Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg)
Born Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, she was a daughter of Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt. She belonged to a junior branch of the House of Württemberg and grew up in Montbéliard receiving an excellent education for her time and station. In 1776, when Grand Duke Paul (the future Paul I of Russia), became a widower, Sophie Dorothea was chosen by Frederick II of Prussia, her maternal great uncle, and by Empress Catherine II of Russia, as the ideal candidate to be Paul’s second wife. They met in a state dinner in Berlin and their engagement was quickly arranged.
Philippe I, Duke of Orléans
After Louis XIV's marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain on 9 June 1660, Queen Anne turned her attention to the marriage of Philippe. He had previously been encouraged to court his older cousin the Duchess of Montpensier, eldest daughter of Gaston and his first wife Marie de Bourbon. Known as "Mademoiselle" at this time, she had an immense private fortune and had previously rejected suitors such as Charles II of England. Born in 1627, she was the sole heiress of her mother who died in childbirth. Mademoiselle declined the union, complaining that Philippe always stayed near his mother as if he was "like a child". Mademoiselle instead remained unmarried. Philippe would marry instead another first cousin, Princess Henrietta of England, youngest child of King Charles I of England and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, who was Philippe's aunt and had taken refuge at the court of France after the birth of Princess Henrietta in 1644. They lived at the Palais Royal and at the Palais du Louvre. In 1660, after the restoration of the House of Stuart to the throne of England under her brother Charles II, Princess Henrietta returned to England to visit her sister, the Princess of Orange, who later caught smallpox and died. The French court officially asked for Henrietta's hand on behalf of Philippe on 22 November 1660 while she was in England. The couple signed their marriage contract at the Palais Royal on 30 March 1661. The ceremony took place the next day in the same building in front of select members of the court. The dowry promised was a huge 840,000 livres. Known as "Henriette d'Angleterre" in France, and "Minette" to her intimates, she was known officially as "Madame" and was ever popular with the court. Court gossip later said that the king was the father of Henrietta's first child. Henrietta's very open flirting is said to have caused a jealous Philippe to retaliate by beginning to flaunt his sexuality openly in a less than accepting era.