Princess Victoria ‘Ducky’ Melita and Alexandra Feodorovna
“God grant they [Ducky and Ernie] may be happy - she is such a dear.”
- Alexandra, 30th March 1894
“His parents were resigned: they had done their best to prevent the marriage [between Ducky and Kyrill], but it was done, and they expected the Tsar to give Kyrill a ticking-off and then forget all about it. They were stunned, and livid, to hear that their son had been stripped of his rank and titles and banished for his blatant breach of the family laws. Vladimir went to remonstrate with his nephew and Marie [Pavlovna the Elder] had no doubt of who was really to blame.
She wrote to her uncle, Heinrich VII Reuss Kõstritz: ‘the blind vindictiveness and rage of the young Tsarina has, for sheer malice, exceeded everything the wildest imagination could conceive. She stormed and raged like a lunatic, dragging her weak husband along with her until he let her his power and so made it possible to revenge herself on her ex-sister-in-law for marrying the man of her choice.’
She really believed this and for ninety years her version of events has gone unchallenged. It is only now, as documents are released from the archives in Russia, that we can see how wrong she was. Alexandra did not hate Victoria Melita for the painful end of her brother’s marriage. She pitied them both, pleading with her sister-in-law Ksenia not to judge them harshly or listen to gossip about them*. It was Nicholas, not Alexandra, who felt obliged to punish his cousin, following a precedent set by his father, and many other members of the family supported the action he took.”
* “Only one thing I entreat of you, darling Xenia, whenever you hear nasty gossip, at once put a stop to it, for their sakes and ours. […] Poor girl, she is utterly miserable now without a home, tho’ he leaves her the sweet Child. His home is desolate and everything will remind him of her whom he still cares for. But I cannot write any more about it; you can think how we sisters who adore him and are very fond her her, have suffered. But we must believe that always all is for the best. You will not judge them harshly dear, my poor unhappy ones.”
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