Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (Russian: Мария Александровна, romanized: Mariya Aleksandrovna; 17 October [O.S. 5 October] 1853 – 22 October 1920) was the sixth child and only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine; she was Duchess of Edinburgh and later Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the wife of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the younger sister of Alexander III of Russia and the paternal aunt of Russia's last emperor, Nicholas II.
In 1874, Maria married Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; she was the only Romanov to marry into the British royal family. The couple had five children: Alfred, Marie, Victoria Melita, Alexandra, and Beatrice. For the first years of her marriage, Maria lived in England. She neither adapted to the British court nor overcame her dislike for her adopted country. She accompanied her husband on his postings as an admiral of the Royal Navy at Malta (1886–1889) and Devonport (1890–1893). The Duchess of Edinburgh travelled extensively through Europe. She visited her family in Russia frequently and stayed for long periods in England and Germany attending social and family events.
In August 1893, Maria became Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha when her husband inherited the duchy on the death of his childless uncle, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She enjoyed life in Germany, where she became active in cultural endeavours and charitable work. To her daughters, she gave every support, but she was critical of her wayward son, Alfred, who died in 1899. Her husband died in 1900 and was succeeded as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by his nephew Charles Edward.
In her widowhood, Maria continued to live in Coburg. The outbreak of World War I divided her sympathies. She sided with Germany against her native Russia. Many of her relatives, including her brother Paul and her nephew Nicholas II, were killed during the Russian Revolution, and Maria lost her considerable fortune. After World War I, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ceased to exist in November 1918. Maria died in 1920 while living under reduced circumstances in exile in Switzerland.
Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna was born on 17 October [O.S. 5 October] 1853 at the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo. She was the sixth child and only surviving daughter among the eight children of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna (née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine). At the time of her birth, her grandfather, Nicholas I, was on the Russian throne and her father was Tsesarevich. In 1855, when Maria was seventeen months old, Nicholas I died and her father became the new Russian emperor. The Grand Duchess grew up as the only girl with four older brothers and two younger ones. She did not know her only sister, Alexandra, who had died before she was born. Maria herself almost died from a throat disease at the age of seven.
Maria's childhood was spent in luxury and splendor in the large palaces and country estates owned by the Romanovs. The family's main residence was the sixteen-hundred-room Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, with another residence at Gatchina, forty miles south. In the summer, the family stayed in Peterhof, a large complex with farms, cottages, and various pavilions on the Gulf of Finland. From the end of the summer until winter, the imperial family moved to Tsarskoye Selo, the imperial town, where the Romanovs had the Catherine Palace and Alexander Palace. In the children's island, located in a pond in the park of the Alexander Palace, Maria had her own private little house, off-limits to adults, which she used with her brothers as a playhouse. Her father added a farm, built for her enjoyment when she was eight years old.
Maria was beloved by her parents. Her governess, Anna Tyutcheva (1829–1889), a daughter of the celebrated poet Fyodor Tyutchev, reflected that "the whole family adores this child" and that her parents "shower her with kisses and affection." Empress Maria felt "boundless adoration" for her only surviving daughter. Alexander II enjoyed spending time with her, and he considered her his favorite child. He told Anna Tyutcheva that "almost every evening I come to feed soup to this little cherub. This is the only enjoyable minute of my whole day, the only time when I forget the troubles that weigh upon me." When she was bored with her studies, she would burst into her father's study and interrupt his meetings with his ministers.
Maria had a close relationship with her brothers. Her governess noted that she "cannot stand when someone reprimands any of her brothers. This brings her to the state of real despair." Empress Maria had weak lungs and had to travel constantly to Germany and southern Europe to escape the harsh Russian winters. She often took her three younger children with her on these trips, so Maria became especially close to her two younger brothers, Sergei and Paul.
Surrounded only by brothers, Maria grew up as a tomboy, with an independent character and a strong will. "She is absolutely genuine and never changes in front of strangers," observed Anna Tyutcheva, adding that: "She is accustomed to be the center of the world and that everyone yields to her." Tyutcheva described her pupil as "stubborn and uncompromising", commenting that "one cannot treat her roughly or reason with her a lot."
Maria was educated at the Russian court under the strict regime of her governess, Countess Alexandra Tolstaya. Maria was the first Russian grand duchess to be raised by English nannies and to speak fluent English. Besides her native Russian, she also became totally proficient in German and French. In August 1867, while the imperial family was at Livadia Palace, in the Crimea, Mark Twain met Maria and her parents. The famous American writer described her as "blue-eyed, unassuming, and pretty". As many contemporaries did, Twain noticed the influence that the young Grand Duchess had over her father.
During a visit to her maternal relatives, the Princes of Battenberg, at Jugenheim in August 1868, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, then fourteen years old, met Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred, Queen Victoria's second son, was a shy and handsome young man, with a career in the British navy. He was visiting his sister, Princess Alice, who was married to Maria's first cousin. Alfred's voyage around the world with the Royal Navy kept him away, traveling for the next two years. Maria and Prince Alfred saw each other again in the summer 1871, when Alexander II and his wife visited the Battenbergs again at their palace. The Emperor and Empress were accompanied by seventeen-year-old Maria and her two elder brothers. Alfred also happened to be there, along with the Prince and Princess of Wales. During that summer, Maria and Alfred felt attracted to each other, spending their days walking and talking together. They had a common love of music; Alfred was an enthusiastic amateur violinist, while Maria played the piano. Although they wished to marry, no engagement was announced, and Alfred returned to England. Their parents were against the match. Alexander II did not want to lose his daughter, to whom he was deeply attached. He presented his daughter's youth as the main obstacle and suggested a waiting period of at least one year before any definitive decision should be taken. The Emperor also objected to a British son-in-law, due to the general anti-British feeling in Russia following the Crimean War. The Empress regarded British customs as peculiar and the English people as cold and unfriendly. She was convinced that her daughter would not be happy there. However, marriage negotiations began in July 1871, only to be stalled in 1872.
Queen Victoria was also against the match. No British prince had ever married a Romanov; she foresaw problems with Maria's Orthodox religion and Russian upbringing. The Queen considered that Russia was generally "unfriendly" towards Britain and she was also suspicious about Russian moves in the direction of India. Victoria was dismayed, therefore, when she heard that official negotiations had restarted in January 1873. There were rumors going about Saint Petersburg that Maria had compromised herself with Prince Nikolai Golitsyn, the Emperor's aide-de-camp, and her family were anxious to see her settled. Alfred refused to believe those rumors and he was prepared to fight to marry the person he loved. Queen Victoria therefore swallowed her pride and said nothing. Both mothers continued to look for other partners for their children, but Alfred and Maria would not have anyone else. Maria liked neither the Prince of Württemberg nor the Prince of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who were presented to her as alternatives. As the Empress failed to find a German prince acceptable for her daughter, a meeting among Alfred, the Empress and her daughter took place in Sorrento, Italy, in mid-April 1873. The reunion did not go as planned because Maria came down with fever and Alfred could spend only a short time with her. That year, there was an Anglo-Russian dispute over the Afghan border. The Queen's ministers thought that a marriage might help to ease the tension between the two countries, if only by putting the monarchs into closer contact with one another.