October 13, 1928: Death of Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. The former Dagmar of Denmark. Part I.

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Alexandra of Denmark, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, George I of the Hellenes, King Christian IX of Denmark, Louise of Hesse-Cassel, Princess of Wales, Russian Empire, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia

Maria Feodorovna (November 26, 1847 – October 13, 1928), known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was a Danish princess who became Empress of Russia as spouse of Emperor Alexander III (reigned 1881–1894).

She was the second daughter and fourth child of King Christian IX of Denmark (r. 1863–1906) and of Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Louise was born as the daughter of Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel and Princess Charlotte of Denmark. Charlotte of Denmark watithe daughter of Frederik, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway, and Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

From L to R. Dagmar, Wilhelm, Alexandra. Seated King Christian IX of Denmark

Charlotte played some part in the succession crisis which occurred because her half first cousin, King Frederik VI of Denmark, lacked a male heir. In 1839, her brother Christian VIII of Denmark succeeded their cousin on the throne, and during his reign, Charlotte had an important position at the Danish royal court in Copenhagen because her brother favored that her line of the family should succeed to the throne after his male line had died out. This meant Louise of Hesse-Cassel had a better hereditary claim to the throne than her husband King ChristianIX of Denmark. But I digress. I have written about this elsewhere on the blog.

Due to the brilliant marital alliances of his children, King Christian IX became known as the “Father-in-law of Europe.” Dagmar’s eldest brother would succeed his father as King Frederik VIII of Denmark (one of whose sons would be elected as King Haakon VII of Norway).

Dagmar’s elder, and favourite, sister, Alexandra married Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) in March 1863. Alexandra, along with being queen consort of King Edward VII, was also mother of George V of the United Kingdom, which helps to explain the striking resemblance between their sons Nicholas II and George V.

Within months of Alexandra’s marriage, Dagmar’s second older brother, Wilhelm, was elected as King George I of the Hellenes. Wilhelm actually became King a few months before his father succeeded to the Danish throne. Her younger sister was Princess Thyra, who became Duchess of Cumberland with her marriage to Ernst August of Hanover, Duke of Cumberland and a straight male line descendant of George III, King of the United Kingdom and Hanover.

Princess Dagmar of Denmark

Dagmar also had another younger brother, Valdemar. He had a lifelong naval career. He was paternal uncle of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He married Princess Marie d’Orleans on October 22, 1885 at the Château d’Eu, the residence of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris. Marie was the eldest child of Robert, duke of Chartres, and his wife, Princess Françoise d’Orléans. I will write more on Prince Valdemar later this month.

Dagmar was known for her beauty. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge said that Dagmar was “sweetly pretty” and commented favorably on her “splendid dark eyes.” Her fiancee Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich was enthusiastic about her beauty. He wrote to his mother that “she is even prettier in real life than in the portraits that we had seen so far. Her eyes speak for her: they are so kind, intelligent, animated.”

Due to the rise of Slavophile ideology in the Russian Empire, Alexander II of Russia searched for a bride for the heir apparent, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, in countries other than the German states that had traditionally provided consorts for the tsars. In 1864, Nicholas, or “Nixa” as he was known in his family, went to Denmark and proposed to Dagmar. Her future mother-in-law Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse) gave her a pearl necklace and Nicholas gave her diamonds. In total, the betrothal gifts Dagmar received from her future in-laws cost 1.5 million rubles.

Dagmar of Denmark and Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

In April, Nicholas grew gravely ill with cerebrospinal meningitis. Alexander II of Russia sent a telegram to Dagmar: “Nicholas has received the Last Rites. Pray for us and come if you can.” On April 22, 1865, Nicholas died in the presence of his parents, brothers, and Dagmar. His last wish was that Dagmar would marry his younger brother, the future Alexander III.

Dagmar was devastated by Nicholas’ death. Nicholas’ parents struggled to “pull Princess Dagmar away from the corpse and carry her out.” She was so heartbroken when she returned to her homeland that her relatives were seriously worried about her health.

She had already become emotionally attached to Russia and often thought of the huge, remote country that was to have been her home. Many were sympathetic towards Dagmar. Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge wrote of “poor dear Minny’s sorrow and the blight which has fallen upon her young life.” Queen Victoria wrote “how terrible for poor Dagmar… the poor parents and bride are most deeply to be pitied.”

