Chapter 3
Volume II

His Imperial Highness
Prince Serge Maximilianovich Romanovsky
Duke of Leuchtenberg
( 1849 - 1877 )

ESSENTIALS

Born: at St.Petersburg, on December 20th,1849.
Christened:
Godparents:
Name day: Probably September 25th, o.st.
Nickname:
Parents: Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg and Grand Duchess Maria Nicolaevna of Russia.
Died: Killed in action on October 24th, 1877 at Yovan-Tchiflik close to river Lom, near Rushtchuk, Bulgaria.
Buried: St.Petersburg, Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul and on June 13/14th, 1912 reburied in Grand Ducal Mausoleum nearby.
Relationship to author: First Cousin of Grandfather.
Memoirs: None known.
Diaries: ?
Biography: None known.

Episodic Biography: 3862 words. ( In 10 pages ). With short summary of war situation in Danube area in 1877 and:
1. Reproduction: Etching, half bust, Guards Cavalry Uniform. (1875 ?)
2. Reproduction: Etching, Half bust, Guards Cavalry Uniform. (1875 ?)
3. Reproduction: Etching, Suleiman Pasha. dateable 1878/9.
4. Reproduction, bad quality: Print of Funeral Procession.
5. Map of Danube crossing at Sistovo.
6. Map of front-line on river Lom.

Immediate Ancestors of Serge:
1. Serge.

First Generation:
2 - Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg. (1817 - 1852).
3 - Grand Duchess Marie Nicolaevna of Russia. (1819 - 1876).

Second Generation:
4 - Prince Eugene of Beauharnais, Grand Duke of Frankfurt, Duke of
Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstädt. (1781 - 1824).
5 - Princess Augusta of Bavaria. (1788 - 1851).
6 - Emperor Nicholas I Pavlovich of Russia. (1796 - 1855).
7 - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia ( Princess Charlotte of Prussia ).
(1798 - 1860).

Third Generation:
8 - Vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais. (1760 - 1794).
9 - Joséphine de Tascher de la Pagerie ( Empress of the French ).
(1763 -1814).
10 - KIng Maximilian I of Bavaria. (1756 - 1825).
11 - Landgravine Augusta of Hessen-Darmstadt. (1765 - 1796).
12 - Emperor Paul I Petrovich of Russia. (1754 - 1801).
13 - Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia ( Princess Sophie Dorothée of
Württemberg ). (1759 - 1828).
14 - KIng Friedrich-William III of Prussia. (1770 - 1840).
15 - Duchess Luise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. (1776 - 1810).

Fourth Generation:
16 - Marquis François de la Ferté-Beauharnais. (1714 - 1800).
17 - Henriette Pyvart de Chastullé. (1722 - 1767).
18 - Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher de la Pagerie.
19 - Rose Claire des Vergers de Sannois.
20 - Pfalzgraf Friedrich-Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld. (1724 - 1767).
21 - Pfalzgräfin Franziska of Sulzbach. (1724 - 1794).
22 - Landgraf Georg-Wilhelm of Hessen-Darmstadt. (1723 - 1782).
23 - Countess Luise of Leiningen-Dachsburg, Heiress of Broich. (1729 - 1818).
24 - Duke Peter Ulrich of Holstein-Gottorp = Emperor Peter III Feodorovich.
(1728-1762).
25 - Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst - Empress Catherine II Alexeevna 'the
Great'. - (1729-1796).
26 - Duke Friedrich II Eugen of Württemberg. (1732-1797+).
27 - Markgravine Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt. (1736-1798).
28 - King Friedrich-Wilhelm II of Prussia. (1744-1797).
29 - Landgravine Friederike of Hessen-Darmstadt. (1751-1805).
30 - Duke Karl-Ludwig of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. (1741-1816).
31 - Princess Friederike Caroline of Hessen-Darmstadt. (1752-1782).

