The Grand Duchesses: The daughters of Tsar Paul I: Part II: Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1784 - 180

The Grand Duchesses: The daughters of Tsar Paul I: Part II: Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1784 - 1803) 

Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna was Tsar Paul’s third child and second daughter. She was born in Saint Petersburg, less than a year after her sister Alexandra. The Grand Duchesses were very close and their lives seem to have run along similar paths.  

Elena, like Alexandra, was born when Catherine II (the Great) was still alive.  Catherine named the child after Helen of Troy; this was a reference to the little girl’s great beauty. Initially Catherine thought that Elena was a more attractive child than Alexandra (it seems that later on Alexandra became the favorite.) While Catherine was at the helm of Russia, Paul and his wife Maria Feodorovna did not even get to name their children. 

Negotiations for Elena’s marriage began when she was still a child. The bridegroom selected came from one of the small duchies which were part of the Holy Roman Empire at the time and which later would be absorbed by Germany.  His name was Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Hereditary Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schewerin was described by a Russian courtier as “a handsome man but essentially rustic and ignorant, although a good person.”

The couple married at Gatchina Palace. At the time,  marriages among nobles usually took place in the country of origin of the groom. Only Russian Grand Duchesses were allowed to sidestep this custom and usually married in Russia. Elena’s title after her marriage was Hereditary Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Elena had two children, Grand Duke Paul Friedrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Marie Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Elena’s life was as brief as her sister’s Alexandra. The Hereditary Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin married at age 15 (1799), had her first child at age 16 (1800) and her second child at age 19 (1803); she died that same year, several months after the birth of her son. Some sources mention that she died  suddenly, of an unknown malady, others state that she might have had tuberculosis.  She is interred in the “Helena Paulovna” Mausoleum in Ludwigslust

The Grand Duchess gave the Romanov and the Schwerin lines a number of well known descendants. I have highlighted a few below.

• Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg was Elena Pavlovna´s great-granddaughter and therefore descended from Tsar Paul I. She added additional Romanov blood to her line by marrying Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and becoming Grand Duchess Elisabeta Mavrikievna.
  
• Princess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was Elena Pavlovna´s great-granddaughter and also descended from Tsar Paul I. She married Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and boasted of her Pauline descent by choosing the name Pavlovna at the time of her marriage.
  
• Maria Pavlovna´s brother was likewise Elena Pavlovna´s greatgrandson. Frederick Francis was the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin when he married Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, daughter of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaievich (who was Tsar Paul’s grandson). He eventually became Frederick Francis III.
  
• Frederick Francis III´s daughter, Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin great-granddaughter once removed of Elena Pavlovna on the paternal line and Tsar Paul’s great-grandaughter once removed on the maternal line, married into Keiser Wilhem Il’s family and became the last Crown Princess of Prussia. 
  
• Frederick Francis III other daughter, Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, was also a great-granddaughter once removed of Elena Pavlovna and a great-granddaughter once removed of Tsar Paul. She became the Queen Consort of Denmark when she married Christian X. She is the great-grandmother of the current Queen of Denmark, Magrethe II, who is, therefore, also related to Elena Pavlovna!

Photographs/Illustrations: 1. Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna; 2. The Grand Duchess’ Grandmother, Catherine the Great, and her Parents, Paul I and Maria Feodorovna; 3 and 4: Elena Pavlovna; 5. Elena and her older sister Alexandra; 6. Elena Pavlovna and her husband Hereditary Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; 7. Elena Pavlovna; 8. Elena Pavlovna’s children, Grand Duke Paul Friedrick of Meckleburb-Schwerin and Marie Louise of Mecklenburg-Schwering; 9. Some of the descendants of Elena Pavlovna.