Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

Born in 1781, Princess Yulian of Saxe-Coburg-Salfeld grew up in a world convulsed by the French Revolution

and Napoleonic Wars, and her own life proved to be as tempestuous as the age that she inhabited.

Wed to Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia, aged just 14, their deeply unhappy marriage

pushed Julie to make an audacious bid for freedom,

in defiance of the social expectations placed on women of her social class. Now her little-known story

has been brought to life by historian Helen Rappaport, who joins Danny Bird to discuss her new book,

The Rebel Romanov.

Let's start with the heart of it all. What drew you to the story of Princess Julian of

Saxe-Coburg? Well, she was actually quite a difficult subject to find because she's so

lost to history. So, I mean, I wouldn't even say forgotten by history. She was never really known or registered by history.

And so I came across her when I decided to take a look at the siblings of Queen Victoria's mother,

Victoire, who was Julie's younger sister, because I was fascinated by the fact that this fairly obscure and

impoverished German duchy produced so many children who made very dynastically auspicious

and strategically useful marriages. And of course the one that gets overlooked, I mean, first of all, there's Leopold,

Prince Leopold, her brother, who married Princess Charlotte of Wales. There's Victoire,

who married the Duke of Kent. They're the better known to. But actually, Julie, she had a very

auspicious marriage way back in 1796 to a Russian Grand Duke who was the brother of Alexander I.

But she'd been completely overlooked.

And could we go a little bit more into her background?

Because as you've mentioned, she came from a relatively minor European royal family.

Yet, as you've mentioned, one that would go on to play a major role in reshaping post-Napolognautonic Europe.

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