Close relatives of suitable age (+/- 5 years )
Siblings:
Evghenia +4
Eugene +2
George -3

First Cousins in Russia:
Alexander Alexandrovich +4
Wladimir Alexandrovich +2
Nicholas Constantinovich -1
Olga Constantinovna -2
Vera Constantinovna -5
Alexis Alexandrovich - 1
Maria Alexandrovna -4

Second Cousins in Russia:
Alexander of Oldenburg +5
Catherine of Oldenburg +3
George of Oldenburg +1
Constantine of Oldenburg -1
Therese of Oldenburg 3

Second Cousins abroad.
Marie-Josephine of Urach +5
Karl-August of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach +4
Eugenie Amalie of Urach +1
Marie of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach =
Anne of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach -2 ( +1859)
Alexander of the Netherlands -2
Elizabeth of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach -5
Mathilde of Urach -5

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1
Early Years

Prince Serge Maximilianovich of Leuchtenberg was born on December 20th, 1849 in St Petersburg, the sixth child and third son of Maximilien-Eugène-Auguste-Napoléon de Beauharnais, third Duke of Leuchtenberg and of Grand Duchess Marie Nicolaevna the favourite daughter of Emperor Nicholas I.

There might be a curious reason for the choice of the name Serge, neither a Beauharnais name, nor a Romanov one. In her reminiscences Countess Bludov, narrates events of the 1812 war, and mentions that the Monastery of ‘Troitzkaya Sergievskaya Lavra' was about to be occupied by the French.
A legend about the preservation of the Lavra has survived. It was said that troops commanded by Eugène de Beauharnais were detailed to occupy the Lavra. During the night before the planned attack, Prince Eugène dreamt that an old monk with a radiant and kindly face, entered his tent, and begged him not to harm his monastery, and foretold him that should he do as asked, his family will be important and honoured in Russia. When Eugène de Beauharnais described his dream to his staff, a Russian monk who was present, assured him that the man in his dream was no other than Saint Serge of Radonej.
Beauharnais, decided to spare the monastery and moved on. 4965
The new-born baby had a strangely assorted set of grandparents: A Russian grandfather in Emperor Nicholas I, a Prussian grandmother in Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, daughter of King Frederic-William III of Prussia and of the beautiful Queen Louise, a French grandfather, in the Vicomte Eugène de Beauharnais, adopted son of Napoleon, sometime Arch-chancellor of the Empire, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, and now Duke of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstädt, brother of the notorious Hortense, mother of Emperor Napoleon III of the French, and son of Josephine Empress of the French, and finally a Bavarian grandmother, Augusta daughter of Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria.
However resounding and famous the names of his ancestors, the baby at the time of his birth, was only another Duke of Leuchtenberg.
On December 16th, 1849 Serge Maximilianovich was gazetted to the Guards Preobrajensky Regiment and on December 21st to the Guards 1st Artillery Brigade and the 2nd Battery of the Guards Horse Artillery Brigade. 8388
The recognition that the Leuchtenbergs were part of the Imperial Family came a little later when Emperor Nicholas I, by an ukase dated February 17th 1852, shortly before the death of his son-in-law Duke Maximilian of Leuchtenberg, granted the qualification of Imperial Highnesses to the children and the grandchildren in the male line, of his daughter Marie. 8344
On December 18th, 1852, shortly after the death on November 1st, 1852 in St. Petersburg of their father, all his children were granted the title of Princes and Princesses Romanovsky. HP

Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was once taken ill because one of her Leuchtenberg grandsons had fallen skating and had cut his head deeply. At the time the grandchildren which could have suffered that accident were Nicholas aged 11, Eugene aged 7 and Serge aged 5. 4986

Serge Maximilianovich was 6 at the time of the death of his grandfather Emperor Nicholas I and of the subsequent secret marriage of his mother with Count Grigorij Alexandrovich Stroganov.

The Bibliography will be found at the end of the Episodic Biography

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Chapter 3, Volume II.
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