"Your Majesty, what do you think of Mary?" Queen Feodora pondered for a long time before slowly uttering a name.
"Mary? Are you talking about the Mary who is now being adopted by Duke Sergei?" Nicholas II asked.
Mary's full name was Mary Pavlovna, and she was the legitimate daughter of Tsar Nicholas II's uncle, Grand Duke Paul.
However, Duchess Alexandra passed away when Grand Duchess Mary was only one year old. Because her father, Grand Duke Paul, could not cope with the grief and take care of the young Mary and her newly born brother, he had to hand them over to his brother, Duke Sergei, for adoption.
But because Grand Duke Paul later married a divorced woman, the former Tsar Alexander III was furious and did not allow Grand Duke Paul to return to Russia. Duke Sergei and his wife then became the official guardians of Mary and her brother.
