Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna

Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna was the third child and first daughter of Paul I and Maria Fyodorovna. She was born in Tsarskoe Selo on 29 July 1783.

When Alexandra was thirteen, Catherine the Great decided to marry her to King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, who fell in love with the girl when he visited St Petersburg in 1796. But the engagement was broken off when the king demanded that his wife convert to Lutheranism.

Catherine refused to agree and Gustav returned to Sweden alone. Alexandra was humiliated, while the empress was so angry that she fell ill, dying two months later on 6 November 1796.

Three years later, Paul gave Alexandra in marriage to the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Joseph Anton, who was also the Palatine of Hungary. The couple were married in St Petersburg on 19 October 1799 and moved to the castle of Alcsút in Hungary a month later.

On 8 March 1801, Alexandra gave birth to a daughter, who died the same day. She herself died a week later of post-natal fever in Vienna on 16 March 1801.