continued refusing him. Tsar Nicholas II finally intervened, telling the grand duke to make only one more attempt and give up. George Mikhailovich arrived in Greece in spring 1900. This time, under pressure from her family, the Greek princess finally accepted his proposal, yet reluctantly. She made clear that for her it was a marriage of convenience and that her feelings were not going to change. Before she had a change of heart, Queen Olga hurried the wedding. The marriage took place in Greece at the church of the old Venetian fortress in Corfu on 12 May [O.S. 30 April] 1900. It was a relatively simple ceremony with the reception held at the Greek Royal family residence in Corfu: Mon Repos. She was then 24 years old and her husband 37. Grand Duchess of Russia After the wedding, the couple boarded the Greek royal yacht and sailed to the Bay of Naples. They spent their honeymoon in Italy and traveled around Austria-Hungary. From Vienna, they arrived in Russia by the way of Warsaw. Princess Maria of Greece, known in Russia as Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia, was welcomed by the Romanovs as one of their own. Her mother, Queen Olga of Greece, was a Russian Grand Duchess by birth, a first cousin of Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Maria's father, King George of Greece, was Empress Maria Feodorvna's favorite brother. Maria was a first cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, who she had known all her life. Grand Duchess Maria and her husband settled in apartments located within the New Michael Palace on the Palace Quay in Saint Petersburg, the household of her father-in-law, Grand Duke Michael Nicholaievich. They shared the large palace with the Grand Duke's widowed father and two unmarried brothers: Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, and Grand Duke Sergei Mihailovich, to whom Maria Gerogievna became particularly close. The family had Milkhailovkoye near Peterhof as their summer country retreat. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich had an injury in one leg in his youth, which curtailed the active military career he would have wanted; he occupied his time as director of the Alexander III museum where he moved his large numismatic collection. Two days after Empress Alexandra Feodorovna gave birth to her fourth daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaievna, Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna gave birth to her first child, Princess Nina Georgievna on 20 June [7 June] 1901. Two years, two months