She was the youngest of her mother's seven children, the younger
          four appearing to have been fathered by Baron Auguste Senarclens de
          Grancy. To avoid a scandal, her mother's husband acknowledged
          Alexander and Marie; the other two had died young. Yet they still
          lived in a separate establishment in Heiligenberg while their 'father'
          lived in Darmstadt.
             When the future Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, toured Europe to
          find a wife, he fell in love with the 14-year-old Marie and married
          her in 1841, even though he was well aware of the 'irregularity' of
          her birth. At first her mother-in-law objected to the marriage but
          Alexander II insisted.
             As she was very shy, she was regarded as stiff, austere, and with
          no taste in dress, no conversation, no charm. The damp climate of
          St.Petersburg did not agree with her delicate chest inherited from her
          mother, so that she had a racking cough and recurring fever.
          Nevertheless, she became the mother of eight children. These
          pregnancies together with ill health kept her away from many Court
          festivities, which brought temptations to her husband. In 1855 her
          husband became Emperor, which forced her to attend more State
          functions whether she was ill or not. Although Alexander II always
          treated her well, she knew from 1858 onwards that his feelings were
          for someone else. In 1865 the death of her eldest and favourite son,
          Nicholas, was a great blow.
             Every now and again she was able to go to her brother Alexander who
          lived with his morganatic wife in Heiligenberg. Here she met Princess
          Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria. She resented Alice's suggestion of
          the marriage between the Duke of Edinburgh and her own daughter, but
          when Alice died in 1879 Marie often invited the motherless children
          for visits to Heiligenberg. It was during these visits that Marie's
          son, Grand Duke Serge, first got to know his future wife, Alice's
          daughter Elisabeth.
             The continuing threats of the Russian Revolutionaries were
          accompanied by several assassination attempts. Because of these,
          Alexander II brought his mistress, Katharina Dolgorouky, and their
          three children to the Imperial Palace. Here Marie could hear these
          children playing on the floor above her. She died shortly afterwards
          on 3 June 1880 and, on 6 July 1880, Alexander II married his mistress.
          However, this marriage was not to last long as, on 1 March 1881,
          Alexander II was murdered in St.Petersburg.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas