Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (Dagmar of Demark). Part III.

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Alexander III of Russia, Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, Dagmar of Demark, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, Grand Duchess, Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia, Grand Marie Pavlovna, Otto von Bismarck, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia

Empress Maria Feodorovna was active in philanthropic work. Her husband called her “the Guardian Angel of Russia.” As Empress, she assumed patronage of the Marie Institutions that her mother-in-law had run: It encompassed 450 charitable establishments. In 1882, she founded many establishments called Marie schools to give young girls an elementary education. She was the patroness of the Russian Red Cross. During a cholera epidemic in the late 1870s, she visited the sick in hospitals.

Maria was the head of the social scene. She loved to dance at the balls of high society, and she became a popular socialite and hostess of the Imperial balls at Gatchina. Her daughter Olga commented, “Court life had to run in splendor, and there my mother played her part without a single false step”.

A contemporary remarked on her success: “of the long gallery of Tsarinas who have sat in state in the Kremlin or paced in the Winter Palace, Marie Feodorovna was perhaps the most brilliant”. Alexander used to enjoy joining in with the musicians, although he would end up sending them off one by one. When that happened, Maria knew the party was over.

Alexander III had an extremely poor relationship with his brother Grand Duke Vladimir. At a restaurant, Grand Duke Vladimir had a brawl with the French actor Lucien Guitry when the latter kissed his wife, Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The prefect of St. Petersburg needed to escort Vladimir out of the restaurant. Alexander was so furious that he temporarily exiled Vladimir and his wife and threatened to exile them permanently to Siberia if they did not leave immediately.

As Tsarevna, and then as Empress, Maria Feodorovna had something of a social rivalry with the popular Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna (the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by his first wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz), wife of her Russian brother-in-law, Grand Duke Vladimir. This rivalry had echoed the one shared by their husbands, and served to exacerbate the rift within the family. While she knew better than to publicly criticise both the Grand Duke and Duchess in public, Maria Feodorovna referred to Marie Pavlovna with the caustic epithet of “Empress Vladimir.”

Nearly each summer, Maria, Alexander and their children would make an annual trip to Denmark, where her parents, King Christian IX and Queen Louise, hosted family reunions. Maria’s brother, King George I, and his wife, Queen Olga, would come up from Athens with their children, and the Princess of Wales, often without her husband, would come with some of her children from the United Kingdom.

In contrast to the tight security observed in Russia, the Emperor and Empress, and their children relished the relative freedom that they could enjoy at Bernstorff and Fredensborg. The annual family meetings of monarchs in Denmark was regarded as suspicious in Europe, where many assumed they secretly discussed state affairs.

Otto von Bismarck nicknamed Fredensborg “Europe’s Whispering Gallery” and accused Queen Louise Denmark of plotting against him with her children. Maria also had a good relationship with the majority of her in-laws, and was often asked to act as a mediator between them and the Emperor. In the words of her daughter Olga: “She proved herself extremely tactful with her in-laws, which was no easy task”.

During Alexander III’s reign, the monarchy’s opponents quickly disappeared underground. A group of students had been planning to assassinate Alexander III on the sixth anniversary of his father’s death at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The plotters had stuffed hollowed-out books with dynamite, which they intended to throw at the Emperor when he arrived at the cathedral. However, the Russian secret police uncovered the plot before it could be carried out. Five students were hanged in 1887; amongst them was Aleksandr Ulyanov, older brother of Vladimir Lenin.

The biggest threat to the lives of the Emperor and his family, however, came not from terrorists, but from a derailment of the imperial train in the fall of 1888. Maria and her family had been at lunch in the dining car when the train jumped the tracks and slid down an embankment, causing the roof of the dining car to nearly cave in on them.

When Maria’s eldest sister Alexandra visited Gatchina in July 1894, she was surprised to see how weak her brother-in-law Alexander III had become. At the time Maria had long known that he was ill and did not have long left. She now turned her attention to her eldest son, the future Nicholas II, for it was on him that both her personal future and the future of the dynasty now depended.

Nicholas had long had his heart set on marrying Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine, a favourite grandchild of Queen Victoria. Despite the fact that she was their godchild, neither Alexander III nor Maria approved of the match. Nicholas summed up the situation as follows: “I wish to move in one direction, and it is clear that Mama wishes me to move in another – my dream is to one day marry Alix.”

Maria and Alexander found Alix shy and somewhat peculiar. They were also concerned that the young Princess was not possessed of the right character to be Empress of Russia. Nicholas’s parents had known Alix as a child and formed the impression that she was hysterical and unbalanced, which may have been due to the loss of her mother, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, and youngest sister, Marie, to diphtheria when she was just six. It was only when Alexander III’s health was beginning to fail that they reluctantly gave permission for Nicholas to propose.

Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, the former Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Part II

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Alexander II of Russia, Alexander III of Russia, Assumption Cathedral, Dagmar of Demark, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Gatchina Palace, George I of the Hellenes, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Maria Feodorovna of Russia, Moscow, the Kremlin

Maria Feodorovna was beloved by the Russian public. Early on, she made it a priority to learn the Russian language and to try to understand the Russian people. Baroness Rahden wrote that “the Czarevna is forming a real, warm sympathy for that country which is receiving her with so much enthusiasm.” In 1876, she and her husband visited Helsinki and were greeted by cheers, most of which were “directed to the wife of the heir apparent.”

Maria rarely interfered with politics, preferring to devote her time and energies to her family, charities, and the more social side of her position. She had also seen the student protests of Kiev and St. Petersburg in the 1860s, and when police were beating students, the students cheered on Maria Feodorovna to which she replied, “They were quite loyal, they cheered me. Why do you allow the police to treat them so brutally?” Her one exception to official politics was her militant anti-German sentiment because of the annexation of Danish territories by Prussia in 1864, a sentiment also expressed by her sister, Alexandra.

Prince Gorchakov remarked about that policy that ‘it is our belief, that Germany will not forget that both in Russia and in England [sic] a Danish Princess has her foot on the steps of the throne”. Maria Feodorovna suffered a miscarriage in 1866 in Denmark while she was horseback riding.

Maria arranged the marriage between her brother George I of Greece and her cousin-in-law Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia. When George visited St. Petersburg in 1867, she contrived to have George spend time with Olga. She convinced Olga’s parents of her brother’s suitability. In a letter, her father Christian IX of Denmark praised her for her shrewd arranging of the marriage: “Where in the world have you, little rogue, ever learned to intrigue so well, since you have worked hard on your uncle and aunt, who were previously decidedly against a match of this kind.”

On May 18, 1868 Maria gave birth to her eldest son, Nicholas. Her next son, Alexander Alexandrovich, born in 1869, died from meningitis in infancy. She would bear Alexander four more children who reached adulthood: George (b. 1871), Xenia (b. 1875), Michael (b. 1878), and Olga (b. 1882).

As a mother, she doted on and was quite possessive of her sons. She had a more distant relationship with her daughters. Her favorite child was Nicholas, and Olga and Michael were closer to their father. She was lenient towards George, and she could never bear to punish him for his pranks. Her daughter Olga remembered that “mother had a great weakness for him.”

Maria’s relationship with her father-in-law, Alexander II of Russia, deteriorated because she did not accept his second marriage to Catherine Dolgorukov. She refused to allow her children to visit their grandfather’s second wife and his legitimized bastards, which caused Alexander’s anger. She confided in Sophia Tolstaya that “there were grave scenes between me and the Sovereign, caused by my refusal to let my children to him.”

At a Winter Palace reception in February 1881, she refused to kiss Catherine and only gave Catherine her hand to kiss. Alexander II was furious and chastised his daughter-in-law: “Sasha is a good son, but you – you have no heart”.

In 1873, Maria, Alexander, and their two eldest sons made a journey to the United Kingdom. The imperial couple and their children were entertained at Marlborough House by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The royal sisters Maria and Alexandra delighted London society by dressing alike at social gatherings. The following year, Maria and Alexander welcomed the Prince and Princess of Wales to St. Petersburg; they had come for the wedding of the Prince’s younger brother, Alfred, to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Emperor Alexander II and the sister of the tsarevich.

Empress of Russia

On the morning of March 13, 1881, Maria’s father-in-law Alexander II of Russia was killed by a bomb on the way back to the Winter Palace from a military parade. In her diary, she described how the wounded, still living Emperor was taken to the palace: “His legs were crushed terribly and ripped open to the knee; a bleeding mass, with half a boot on the right foot, and only the sole of the foot remaining on the left.” Alexander II died a few hours later.

After her father-in-law’s gruesome death, she was worried about her husband’s safety. In her diary, she wrote, “Our happiest and serenest times are now over. My peace and calm are gone, for now I will only ever be able to worry about Sasha.” Her favorite sister, the Princess of Wales, and brother-in-law Prince of Wales, stayed in Russia for several weeks after the funeral.

