Queen Olga of Greece was from the so-called Konstantinovichi family of the Imperial Romanovs of Russia.
A member of the Romanov dynasty, she was the oldest daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg.
Her father Konstantin Nikolayevich (21 September 1827 – 25 January 1892) was born as the second son of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia and his wife, Charlotte of Prussia (who was a daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and his first wife, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.). Konstantin was the younger brother of Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, and therefore the paternal uncle of among others Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsesarevich of Russia (20 September 1843 – 24 April 1865) and Alexander III, Emperor of Russia (10 March 1845 – 1 November 1894). So Olga was a 1st cousin of Alexander III.
Her mother Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (8 July 1830 – 6 July 1911) was the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Duchess Amelia of Württemberg In February 1848, Alexandra converted to Russian Orthodoxy, taking the name of Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, which reflected her father's name Joseph (unlike many princesses she took a patronymic, choosing to reflect her parentage rather than the usual religious or dynastic associations which was also possible because Iosif was a common name in Russia).Alexandra and Konstantin were married in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, on 11 September 1848.
Konstantin and Alexandra had 6 children. At the end of the 1860s, Konstantin embarked on an affair, having an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. Konstantin had five illegitimate children with his mistress Anna Kuznetsova (1847–1922); they bore the last name Knyazev
In 1867, their eldest daughter, Olga (3 September [O.S. 22 August] 1851 – 18 June 1926), married King George I of Greece (24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) . She was only sixteen, and Konstantin was initially reluctant for her to marry so young. In July 1868, Olga's first child was born and was named Konstantin after his grandfather. The beginning of their daughter's family coincided with the start of the breakdown of Alexandra and Konstantin's marriage. Although he was only forty, Konstantin's struggles and travails of the previous decade— naval and judiciary reforms, the freeing of the serfs—had prematurely aged him. As his brother Tsar Alexander II turned away from the reform that had marked his first decade on the throne, Konstantin's influence began to wane and he began to focus more on his personal life. After twenty years of marriage he had drifted away from his wife. Konstantin's heavy workload, and the couple's divergent political views and interests had over the years slowly torn away at their relationship. Alexandra was as conservative as her husband was liberal, and she had learnt to concern herself with her own society and mysticism. Soon, Konstantin turned elsewhere for sexual intimacy
At the end of the 1860s, Konstantin embarked on an affair and conceived an illegitimate daughter, Marie Condousso. In the 1880s, Marie was sent to Greece, later serving as lady in waiting to her half sister, Queen Olga. Marie eventually married a Greek banker
Soon after the birth of Marie, Konstantin began a new liaison. Around 1868, Konstantin began to pursue Anna Vasilyevna Kuznetsova, a young dancer from the St Petersburg Conservatoire. She was the illegitimate daughter of ballerina Tatyana Markyanovna Kuznetsova and actor Vasily Andreyevich Karatygin. Anna was twenty years younger than Konstantin and in 1873 she gave birth to their first child. Four more would follow
In 1874, fresh scandal erupted when it was discovered that Alexandra and Konstantin's eldest son, Grand Duke Nikolay Konstantinovich, who had lived a dissipated life and had revolutionary ideas, had stolen three valuable diamonds from an icon in Alexandra's private bedroom, aided by his mistress, an American courtesan. Alexandra's twenty-four-year-old son was found guilty, declared insane, and banished for life to Central Asia. Alexandra suffered another bitter blow when in 1879, her youngest son, Vyacheslav, died unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage.
In June 1889, Alexandra’s 18-year-old granddaughter, Princess Alexandra of Greece, returned to Russia to marry Grand Duke Paul, who was the younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. Towards the end of the wedding celebrations, Konstantin suffered a stroke. This was followed in August 1889 by a severe stroke, which left him unable to walk or speak
Alexandra's letters to her daughter, Queen Olga of Greece, between 1867 and 1877 are preserved in the "Aleksandra Iosifovna letters to Queen Olga of Greece" collection in the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, California, USA).
