Sophie Buxhoeveden

Infobox Person
name = Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden


image_size = 180px|left
caption = Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, right, with fellow lady in waiting Countess Anastasia Hendrikova, left, who was later shot by Bolsheviks in 1918.
birth_date = birth date|1883|9|6|mf=y
birth_place = St. Petersburg, Russia
death_date = death date and age|1956|11|26|1883|9|6|mf=y
death_place = England
parents = Karlos Matthias Ludwig Konstantin Buxhoeveden and Ludmilla OssokinaBaroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, also known as Sophia Karlovna Buxhoeveden (Russian: София Карловна Буксгевден, September 6, 1883 - November 26, 1956), was a lady in waiting to Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. She was the author of three memoirs about the imperial family and about her own escape from Russia. cite web | author=alexanderpalace.org| year=| title= "Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden" | work= alexanderpalace.org|url=http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/Isa.html|accessdate = February 25, 2007]

ervice as lady-in-waiting

during World War I. Her mother was Ludmilla Ossokina.

She was nicknamed "Isa" by the Tsarina and her four daughters and, during World War I, was often chosen by the Tsarina to accompany the four grand duchesses to official duties. She followed the family to exile in Siberia following the Russian Revolution of 1917. She was released by the Bolsheviks, unlike many of the other people in the family's entourage.

Allegations of betrayal of the Romanovs

Some have accused her of betraying the family by taking money from them and later informing their guards that the Romanov children had sewed jewels into their clothing. [ King, Greg, and Wilson, Penny, "The Fate of the Romanovs," John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-471-20768-3, pp. 68-69, 141-143] Buxhoeveden borrowed 1,300 rubles from the Romanov children's tutor Charles Sydney Gibbes to escape Russia. Though she told him she'd return the money, she never did. "I knew she was greedy, but I never knew she'd go that far!" Gibbes wrote to the French tutor Pierre Gilliard. [King and Wilson, p. 505]

Exile, Death and Legacy

In exile, Buxhoeveden lived in Copenhagen with her father, then at Hemmelmark in northern Germany, the estate owned by Prince Heinrich of Prussia, younger brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and his wife, Princess Irene, the Tsarina's sister.

In Berlin, a woman, later known to the world as Anna Anderson, was reportedly claiming to be a Romanov Grand Duchess. It was said that she was Grand Duchess Tatiana. Later she claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. Baroness Buxhoeveden went to Berlin to visit the woman and pronounced her "too short" to be Tatiana. [Hall, Coryne, "Little Mother of Russia", London, Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd. 1999, ISBN 0 85683 177-8, p.340 ] Baroness Buxhoeveden was also involved in disproving another Romanov claimant, this time Eugenia Smith, who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia. She wrote about Smith, "I found no likeness whatsoever to the Grand Duchess physically .... Although a total stranger, she is sympathetic on the whole, but seemed to be labouring under a mental delusion." [ ibid, p.233 ]

Finally at Kensington Palace in London, Baroness Buxhoeveden performed lady-in-waiting services for the late Tsarina's older sister Victoria, Marchioness of Milford Haven. It is claimed that the Baroness was not trusted by the Tsar's sister, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, who warned Victoria that "Isa" was not to be trusted. [King and Wilson, pp. 505-506] However, a statement was made in March 1958 by Grand Duchess Xenia that she believed in her. [Van der Kiste, John and Hall, Coryne, "Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia Sister of Nicholas II", Phoenix Mill, Sutton Publishing, 2002,ISBN 0-7509-2749-6, p.233 ]

After her death she left a number of items that had belonged to the Russian imperial family to Grand Duchess Xenia including, "a green enamel Faberge pencil given to me by Empress Alexandra ... a white china cup with a pattern of cornflowers and the mark NII used by the Emperor at Tobolsk .. a small wooden Ikon .. with a few words of prayer written by the Empress at Tobolsk ... ". [Van der Kiste and Hall, p. 233]

Her three books were considered to give one of the best accounts of the Romanov family's life and final days. They were "Life and Tragedy of Alexandra Feodorovna", published in 1928; "Left Behind: Fourteen Months in Siberia During the Revolution," published in 1929; and "Before the Storm."

References

External links

* [http://www.buxhoeveden.net/phpmyfamily/ Genealogy of the Buxhoeveden family]
* [http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/cocoon/baltlex/Blatt_bsb00000345,00079.html?prozent= Genealogy handbook ] of The Oesel Noble Corporations 1935 - XX.1.1. Sophia (Isa) Buxhoeveden

Persondata
NAME=Buxhoeveden, Baroness Sophie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Lady in waiting to Tsarina Alexandra; author of memoirs about life at court.
DATE OF BIRTH=September 6, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH=St. Petersburg, Russia
DATE OF DEATH=November 26, 1956
PLACE OF DEATH=England