page_title: Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
section_title: Grand Duchess of Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha / Grand Duchess of Russia
caption_attribution_description: English: Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna with her daughters Maria and Kira
context_page_description: Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha VA CI RRC, later Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and also of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.
  Born a British princess, Victoria spent her early life in England and lived for three years in Malta, where her father served in the Royal Navy. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, where Victoria's father became the reigning duke in 1893. In her teens Victoria fell in love with her first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia but his faith, Orthodox Christianity, discouraged marriage between first cousins. Bowing to family pressure, Victoria married her paternal first-cousin, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine in 1894, following the wishes of their grandmother, Queen Victoria. The marriage failed - Victoria Melita scandalized the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901. The couple's only child, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, died of typhoid fever in 1903.
context_section_description: Nicholas II reinstated Kirill after deaths in the Russian imperial family promoted Kirill to third in the line of succession to the Russian throne. Kirill and Victoria were allowed in Russia, Victoria was granted the title of Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna and in May 1910, the couple arrived in St Petersburg. The new grand duchess enjoyed entertaining at evening dinners and lavish balls attended by the cream of Saint Petersburg society. Victoria had an artistic talent that she applied to home decoration in her several elaborate residences, which she arranged attractively. She decorated, gardened, and rode and also enjoyed painting, particularly watercolors.
  Victoria fit in within the Russian aristocracy and the circle of her mother-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. As French was frequently spoken in high circles, Victoria never completely mastered the Russian language. Although she was a first cousin of both Nicholas II, on her mother's side, and to Empress Alexandra, on her father's side, the relationship with them was neither close nor warm. As Kirill became a keen auto racer, the couple often took trips by car; a favorite pastime was traveling through the Baltic provinces. Victoria dreaded the long Russian winter with its short days, and she traveled abroad, frequently visiting her sister Marie in Romania and her mother in the south of France or in Coburg. Victoria and her husband had a close relationship with their daughters, Maria and Kira. The family was spending the summer of 1914 on their yacht in the Gulf of Finland and were in Riga when the war broke out.
caption: Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna and her daughters Maria and Kira, 1913.
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