Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Family

Juliane was the third daughter of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld by his second wife, Countess Augusta Caroline Reuss of Ebersdorf. She was named in honour of her grand-aunt, Queen Juliane Marie of Denmark, who was her paternal grandmother's sister. King Leopold I of the Belgians was her younger brother, while Queen Victoria of United Kingdom was her niece and King Ferdinand II of Portugal was her nephew, as were Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, and Leopold II of Belgium.

Grand Duchess of Russia

Marriage plans

Empress Catherine II of Russia began to search for a suitable wife for her second grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin, after the marriage of her eldest grandson, Grand Duke Alexander, to Louise of Baden in 1793. The empress spoke with pride of Konstantin as an enviable match for many brides in Europe, as he was the second in the line of succession to the Russian Empire.

Soon a marriage offer arrived from the court of Naples: King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria Carolina suggested a marriage between the Grand Duke and one of their many daughters, which the Empress immediately rejected.

In 1795, Empress Catherine sent her general Andreas Eberhard von Budberg in a secret mission to the ruling European courts, to find a bride for Konstantin. He had a huge list of candidates, but during his trip became ill and was forced to stay in Coburg.

He was attended by the Ducal court doctor, Baron Stockmar, who, once he knew the real intention of his trip, drew the general's attention to the daughters of Duke Franz. Budberg wrote to Saint Petersburg that he found the perfect candidates, without visiting any other courts.

After a little consideration, Catherine consented. Duchess Augusta, once she knew that one of her daughters would be a grand duchess of Russia, was delighted with the idea: a marriage with the Imperial Russian dynasty could bring huge benefits for the relatively small German Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.

However, in Europe there were other views; for example, Charles-François-Philibert Masson, in his Secrets Memoirs of the court of Saint-Petersburg wrote about the unenviable role of German brides in the Russian court:

Young touching victim, which Germany sends as a tribute to Russia, as did Greece who sent their maids to the Minotaur...

Life in Russia

Juliane, along with her mother and two elder sisters, Sophie and Antoinette, travelled to Saint Petersburg at the request of Empress Catherine II of Russia. After the first meeting, the Empress wrote: "The Duchess of Saxe-Coburg was beautiful and worthy of respect among women, and her daughters are pretty. It's a pity that our groom must choose only one, would be good to keep all three. But it seems that our Paris give the apple to the younger one, you'll see that he would prefer Juliane among the sisters...she's really the best choice." However, Prince Adam Czartoryski, in his Memoirs, wrote:

He was given an order by the Empress to marry one of the princesses, and he was given a choice of his future wife.

This point of view was confirmed by Countess Varvara Golovina, who also wrote:

After three weeks, the Grand Duke Konstantin was forced to make a choice. I think that he did not want to marry.

Constantine himself would say about his choice "if it must be so. I will marry the little ape; it dances very prettily."

After the young grand duke chose Juliane, she began her training as a consort. On 2 February 1796, the 14-year-old German princess took the name of Anna Feodorovna in a Russian Orthodox baptismal ceremony and 24 days later, on 26 February, she and Konstantin were married. The Empress died nine months later, on 6 November. By virtue of her wedding, Anna was awarded with the Grand Cross of the Imperial Order of Saint Catherine and the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.

This union, in connection with the wedding of Anna's brother Leopold and Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, made the little Duchy of Saxe-Coburg the dynastic heart of Europe. In addition, thanks to relations with the Russian Empire, Saxe-Coburg was relatively safe during the Napoleonic Wars. However, on a personal level, the marriage was deeply unhappy. Konstantin, known to be a violent man and fully dedicated to his military career, made Anna intensely miserable.

Life after separation

Almost immediately after her return to Coburg, Anna began negotiations for a divorce from her husband. Grand Duke Konstantin wrote in response to her letter:

You write to me that I allowed you to go into foreign lands because we are incompatible and because I can't give you the love which you need. But humbly I ask you to calm yourself in consideration to our lives together, besides all these facts confirm in writing, and that in addition to this other reason you don't have.

By 1803 the divorce was still refused, because Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna feared that her son Konstantin could contract a second morganatic marriage, and the official separation would damage the reputation of the grand duchess.

At first, Anna feared an unfavorable opinion about her conduct among the European courts; however, they showed their sympathy. Still legally married, Anna, eager to have a family, found solace in clandestine affairs.

On 28 October 1808, Anna gave birth to an illegitimate son, Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe. The father of this child may have been Jules Gabriel Émile de Seigneux, a minor Swiss nobleman and officer in the Prussian army. de Seigneux, however, turned out to be as controlling as her husband and the relationship ended.

Eduard was ennobled by his mother's younger brother, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and assumed the surname von Löwenfels by decree on 18 February 1818.

Later, Anna moved to Bern, Switzerland, and gave birth to a second illegitimate child in 1812, a daughter named Louise Hilda Aglaë d'Aubert. The father was Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli, a Swiss surgeon, professor and chamberlain of Anna's household from 1812 to 1837 and who had advised her during her first pregnancy.

As de Schiferli was a married man and in order to cover another scandal in Anna's life, the baby was adopted by Jean François Joseph d'Aubert, a French refugee. After the affair ended, Schiferli maintained a tender and close friendship with Anna until his death.