A CROWN OF THORNS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8351, 24 June 1905, Page 2

A CROWN OF THORNS.

In reviewing Mrs Colquhoun Grant's book, "A Mother of Czars," the "Pall Mall Gazette" says:— It is somewhat surprising that, as the author of this book tells us at the outset, the life of the Princess Dorothea of Wurtemberg, afterwards the Czaritsa Marie Feodorowna, daughter-in-law of the great Catherine, consort of Paul 1., and mother of the next two Czars, Alexander and Nicholas, has never been published. One would have thought that the tragedy of her husband's fate would have sufficed of itself to awaken interest enough to inspire some earlier biographer than Mrs Colquhoun Grant to undertake a task which ,could . not lack some considerable measure of interest. But better late than never, and here we have a very readable, if somewhat redundant, story, which brings before us very vividly what manner of woman its subject was. The Princess Dorothea. was the eldest of three daughters of Duke Frederic Eugene of Wurtemberg, her mother being a niece of Frederic the Great. Born in 1759, Dorothea was brought up, from her tenth year, at the Chateau of Montbeliard, the capital of a Countship of the same name, situated between the Principality of Porentrug, SundgaU Lorraine, and Franche Comte, and then an independent province. Here the future Czarrtsa was brought up in the old, simple German style, with her five brothers, two sisters, and a friend, Henriette de Waldner, afterwards Baronne'd'Oberkirch, to whose life, written by her grandson, many of the details of the present book are due. A TALL AND GOOIV-LOOKING GIRL, OF A LIVELY DISPOSITION, Dorothea seemed destined to make a good marriage, but neither she nor her family ever expected that the great Catherine of Russia would select her as the second wife of her son and heir, the Grand Duke Paul. The marriage, however, was oelebrated in October, 1776, and the German Princess Dorothea became the Russian Grand Duchess Marie Feodorowna. One can scarcely suppose that anyone who knew the Grand Duke Paul believed that the marriage would turn out a happy one for the young bride. Yet, strange to say, it did. Paul seems to have fallen in love with his fiancee at first sight, when he met her in Berlin, and her own letters are there to prove that Dorothea was well-pleased 'enough with him. Besides, she was evidently dazzled by the splendour of the position to whioh she wa-s called by destiny, and had no presage of the tragedy that was to deprive her of the husband she unquestionably loved. Paul was a gloomy and moody young man, soured by his imperious mother's neglect, by the mysterioush fafe of his father the Czar Peter, aiid by the death of his first wife. But in the sunshine of Eis young bride's society he seems to have become a changed man] although the seeds of latent madness were^ slowly germinating, and were destined to manifest themselves when he came to the throne. ;Their first child, the future Alexander L, waa born in 1777, and the happiness of the young couple would have been complete had it not been for the constant interference of the Empress Catherine with the management of their family. Catherine, in fact, brooked no assertion of any rights — even parental — by those whom she called "the secondary members of the family." In I*7Bo Paul received his august parent' 6 permission to make a prolonged tour through some of the principal contries of Europe, and he and his wife, travelling as the Comte and Comtesse dv Nord, visited the French Court— then in all the glory of the- brilliant summer's day which preceded the tempest of the Revolution. The Russian visitors were exceedingly well reoeived, alike at Versailles and by the Parisians, the Grand Duke being, apparently, no less popular than his wife. Our author gives us A PLEASING FICTX7BB OB" THE ROTJND 03? GAIETr in which Paul and his wife were promptly plunged. Marie Antoinette, I than in the flower of her beauty, took a great liking to Marie Feodorowna, and showered attentions upon her, while the freedom- with which the Grand Duke and his wife spent money in charity naturally won the hearts 'of I the people. This was done by Cather- [ \ne's request, and her children did not spare the Empress' 3 privy purse. \\e have accounts of receptions at Versaalles, visits to the Trianon, and masked balls at the Opera in Paris. It was at ono of these last that the King s cousin, the Due de Charfres, had an adventure which is cha-racterictic of the j time and j)lace. The Duke was talking to a lady— in hi 6 usual free and easy style—when an unknown individual, wearing a mask, and walking inside a cardboard structure, painted to Tepr&sent a round tower, stopped and joined in the conversation. The Duke angrily asked the man what he meant by his freedom, and whether he/ did not^roj cognise Mm. " Monaeigneur, I know you perfectly well. You always make yourself [ known by the style of your conversation." The Duke was furious. "Arrest this insolent' fellow!" a& cried. Some members of the suite hastened forward and opened the mock tower, only to find it empty, the man havins slipped out on the other side, and disappeared in the crowd. With the death of the Empress Catherine and the accession of Paul to the throne of Russia, a cloud gradually settled down upon the life of the new Czaritea, and the crown she was <»"~ upon to wear speedily transformed itself into one of thorns. Paul's first act on his ' accession—! though, doubtless, long meditated— was sufficient to indicate a morbid condition of the brain. He ordered the exhumation— after five and thirty yea™ —of the body of his father (or legal father), Peter III. ; the Imperial crown was sent for from Moscow, and laid on the coffin, which was placed beside that of Catherine; for the lying-in-State. : A ribbpn, extended from one to the other, bore on it, in letters of gold, the following inscription in Russian: "Divided during their lives, they are r£united in death." The two survivors among the supposed murderers of Peter were compellefl to act as pall-bearers. These were Orloff and Bariatinsky; and never, surely, were more amazing^ obsequies celebrated than those at which these two men were required to assist, by. the eon of the man- they had