Princess Dagmar of Denmark

Alexander II of Russia and Maria Alexandrovna had grown fond of Dagmar, and they wanted her to marry their new heir, Tsarevich Alexander. In an affectionate letter, Alexander II told Dagmar that he hoped she would still consider herself a member of their family. Maria Alexandrovna tried to convince Louise of Hesse-Kassel to send Dagmar to Russia immediately, but Louise insisted that Dagmar must “strengthen her nerves… [and] avoid emotional upsets.”

In June 1866, Tsarevich Alexander visited Copenhagen with his brothers Grand Duke Vladimir and Grand Duke Alexei. While looking over photographs of Nicholas, Alexander asked Dagmar if “she could love him after having loved Nixa, to whom they were both devoted.” She answered that she could love no one but him, because he had been so close to his brother. Alexander recalled that “we both burst into tears… [and] I told her that my dear Nixa helped us much in this situation and that now of course he prays about our happiness.”

Dagmar converted to Orthodoxy and became Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia. The lavish wedding took place on November 9, 1866 in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Financial constraints had prevented her parents from attending the wedding, and in their stead, they sent her brother, Crown Prince Frederick. Her brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales, had also travelled to Saint Petersburg for the ceremony; pregnancy had prevented the Princess of Wales from attending.

Dagmar of Denmark and Tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich

After the wedding night, Alexander wrote in his diary, “I took off my slippers and my silver embroidered robe and felt the body of my beloved next to mine… How I felt then, I do not wish to describe here. Afterwards we talked for a long time.” After the many wedding parties were over the newlyweds moved into the Anichkov Palace in Saint Petersburg where they were to live for the next 15 years, when they were not taking extended holidays at their summer villa Livadia in the Crimean Peninsula.

Maria and Alexander had an exceptionally happy marriage. She was widely recognized as “the only person on the face of the earth in whom the Autocrat of all the Russias puts any real trust. In his gentle consort, he has unlimited confidence.” Despite her anti-Russian sentiments, Queen Victoria wrote favorably about Maria and Alexander’s marriage. She wrote that “[Maria] seems quite happy and contented with her fat, good-natured husband who seems far more attentive and kind to her than one would have thought….I think they are very domestic and happy and attached to each other; he makes a very good husband.”

On these dates in History: May 27.

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Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Countess of Salisbury, Duchess of Montpensier, Elizabeth-Charlotte, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor of Russia, Emperor Peter the Great, King Edward IV of England, King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Madame de Montespan, Margaret Pole, Princess Palatine, Tsar Simeon I the Great

* 1153 – Malcolm IV becomes King of Scotland.

Malcolm IV (between April 23 and May 24, 1141 – December 9, 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (died 1152) and Ada de Warenne. He succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David’s Anglo-Norman tastes.

* 1199 – John is crowned King of England.

John (December 24, 1166 – October 19, 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philippe II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John’s reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom. John was the youngest of the four surviving sons of King Henry II of England and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.

* 1257 – Richard of Cornwall, and his wife, Sanchia of Provence, are crowned King and Queen of the Germans at Aachen Cathedral.

Richard (January 5, 1209 – April 2, 1272), second son of John, King of England, was the nominal Count of Poitou (1225–43), Earl of Cornwall (from 1225) and King of Germany (from 1257). He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and joined the Barons’ Crusade, where he achieved success as a negotiator for the release of prisoners and assisted with the building of the citadel in Ascalon.

* 1703 – Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia founds the city of Saint Petersburg.

The city was founded by Emperor Peter I the Great on May 27, 1703, on the site of a captured Swedish fortress. It served as a capital of the Russian Tsardom and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918 (being replaced by Moscow for a short period of time between 1728 and 1730). After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow.

Emperor Peter I the Great of Russia

* 1883 – Alexander III is crowned Emperor of Russia.

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

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

Births

* 1537 – Ludwig IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Marburg (d. 1604)

Landgrave Ludwig IV of Hesse-Marburg (May 27, 1537 – October 9, 1604) was the son of Landgrave Philipp I of Hesse and his wife Christine of Saxony. After the death of his father in 1567, Hesse was divided among his sons and Louis received Hesse-Marburg (Upper Hesse) including Marburg and Giessen.

1626 – Willem II, Prince of Orange (d. 1650)

Willem II, Prince of Orange

Willem II (May 27, 1626 – November 6, 1650) was sovereign Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, Overijssel and Groningen in the United Provinces of the Netherlands from March 14, 1647 until his death three years later. His only child, William III, co-reigned as King of England, Ireland, and Scotland along with his wife Queen Mary II.

