Alexandra Iosifovna

ALEXANDRA IOSIFOVNA (1830–1911), born Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, was a Russian grand duchess and the wife of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, a son of Emperor Nicholas I. Born into the ruling house of Saxe-Altenburg, she married Konstantin in 1848, converted to Russian Orthodoxy and took the name Alexandra Iosifovna. They had six children.

One of their daughters was Vera Konstantinovna (1854–1912). In 1863, nine-year-old Vera moved to Stuttgart to live with her aunt Olga Nikolaevna and Olga's husband Karl of Württemberg. The couple raised her as their daughter and subsequently adopted her formally. Konstantin Nikolaevich and Alexandra Iosifovna remained Vera's biological parents. The distinction between her descent and her adoptive family is important in reconstructing the history of both dynastic households.