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.
William I of Württemberg
"Russia": Another paternal aunt of William's, Sophie, married the future Paul I of Russia and took the name Maria Feodorovna. This family tie to Russia had important political consequences for the later Kingdom of Württemberg since the reorganisation of Europe in the wake of the Congress of Vienna. William's second wife, Catherine Pavlovna, was his first cousin as the daughter of Paul and Maria Feodorovna. After Catherine died in 1819, the family relationship with Russia was renewed with the wedding of William's eldest son, Charles, to Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. Olga was the granddaughter of Maria Feodorovna and the niece of William's second wife, Catherine. Her father was Nicholas I and her mother was Alexandra Feodorovna, the sister of the Prussian kings Frederick William IV and William I, later the German Emperor.