed by the splendor of the Russian Court and frightened by the vicious intrigues waged there with cold calculation. Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 386 ] She was appalled by the intense sexual intrigues that flourished all around her in a court where adultery was an accepted form of entertainment. The Empress herself, Catherine II, set the example for the licentious ways of the court. Catherine’s II young lover, Platon Zubov, even tried to seduce Elizabeth Alexeievna. Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 237 ]

The Grand Duchess felt lonely and homesick, particularly after her sister Frederica returned to Baden. Elizabeth was abandoned in an alien world where she could never be herself, even among her servants and ladies-in-waiting. The relationship with Alexander was her only source of solace. “Without my husband, who alone makes me happy, I should have died a thousand deaths” Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 386 ] Lincoln, " The Romanovs", p. 385 ]

The first years of the marriage were relatively happy, but the Grand Duchess disappointed Catherine II who did not live to see a son be born to the young couple. The death of Catherine the Great in November, 1796 brought Elizabeth’s father-in-law, Paul I, to the Russian throne. During the years of his reign, Elizabeth avoided Paul’s court. Bergamini, " The Tragic Dinasty", p. 267 ] She utterly disliked her father-in-law, disapproved the injustices of his government and the bluntness of his character.

The first cracks in Elizabeth’s marriage began to appear. She did not find fulfillment for her romantic nature in a husband who neglected her. Elizabeth looked for emotional solace elsewhere. She first found refuge for her loneliness in a close intimate friendship with the beautiful Countess Golovina. Later she started a romantic liaison with Alexander’s best friend, the dashing and clever Polish Prince, Adam Czartoryski. Their relationship lasted for three years.

After more than five years of a childless marriage, on May 29, 1799, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. At court, some attributed the paternity to the Polish Prince. The child had black hair and dark eyes and at the baptism, Tsar Paul I did not fail to remark his amazement that two blonde, blue eyed parents had had a dark haired child. Elizabeth Alexeievna soon lost both her lover and her daughter. Adam Czartoryski was sent in a diplomatic mission abroad and Elizabeth’s baby daughter did not live long. “As of this morning, I no longer have a child, she is dead” she wrote to her mother on July 27, 1800. “Not an hour of the day passes without my thinking of her, and certainly not a day without my giving her bitter tears. It cannot be otherwise so long as I live, even if she were to be replaced by two dozen children.” Troyat,, " Alexander of Russia", p. 45 ]

Personality

Elizabeth Alexeievna was distinguished by an angelic face and a soft, melodious voice. She had a perfect oval face of regular delicate features; Greek profile; large almond-shaped blue eyes and curly ash blond hair, which she usually left floating on her shoulders. Her figure was elegant and regal in her carriage.

She was shy, sweet, kind, gentle and generous. Charming and intelligent, she loved reading and the arts. She did not lack character but had a withdrawn personality. With few friends, she liked simplicity and solitude. Elizabeth Alexeivna loved her husband and encouraged him in many personal and political crises, but Alexander neglected her and for most part of their marriage, they would live in harmony but emotionally apart, both had love affairs outside their marriage in a tacit agreement.

With her retiring private ways, Elizabeth Alexeievna was not popular at Court nor had the affection of her husband’s family. She would not find happiness in her marriage nor fulfillment in her position in Russia.

Russian Empress

The eccentricities of Tsar Paul I led to a plot to overthrow him and place Alexander on the Russian throne. Elizabeth was well aware of this scheme and on the night of Paul’s assassination, she was with her husband giving him support.

Once Alexander I became Emperor, Elizabeth Alexeievna encouraged him to leave behind the trauma of Paul’s I murder and dedicate himself to serve Russia. As Empress Consort, she took part in Court life and the duties of representation, but the first female rank in the Empire was reserved for her mother-in-law Maria Feodorovna.

Alexander I treated his wife indifferently, he was polite toward her in public ceremonies and made an effort to have his meals in her company. Elizabeth was too soft and placid to keep a hold on a restless and soul tortured man such as her husband. Bergamini, " The Tragic Dinasty", p. 299 ] In 1803 Alexander began a love affair that would continue for more than fifteen years with the Polish Princess Maria Czetwertynska, wife of Prince Dmitri Naryshkin. Princess Maria Naryshkina flaunted her liaison at Court in a tasteless, blatant fashion.

Elizabeth Alexeievna, for her part, found solace in her relationship with Adam Czartorysky, who had returned to Russia at Alexander I’s ascension to the throne. This liaison ended when she started a love affair with a handsome staff-captain, Alexis Okhotnikov. All the correspondence between Elizabeth and Alexis Okhotnikov (and some of her diaries) were destroyed by the Emperor Nicholas I after her death.