Alexander and Maria were crowned at the Assumption Cathedral in the Kremlin in Moscow on May 27, 1883. Just before the coronation, a major conspiracy had been uncovered, which cast a pall over the celebration. Nevertheless, over 8000 guests attended the splendid ceremony. Because of the many threats against Maria and Alexander III, the head of the security police, General Cherevin, shortly after the coronation urged the Emperor and his family to relocate to Gatchina Palace, a more secure location 50 kilometres outside St. Petersburg.

The huge palace had 900 rooms and was built by Catherine the Great. The Romanovs heeded the advice. Maria and Alexander III lived at Gatchina for 13 years, and it was here that their five surviving children grew up.

Under heavy guard, Alexander III and Maria made periodic trips from Gatchina to the capital to take part in official events.

Maria was a universally beloved Empress. Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin wrote that Maria’s “bearing, her distinguished and forceful personality, and the intelligence which shone in her face, made her the perfect figure of a queen… She was extraordinarily well-loved in Russia, and everyone had confidence in her… and [was] a real mother to her people.

September 3, 1851: Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes. Part I.

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Alexander II of Russia, Alexander III of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, Felipe VI of Spain, King George I of the Hellenes, Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia, Nicholas II of Russia, Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Philip of Gr÷ce and Denmark, Poland, Queen of the Hellenes, Russian Empire

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926) was queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920. Olga was the Grandmother of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh and the great-great-grandmother of Spains current king, Felipe VI.

Family and early life

Olga was born at Pavlovsk Palace near Saint Petersburg and was the second child and elder daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra, a former princess of Saxe-Altenburg. Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

Her childhood was spent at her father’s homes, including Pavlovsk Palace and estates in the Crimea. Her father was a younger brother of Alexander II, and her mother was considered one of the most intelligent and elegant women of the court. Olga was particularly close to her older brother, Nicholas, and was one of the few members of the imperial family to keep in touch with him after he was banished to Tashkent.

Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia had an affair with a notorious American woman Fanny Lear. Due to his affair, he stole three valuable diamonds from the revetment of one of the most valuable family icons. He was declared insane and he was banished to Tashkent.

As a child, Olga was described as a simple and chubby little girl with a broad face and big blue eyes. Unlike her younger sister, Vera, she had a calm temperament, but she was also extremely shy. For example, when interrogated by her tutors during lessons, she burst into tears and ran from the classroom.

In 1862, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich was appointed viceroy of Russian Poland by his brother and moved to Warsaw with his wife and children. The stay in Poland proved difficult for the Grand Duke, who was the victim of a nationalist assassination attempt the day after his arrival in the Polish capital. Although Constantine embarked on a program of liberalization and re-instated Polish as an official language, Polish nationalists agitating for reform were not appeased. Finally, an uprising in January 1863 and the radicalization of the separatists pushed the Emperor to recall his brother in August. Olga’s difficult experiences in Poland marked her profoundly.

Engagement and marriage

The 17 year old King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga’s uncle Emperor Aexander II for his support during George’s election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time.

George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.

Olga fell in love with George, but she was nevertheless anxious and distraught at the thought of leaving Russia. Her father was initially reluctant to agree to their marriage, thinking that at the age of fifteen she was too young and, being close to his daughter, concerned by the distance between Greece and Russia.

For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.

Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children:

Constantine (August 2, 1868 – January 11, 1923), who was born ten months after the marriage of his parents; he married Princess Sophia of Prussia and succeeded his father as king;

George (June 24, 1869 – November 25, 1957), High Commissioner of Crete from 1898 to 1906, married Princess Marie Bonaparte;

Alexandra (August 30, 1870 – September 24, 1891), married Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia; their children included Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, one of the assassins of Grigori Rasputin;

Nicholas (January 22, 1872 – February 8, 1938), married Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia;

Marie (March 3, 1876 – December 14, 1940), married firstly Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and secondly Perikles Ioannidis;

Olga (April 7, 1880 – November 2, 1880);

Andrew (February 2, 1882 – December 3, 1944), he married Princess Alice of Battenberg, their children included Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; and

Christopher (August 10, 1888 – January 21, 1940), father of Prince Michael of Greece.

September 3, 1851: Birth of Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen consort of the Hellenes.

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Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Olga Constantinova of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Revolution, Russian Empire

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926) was Queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920.

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Olga Constantinovna of Russia

A member of the Romanov dynasty, she was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Amelie Theresa Luise, Duchess of Württemberg. She is an ancestor of the British, Greek, Romanian, Yugoslavian and Spanish Royal Families through her elder daughter Olga.

Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

She spent her childhood in Saint Petersburg, Poland and the Crimea. Her father was a younger brother of Alexander II, and her mother was considered one of the most intelligent and elegant women of the court. Olga was particularly close to her older brother, Nicholas, and was one of the few members of the imperial family to keep in touch with him after he was banished to Tashkent.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (Mother)

The young King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga’s uncle Emperor Alexander II for his support during George’s election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time.

George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.

Olga fell in love with George, but she was nevertheless anxious and distraught at the thought of leaving Russia. Her father was initially reluctant to agree to their marriage, thinking that at the age of fifteen she was too young and, being close to his daughter, concerned by the distance between Greece and Russia.

For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.

Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children.

At first, she felt ill at ease in the Kingdom of Greece, but she quickly became involved in social and charitable work. She founded hospitals and schools, but her attempt to promote a new, more accessible, Greek translation of the Gospels sparked riots by religious conservatives.

On the assassination of her husband in 1913, Olga returned to Russia. When the First World War broke out, she set up a military hospital in Pavlovsk Palace, which belonged to her brother. She was trapped in the palace after the Russian Revolution of 1917, until the Danish embassy intervened, allowing her to escape to Switzerland. Olga could not return to Greece as her son, King Constantine I, had been deposed.

In October 1920, she returned to Athens on the fatal illness of her grandson, King Alexander. After his death, she was appointed regent until the restoration of Constantine I the following month. After the defeat of the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 the Greek royal family were again exiled and Olga spent the last years of her life in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

March 10, 1845: Birth of Emperor Alexander III of Russia

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Alexander III of Russia, Alexander the Peacemaker, Christian IX of Denmark, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor of Russia, Russian Empire, Russian Imperial Family

Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finlandfrom March 13, 1881 until his death on 1 November 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev (1827–1907) he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During Alexander’s reign Russia fought no major wars, and he was therefore styled “The Peacemaker”.

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich was born on March 10, 1845 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the second son and third child of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, a daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden.

Alexander III, Emperor of Russia

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich’s older brother was Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich engaged to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was the second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich died on April 24, 1865, at the Villa Bermont in Nice, France from cerebro-spinal meningitis.

In the 1860s Alexander fell madly in love with his mother’s lady-in-waiting, Princess Maria Elimovna Meshcherskaya. Dismayed to learn that Prince Wittgenstein had proposed to her in early 1866, he told his parents that he was prepared to give up his rights of succession in order to marry his beloved “Dusenka”. On 19 May 1866, Alexander II informed his son that Russia had come to an agreement with the parents of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, his fourth cousin.

Dagmar of Denmark

On his deathbed Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich was said to have expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor. This wish was swiftly realized when on November 9, 1866 in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Alexander wed Dagmar, who converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Maria Feodorovna. The union proved a happy one to the end; unlike his father’s, there was no adultery in his marriage.

Alexander II, Emperor of Russia

On March 13, 1881 Alexander’s father, Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. He and Maria Feodorovna were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 27 May 1883. Alexander’s ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots.

Dagmar of Denmark

Alexander and Dagmar (Marie) had six children, five of whom survived into adulthood: Nicholas (b. 1868), George (b. 1871), Xenia (b. 1875), Michael (b. 1878) and Olga (b. 1882). Of his five surviving children, he was closest to his youngest two.

In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease (nephritis). Maria Fyodorovna’s sister-in-law, Queen Olga of Greece, offered her villa of Mon Repos, on the island of Corfu, in the hope that it might improve the Tsar’s condition. By the time that they reached Crimea, they stayed at the Maly Palace in Livadia, as Alexander was too weak to travel any further. Recognizing that the Tsar’s days were numbered, various imperial relatives began to descend on Livadia. Even the famed clergyman John of Kronstadt paid a visit and administered Communion to the Tsar.

Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine

On October 21, 1894, Alexander received Nicholas’s fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine who had come from her native Darmstadt to receive the Tsar’s blessing. Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine was the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort.

Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia

Despite being exceedingly weak, Alexander insisted on receiving Alix in full dress uniform, an event that left him exhausted. Soon after, his health began to deteriorate more rapidly. He died in the arms of his wife, and in the presence of his physician, Ernst Viktor von Leyden, at Maly Palace in Livadia on the afternoon of November 1, 1894 at the age of forty-nine, and was succeeded by his eldest son Tsesarevich Nicholas, who took the throne as Nicholas II. After leaving Livadia on November 6 and traveling to St. Petersburg by way of Moscow, his remains were interred on November 18 at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

November 1, 1894: Death of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and the accession of Nicholas II.

