Grand Ladies

Marie Alexandrovna was born in 1853, the youngest daughter of Tsar Alexander II and Tsaritsa Maria Alexandrovna. She married Queen Victoria's second son Alfred in 1874 whereon she became Duchess of Edinburgh. She also became Duchess of Saxe Coburg Gotha in 1893 when the Duke died and her husband succeeded the Duke. The oldest son, Alfred's older brother Albert Edward (later King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) had renounced his rights to the Ducal throne of Saxe Coburg Gotha. The photos show that she turned into a formidable woman as she grew older. She died in Zurich in 1920, having witnessed the dissolution of ties between Germany, Russia, and the UK and the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Her Wikipedia article is here.