She would remain particularly attached to her mother, with whom she maintained an intimate correspondence until her death (the Margravine of Baden outlived her daughter).

Catherine the Great was looking for a bride for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I, and set her eyes on the princesses of Baden who were the nieces of Queen Frederica Louisa of Prussia and the deceased Grand Duchess Natalia Alexeievna (Wilhelmina Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt) who had been the first spouse of Tsesarevich Paul.

After favorable impressions, Catherine invited Princess Louise and her younger sister Frederica, who later became Queen of Sweden, to Russia.

The Princess learned Russian, converted to the Orthodox Church, took the title of Grand Duchess of Russia and traded the name Louise Maria Auguste for Elizabeth Alexeievna.

Later, she started a romantic liaison with Alexander's best friend, the dashing and clever Polish prince, Adam Czartoryski.

After more than five years of a childless marriage, on 29 May 1799, Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna.

At the baptism, Tsar Paul I did not fail to express his amazement that the two blonde and blue-eyed parents had a dark-haired child.

"[6] Elizabeth Alexeievna was distinguished by a soft, melodious voice and a beautiful oval face with delicate features; a Greek profile, large almond-shaped blue eyes and curly ash blond hair, which she usually left floating on her shoulders.

Although Elizabeth Alexeievna loved her husband, and encouraged him in many personal and political crises, Alexander neglected her.

Once Alexander became emperor, Elizabeth Alexeievna encouraged him to leave behind the trauma of Paul I's murder and dedicate himself to serve Russia.

Alexander treated his wife indifferently, he was polite toward her in public ceremonies and made an effort to have his meals in her company.

[7] In 1803, Alexander began a love affair that would continue for more than fifteen years with the Polish Princess Maria Naryshkina, wife of Prince Dmitri Naryshkin.

Elizabeth, for her part, found solace in her relationship with Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who had returned to Russia at Alexander's ascension to the throne.

It was apparently rumored later that Alexander or his brother Grand Duke Constantine had ordered him killed; in the early twentieth century Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich turned those rumors into an elaborate legend for his biography of Elizabeth Alexeievna, although the chapter on Okhotnikov was not published at the time due to Nicholas II's personal intervention, and his other studies of that period.

"Now," wrote Elizabeth to her mother, "I am not longer good for anything in this world, my soul has no more strength to recover from this last blow.

During the Napoleonic Wars, Elizabeth Alexeievna was a reliable supporter of her husband's policies as she had been in other personal and political crises.

[7] After the fall of Napoleon, she joined her husband and many of the crowned heads of Europe in the Congress of Vienna (1814), where she was reunited with her old paramour, Adam Czartoryski.

The Empress sympathized deeply with him and Alexander found her supportive when he lost his beloved natural daughter Sophia.

The doctors recommended her to take a rest in a temperate climate and suggested the southern city of Taganrog by the Sea of Azov.

On 17 November 1825 Alexander returned to Taganrog from visiting Crimea with a cold, which developed into typhus, from which he died that December in the arms of his wife.

When Elizabeth Alexeievna finally started her return journey to the capital, she felt so sick that she had to stop at Belyov, Tula Governorate on the road to St. Petersburg, just a few hours before she was to meet her mother-in-law, who was coming south to greet her.