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Alexander III of Russia, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Livadia, Olga of Greece, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

Alexander III (March 10, 1845 – November 1, 1894) was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finlandfrom March 13, 1881 until his death on 1 November 1894. He was highly reactionary and reversed some of the liberal reforms of his father, Alexander II. Under the influence of Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev (1827–1907) he opposed any reform that limited his autocratic rule. During Alexander’s reign Russia fought no major wars, and he was therefore styled “The Peacemaker”.

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich was born on March 10, 1845 at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the second son and third child of Emperor Alexander II and his first wife Princess Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, a daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden.

Alexander III, Emperor of Russia

Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich’s older brother was Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich engaged to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. She was the second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich died on April 24, 1865, at the Villa Bermont in Nice, France from cerebro-spinal meningitis.

In the 1860s Alexander fell madly in love with his mother’s lady-in-waiting, Princess Maria Elimovna Meshcherskaya. Dismayed to learn that Prince Wittgenstein had proposed to her in early 1866, he told his parents that he was prepared to give up his rights of succession in order to marry his beloved “Dusenka”. On 19 May 1866, Alexander II informed his son that Russia had come to an agreement with the parents of Princess Dagmar of Denmark, his fourth cousin.

Dagmar of Denmark

On his deathbed Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich was said to have expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor. This wish was swiftly realized when on November 9, 1866 in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Alexander wed Dagmar, who converted to Orthodox Christianity and took the name Maria Feodorovna. The union proved a happy one to the end; unlike his father’s, there was no adultery in his marriage.

Alexander II, Emperor of Russia

On March 13, 1881 Alexander’s father, Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal. He and Maria Feodorovna were officially crowned and anointed at the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow on 27 May 1883. Alexander’s ascension to the throne was followed by an outbreak of anti-Jewish riots.

Dagmar of Denmark

Alexander and Dagmar (Marie) had six children, five of whom survived into adulthood: Nicholas (b. 1868), George (b. 1871), Xenia (b. 1875), Michael (b. 1878) and Olga (b. 1882). Of his five surviving children, he was closest to his youngest two.

In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease (nephritis). Maria Fyodorovna’s sister-in-law, Queen Olga of Greece, offered her villa of Mon Repos, on the island of Corfu, in the hope that it might improve the Tsar’s condition. By the time that they reached Crimea, they stayed at the Maly Palace in Livadia, as Alexander was too weak to travel any further. Recognizing that the Tsar’s days were numbered, various imperial relatives began to descend on Livadia. Even the famed clergyman John of Kronstadt paid a visit and administered Communion to the Tsar.

Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine

On October 21, 1894, Alexander received Nicholas’s fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine who had come from her native Darmstadt to receive the Tsar’s blessing. Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine was the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort.

Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia

Despite being exceedingly weak, Alexander insisted on receiving Alix in full dress uniform, an event that left him exhausted. Soon after, his health began to deteriorate more rapidly. He died in the arms of his wife, and in the presence of his physician, Ernst Viktor von Leyden, at Maly Palace in Livadia on the afternoon of 1 November 1, 1894 at the age of forty-nine, and was succeeded by his eldest son Tsesarevich Nicholas, who took the throne as Nicholas II. After leaving Livadia on November 6 and traveling to St. Petersburg by way of Moscow, his remains were interred on November 18 at the Peter and Paul Fortress.

On this date in History: June 10 1897. The birth of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia.

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Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Alexander III of Russia, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Czar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, King Ferdinand of Romania, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Russian Empire, Russian Imperial Family, Russian Revolution

Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (June 10, 1897 – July 17, 1918) was the second daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia, and Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine. She was born at the Peterhof, Saint Petersburg.

She was better known than her three sisters during her lifetime and headed Red Cross committees during World War I. Like her older sister Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, she nursed wounded soldiers in a military hospital from 1914 to 1917, until the family was arrested following the first Russian Revolution of 1917.

According to sources, Peter I of Serbia wanted Tatiana as a bride for his younger son, Prince Alexander (future Alexander I of Yugoslavia). In January 1914, the Serbian prime minister Nikola Pašić delivered a letter to Czar Nicholas II in which King Peter expressed a desire for his son to marry one of the Grand Duchesses. Nicholas II replied that he would allow his daughters to decide whom to marry, but he noticed that the Serbian prince Alexander often gazed upon Tatiana during a family dinner. Marriage negotiations ended due to the outbreak of World War I. Tatiana exchanged letters with Alexander during World War I and Alexander was distraught when he learned of her death.

Russian Imperial Family meets the Romanian Royal Family.

Instead of marrying Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia married Princess Maria of Romania on June 8, 1922. Princess Maria of Romania was a second cousin of Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia. Marie of Romania was the daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Marie of Edinburgh. Marie of Romania was named after her maternal grandmother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, (the second and only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine). Marie of Romania and was known as Mignon in the family to distinguish her from her mother, Marie of Edinburgh the daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) and the aforementioned Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Sisters, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (left) and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia.

The murder Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, by communist revolutionaries on July 17, 1918 resulted in her being named as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church. She was a younger sister of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia and an elder sister of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russiaand Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. All sisters were falsely rumored to have survived the assassination and dozens of impostors claimed to be surviving Romanovs. Author Michael Occleshaw speculated that a woman named Larissa Tudor might have been Tatiana; however, all of the Romanovs, including Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, were killed by the Bolsheviks.

Royal Grief: Part II

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Alexander III of Russia, Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Christian IX of Denmark, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Emperor Alexandr II of Russia, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Prince of Wales

In examining the grief born by the Prince of Wales-Edward VII from July 1900 to August of 1901 our story turns to the relationship he had with his brother, HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha.

HRH Prince Alfred Ernest Albert was born on August 6, 1844 and was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was created Duke of Edinburgh  by his mother in 1866 and he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernst II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire on August 22, 1893.

On 23 January 1874, the Duke of Edinburgh married Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, the second (and only surviving) daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and his wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine (daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Wilhelmine of Baden) at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg. The marriage was not a happy one and the Duchess of Edinburgh was thought haughty by London Society. Perhaps there was great truth to this claim and it is evident by her displeasure when she learned that she had to yield precedence to the Princess of Wales and all of Queen Victoria’s daughters.

The Duchess of Edinburgh persistently insisted on taking precedence before the Princess of Wales (the future Queen Alexandra) because she  considered the Princess of Wales’ family (King Christian IX and the rest of the Danish Royal Family) as inferior to their own. The Duchess ‘ father,  Emperor Alexander II of Russia, shared this opinion. However, Queen Victoria refused this demand, yet in the end compromised with her daughter-in-law and granted her precedence immediately after the Princess of Wales.

To his credit, Prince Albert Edward, Prince of Wales did not allow this issue to dampen relations with his brother. In fact, shortly after the incident, The prince of Wales invited the Czarevitch (future Emperor Alexander III) and his family to Marlborough House, the London residence of the prince and Princess of Wales. During this visit he forged a close relationship with his nephew, the future Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. What I find interesting, and need to read more about this prejudice the Emperor Alexander II had toward the family of King Christian IX of Denmark, is that Alexander II’s own son, future Emperor Alexander III, was, like the prince of Wales, married to a daughter (Princess Dagmar) of King Christian IX of Denmark! Does this mean he didn’t approve of his own daughter-in-law?

I digress.

On the death of his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on August 22, 1893, the duchy fell to the Duke of Edinburgh, since The Prince of Wales had renounced his right to the succession before he married. Alfred thereupon surrendered his seats in the House of Lords and the Privy Council, but he retained Clarence House as his London residence. At first regarded with some coldness as a “foreigner”, he gradually gained popularity. By the time of his death in 1900, he had generally won the good opinion of his subjects.

Duke Alfred of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died of throat cancer on July 30, 1900. He was buried at the ducal family’s mausoleum in the Friedhof am Glockenberg (de) in Coburg.    Alfred was succeeded as the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha by his nephew, Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, the posthumous son of his youngest brother, Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany because Alfred’s next brother, The Duke of Connaught, and his son, Prince Arthur of Connaught, had renounced their succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The Prince of Wales attended his brother’s funeral and at that time learned that his sister, Victoria, the Princess Royal (Empress Frederick) was also suffering from spinal cancer and was in great pain. Upon his return to London and his Marlborough residence it was reported that the grief stricken Prince of Wales sunk into a “black depression.”

Part III next week!!

 

Royal Nicknames

Tags

Alexander III of Russia, Czar of Russia, David Duke of Windsor, Duke of Cambridge, George VI, King Edward VII, King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, Lilibet, Nicholas II, Prince of Wales, Prince William of Wales, Princess Margaret of Connaught, Royal Nicknames, Victoria-Patricia of Connaught

“Lilibet”

Last week I discussed double names. This week I will discuss nicknames. Nicknames are common and they seem to be common in every family. In my family I remember my mother not caring for nicknames and in my family I seem to have been the only member to have received a nickname. Well, that is not entirely true. I have an elder sister whom all her friends call her Cathy but family members call her Catherine. It is the opposite for me. All my friends call me Bill but all my family members call me Billy. I am pushing 50 and they still call me Billy!! Grr.

