Queen Victoria's Maternal Aunt Was No Meek - Or Chaste - Wife

 

Portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1848

Juliana of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1781-1860) was the maternal aunt of Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901) as well as the paternal aunt of her beloved husband, Prince Albert (1819–1861). Her younger sister, Victoria (1786-1861), married twice and had two daughters, one of them being Queen Victoria. 

Queen Victoria's mother, "Vicky of Kent"

The sisters were young at the time that the Russian empress Catherine the Great (1729-1796) was looking for an appropriate wife for her grandson, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich (1779-1831). He was the so-called "heir-presumptive" for most part of his elder brother, Alexander I's (1777-1825), reign. He might have become the new tsar at the death of his brother, but had - or may have? - secretly renounced his claim to the throne. Anyway, it was his younger brother, Nicholas (1796-1855), who became the new tsar in 1825.

Konstantin Pavlovich, the husband of Juliana

Court Etiquette wasn't Konstantin's favorite concern, and neither was a fitting behavior as a husband of his German bride, Juliana, who converted to Orthodoxy as Grand Duchess Anna Fyodorovna. Or put another way: He was abusive, and it was noticed by bystanders at the court. Juliana was handpicked by Constantin's grandmother, Catherine the Great, and the couple were married in 1796, but the union wasn't a success. Konstantin was a very jealous and brutal husband, who once put his wife inside an enormous vase and used it as target practice. However, she escaped him and her (childless) marriage by an annulment by tsar Alexander I in 1820. He had tried to reconcile his abusive brother with his estranged wife, but in vain, as she had settled for a new life with lovers and freedom. Also, her clandestine affairs brought her what the marriage to Constantine didn't accomplish: Children. The first one was a son, Eduard Edgar Schmidt-Löwe (1808 - 1892). His father may have been a Swiss nobleman, Jules Gabriel Emile de Seigneux, but when he turned as controlling as Constantin the relationship ended. However, in 1818 Eduard was enobled by his mother's younger brother, Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, as von Løwenfels. 

Louise Hilda Aglaë d'Aubert

In 1812 Juliana gave birth to her second illegitimate child, Louise Hilda Aglaë d'Aubert. The father of the child was Rodolphe Abraham de Schiferli, a Swiss surgeon, professor and chamberlain of her household from 1812 to 1837. He had advised her during her first pregnancy and was a close friend of hers - also he was a married man. This baby was adopted by a French refugee, Jean Francois d'Aubert, but she died in her early twenties.

This young woman is Juliana as a teen, brimming with life, as well as with hopes and desires of her own, but when she grew old, her life, even dedicated to music as it was, was full of sad losses. She outlived her former, abusive husband by 29 years, and I don't think she mourned his demise, but the death of others, like e.g. her brother Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha must have been extremely sad and hard to bear. However, she may have had some relief in the fact that her illegitimate son, Eduard, married his illegitimate daughter and thus her niece, Bertha von Schauenstein.

German princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who escaped her abusive marriage to the tsar’s brother

 

https://theroyalwomen.com/2021/08/30/juliane-of-saxe-coburg-saalfeld/ 

 

https://www.madamegilflurt.com/2014/02/the-scndalous-life-of-princess-juliane.html 

 

Wikipedia