Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia

For other uses, see Grand Duchess Maria of Russia.

Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna
Princess of Leiningen
Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna
Spouse	Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen
Issue
Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen Prince Karl of Leiningen Kira, Princess Andrej of Yugoslavia Margarita, Princess of Hohenzollern Princess Mechtilde of Leiningen Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Leiningen Prince Peter of Leiningen
Full name
Maria Kirillovna Romanova
House	House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia
Mother	Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Born	2 February 1907(1907-02-02) Coburg, Bavaria, Germany
Died	25 October 1951(1951-10-25) (aged 44) Madrid, Spain

Maria Kirillovna as a child.

Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna as a young girl.

Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, (2 February 1907 – 25 October 1951) was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna. She was born in Coburg when her parents were in exile because their marriage had not been approved by Tsar Nicholas II. She was generally called "Marie," the French version of her name, or by the Russian nickname "Masha." The family returned to Russia prior to World War I, but was forced to flee following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Biography

Early life

Maria was raised in Coburg and in Saint-Briac, France. She was born Princess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, but her father granted her the title of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia when he declared himself Guardian of the Throne in 1924. As a child, the dark-haired, dark-eyed Maria ^[1] took after her maternal grandmother Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia in appearance, with a wide, round face ^[2] and a tendency to be overweight and to look older than her actual age when she was still a teenager.^[3] She was described as "shy and easy-going" ^[2] but also had her share of mishaps. In 1924, when she was seventeen, the "flighty" ^[4] Maria visited her aunt Queen Marie of Romania and carried on a flirtation with the son-in-law of a lady-in-waiting at the Romanian court.^[4] Her fifteen-year-old cousin, Princess Ileana of Romania, spread rumors about the flirtation when Maria returned home, resulting in strained relations between Marie of Romania and Maria's mother Victoria.^[4] Eventually the conflict was smoothed over.

Marriage and issue

The following year, on 24 February 1925, Maria was engaged to a relatively minor prince, Friedrich Karl (13 February 1898 – 2 August 1946), the hereditary Prince of Leiningen.^[5] Victoria was at her daughter's bedside when she gave birth to her first child, Emich Kirill, in 1926.^[6] She also attended the subsequent births of Maria's children. Maria had seven children in all, one of whom died in infancy during World War II. Her husband was forced to join the German army and was taken captive by the Soviets at the end of World War II. He died of starvation in a Russian concentration camp in 1946. Maria, left with little money, struggled to support her surviving six children. She died five years later of a heart attack at age forty-four.^[7]

Maria had seven children:

• Emich Kirill Ferdinand Hermann (18 October 1926 – 30 October 1991); married Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg, daughter of Nikolaus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg. They are the parents of Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.
• Karl Vladimir Ernst Heinrich (2 January 1928 – 28 September 1990); married Princess Marie Louise of Bulgaria, daughter of Boris III of Bulgaria
• Kira Melita Feodora Marie Victoria Alexandra (18 July 1930 – 24 September 2005); married Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia
• Margarita Ileana Victoria (9 May 1932 – 16 June 1996); married Frederick William, Prince of Hohenzollern
• Mechtilde Alexandra (b. 2 January 1936)
• Friedrich Wilhelm Berthold (18 June 1938 – 29 August 1998)
• Peter Victor (23 December 1942 – 12 January 1943) ^[8]

Ancestry

Notes

1. ^ Michael John Sullivan, A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, Random House, p. 374
2. ^ ^{a b} Sullivan, p. 374
3. ^ John Van der Kiste, Princess Victoria Melita, Sutton Publishing, 1991, p. 136
4. ^ ^{a b c} Van der Kiste, p. 157
5. ^ Sullivan, p. 373
6. ^ Sullivan, p. 377
7. ^ Sullivan, p. 408
8. ^ Paul Theroff (2007). "Leiningen". An Online Gotha. Archived from the original on 22 September 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060922101933/http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/leiningen.html. Retrieved 7 January 2007. 

References

• Michael John Sullivan, A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, Random House, 1997, ISBN 0-679-42400-8
• Paul Theroff, An Online Gotha, genealogy of the princely family of Leiningen
• John Van der Kiste, Princess Victoria Melita, Sutton Publishing, 1991, ISBN 0-7509-3469-7

External links

• Mariya Kirillovna, a thread with photos and information about Grand Duchess Maria at AlexanderPalace.org

Persondata
Name	Russia, Maria Kirillovna of
Alternative names
Short description	Daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia and of Princess Victoria Melita of Great Britain and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; wife of Friedrich-Karl, hereditary prince of Leiningen.
Date of birth	2 February 1907
Place of birth	Coburg, Germany
Date of death	25 October 1951
Place of death	Madrid, Spain