Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105572 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Princess Victoria Melita played a colourful role from her birth in 1876. The second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, she made a brief and unhappy marriage at the age of 17 to her cousin, Ernest, Grand Duke of Hesse. In the face of strong opposition from her family she divorced him seven years later and married another cousin, Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, resulting in three years of exile. When revolution toppled the empire in 1917, the Grand Duke and Duchess and their children escaped to Finland, living in danger for three long years. Following the atrocities of the Bolsheviks at the time, including the murder of most of the Romanov family, the Grand Duke believed he was the senior surviving member of the imperial house, and proclaimed himself Tsar. However, they were never able to return to their homeland, and the Grand Duchess died in exile in 1936. Using previously unpublished correspondence from the Royal Archives and Astor papers, this is a portrait of the Princess, set against the imperial courts of the turn of the 20th century and inter-war Europe.

Customer Reviews

Victoria Melita of Edinburg, aka Victoria Feodorovna. Courage and failure in the Imperial Household of the Romanovs
Victoria Melita had it all. And she lost it all in the same way she was blessed with status, riches and oportunities. It's a very small book- for someone who had such an important rule in the Court of the last Romanovs and gave so much to talk about when she divorced her artistic, sensible and bissexual cousin Ernest-Ludwig von Hesse. We face a woman who suffered several humilliations during her life- her first husband who took the «joyride» with stableboys and kitchen helpers, an imperial mother-in-law who disliked her ( well, Maria Pavlovna the Elder disliked everyone except herself and her genealogical tree), a dominating and somewhat strange mother, who taught her that a princess who couldn't talk in public was worthless, a magnetic «blonde fatale» as a sister, a life in the remote but safe St. Briac trying to live accordingly to her lost status, selling her jewellery to maintain the household-. Not the prettiest of her mother's breeding, but certainly one of the most pridesome and independent, we finish the book realizing she had every chance to succeed, like her sister Marie of Roumania. But even in exile she was confronted with Kiryl's prevarication, which is a bit strange, considering he didn't even cross the street without her holding his arm... What caused her so much pain? Was it another woman? Or was it a reminiscense of her first husband? The truth is that we'll never know the truth, and mr. John Van Der Kiste doesn't tell us either! A woman of exquisite taste, a keen painter and bric-a-brac artist, whose grand-daughter Maria Vladimirovna claims today the rigth to wear the Romanov crown. And isn't it ironic, if only Alexandra Feodorovna could guess the course of life... Good reading, but not enough material to consider it a juicy book. For example, we learn something about the «proverbial ingratitude of the House of Romanov» ( v.g., Victoria Melita's behaviour towards the Buchanan's), but it misses a lot of gossip: Baby Bee's adventures int the Spanish Court, Sandra's infidelities, Maria of Roumania theatrical entrerprises, the arguments between the four sisters concerning their mother's jewels, Kyril's brother and sister- what a brady brunch!-, reactions of other royals concerning this proud and so stiff lady, who was born grand-daughter of Alexander II and Queen Victoria and ended her life in s shabby environment, dremaing of a future where she would accomodate her long lost past of grandeur.

What a life!
Victoria Melita must have had one of the most chequered lives of any princess. Born on Malta in 1876, daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh and a Grand Duchess of Russia, she had a brief unhappy marriage with her cousin the Grand Duke of Hesse, defied general family opinion and divorced him to marry another cousin, a Russian Grand Duke. They and their young family, with another child on the way, were fortunate to escape from Russia during the revolution, but their pitiful life in exile during the 1920s and 1930s makes for sometimes painful reading. It must have been hard for her to have lost almost everything, particularly after her 'betrayal' by her second husband, a situation which the author handles with great skill. He also gives a very fair assessment of the Grand Duke's actions during the revolution, when some of the family accused him of being a traitor to the Romanov dynasty which was clearly doomed anyway by 1917. He has also had the benefit of some fascinating letters from the Astor Papers and Bucharest Archives. A sad, but very balanced, understanding biography of a sensitive if difficult woman who probably deserved a better life than she had.

Empress without a Throne - A Royal Fate in the 20th Century
Princess Victoria Melita, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the Czar of Russia, daughter of the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Grand Duchess of Hesse, than Grand Duchess of Russia and at last Empress of Russia in Exile. She was a woman who went along with the conventions of her class and married a homosexual prince, then defied these conventions to marry then the man she loved and who betrayed her. She died in the end as a very unhappy woman. What a history! Hollywood could not done it better but this is real life. In all the ups and downs of her life Victoria Melita emerges as a woman of great strength and above all dignity. She is so much stronger than the men in her life. As van der Kiste let emerge this life one grows in admiration for this princess. However, there is something about her which I can not really lay hands on - there is something rather "unlovable about her", a cold majesty, removed but it seems born out of unhappiness, not haughtiness. This book is of course not just about her, but about royalty at the end of the 19th century. One learns a lot about the Imperial Russian Clan and its intrigues, understands more why they were swept away and the personality of the first Romanov Emperor in Exile. It helps to understand the present dispute in the Romanov Family about the Headship of the House.