assassinated. But, beyond banishing thenr both from his Court, Paul T9OK NO FURTHER VENGEANCE ON HIS FATHER'S MURDERERS. The early acts of Paul's reign were undoubtedly promising of good; he diminished taxation, revised sentences of imprisonment, and, in particular, loaded his wife and children with wealth and honours, to make up for the state of constant repression in which they, like himself, had lived during the reign of Catherine. In fac£, he carried his hatred of his mother's memory so far as to try to efface every trace d her reign, dismissing men who had grown grey in tho service of the Crown, and replacing them by young and ignorant officials. Naturally, this was not a popular policy, for Catherine, whatever her private faults may have been, was a- great and wise Sovereign, beloved by her people, who had no mind to see her work undone and her memory dishonoured. Gradually the Czar s latent madness made itself visible: he issued the most whimsical and capricious orders, and speedily succeeded in completely estranging the affection of his subjects. All this time his wife, shrewd woman as she was, must have suffered intensely at the sight of the rapid degeneration of her husband's better nature, afid the waning of his popularity. The end is well-known — so far as it ever will be known. The crafty Count Pahlen had persuaded the Czar that a conspiracy had been hatched against him in his own family, and Paul went so far as to order the arrest of his own wife and 6ons. This was done by Pahlen in order to secure the consent of the Czar's heir to the "removal" of his father. Biitt Alexander refused, even thoucch he had every reason to believe that his own life was in danger. In such circumstances Alexander may well have desired his father's abdication, but there 13 no' reason whatever for suspecting him of any guilty knowledge of, or participation in, the murder. PAUL WAS STRANGLED BY THE COJJTSPISATOES, as his father, in all probability, had been before him. His wife, who heard his cries, and tried to enter the room to help him, found that, in his mad j suspicion of her, the unhappy man had locked the door, so that she might not approach him. Paul's successor, Alexander, was devoted to his mother, and loader her with kindness. She lived throughout his rergn, and had a considerable share in deciding the renunoiation of the Crown by his next brother, Constantino, in favour of Nicholas. She died in November, 1828, but all details as to the manner of her end are lacking. On the whole, the wife of Paul and mother of Alexander and Nicholas seems to have deserved better treatment from history than she received. At all events, there can be no doubt that the Imperial Crown to which she looked forward with pride and eagerness in her girlhood, proved — as the Crown of Russia must be doing to the sorely tried lady who wears it as j Consort of the Czar to-day — a crown of thorns.