Duchess Therese Wilhelmine Olga Friederike of Oldenburg (30 March 1852 – 19 April 1883) was the youngest daughter of

Duke Peter Georgievich of Oldenburg Duke Constantine Frederick Peter of Oldenburg (; ; – ) was a Duke of the House of Oldenburg. He was the grandfather of Duke Peter of Oldenburg as well as grandfather of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich, General of the Imperial Russian Army du ...

and his wife

Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg Princess Therese of Nassau-Weilburg (; , ''Tereziya Vasilyevna Nassauskaya''; 17 April 1815 in Weilburg, Duchy of Nassau – 8 December 1871 in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary) was a member of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and a Pri ...

Marriage

On 12 May 1879, Therese married Prince George Maximlianovich Romanovsky (1852–1912), youngest son of Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg and his wife

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (Maria Nikolaevna Romanova; Russian: Великая Княжна Мария Николаевна, 17 July 1918) was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (Ali ...

. Therese's elder brother Duke Alexander Petrovich had been married to George's sister Princess Eugenia Maximilianovna since 1868. Through either the deaths or

morganatic marriage Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spou ...

s of his elder brothers, George was the head of the Russian branch of the

House of Beauharnais The House of Beauharnais (or ''House of Leuchtenberg''; ) is a French nobility, French noble family. It is now headed by the Duke of Leuchtenberg, descendant in male line of Eugène de Beauharnais. History Originating in Brittany, the Beauh ...

. Therese's grandfather had married Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, daughter of

Paul I of Russia Paul I (; – ) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination in 1801. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother, Catherine the Great, for most of his life. He adopted the Pauline Laws, laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules ...

, and their descendants had been raised in Russia ever since and become completely "Russianized", much like George's own family. Thus despite her German title, Duchess Therese, like her brother Duke Alexander and their father before them, had grown up entirely in Russia. Therese and her siblings were always considered a part of the Russian imperial family.

Issue

Therese and George had one son, HIH Alexander Georgievich, 7th Duke of Leuchtenberg (13 November 1881 – 26 September 1942), who would later feature in many 1909 newspapers after rumors spread that he entered into a

with American Marjorie Gould. In 1912, Alexander was reported to have gained the reluctant consent of Emperor Nicholas to marry the wealthy commoner, Marriane Friedlander Fuld, but only on the condition that the union would be considered unequal, with none of his titles being passed onto his wife or possible children. Despite being the senior descendant of

Eugène de Beauharnais Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French statesman and military officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, ...

(son of

Empress Joséphine The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...

), Alexander was far from rich, and served as a captain of the Russian

Hussars A hussar, ; ; ; ; . was a member of a class of light cavalry, originally from the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry ...

of the guard and as an aide-de-camp to the Emperor. He was, however, the principal heir to his grandfather. He later morganatically married Nadezhda Caralli in 1917, losing his rights and prerogatives. Later that year, while lodging with Prince

Felix Yusupov Knyaz Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (; – 27 September 1967) was a Russian aristocrat from the House of Yusupov who is best known for participating in the assassination of Grigori Rasputin and for marrying Princess Irina ...

, Alexander was arrested by

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

authorities, along with four or five prominent members of the monarchical party.

Later life

Various sources attribute George to have been good-looking but a "stupid and rather sorry individual", although these reports were most often in connection with his second wife,

Princess Anastasia of Montenegro Princess Anastasia Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (4 January ld Style and New Style dates, O.S. 23 December 18671868 – 25 November 1935) was the daughter of Nicholas I of Montenegro, King Nikola I Petrović-Njegoš of Montenegro (1841– ...

, who, when arranging her divorce from George, was widely reported to want to do so because she could no longer live with a man of "intolerable stupidity". In July 1881, the British Reserve Squadron held entertainments on board , which was stationed in Cronstadt. The luncheon was attended by Therese and her husband, as well as the

Russian Emperor The emperor and autocrat of all Russia (, ), also translated as emperor and autocrat of all the Russias, was the official title of the Russian monarch from 1721 to 1917. The title originated in connection with Russia's victory in the Great Nor ...

and

Empress The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

and other important royal Russian and German figures.

Death

Duchess Therese died on 19 April 1883 in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

. Six years after her death, George remarried to

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Therese Petrovna Of Oldenburg, Duchess 1852 births 1883 deaths Duchesses of Oldenburg House of Beauharnais Duchesses of Leuchtenberg Nobility from Saint Petersburg