A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Fedorowna, Maria
FEDOROWNA, MARIA,
Empress of the unfortunate Paul of Russia, and mother of the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas, was born Princess of Wurtemburg, in 1759. Selected by Catharine the Second as bride for the heir to the throne, her early married life was one of mortification and insignificance. The capricious temper and ill-regulated character of Paul, vented themselves frequently in harsh measures towards this exemplary woman. Her sons, however, unceasingly manifested towards her the affection and duty her devotion to their childhood had so well merited. After the death of Paul, in 1801, she was released from the trammels in which her youth had been spent. From that epoch till the day of her death, she was occupied in attention to the poor and suffering. The number of magnificent institutions for the benefit of the unfortunate and afflicted, which the founded and directed, is really wonderful. She was the first person to introduce into Russia an attempt to instruct the deaf and dumb, employing for that purpose a pupil of the Abbé Sicard. She died in 1828.