* 1627 – Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier (d. 1693)

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier, (May 27, 1627 – April 5, 1693) known as La Grande Mademoiselle, was the only daughter of Gaston d’Orléans with his first wife Marie de Bourbon, Duchess of Montpensier. Gaston d’Orléans the third son of King Henri IV of France and his wife Marie de’ Medici.

Anne Marie Louise d’Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier

One of the greatest heiresses in history, she died unmarried and childless, leaving her vast fortune to her cousin, Philippe of France. After a string of proposals from various members of European ruling families, including Charles II of England, Afonso VI of Portugal, and Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, she eventually fell in love with the courtier Antoine Nompar de Caumont and scandalised the court of France when she asked Louis XIV for permission to marry him, as such a union was viewed as a mésalliance. She is best remembered for her role in the Fronde, her role in bringing the famous composer Lully to the king’s court, and her Mémoires.

* 1652 – Elizabeth-Charlotte, Princess Palatine of Germany (d. 1722)

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte (May 27, 1652 – December 8, 1722) was a German princess and, as Madame, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, younger brother of Louis XIV of France, and mother of France’s ruler during the Regency. Louis invoked her hereditary claim to the Palatinate as pretext to launch the Nine Years’ War in 1688. Her vast, frank correspondence provides a detailed account of the personalities and activities at the court of her brother-in-law, Louis XIV, for half a century, from the date of her marriage in 1672.

Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte was born in Heidelberg Castle, to Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Princess Elisabeth-Charlotte is directly related to several iconic European monarchs. Her grandmother Elizabeth Stuart was a Scottish and later English princess, daughter of James I-VI of England, Scotland and Ireland and granddaughter of Mary I, Queen of Scots. Her first cousin became George I, the first Hanover King of Great Britain.

* 1756 – Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria (d. 1825)

Maximilian I Joseph (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria

Maximilian-Joseph was the son of the Count Palatine Friedrich-Michael of Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld and Maria-Francisca of Sulzbach, was at Schwetzingen, between Heidelberg and Mannheim.

Deaths

* 866 – Ordoño I of Asturias (b. 831)

Ordoño I (c. 821 – May 27, 866) was King of Asturias from 850 until his death. He was probably raised in Lugo, capital of the province of Galicia, of which his father, Ramiro, had been named governor. There he was educated, including in the military arts.

On January 1, 850, Ordoño succeeded his father as king. As he was his father’s heir, he was the first king of Asturias to ascend the throne without election. Ordoño married Muniadona. He had six children, including his successor, Alfonso III.

Ordoño died in Oviedo and was succeeded by his eldest son.

* 927 – Simeon I of Bulgaria first Bulgarian Emperor (b. 864)

Tsar Simeon I the Great ruled over Bulgaria from 893 to 927, during the First Bulgarian Empire. Simeon’s successful campaigns against the Byzantines, Magyars and Serbs led Bulgaria to its greatest territorial expansion ever, making it the most powerful state in contemporary Eastern and Southeast Europe. His reign was also a period of unmatched cultural prosperity and enlightenment later deemed the Golden Age of Bulgarian culture.

* 1039 – Dirk III, Count of Holland (b. 981)

Dirk III (also called Dirik or Theodoric) was Count of Holland from 993 to 27 May 1039, until 1005 under regency of his mother. It is thought that Dirk III went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land around 1030, hence his nickname of Hierosolymita (‘the Jerusalemite’ in Latin).

The area over which Dirk ruled was called Holland for the first time only in 1101 and was known as West Friesland at this time. The actual title of Count Dirk III was ‘Count in Friesland’. Western Frisia was very different from the area (North and South Holland) of today. Most of the territory was boggy and subject to constant flooding and hence very sparsely populated. The main areas of habitation were in the dunes at the coast and on heightened areas near the rivers.

* 1508 – Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan (b. 1452)

Ludovico Maria Sforza (July 27, 1452 – May 27, 1508), was an Italian Renaissance prince who ruled as Duke of Milan from 1494, following the death of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza, until 1499. A member of the Sforza family, he was the fourth son of Francesco I Sforza. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned The Last Supper.

* 1541 – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (b. 1473)

Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (August 14, 1473 – May 27, 1541), was an English peeress. She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, the brother of kings Edward IV and Richard III of England. Margaret was one of two women in 16th-century England to be a peeress in her own right with no titled husband. One of the few surviving members of the Plantagenet dynasty after the Wars of the Roses, she was executed in 1541 at the command of Henry VIII, who was the son of her first cousin Elizabeth of York. Pope Leo XIII beatified her as a martyr for the Catholic Church on December 29, 1886.