Regarding Olga:
As a child, Olga was described as a simple and chubby little girl with a broad face and big blue eyes. Unlike her younger sister, Vera, she had a calm temperament, but she was also extremely shyThe young King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga's uncle Tsar Alexander II for his support during George's election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.Olga fell in love with George, but she was nevertheless anxious and distraught at the thought of leaving Russia. Her father was initially reluctant to agree to their marriage, thinking that at the age of fifteen she was too young and, being close to his daughter, concerned by the distance between Greece and Russia. For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on 27 October [O.S. 15 October] 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children
1. Constantine (2 August 1868 – 11 January 1923), who was born ten months after the marriage of his parents; he married Princess Sophia of Prussia and succeeded his father as king;
2. George (24 June 1869 – 25 November 1957), High Commissioner of Crete from 1898 to 1906, married Princess Marie Bonaparte;
3. Alexandra (30 August 1870 – 24 September 1891), married Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia; their children included Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, one of the assassins of Grigori Rasputin;
4. Nicholas (22 January 1872 – 8 February 1938), married Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia;
5. Marie (3 March 1876 – 14 December 1940), married firstly Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and secondly Perikles Ioannidis;
6. Olga (7 April 1880 – 2 November 1880);
7. Andrew (2 February 1882 – 3 December 1944), he married Princess Alice of Battenberg, their children included Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh;
8. Christopher (10 August 1888 – 21 January 1940), married firstly a very wealthy American widow, Nonnie May "Nancy" Stewart Worthington Leeds, no issue and secondly Princess Françoise of Orléans (25 December 1902 – 25 February 1953), they had 1 son Prince Michael of Greece.
So, three of their children married with members of the Russian Royal Family.
Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Αλεξάνδρα); 30 August [O.S. 18 August] 1870 – 24 September [O.S. 12 September] 1891), later known as Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia (Russian: Алекса́ндра Гео́ргиевна), was a member of the Greek royal family and of the Russian imperial family. She was the daughter of George I of Greece and Olga Constantinovna of Russia. She died of childbirth complications. She was the third child and eldest daughter of King George I of Greece and his wife, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia Alexandra, nickname "Aline" within her family, or Greek Alix, to distinguish her from her aunt and godmother, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, had a sunny disposition and was much loved by her family. "She had one of those sweet and lovable natures that endeared her to everybody who came in touch with her," recalled her brother, Nicholas. "She looked young and beautiful, and ever since she was a child, life looked as it had nothing but joy and happiness in store for her." When she was eighteen years old, she was married to Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, her maternal first cousin once removed and the youngest child and sixth son of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife, Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. They had become close when Grand Duke Paul spent winters in Greece due to his frequent respiratory illnesses. The Greek royal family also frequently spent holidays with the Romanov family on visits to Russia or Denmark. Their engagement was announced on 10 November 1888. The wedding took place on 17 June [O.S. 5 June] 1889 in St. Petersburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace.They had two children: Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (1890–1958) and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (1891–1942) Seven months into her second pregnancy, Alexandra took a walk with her friends on the bank of the Moskva River and jumped directly into a boat that was permanently moored there, but fell as she got in. The next day, she collapsed in the middle of a ball from violent labour pains. She gave birth to her son, Dimitri, lapsed into a fatal coma, and she died six days later in the Romanovs' estate Ilyinskoe near Moscow. The Grand Duchess was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, St. Petersburg. Her grieving husband had to be restrained from throwing himself into the grave with her.Her husband later morganatically remarried Olga Karnovich. Alexandra’s son would be involved in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, a favorite of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorvna, in 1916. In 1939 during the reign of her nephew George II of Greece, the Greek government obtained permission from the Soviet government under Joseph Stalin to rebury Princess Alexandra in Greece. Her body was removed from the vault in Leningrad and transferred by a Greek ship to Athens. It was finally laid to rest near the Tatoi Palace. Alexandra's marble tombstone over an empty tomb is still in its place in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Νικόλαος; 22 January 1872 – 8 February 1938), of the Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg, was the fourth child and third son of King George I of Greece, and of Queen Olga. He was known as "Greek Nicky" within the family to distinguish him from his cousin Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (first cousin on the paternal side and second cousin on the maternal side). Prince Nicholas was a talented painter, often signing his works as "Nicolas Leprince." He married Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia (1882–1957), daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the only sister of the future Russian imperial pretender, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, and his second cousin through his mother Olga Constantinovna of Russia and her father Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, on 29 August 1902 in Tsarskoye Selo, Russia. They had three daughters:
1. Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark (1903–1997); married Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. Had issue Olga was the maternal grandmother of actress Catherine Oxenberg and author Christina Oxenberg.
