German duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by birth, and by marriage a Grand Duchess of Russia, called “Miechen” or “Maria Pavlovna the Elder.” A prominent hostess in St Petersburg following her marriage to the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, she was known as the grandest of the grand duchesses and had an open rivalry with the Empress Maria Feodorovna. The Grand Duchess Maria was the last of the Romanovs to escape Revolutionary Russia, as well as the first to die in exile.
She was a daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta of Reuss-Köstritz. She was eight years old when her mother died in 1862. Her father married twice more.
She married the third son of Alexander II of Russia, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (1847–1909), her second cousin, on 28 August 1874, being one of the very few princesses with Slavic patriline to ever marry a male dynast of the Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. Upon her marriage she took the Russian name of Maria Pavlovna of Russia – the name she is best known by. As a result of marrying a son of an Emperor of Russia, she took on a new style Her Imperial Highness; the couple had four sons and one daughter.
The Grand Duchess had a passion for jewels, and her renowned collection included a 100 carat emerald once owned by Catherine the Great and the 5 carat ruby of Josephine de Beauharnais. Some of her emeralds were purchased by Barbara Hutton, and later by actress Elizabeth Taylor, who had them recut.
She died on 6 September 1920, aged 66, surrounded by her family at Contrexéville, France.
Her great-granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, is the current claimant to the headship of the House of Romanov.
Link to Wikipedia biography