Royalty is no exception. I will mainly be referring to Queen Victoria’s family and extended family and their descendants in this entry. I can conceive that even those royals with a double name had nicknames. I do know that is true. Edward VII, called Albert-Edward, when he was Prince of Wales, was called Bertie in the family. His son, Albert-Victor, was known as Eddy in the family. King George VI was actually named Albert and took the name George after the abdication crisis in order to sooth the crisis by giving the monarchy a sense of continuity when Edward VIII abdicated the throne in 1936. George VI was also called Bertie in the family. And speaking of Edward VIII he was called David in the family. According to the biography on Edward VIII by Philip Ziegler the name David was an after thought and many reasons were given for the name David ranging from trying to gratify the Marchionese of Waterford and even some vague prophecy about a great king over the water named David. The book mentions that even from birth he was called David within the family. However, no reasons were given why his last name, out of a long string of names, was chosen.

Like the name Bertie in the above paragraph some nicknames get handed down. Princess Margaret of Connaught, daughter of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught (himself a son of Queen Victoria) was nicknamed Daisy as was her granddaughter, the current Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II. I think also specific nicknames developed to distinguish family members with the same first name. The above mentioned cases of Albert-Edward and Albert-Victor are a good examples. Sometimes nicknames came from their personalities. Princess Alix of Hess and by Rhine was called Sunny when she was younger. However after the early death of her mother, Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria, Alix became more sullen and shy and withdraw. As an adult married to Czar Nicholas II of Russia (and known as Alexandra he name upon conversion to Russian orthodoxy) she was called Alicky by her husband.

I could go on and on with all the nicknames and I will leave a list of nicknames at the end of this blog post but I want to finish this post with a bit of a rant. To my knowledge all of these nicknames were private and not used publicly. To have done so would have expressed a degree on familiarity with the royals that I don’t think would have been acceptable during the Victorian and later eras. So I have a little beef with Prince Harry of Wales. I think this is one of the first occasions that a royal nickname has been used both within the family and by the general public. Personally much prefer Henry to Harry. I have nothing against the name Harry I just like Henry better. It is a name with a long royal tradition in Britain. I had once remember reading that the queens uncle, the late Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester also held the nickname Harry, but that is was used privately. I cannot find that information to confirm it, so I may be wrong. Oh well, that is my little rant.

So nicknames are as common within royal families as they are in other families. I will leave you now with a list of nicknames for many royals of the Victorian era. This list is not exhaustive.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain ~ Lilibet
Victoria, Princes Royal ~ Vicky (she was called Pussy when very young)
Wilhelm II, German Emperor ~ Willy
Augusta-Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein ~ Dona
William, Duke of Clarence ~ Wills
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh ~ Affie
Friedrich III, German Emperor ~ Fritz
Alexander III, Czar of Russia ~ Sasha
Helena of Great Britain ~ Lenchen
Victoria-Mary of Teck (Queen Mary) ~ May
Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh ~ Ducky
Beatrice of Edinburgh ~ Baby Bee
Victoria-Patricia of Connaught ~ Patsy
Charles-Edward, Duke of Albany (Carl-Eduard, Duke of Coburg) ~ Charlie
Caroline-Matilda of Albany-Coburg ~ Calma
Victoria-Eugenie of Battenberg ~ Ena
Elisabeth of Hess and by Rhine ~ Ella
Friedrich-Wilhelm of Hess and by Rhine ~ Frittie
Marie of Hess and by Rhine ~ May & Maly
Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hess and by Rhine ~ Ernie
Nicholas II, Czar of Russia ~ Nicky
George V, King of Great Britain ~ Georgie.

I am sure there are others out there. Readers feel free to comment on the ones I have missed.

 

 

HM King Christian IX of Denmark

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Alexander III of Russia, Christian IX of Denmark, Dagmar of Demark, Ernst August of Hanover, Father in law of Europe, King Albert II of Belgium, King Harald V of Norway, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Thyra of Denmark, Waldemar of Denmark

This is the last of the three part series on King Christian IX of Denmark. In this section I will examine his reign and the vast family connections that lead to the sobriquet “the Father-in-law-of-Europe.”

