Anna Pavlovna was born in 1795 at Gatchina Palace, the eighth child and sixth daughter of Paul I of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg),[1] and thus was Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia.

Following the death of Anna's paternal grandmother, Catherine the Great, in 1796, her father became the emperor, but, was deposed and killed in 1801, when she was six years old.

Anna was tutored by the Swiss governess Louise de Sybourg ('Bourcis') and received a broad education, including foreign languages (Russian, German and French) and mathematics.

[2] In 1809, Emperor Napoleon I of France asked for Anna's hand in marriage after failing to secure her elder sister Ekaterina as a potential bride.

Her mother managed to delay her reply long enough for Napoleon to lose interest and to marry Archduchess Marie Louise, the eighteen-year-old daughter of the Austrian emperor, in 1810.

On 21 February 1816 at the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, she married the Prince of Orange, who would later become King William II of the Netherlands.

[2] At the time of their marriage, it was agreed that Prince Willem's children should be raised as Protestants, although Anna herself remained Russian Orthodox.

Anna and William preferred Brussels to the Netherlands and lived there until the Belgian Revolution forced them to leave in 1830.

Anna's capriciousness and angry outbursts left him exasperated at times and caused several major rows.

Although Alexander wasn't the perfectly compliant, obedient son his mother made him out to be (especially in letters to her Russian family), his death at age 29 in 1848 was a heavy blow for her.

In 1829, several pieces of her jewellery were stolen in Brussels, and she suspected her spouse of stealing them, as he was at the time in debt and mixing with people she considered to be questionable.

The Belgian Revolution forced both Anna and William to leave their home in Brussels and relocate to the Netherlands.

[2] She considered it her duty to fulfil her public role as a royal woman and charity was a part of this role: she founded the commissiën van weldadigheid ("charity commission") in Soest and Baarn, and the Koninklijke Winternaaischool Scheveningen, a school in needlework for poor women and girls, and gave financial contributions to the schools Anna Paulowna and Sophiaschool.

[2] Anna was acknowledged to be a talented and intelligent person who quickly mastered a new language as well as being well informed and with a clear understanding of contemporary politics.

[2] She was also a strong willed character with a heated temperament, which could cause outbursts and result in her refusing to leave her rooms for days, referred to as her "nerves".

His complaints were further worsened by unhealthy habits (such as overexerting himself physically and constant smoking), worry over the unstable political situation at home and abroad and concern over the rapidly deteriorating health of his son Alexander.

Anna came to Tilburg when he was on his death bed, but was not allowed into the sick room for fear of upsetting her dying husband.

The genus of trees Paulownia was coined by the German botanist Philipp Franz von Siebold to honour Anna Pavlovna.