The affair with Okhotnikov had a tragic end. The staff-captain died in 1807 after an attempt on his life. Many contemporaries considered that Alexander I or his brother Grand Duke Konstantin had ordered him killed.

On November 16, 1806, Elizabeth gave birth to a second daughter. There were rumors that the newborn, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna, was not a child of Emperor Alexander but of Okhotnikov. After his tragic death, Elizabeth Alexeievna felt more abandoned than ever and poured out all her affection on her daughter Elizabeth, “ Lisinka.” Fifteen months later the little girl died suddenly of an infection blamed on teething. “Now,” wrote Elizabeth to her mother, “I am not longer good for anything in this world, my soul has no more strength to recover from this last blow.” Troyat, " Alexander of Russia", p. 110 ]

The death of their daughter temporarily brought husband and wife closer. Although Elizabeth Alexeievna was not yet thirty years old, neither she nor Alexander had further hopes of a family and they would have no more children.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Elizabeth Alexeievna was a reliable supporter of her husband’s policies as she had been in other personal and political crises. Bergamini, " The Tragic Dinasty", p. 299 ] After the fall of Napoleon, she joined her husband and many of the crowned heads of Europe in the Congress of Vienna (1814), there she was reunited with her old paramour, Adam Czartorysky. He was still in love with her and forgave her past infidelity with Okhotnikov. Their re-encounter was short lived.

Once she reached forty, Elizabeth Alexeievna's beauty was largely faded; she left behind any romantic pretensions. Her husband also experienced a personal transformation that, drove the couple closer than they ever were. In 1819 Alexander I, immersed in religious mysticism, broke his long relationship with Maria Narishkina. From then on, husband and wife started to spend more time together. The Empress sympathized deeply with him and Alexander found her supportive when he lost his beloved natural daughter, Sophia. The marked reconciliation between the Emperor and the Empress caused general surprise “I am reduced to thinking of myself sometimes as Alexander’s mistress, or as if we had been married secretly...” Troyat, " Alexander of Russia", p. 279 ] Elizabeth wrote to her mother.

By 1825, Elizabeth Alexeievna's health was frail; she suffered from a lung condition and a nervous indisposition. The doctors recommended her to take a rest in a temperate climate and suggested the southern city of Taganrog , by the sea of Azov. With no comfortable Palace, the Imperial Couple were established in a modest house in Taganrog by October 5. The were happy together living in intimate simplicity. On November 17, 1825 Alexander returned to Tangarog from visiting Crimea with a cold which developed into typhus, from which he died that December in the arms of his wife. Elizabeth was stricken by her loss, writing ‘I do not understand myself, I do not understand my destiny.” And later “ What am I to do with my will, which was entirely subjected to him, with my life, which I loved to devote to him?” Troyat, " Alexander of Russia", p. 292 ]

The now-Dowager-Tsarina was too frail to come back to St. Petersburg for the funeral. When Elizabeth Alexeievna finally started her returning journey to the capital, she felt so sick that had to stop at Belev, Tula Province, on the road from Taganrog to St. Petersburg just a few hours before she was to meet her mother-in-law, who was coming south to greet her. In the early hours of May 16, 1826, towards four-thirty in the morning, when her lady’s maid went to check on the Empress, she found her dead in bed. Elizabeth Alexeievna had died of heart failure.

Three days after her husband’s death Elizabeth had written her mother, “Do not worry too much about me, but if I dared, I would like to follow the one who has been my very life.”

Children

Alexander I and Elizabeth Alexeievna had two daughters, both died in early childhood. Their common sorrow drew husband and wife closer together for a brief time.

* Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (St.Petersburg May 29 1799 - St. Petersburg July 8 1800)
* Elizabeth Alexandrovna of Russia (St. Petersburg November 15 1806 - St. Petersburg May 12 1808)

Notes

Bibliography

* Bergamini, John, " The Tragic Dynasty: A History of The Romanovs", Konecky&Konecky, ISBN 1-56852-160-X
* Lincoln, W. Bruce, "The Romanovs: Autocrats of All the Russias", Anchor, ISBN 0-385-27908-6.
* Troyat, Henri, "Alexander of Russia", E.P Dutton, Inc, ISBN 0-525-24144-2
* Troyat, Henri, "Catherine the Great", Plume, ISBN 0-452-01120-5

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