2. Princess Elizabeth of Greece and Denmark (1904–1955); married Count Carl Theodor of Toerring-Jettenbach. Had issue
3. Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark (1906–1968); married Prince George, Duke of Kent. Marina was the mother of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy, and Prince Michael of Kent.
Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Μαρία) (Russian: Мария Георгиевна; 3 March [O.S. 20 February] 1876 – 14 December 1940) was a daughter of King George I of Greece and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark was born on 3 March [O.S. 20 February] 1876 at the Royal Palace in Athens. She was the fifth child and second daughter of King George I of Greece and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia Princess Maria, nicknamed "Greek Minnie" to tell her apart from the elder "Minnie", her paternal aunt (Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia), grew up as part of a large family of eight children Princess Maria wanted to spend her entire life in Greece instead of following the traditional path of Princesses of her time that had to marry a foreign prince and move abroad. In her late teens, she fell in love with a Greek commoner, but her parents did not allow her to contract an unequal union. She just turned twenty years old when, in April 1896, during the Olympics games held in Athens, King Alexander I of Serbia (last representative of the Obrenović dynasty) proposed to her. Princess Maria found King Alexander too ugly and rejected him Since her childhood, Princess Maria of Greece had visited Russia many times with her mother, who remained very attached to her native country. They usually stayed at Pavlovsk Palace with Princess Maria's maternal grandmother, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna. While in Russia, in summer 1894, for the wedding of her cousin Grand Duchess Xenia to Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, Princess Maria became smitten with the groom's brother, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, who was her mother's first cousin. However, he had no interest in her then. In a subsequent visit to Russia in the autumn of 1895, they were reunited at a Court Ball. This time she found him too old and boring and was no longer interested. On the other hand, he fell in love with her and asked to marry him. She turned him down, to the dismay of Maria's mother, Queen Olga, who was in favor of a Russian marriage for her daughter.In spring 1896, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich arrived in Athens and proposed while they were playing billiards. She accepted him and the engagement was officially announced on 4 April 1896. The wedding was to take place a few months later in the summer.. However, she had a change of heart and after putting off the wedding date twice, she broke off the engagement in October. For five years, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia persisted in his intention. Twice a year, he proposed to Princess Maria who continued refusing him. Tsar Nicholas II finally intervened, telling the grand duke to make only one more attempt and give up. George Mikhailovich arrived in Greece in spring 1900. This time, under pressure from her family, the Greek princess finally accepted his proposal, yet reluctantly. She made clear that for her it was a marriage of convenience and that her feelings were not going to change. Before she had a change of heart, Queen Olga hurried the wedding. The marriage took place in Greece at the church of the old Venetian fortress in Corfu on 12 May [O.S. 30 April] 1900. It was a relatively simple ceremony with the reception held at the Greek Royal family residence in Corfu: Mon Repos.She was then 24 years old and her husband 37 The couple had 2 daughters: 1. Princess Nina Georgievna (Russian: Нина Георгиевна) (20 June 1901 – 27 February 1974), who married Prince Paul Alexandrovich Chavchavadze (1899–1971), they had 1 son. 2. Princess Xenia Georgievna (22 August 1903 – 17 September 1965) At age 18 she married William Bateman Leeds Jr. (19 September 1902–31 December 1971), the son and heir of the American tin magnate William B. Leeds Sr. and the stepson of Xenia's maternal uncle Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, through his marriage to William’s mother, the former Nonie Stewart Leeds. They wed in Paris on 9 October 1921. Theirs was seen as a splendid match and the couple was an influential one in New York's Long Island North Shore society, where they lived at Kenwood, their estate in Oyster Bay. Xenia and William had a daughter on 25 February 1925, Nancy Helen Marie Leeds. Xenia and William Leeds divorced in 1930. Xenia's second marriage was with Herman Jud (1911–1987), whom she married at Glen Cove, New York, on 10 August 1946.
Source:
- Wikipedia
- Own knowledge
