The ruling families diligently guarded their secrets, especially those that could testify to immorality or spoil the reputation of the royal family in the eyes of their subjects. Some of the old secrets are still hidden today. One of them concerns Empress Alexandra, otherwise known as Alix - the wife of Nicholas II. Did the monarch hide the existence of the Polish half-brother?
The prelude to this story was the premature death of the mother of the future tsarina - Grand Duchess of Hesse, Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria. A 35-year-old woman died on December 14, 1878, leaving her despairing husband Ludwik and five children:Wiktoria (15), Elizabeth (14), Irena (12), Ernest (10) and Alix (6).
The Tsarina of Alexander had a dark secret…
The Grand Duke had to replace the children with their mother, with the help of his eldest daughter. In the first years of his widowhood Ludwik did not think about other women, but over time he began to slowly regain the joy of life .
A ruler in love
The perpetrator of this transformation was Mrs. Aleksandra de Kolemine, née Countess Hutten-Czapska, wife of the Russian charge d'affaires in the capital of Hesse, Darmstadt. Her parents were Count Adam Hutten-Czapski and Marianna Rzewuska-Grocholska. Aleksandra was born in 1854 in Warsaw.
As the wife of an accredited diplomat at the Hessian court, Aleksandra saw the Grand Duke at receptions, balls and receptions. It is not known when Ludwik noticed the Polish woman. We also don't know what drove her to the affair. Perhaps the reason was a failed marriage. Or maybe the status of the ruler of Hesse's mistress seemed more attractive to her than being the wife of a diplomat?
Louis IV of Hesse with his family
Ludwik helped her obtain a divorce, after which Aleksandra remained in Darmstadt. An interesting fact is that the grand prince's children not only knew about his relationship with Madame de Kolemine , but even liked and accepted their father's mistress.
Why? For although they loved their deceased mother, they felt sorry for their father at the same time. They knew he would feel lonely after his nearly grown daughters got married and moved into their husbands' homes.
But Ludwik wanted to go a step further. He wanted to marry a mistress.
Secret marriage and express divorce
In love, the ruler even set a date for the ceremony - April 30, 1884 in the afternoon. They were secretly married by the prime minister of Hesse. The situation was spiced up by the fact that his eldest daughter Wiktoria got married that same morning !
Queen Victoria herself, who had come for the wedding of her granddaughter, was in Darmstadt at the time. When she was informed that her son-in-law was remarrying, she was furious. The monarch believed that a relationship with a divorced woman, also from the Russian Empire (the Queen was Russophobic and considered Russia to be Britain's greatest enemy), would ruin her son-in-law's reputation both in Hesse and in Europe.
Queen Victoria herself, who had come for her granddaughter's wedding, was in Darmstadt at the time.
She threatened to stop providing financial aid to her Hessian grandchildren (the manor house in Darmstadt was not owned by the wealthy). Therefore, this marriage had to be annulled. The legal aspects of this case were to be dealt with by Edward - the eldest son of Queen Victoria. When Ludwik was informed about his mother-in-law's decision, he broke down. He believed that he was deprived of any chances for family happiness and condemned to loneliness after the weddings of his daughters.
Madame de Kolemine was ordered to leave Hesse, and lawyers came up with a reason for annulling the marriage. Well, Hesse was a federal state and was part of the German Empire. Grand Duke Louis, as commander of the Hessian army, subordinated himself to Emperor William I, who had to give formal consent to the wedding of an officer of the German imperial army, which the ruler of Hesse was in fact. The lack of official approval of the marriage could have been grounds for its annulment, and the lawyers took advantage of this.
To wipe away tears, Madame de Kolemine was awarded the title of Countess of Romrod and 40,000 marks.
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The profitable fruit of love
The ruler of Hesse and his English mother-in-law seemed to get rid of the trouble of the wrong woman. But the problems were yet to come! At the end of 1884, during her stay in Venice, a Polish woman gave birth to a son - the fruit of her relationship with Ludwik. Unfortunately, the child's name has not been preserved in the history pages.
Aleksandra de Kolemine recognized that the child could become a source of additional income for her and began to blackmail her former lover and Queen Victoria , threatening to reveal the secrets of the Hessian and English courts. To silence the scandal, Queen Victoria and Louis paid for her silence. The Grand Duke of Hesse handed over money to the woman until his death in 1892, and his mother-in-law handed over money to the woman even longer, until 1901.
Elżbieta (Ella), who married uncle Nicholas II, persuaded Aleksandra to help her brother.
Of course, Louis' children, including his youngest daughter Alexander, the Empress of Russia, knew about the existence of an illegitimate child. Elżbieta (Ella), who married uncle Nicholas II, persuaded Aleksandra to help her brother . Anyway, Ella was very kind towards the Polish woman. During the scandal in Darmstadt, she had to give her a blanket so that she could cover herself during the trip to the Hessian border in 1884.
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Sisters who gave a better start
Of course, Ella and Aleksandra did not admit to having a brother - a Polish son. That is why all the news about him and his distinguished sisters appeared only overseas, for example in the "Chicago Daily Tribune". Journalists of this newspaper wrote that Empress Alexander:
at the urging of her sister Elizabeth, practically adopted the boy and undertook to provide for him, relieving his mother of all worries .
The empress brought her brother to Russia, helped him to obtain the Russian title of nobility and start a military career in one of the elite units of the imperial army. In this way, the young man, despite the fact that he came from an extramarital relationship, got an easier start in life. Besides, Ella, as reported by the Chicago Daily Tribune, "has always shown compassion" for her "Polish, fascinating stepmother".
It can be presumed that the son of Madame de Kolemine and the Grand Duke of Hesse received support until the abdication of Nicholas II . It is not known what happened to him during the Bolshevik times. The question remains:are the descendants of a Polish woman and Grand Duke Ludwik still alive in Russia?