adini-nikolaevna:“Beautiful, intelligent and talented, Nicholas I’s second eldest daught

adini-nikolaevna:

“Beautiful, intelligent and talented, Nicholas I’s second eldest daughter (Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna), captured here at sixteen, was widely considered to be one of the most eligible royal brides in Europe. The failure of her siblings Alexander, Maria and Alexandra to make socially significant matches resulted in a certain amount of pressure on the young Grand Duchess to succeed where they had failed. No doubt to the relief of her parents, aged 24, Olga agreed to marry the Crown Prince Karl of Württemberg after a handful of meetings and went on to become the fourth queen of Württemberg in 1864.
As Queen, the childless Olga devoted her time to charity and was known by all as the ‘virtuoso of charities’. Having volunteered her palace to serve as a hospital for the duration of the Franco-Prussian War, the Queen personally met the trains carrying the wounded and nursed the sick.”