The Rebel Romanov

Helen Rappaport

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2025
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781398525979
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

To Queen Victoria she was Aunt Julie; to Catherine the Great she was Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna, granddaughter-in-law. This is the story of Princess Juliane-Henriette-Ulrike of Saxe-Coburg, the Rebel Romanov. 

Born in 1781 in a small impoverished duchy of Germany, Julie's quiet life took a fairy-tale turn when she married into the Russian Imperial Family - the Romanovs. But this world of baroque splendour, of opulent palaces and grandeur, was no happily ever after. Taken to Russia at just fourteen, her marriage was hastily brokered to save the Saxe-Coburg duchy from financial ruin. Her husband, Grand Duke Konstantin, was cruel and abusive, Julie was uprooted from her home, family, language and culture.

As Russia and Europe were thrown into tumult by the murder of Emperor Paul and the rise of Napoleon, Julie finally made her escape back to Germany, where she lived for two decades as a social pariah, denied a divorce by the Imperial Family. Forced to give up two illegitimate children to protect her family's honour, she eventually built a life for herself in Switzerland, where she entertained poets and philosophers, regaling them with tales from the Russian court. 

Helen Rappaport recreates the extraordinary life of this forgotten figure. In doing so she sheds new light on the Romanovs, reveals the sacrifices Julie made to further her family's interests - her brother became king of Belgium, her sister gave birth to Queen Victoria - and investigates the true nature of Julie's relationship with Tsar Alexander I. Rich in history, drama and royal intrigue, Julie's remarkable story is told at last.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Maps
• Family Trees
• Prologue: The Coburg Marriage
• Chapter 1: A Pumpernickel State
• Chapter 2: Journey to St Petersburg
• Chapter 3: ‘The Largest and Most Brilliant Court in Europe’
• Chapter 4: ‘Jülchen’s Star Has Prevailed’
• Chapter 5: ‘Alexander Is an Angel, but Constantine Is a Fury’
• Chapter 6: ‘A Life of Brilliant Misery’
• Chapter 7: ‘She Has Come Back to Us After All’
• Chapter 8: ‘The Catastrophe from the North’
• Chapter 9: ‘She Lives in the Most Perfect Oblivion’
• Chapter 10: ‘Some Things of Which I Do Not Wish
• Chapter 11: ‘That Haven of Peace She So Longed For’
• Chapter 12: ‘Die Elfenkönigin’
• Chapter 13: ‘My House Has Become a House of Mourning’
• Chapter 14: ‘Aux coeurs blessés, l’ombre et le silence’
• Epilogue: ‘Her Fate Might Have Been Very Brilliant’
• Photographs
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright