When a mere boy of seventeen his grandmother had attended to his marriage. She had selected for him the Princess Julienne of Belgium, the bride at the time being a child of fifteen. There was no affection on either side, and two years after the marriage the couple separated by mutual consent, the young wife returning to her home, being provided for with liberal pension and the title of Grand Duchess. For many years Constantine showed no inclination to renew this matrimonial experience, but finally he fell madly in love with a young Polish Countess whom he married, having obtained a divorce from his first wife by Imperial ukase.
This lady was endowed with a fragile and delicate constitution, but with great refinement of manner, and mental and moral charms to a remarkable degree.
She seems to have completely changed the rough character of the eccentric Constantine, whose affections never for a moment swerved from their first and only object. He treated his wife with chivalrous devotion and tenderness to the end, and for her sake it was that he resigned the throne of Russia.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
