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Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

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Princess Juliane
Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia
La Grande Duchesse Anna Feodorovna", Portrait by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, realized shortly after her wedding (ca.1795-1796). This painting was destroyed by bombs during World War II
SpouseGrand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia
HouseHouse of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
House of Wettin
FatherFrancis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
MotherCountess Augusta of Reuss-Ebersdorf

Princess Juliane Henriette Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (b. Coburg, 23 September 1781 - d. Elfenau, near Berne, Switzerland, 15 August 1860), also known as Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia, was a German princess of the ducal house of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (after 1826, the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) who became the wife of Grand Duke Constantine of Russia.

Family

She was the third daughter of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Countess Augusta Caroline Reuss of Ebersdorf. King Leopold I of the Belgians was her younger brother, whilst Queen Victoria of United Kingdom was her niece and King Ferdinand II of Portugal was her nephew.

Grand Duchess of Russia

Juliane, along with her two elder sisters, Sophie and Antoinette, traveled to Saint Petersburg. The Empress Catherine II of Russia chose her to be the bride of her second grandson, the Grand Duke Constantine. Juliane, who was not yet fifteen years of age, took the name of Anna Feodorovna in a Russian Orthodox baptismal ceremony and married Constantine (who was only seventeen years old at the time) in St.Petersburg on 26 February 1796. The Empress died nine months later, on 6 November.

The marriage was deeply unhappy. Constantine, a raw and immature boy, made his young wife intensely miserable. After three years, in 1799, Anna left her husband and returned to Coburg.

Shortly thereafter, however, she returned to Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile. In 1801, Anna, who had become involved in several frivolous intrigues, was sent home permanently to Coburg.

Life after separation

On 28 October 1808 Anna gave birth to an illegitimate son, named Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe. The father of this child possibly was Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux, a minor French nobleman. 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 10 January 1818.

Later, Anna moved to Berne, Switzerland, and gave birth to a second illegitimate child in 1812, a daughter, named Louise Hilda Agnes d'Aubert. Her father was Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli, a Swiss surgeon, professor and Guard of Honor (French:Cavalier d'Honneur, German:Oberhofmeister) of Anna from 1812 to 1837. In order to cover another scandal in Anna's life, the baby was adopted by Jean François Joseph d'Aubert, a French refugee.

Two years later, in 1814, Constantine tried to get her to return to him but her firm opposition prevented this attempt from succeeding. That year, Anna acquired an estate on the banks of Aare River and gave it the name of Elfenau. She spent the rest of her life there, and, as a lover of music, made her home a center for domestic and foreign musical society of the era.

Finally, on 20 March 1820, after nineteen years of separation, her marriage with the Grand Duke Constantine was formally annulled. He remarried two months later and died on 27 June 1831. Anna survived her former husband for twenty-nine years.

Later, her son Eduard married his cousin Bertha von Schauenstein, an illegitimate daughter of the Duke Ernst I, and had descendants who are still alive. Her daughter Louise married Jean Samuel Edouard Dapples in 1834 and died three years later in 1837 at the tender age of twenty-five.

Ancestry

Family of Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
16. John Ernest IV, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
8. Francis Josias, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
17. Charlotte Johanne of Waldeck-Pyrmont
4. Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
18. Ludwig Friedrich I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
9. Princess Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt
19. Anna Sophie of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
2. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
20. Ferdinand Albert I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
10. Ferdinand Albert II, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
21. Christine of Hesse-Eschwege
5. Duchess Sophia Antonia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg
11. Antonietta Amalie of Brunswick-Blankenburg
23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen
1. Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
24. Heinrich X, Count of Reuss-Lobenstein
12. Heinrich XXIX, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf
25. Countess Erdmuthe Benigna of Solms-Laubach
6. Heinrich XXIV, Count of Reuss-Ebersdorf
26. Wolfgang Dietrich, Count of Castell-Castell
13. Sophie Theodora of Castell-Remlingen
27. Countess Dorothea Renata of Zinzendorf
3. Princess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf
28. Georg Albrecht II, Count of Erbach-Fürstenau
14. Georg August, Count of Erbach-Schönberg
29. Countess Anna Dorothea Christine of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg
7. Karoline Ernestine of Erbach-Schönberg
30. Ludwig Christian, Count of Stolberg-Gedern
15. Ferdinande Henriette, Countess of Stolbert-Gedern
31. Duchess Christine of Mecklenburg-Güstrow
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