Louise of Baden

[[Image:Yelizaveta-Alexeevna.jpg|thumb|200px|Yelizaveta Alexeevna, born Princess of Baden. Collection of the {{Taganrog}} Museum of Art.]] Empress Elisabeth Alexeievna of Russia (in Russian, Elisaveta Alexeievna), born Louise Marie Auguste, Princess of Baden of the House of Zähringen (24 January, 1779 - 4 May (O.S.) = 16 May (N.S.), 1826) was a daughter of Prince Karl Ludwig of Baden and Amalia of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Early life, marriage, affair

She was also the older sister of Frederica Dorothea Wilhelmina of Baden. As reflected in art, Louise was thought of as a very beautiful woman, and loved magnificent jewelry and clothes.

Louise converted from the Evangelical faith to Russian Orthodoxy in Saint Petersburg on 9 May, 1793 (O.S.) = 20 May, 1793 (N.S.), receiving the name Elizabeth Alexeyevna (this name has several different spellings).

Louise married Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, the future Emperor Alexander I of Russia (then the heir apparent of the then tsarevich) on 28 September, 1793 (O.S.) = 9 October, 1793 (N.S.) in Saint Petersburg at the Winter Palace, when she was fourteen years old and Alexander was seventeen.

Alexander and Elizabeth had two children:
*Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia (1799 - 1800).
*Grand Duchess Elizabeth Alexandrovna of Russia (1806 - 1808).

After the last child's death, Alexander pronounced that there should not be more children, giving the reason that it was the will of God. However, when Alexander later took a mistress (Princess Maria Naryshkina) and had children with her, Louise also took a lover, Prince Adam George Czartoryski (who was Alexander's friend).

Both she and Alexander spent most of their time with their extra-marital lovers for several years. Later on in life, however, Louise and Alexander became closer and reconciled. She died on the road from Taganrog to Saint Petersburg in 1826.

Trivia

* Russian poet Alexander Pushkin dedicated to Yelizaveta Alexeevna his poem I wasn't born to amuse the tsars(я не рожден царей забавить..).
* After Alexander's death in Taganrog in 1825, Yelizaveta stayed in the summer palace, where the tsar died, making all arrangements for the burial service in the Jerusalem Greek Monastery'', and inaugurating in Taganrog the first memorial museum of Alexander I in Russia in 1826.