Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954), was an important English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist.  Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.  He was also, famously, a persecuted homosexual.

A non-dynastic Romanov wedding

On February 22, 1914, Princess Irina Alexandrovna, (July 15, 1895, Peterhof – February 26, 1970, Paris) daughter of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna - Nicholas II's sister - was married at the Anichkov Palace (the home of her maternal grandmother, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna) to Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (March 23, 1887, Saint Petersburg – September 27, 1967, Paris).  Because family law dictated that only children and male-line grandchildren would be styled Grand Duke or Grand Duchess, Irina was a princess rather than Grand Duchess.  And though they were wildly rich, the Yusupov family was princely rather than royal.  So the marriage of Irina and Felix wasn't considered dynastic and was therefore a relatively simple affair.

Irina's veil was said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, the Cartier tiara was a gift from the bridegroom.

The Cartier diamond and rock crystal tiara.  One of the many precious things left behind and lost when the couple and their family fled the revolution in Russia.

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 An unexpected bridegroom

Prince Felix Yusupov by Valentin Serov, 1903

Felix and his French bulldog, Gugusse, posing for the artist at the Yusupov country estate, Arkhangelskoe.

It took some tough negotiating to get Irina's family to agree to her marrying the already quite scandalous Prince Felix Yusupov.  He was bisexual, a sometime cross-dresser, and was quite flamboyant in all he did.  Still, the couple seemed very well suited, had a daughter together, and enjoyed what appeared to be a very happy marriage that lasted fifty-three years until his death in 1967.

Two years after their marriage he "masterminded" the event that would make him famous: the murder of Rasputin.  His memoirs, Lost Splendour, are quite remarkably frank - and what isn't actually said, is easily imagined.

Bridal Jewels of the Romanovs

Before the revolution, before the war, when the Romanov's celebrated a dynastic marriage, there was much extravagant tradition to be honored in the nuptial proceedings.  For the bride's wedding day toilette, nothing was more prominent - and personally uncomfortable - than her jewelry.  There were particular of the Crown jewels that every Grand Duchess wore.  In the words of Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna, from her memoir, Education of a Princess:

"These were, first, the diadem of the Empress Catherine, with a pink diamond of extraordinary beauty in the centre and the small crimson velvet crown all covered with diamonds.  Then came the diamond necklace of large stones, the bracelets, and the earrings in the shape of cherries, so heavy that they had to be attached to gold hoops and ringed over the ears.

"...Finally, they laid upon my shoulders the crimson mantle of velvet, with cape and edges of ermine, fastened by an immense [diamond] buckle.  Someone helped me to rise.  I was ready."

The Grand Duchess also relates that later that day, after the wedding:

"My earrings hurt me so that in the middle of the banquet I took them off and hung them, to the great amusement of the Emperor [Nicholas II], on the edge of the glass of water before me."  She wasn't the first Grand Duchess to complain that the weight of the earrings made the gold wire cut into her ears; one must sometimes suffer to be beautiful, but I suppose there's a limit.

Some Imperial Brides

The same Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna on her wedding day, May 3, 1908, with her husband Prince Vilhelm
of Sweden, Duke of Södermanland, in the Arabesque Hall of the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoe Selo.

Her first cousin Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna on her wedding day, August 29, 1902, with her husband
Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, in the Portrait Hall of the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoe Selo.

Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna on her wedding day, April 27, 1884.
With the "crimson mantle of velvet, with cape and edges of ermine"...

...and without.

Tsar Nicholas II and his bride Alexandra Feodorovna
on their wedding day, November 26, 1894. 

Only a month after the death of Nicholas' father, Alexander III - court mourning was suspended for the day - the wedding was celebrated
in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace.  Unusually, Alexandra's mantle is of cloth-of-gold rather than crimson velvet; I assume this was
because she was marrying a reigning monarch rather than a Grand Duke or foreign prince.  A painting by the Danish artist Laurits Tuxen.

Norma Shearer and Basil Rathbone in The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, 1929

"Gowns by Adrian".

Jean Patou, couturier, parfumier (19 August 1880 - 8 March 1936)

Monsieur de Buissy by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis (22 September 1725 – 1 April 1802)

Marguerite de Sève, Wife of Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil, by Nicolas de Largillière, 1729

Alexandrine of Baden and her dear, wicked husband

Alexandrine of Baden, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (artist unknown)

Alexandrine Luise Amalie Friederike Elisabeth Sophie of Baden, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Karlsruhe, 6 December 1820 - Schloss Callenberg, 20 December 1904)

The eldest daughter of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden and Princess Sophie of Sweden, Alexandrine had been all but betrothed to the future Alexander II of Russia, but in 1842 she married the future Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  Ernst was the elder bother and only sibling of Prince Albert - Queen Victoria's Prince Albert.  Taking after their father, Duke Ernst I, Ernst the son was known for his promiscuous lifestyle.  Prince Albert, after his own marriage in 1839, encouraged his brother to find a suitable bride; he also counseled him to wait until he was fully recovered from venereal disease - something Ernst had suffered from since his late teens - warning him that his continued reckless promiscuity might leave him unable to father children.  Venereal disease was not actually curable at that time and, as it turned out, after their marriage Alexandrine was unable to conceive, most likely as a result of her husband's disease rendering her infertile.

Alexandrine, a miniature by Sir William Charles Ross.

Ernst, a miniature by Sir William Charles Ross.

Alexandrine was forever devoted to her husband, but as the couple continued to remain childless - she always assumed their childlessness was her fault - Ernst resumed his former lifestyle and was continuously unfaithful.  During a marriage of fifty-one years, Alexandrine accepted her husband's infidelity completely, seemingly unconcerned, to the amazement of her relatives and the ridicule of others.  As Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, she dedicated much energy - and often her own personal funds - to the establishment and support of many charitable organizations, especially those that benefited children, the ill, and those that worked to improve the position of women in society.

Alexandrine, a portrait by Winterhalter in the year of her marriage, 1842.

Ernst in hunting attire, a portrait by Richard Lauchert.

In their later years they were both often objects of derision; the now-stout and gossipy Duke Ernst, the old débauché, squeezed into his dandyish attire, and his adoring wife trailing after him, addressing her husband as, "Ernst, my treasure".  Ernst died in 1893 and was succeeded by his nephew, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria.  Alexandrine lived to the age of eighty-four, outliving "her treasure" by eleven years.

Duke Ernst II in old age.

The Dowager Duchess Alexandrine, seated right, with her husband's successor, Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha, his wife (née Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia), and their four daughters, L-R,
Beatrice, Victoria-Melita, Alexandra, and Marie.

Quiet Landscapes