Female beauty can charm a man so much that it will play a cruel joke with him. The way it happened in the fate of the Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov. The fateful meeting with the beautiful Sophia Meringer caused the birth of a huge feeling of love. The couple lived a life together full of personal happiness, but for a long time remained unrecognized by the high society.
Biography
Alexander Pushkin's wife not only gave the poet inspiration, but also charming children, whose descendants, in turn, left a bright mark in the history of society. Natalia Goncharova's granddaughter Sofia Merenberg was born in 1868 in a foreign land - in Geneva. Her father Nikolai Wilhelm, Prince of Nassau entered into a morganatic marriage with the beautiful Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina. Sofia was the firstborn.
The girl was brought up in the strict traditions of an aristocratic family. Sofia Merenberg received a versatile education. When her beauty came into its prime, Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich Romanov was so in love with a young aristocrat that, contrary to the rules adopted at the royal court, he proposed marriage to the lady.
The wedding took place in 1891 without prior approval from members of the reigning family. This willful and fateful act of the Grand Duke entailed a tragic event. Mikhail Mikhailovich's mother did not know about her son's intention to marry. The news of the sudden wedding brought such pain to the Grand Duchess Olga Fedorovna that the newlywed's mother died of a heart attack.
Tragic consequences
The death of the princess took place on her way to the Crimea on a journey that she made without appropriate accompaniment. Enraged by the events that had taken place, Alexander the Third punished his cousin with complete excommunication from the family. The marriage of the Grand Duke and Sophia Merenberg in Russia was invalidated, and Mikhail Mikhailovich was left without the means and maintenance due to his status.
The whole life of a husband and wife who love each other dearly passed outside the borders of the fatherland. The morganatic family chose warm Cannes as their place of residence. A villa with an unusual for Europe name "Kazbek" became their home, where three children of Sofia and Mikhail Romanov were born - two daughters and a son.
The king's decision
Emperor Nicholas II, who came to power after Alexander III, decided to recognize the ill-fated marriage union valid. He issued a decree on his decision in 1901.
A lot of noise in Russia and Europe was caused by a book written by the Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich about his attitude to the strict standards of life of crowned families. The famous autobiographical prose entitled "Never say Die" by the author was dedicated to his beloved wife, Sofia Merenberg. In Russian translation, the title of the novel sounds like "Cheer up". The work of the Grand Duke in Russia was assessed negatively and the book was banned from publication.
The rebellious couple spent the last years of their lives in a picturesque English estate in Kenwood County. Sofia Nikolaevna Merenberg lived to see her sixtieth birthday, and in 1927 she died on a quiet September day. The burial place of the ashes of Pushkin's granddaughter is the Hamstead Cemetery on the outskirts of London.
