[1][2] She was the sixth child and only surviving daughter among the eight children of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife, Empress Maria Alexandrovna (née Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine).

[8] In the children's island, located in a pond in the park of the Alexander Palace, Maria had her own private little house, off limit to adults, which she used with her brothers as a playhouse.

Her governess, Anna Tyutcheva (1829–1889), a daughter of the celebrated poet Fyodor Tyutchev, reflected that "the whole family adores this child" and that her parents "shower her with kisses and affection.

[30] He also bestowed on his only daughter some of the best jewels owned by the Romanovs, including the sapphires he had inherited from his mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (née Princess Charlotte of Prussia) and a parure that had belonged to Catherine the Great.

"[51] Victoria also made herself unpopular by refusing the Emperor's offer to make the Prince of Wales colonel of a Russian regiment, and by demanding that an Anglican marriage service be held in Saint Petersburg alongside the Orthodox ceremony.

[45] Queen Victoria was represented by her eldest son, Albert Edward, and his wife Alexandra, sister of Tsesarevna Maria Feodorovna (née Princess Dagmar of Denmark).

[26][45] Maria wore a glittering coronet and a mantle of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine and a sprig of myrtle, specially sent by Queen Victoria.

Then they all proceeded to the Alexander Hall, where Arthur P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster, made Alfred and Maria husband and wife according to the rites of the Church of England.

[57] Alexander II had ordered a lavish honeymoon suite on the ground floor, hoping that it would persuade the young couple to remain in Russia.

Queen Victoria met them at the South-Western Station[clarification needed] and recorded their arrival in her journal: "I took dear Marie in my arms and kissed her warmly several times.

I was quite nervous and trembling, so long had I been in expectation ... Dear Marie has a very friendly manner, a pleasant face, beautiful skin and fine bright eyes ... She speaks English wonderfully well."

[58] In addition, they had a country house, Eastwell Park, a large estate of 2,500 acres near Ashford in Kent, where the Duke enjoyed shooting parties.

Empress Maria was angry with Queen Victoria and wrote, "To be quite frank, it is difficult to take such a mother-in-law seriously, and I am sorry on Marie's account.

[12] Her mother wrote that "Marie thinks London hideous... the air there appalling, the English food abominable, the later hours very tiring, the visits to Windsor and Osborne boring beyond belief.

"[63] Maria described London as "an impossible place, where people are mad of pleasure" and a let down compared to the broad streets, golden domes, and magnificent palaces of Saint Petersburg.

In July 1884, they traveled to Ilinskoe, outside Moscow, to visit Grand Duke Sergei, Maria's younger brother, who had married Queen Victoria's granddaughter and Alfred's niece, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine.

She visited most European countries, including Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece, and even Montenegro, as well as making annual trips to Germany, England, and Russia.

[26][86] Upon the death of his paternal uncle on 22 August 1893, the Duke of Edinburgh inherited the vacant throne of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, his elder brother, the Prince of Wales, having deferred his right to the succession.

[89] Known for its hunting forest and picturesque castles, the ducal property was relatively small, compromising separate estates in Coburg, Gotha, Upper Austria, and Tyrol, but there she could live according to her desires in a domain of her own.

[97] In November 1894, Marie's eldest brother, Alexander III, died of nephritis, aged forty-nine, leaving his twenty-six-year-old son, Nicholas II, as the new emperor.

[98] Over her husband's objections, the Duchess arranged the marriage of her third daughter, Alexandra, in September 1895, to Ernst II, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, a grandson of Queen Victoria's half-sister, Feodora.

[102] Alexandra's wedding took place in Coburg in April 1896, and the following month, Maria travelled to Russia with her husband and their other four children for Emperor Nicholas II's coronation in Moscow.

Maria despaired in finding a topic of conversation with her difficult husband as he hated her interest in literature and the theater, while she found his fondness for politics and hunting "dull".

[105][106] Absent from the festivities was their only son, who was gravely ill.[105] Young Alfred was a junior officer in Potsdam, where his chief hobbies were gambling, drinking and womanizing.

[111] The Duchess and their youngest daughter, Beatrice, who were in England visiting Queen Victoria, returned on 17 July, unaware of the seriousness of the Duke's condition.

[120] The Dowager Duchess's relationship with her nephew Emperor Nicholas II deteriorated, as he opposed Victoria Melita's second marriage,[121] and it doomed the romance between Princess Beatrice and his younger brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich.

Relations with the new duke were initially tense,[117] but improved when Charles Edward provided his full support to the marriage of Maria's youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice to Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain on 15 July 1909.

[123] In the following years, the Dowager Duchess continued to make frequent trips to her native Russia in order to stay with her daughter, Victoria Melita.

"[90] Many of her relatives were killed during the Russian Revolution, including her only surviving brother Grand Duke Paul, and her nephew Emperor Nicholas II with his immediate family.

[90] Living under reduced circumstances in Zürich, Maria was reunited with her two eldest daughters, Marie and Victoria Melita, who had been on the opposite side during the war.