2 May] 1854 – 6 September 1920), also known as Maria Pavlovna the Elder, was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by his first wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz.

When Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn visited Germany in search of brides, Queen Victoria noted that Marie was "said to be very pretty.

"[2] When they first met, her future husband Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia admired her "wonderfully expressive eyes.

"[3] At her wedding, Thomas W. Knox observed that "Vladimir's bride is good-looking, solid, well-formed, with plump and finely rounded shoulders; a neck neither long nor short; regularly formed features, with the exception of the nose, which has a slight tendency to pugginess.

"[4] At the coronation of her brother-in-law Alexander III, her niece, Marie of Edinburgh, noted that "she is not thin enough for classical lines but she wears her clothes better than any other woman present; her shoulders are superb and as white as cream; there is a smartness about her that no one else can attain.

She was talking to persons whom she had never before met; and she did not make a single mistake.”[8] Author Elinor Glyn reflected that Marie "had a very highly cultivated and far-seeing mind, with a delightful sense of humour, and was adored by everyone.

"[10] Glyn produced a piece of fiction called His Hour, which she dedicated to Marie, saying "her kind appreciation of the finished work is a source of the deepest gratification to me.

[15] During Nicholas II's reign, she defied a prohibition on the playing of roulette and baccarat in private homes, and she was temporarily banned from Court.

Marie was furious when her sister-in-law Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia converted to Russian Orthodoxy after her marriage.

[27] Meriel Buchanan, daughter of a British ambassador to Russia, defended Marie's conversion as sincere: “For some time past the Grand Duchess had turned more and more to the colour and ceremonial of the Russian Church.

He said that one day Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich asked him whether the descendants of the Vladimir line have any legal rights to the throne and if not, why not?

[31][32] The painter Henry Jones Thaddeus recalled that she was the "ideal hostess" and that "Her Imperial Highness was the life and soul of the company, the most brilliant contributor to the general discussion.

"[33] Meriel Buchanan attended Marie's dinner party at Vladimir Palace, and she wrote, "Here one always met only the prettiest and smartest women, the most distinguished men, the most entertaining members of the diplomatic body.

Revolutionaries had planted 125 pounds of dynamite in the dining room, and the Imperial family narrowly avoided death only because Alexander II had unusually gone to dinner late.

You can imagine the internal conflict that agitates us all, and the perpetual struggle between feelings, duty, and external pressure.”[42] Marie had a distant relationship with her sister-in-law, Maria Feodorovna.

[44] After the Borki train disaster in which Alexander III, Maria Feodorovna, and their children narrowly escaped death, Marie allegedly said, "We shall never have such a chance again.

On 14 June 1897, the Boston Daily Globe reported that she had "consulted a gypsy fortune teller, who had predicted that one of her sons would sit on the throne of Russia.

As girls were ineligible for the Imperial Throne, Emperor Nicholas' heirs were his two unmarried, childless brothers and his uncle Vladimir, Marie's husband.

[47] According to the laws of the succession, Marie's oldest son Kirill, the heir presumptive now that Grand Duke Michael was ineligible and his own father, Vladimir, was dead, would become regent should the Emperor die before Alexei turned 21.

However, Emperor Nicholas overruled the existing law and nominated his oldest daughter Grand Duchess Olga as regent with his wife Empress Alexandra as guardian during Alexei's minority.

Empress Alexandra refused Marie's proposal, claiming that she could not let "a pure, fresh girl, 18 years his junior" marry a "well used, half worn out, blasé young man.

She reflected: "Neither in my heart nor my mind have I found anything which is not utterly devoted to my Russian fatherland... it is my forty years’ residence in Russia— all the happiness I have known here, all the dreams that have come to me, all the affection and kindness I have received— which has given me a wholly Russian soul.”[50] She hated Wilhelm II, German Emperor and denounced him in the strongest terms: "I am only a Mecklenburger on one point: in my hatred for the Emperor William.

Yes, it is the Hohenzollerns who have perverted, demoralized, degraded and humiliated Germany and gradually destroyed in her all elements of idealism and generosity, refinement and charity.”[51] The French ambassador Maurice Paléologue was impressed by Marie's “long diatribe which made me feel all the sentiments of inveterate hatred, of mute and tenacious detestation which the small and once independent states of Germany have for the despotic house of Prussia.”[52] Marie supervised many projects for the Russian army.

[55] Like many other Romanovs, Marie feared that Empress Alexandra would "be the sole ruler of Russia" after Nicholas took supreme command of the Russian armies on 23 August 1915 (O.S.

[58] Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia encountered Maria at the port of Novorossiysk in early 1920: "Disregarding peril and hardship, she stubbornly kept to all the trimmings of bygone splendour and glory.

When even generals found themselves lucky to find a horse cart and an old nag to bring them to safety, Aunt Miechen made a long journey in her own train.

[61] Nicholas II of Russia and Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) gave them “an aigrette and diadem composed of magnificent diamonds.

It had been rumored that some of the stones in Elizabeth Taylor's Bulgari Emerald necklace were from the Vladimir collection but this has been disproved by jeweler historian Vincent Meylan.

Other than the fact that first cousin marriages were not allowed, she was also the former wife of Ernst Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, the brother of the Empress.

"[69] Marie gave her granddaughters "dresses, dolls, prams, bicycles, a pony and carriage and jewellery suitable for their ages, such as silver muff-chains, watches, strings of pearls and diamonds and turquoise pendants".