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# Olga Nikolayevna's Marriage to Karl of Württemberg and the German Kinship of the Romanovs
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/k-voprosu-o-tom-kak-nemtsy-rossiei-pravili/
- Published: 2017-12-12T12:36:29.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:59:21.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Aristocracy, Monarchies, Observations

On the question of how the Germans ruled Russia. Olga Nikolayevna, daughter of Nikolai Pavlovich, married her cousin, Crown Prince Karl of Württemberg. At the time of her betrothal she said rapturously to V. A. Zhukovsky: “May the Lord bless this step in my life and grant me the strength to fulfil the high purpose that Providence has appointed for me! It is a comfort, in the hour of parting, to think that my unforgettable Grandmother was born in the land where I am destined to live, and where Ekaterina Pavlovna left so many memories. There they love the Russian name, and Württemberg is joined to us by many ties.”

So, Olga Nikolayevna's grandmother was a princess of the House of Württemberg, Sophie Marie Dorothea Auguste Luise, in baptism Maria Feodorovna. Olga Nikolayevna's mother was born Princess Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmine of Prussia. Her aunt Ekaterina Pavlovna was the wife of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg. And then there are our heroine's other aunts: Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; Alexandra Pavlovna, wife of Archduke Joseph Anton Johann of Austria of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine; Elena Pavlovna, wife of Mikhail Pavlovich, before her marriage Princess Friederike Charlotte Marie of Württemberg; Konstantin Pavlovich's wife Anna Feodorovna, born Princess Juliane-Henriette-Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; and the consort of Alexander Pavlovich, Elizaveta Alexeyevna, born Princess Louise Marie Auguste of Baden.

I think that is enough German names and titles for two generations of a single family. It remains to understand what exactly Olga Nikolayevna meant when she spoke of the high purpose that Providence had appointed for her.