Women, Diplomacy and International Politics since 1500 by Glenda Sluga Carolyn James

Author:Glenda Sluga, Carolyn James [Glenda Sluga, Carolyn James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780415714648
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2015-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

8

The Tsar’s Sister as State Diplomat

Maria Pavlovna between Weimar and Saint Petersburg on the eve of the Congress of Vienna1

Franziska Schedewie

Women participated in international politics and diplomacy long before the introduction of universal suffrage. Female members of Europe’s dynastic monarchies played significant roles in the conduct of international relations, even if they did not rule as sovereigns themselves. In particular, dynastic marriages often placed women in unique positions in which they had the opportunity and were even required to act as intermediaries in foreign relations. Maria Pavlovna, the sister of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, was one of these extraordinary women in nineteenth-century Europe. In the words of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, she was ‘one of the outstanding women of her age.’2 Married to the Hereditary Prince of Sachsen-Weimar in 1804, Maria Pavlovna became Grand Duchess in 1828 and employed her political talents to make her realm a centre of German national culture and to establish an advantageous web of familial connections with Europe’s top reigning houses. She ultimately became a sisterly adviser to her younger brother and Alexander’s successor Nicholas I.3 Despite her considerable successes, however, structural constraints beyond her control prevented her from acting as an effective intermediary between Russia and Weimar, when she was perhaps needed most: during the crucial and agitated period of the restructuring of German states before the Congress of Vienna.4 This chapter focuses on Maria Pavlovna in her role(s) as an unofficial state diplomat in this key period (1813–1814). The passages in the following from her as yet unpublished correspondence5 illustrate how elites communicated and received political issues of the day, thus providing a valuable source for a better understanding of political attitudes and changes, as well as of diplomatic culture and strategies.

On the eve of the Congress of Vienna, after the triumph over Napoleon, the Russian Empire had achieved its greatest territorial expansion and acquired its greatest international authority.6 In contrast, the German states, after the end of the Holy Roman Empire and the subsequent Napoleonic order, found themselves in a state of turmoil and had to redefine their internal and external relationships. For some of these states, their mere existence was at stake, while others saw a chance to gain in status and territory. Saxony, formerly an electorate and now kingdom by Napoleon’s grace, belonged to those that were immediately threatened. In the face of approaching Russian troops, the king had fled from his country as early as the beginning of 1813. His attempt to free himself from his now uncomfortable French connection by attaching himself to Austria failed. In this situation, in August 1813, Christian Gottlob Voigt, a minister of the neighbouring Duchy of Sachsen-Weimar, wrote a letter to Maria Pavlovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, daughter of Paul I (as her patronymic tells us) and, more importantly at the time and as mentioned above, sister of Alexander I. Since her marriage in 1804, at the age of 18, Maria Pavlovna was also the daughter-in-law of the reigning Duke of Weimar and thus Hereditary Princess.

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