Immediately after he succeeded to the throne the question of the Schleswig-Holsein duchies came to a head. The issue lead to a short war with Prussia resulting in a loss of the duchies from Denmark. I will not relate the long complex history of the war here for in many ways it is more for the story on the unification of Germany than that of the reign of King Christian IX. The initial defeat tainted the early days of Christian’s reign and for a while made him unpopular. Increasing his unpopularity was his support of the authoritarian Prime Minister Estrup who ruled Denmark as a virtual dictator between 1875 and 1894. This occurred in an era when Parliamentary democracies were on the rise throughout Europe. His first step toward constitutionalism was when in 1874 he granted Iceland, a Danish possession at the time, its own constitution. It wasn’t however, given its independence.

It wasn’t until 1901 when the king began allowing these types of transformations in Denmark. He begrudgingly asked Johan Henrik Deuntzer to form a government which resulted in the creation of the Cabinet of Deuntzer that included members of the Venstre Reform Party and was the first Danish government not to include the conservative party. This began the tradition of a Parliamentary style government and from then on until his death a few years later the poularity of Christian IX grew. Højre, even though Højre never had a majority of the seats in the Folketing. This was the beginning of the Danish tradition of parliamentarian democracy and this improved his reputation for his last years.

Similarly to Queen Victoria, the Children and grand-children of King Christian IX and Queen Louise linked the Danish Royal Family to many other royal families of Europe. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, King Albert II of Belgium, King Harald V of Norway, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg. The consorts Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and Queen Sofía of Spain are also agnatic descendants of Christian IX, as is Constantine II of Greece (the former and last King of the Hellenes).

The eldest son, future King Frederik VIII of Denmark, was married to Princess Louise of Sweden & Norway the daughter of King Carl XV of Sweden & Norway and his wife Princess Louise of the Netherlands. They had eight children and the first two became kings in their own right. The eldest, Prince Christian, became King Christian X of Denmark in 1912 and the second son, Prince Carl was elected to the throne of Norway when that country won its independence from Sweden in 1905. Prince Carl of Denmark married his paternal first cousin, Princess Maud of Wales, and upon accepting the throne of Norway he changed his name to Haakon and became King Haakon VII of Norway. Haakon & Maud are the grandparents of Norway’s current king, Harald V.

Christian IX’s eldest daughter, the lovely Princess Alexandra, married Prince Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales on 10 March 1863 married at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. With Queen Victoria still in official mourning for the Prince Consort the wedding was more like a funeral than a wedding. They had six children. The eldest son, Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, died from pneumonia in 1892. The second eldest son became King George V of the United Kingdom and is the grandfather of the present queen, Elizabeth II. Their daughter Maud, married, as we have seen, her cousin, King Haakon VII of Norway.

The next son, Prince Wilhelm of Denmark, entered the Danish Navy at the age of 17 and soon found himself elected to the throne of Greece. The unpopular King Otto of Greece was deposed in 1862 but Greece wanted to remain a monarchy. One of the first choices was Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Britain’s queen Victoria, but this offer was declined. The choice then fell to Prince Wilhelm of Denmark who ascended the Greek throne as King George I of the Hellenes. Christian IX’s son became a king a few months before Christian himself inherited the Danish throne! King George I married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, the daughter of Grand Duke f Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. George and Olga were the paternal grandparents of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

The next child was Princess Dagmar. Initially she was betrothed Czarevich Nicolas Alexandrovich of Russia eldest son of Czar Alexander II of Russia. He did before the wedding and upon Nicholas’ wishes she married his younger brother in 1866 who became Czar Alexander III of Russia in 1881. She converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and was renamed Maria Feodorovna. They were also the parents of the ill-fatted and tragic Czar Nicholas II of Russia. At the start of the Russian Revolution she was able to leave Russia and return to Denmark where she died there in 1828. On September, 28 2006 the remains of Empress Maria Feodorovna were returned to Russia and after a service at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral, she was interred next to her husband Alexander III in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, 140 years after her first arrival to Russia.

The last two children of Christian IX and Louise, Thyra and Waldemar, did not make as notable of marriages as their older siblings. Thyra married, Ernst August II, Duke of Cumberland, Prince of Hanover and the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Ernst August was heir to the defunct throne of Hanover which lost its throne in the war against Prussia during the time of German Unification. Thyra’s and Ernst’s son, Ernst August III, married Victoria-Louise of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II, as a means of mending fences. Their descendents did marry into both the Greek and Spanish thrones. Waldemar married Princess Marie d’Orleans in 1885. Princess Marie d’Orleans was the daughter of Prince Philippe VII, Comte d’Paris, pretender to the French throne.

King Christian IX died on February 15, 1906 at the age of 87 and after a reign of 43 years. An interesting King who lived through very interesting times and whose descendants still occupy the thrones of Europe.