In 1776, Archduke Paul's wife died in childbirth, and the fetus was not saved. The young Paul was devastated, his temperament changed dramatically, and he refused to remarry. Empress Catherine did something in anger, and 5 months later, Paul remarried.
Paul was the eldest son of Empress Catherine II of Russia.
He was taken away by Empress Elizabeth as soon as he was born, and it was not until his mother ascended the throne at the age of 8 that their mother and son had more communication.
When Paul was 14 years old, Catherine began to consider the future daughter-in-law and identified several candidates.
Among them, the most satisfying to the Empress was Sophia of Württemberg.
However, the little princess was too young, and the empress wanted her son to marry and have children as soon as possible.
So she turned her gaze to the daughter of Prince Hesse-Darmstadt.
In 1773, three princesses of Hesse and their mother received an invitation from Empress Catherine to go to Russia.
At the end of June of the same year, four Russian warships arrived at Lübeck to welcome Hesse guests to the Baltic sea region.
The commander in charge of the escort mission was Grand Duke Paul's best friend, Andrei Razumovsky.
After the group arrived in St. Petersburg, Paul spent two days making a choice, and finally chose Wilhelmina, the second daughter of the Prince of Hesse, as his bride.
Before that, however, Wilhelmina and Andrey Razumovsky had already developed a crush on each other.
Knowing that she had been chosen by Paul, Wilhelmina did not resist, calmly accepted, and joined the Orthodox Church according to custom, changing her name to Natalia Alekseyev.
On September 29, Paul married Natalia.
At first, Empress Catherine was very satisfied with her daughter-in-law, calling her "a wonderful young woman".
However, after a period of careful observation, Catherine's attitude toward her daughter-in-law changed by 180 degrees.
When the Empress heard that Natalia's relationship with Andrey Razumovsky was beyond normal, she reminded her son of Natalia's private actions and suggested that Andrey be driven away.
Although Paul was aware of the problems in marriage, he rejected his mother's advice.
He loved his wife, and Andre's position in his heart was second only to his wife, and he did not want to lose both of them.
In addition to her relationship with Andrea, Natalia's financial situation also caused Catherine a headache.
The Empress thought that the allowances and treatment she gave to the Grand Duchess was the best in all of Europe, however, because Natalia was profligate, the life of the little couple was always very poor.
They also did not have a sense of gratitude for the support given by the empress," did not even say a word of thanks. ”
After two years of marriage, Natalia finally became pregnant, and the good news dispelled all of Catherine's dissatisfaction with the Grand Duchess.
Throughout her pregnancy, Natalia's physical condition was stable.
On April 10, 1776, at 4 a.m., Paul was awakened by his mother, who had died the night before.
Mother and son hurried to Natalia's bedroom.
However, after waiting for a day, in the evening, before the birth of the child, the mother, exhausted by the severe pain, also fell asleep.
The next day, the situation remained the same.
On the third day, the doctor and the midwife announced that there was no hope of saving the fetus.
For the next two days, all they did was to rescue the mother and pray on his deathbed.
Finally, after five days of severe pain, Natalia passed away.
After Natalia died, doctors cut open her body and found that her bones were congenitally deformed, and that her birth canal was only four fingers wide, but the child's shoulders were eight fingers wide, so she could not give birth.
What grieved Catherine the most was that the stillborn child was a well-developed baby boy.
Separated from his wife for just five days, young Paul was devastated. He was even too sad to attend his wife's funeral.
After Natalia's death, Paul's temperament changed drastically, and he rushed left and right in the room, shouting and threatening to jump out of the window and die.
He flatly rejected the proposal to remarry.
Paul's mood was uncertain and he was mad at every turn, and if he was allowed to continue like this, it was difficult to say whether he would be able to fulfill his duties to the country in the future.
In a fit of rage, Catherine opted for a cruel therapy in the hope of dragging her son out of the pain of losing his wife.
She forcibly opened Natalia's drawer, and unsurprisingly, it contained Natalia's love letters to Andrei Razumovsky.
The Empress was furious, and she shoved these love letters into her son's hands.
Reading these love letters, Paul even began to wonder if the father of the child in Natalia's womb was him.
He first wept in pain, then he felt a burning rage.
He demanded that Andrey Razumovsky be sent to Siberia, but because Andrey's father was a close friend of the Empress and had helped her, the Empress eventually ordered him to leave the capital.
On September 26, 1776, five months after Natalia's death, Paul married Maria Fyodorovna.
The new Grand Duchess was the most satisfactory daughter-in-law of Empress Catherine, Sofia of Württemberg.
Some people say that in the face of disease, everyone is the same.
Even now, there are still many diseases, and even if you have money, you can't escape its clutches.
This was especially true in that era of backward medical conditions, and even women with power and wealth had the same consequences as ordinary people when they encountered difficult childbirth.
What would have happened if Andre had told Paul his heart for Natalia early?
Maybe Paul would choose between Natalia's two sisters, but Natalia would still lose her life in childbirth.
The little princess of Württemberg was not able to become Paul's wife because of her young age. Who knows, after three years, Natalia died, and she was just old enough to get married, and eventually became the wife of the Grand Duke.
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