* 1707 – Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan, French mistress of Louis XIV of France (b. 1640)

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan (October 5, 1640 – May 27, 1707), better known as Madame de Montespan was the most celebrated maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre, by whom she had seven children.

Born into one of the oldest noble families of France, the House of Rochechouart, Madame de Montespan was called by some the “true Queen of France”‘ during her romantic relationship with Louis XIV due to the pervasiveness of her influence at court during that time.

Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise of Montespan

Her so-called “reign” lasted from around 1667, when she first danced with Louis XIV at a ball hosted by the king’s younger brother, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, at the Louvre Palace, until her alleged involvement in the notorious Affaire des Poisons in the late 1670s to 1680s. Her immediate contemporary was Barbara Villiers, mistress of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1673, the couple’s three living illegitimate children were legitimated by Louis XIV and given the royal surname of de Bourbon. Their mother’s name, however, was not mentioned in the legitimization documents, as Madame de Montespan was still married to her husband. If their maternal parentage had been revealed, the marquis could have legally claimed Madame de Montespan’s illegitimate children with the king as his own.

The last years of Madame de Montespan’s life were given up to a very severe penance. Real sorrow over her death was felt by her three youngest children. She died on May 27, 1707 at the age of almost sixty-seven while taking the waters at Bourbon-l’Archambault in order to try to heal an illness. The king forbade her children to wear mourning for her.

She is an ancestress of several royal houses in Europe, including those of Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

April 19-21, 1894: Royal Celebrations in Coburg, Germany.

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Coburg Germany, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Royal Engagement, royal wedding, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Victoria Princess Royal

In April 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia joined his Uncle Sergei and Aunt Elisabeth (born a Princess of Hesse and By Rhine) on a journey to Coburg, Germany, for the wedding of Elisabeth’s and Alix’s brother, Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine to their mutual first cousin Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh

The wedding took place on April 19, 1894, at Schloss Ehrenburg. The match was actively encouraged by their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, who attended the wedding.

Other guests attended the wedding including Emperor Wilhelm II, the Empress Friedrich (Emperor Wilhelm’s mother and Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter), Nicholas’s uncle, the Prince of Wales, (future King Edward VII) and the bride’s parents, Prince Alfred and his wife Maria (daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia) the reigning Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Also at the wedding At the wedding, Ernst-Ludwig’s surviving sister, Princess Alix.

Once in Coburg Nicholas proposed to Alix, but she rejected his proposal, being reluctant to convert to Orthodoxy. But Emperor Wilhelm II later told her she had a duty to marry Nicholas and to convert, as her sister Elisabeth had voluntarily done in 1892.

Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Russia and Princess Alix of Hesse and By Rhine

Thus Nicholas and Alix became officially engaged on April 20, 1894. Nicholas’s parents Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark) initially hesitated to give the engagement their blessing, as Alix had made poor impressions during her visits to Russia. However, they gave their consent only when they saw Emperor Alexander III’s health deteriorating.

On April 21, 1894 this famous picture of Queen Victoria and many royals was taken at Edinburgh Palais in Coburg during the wedding festivities. Despite this being the wedding of Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Victoria-Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the excitement of imminent match between Tsarevich Nicholas and Alix of Hesse and By Rhine threw those nuptial celebrations into the shade.

Today is the 145th anniversary of the birth of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, (April 6, 1875 – April 20, 1960).

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Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, House of Romanov, Russian Empire, Russian Revolution, Sandro

Today is the 145th anniversary of the birth of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, (April 6, 1875 – April 20, 1960) elder daughter and fourth child of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (née Princess Dagmar of Denmark) and the sister of Emperor Nicholas II. She married a cousin, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, with whom she had seven children. She was the mother-in-law of Felix Yusupov and a cousin of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia who, together, killed Grigori Rasputin, holy healer to her nephew, the haemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia.

During her brother’s reign she recorded in her diary and letters increasing concern about his rule. After the fall of the monarchy in February 1917, she fled Russia, eventually settling in the United Kingdom.

Young Xenia with her mother Maria Feodorovna

Xenia and her paternal first cousin once removed Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, her eventual husband, played together as friends in the 1880s. He was the son of Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia, the youngest son of Nicholas I of Russia, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (Cecily of Baden). He was mostly known as “Sandro” and was also a friend of her brother, Nicholas. In 1886, 20-year-old Alexander was serving in the navy. Eleven-year-old Xenia sent him a card when his ship was in Brazil, “Best wishes and speedy return! Your sailor Xenia”. In 1889, Alexander wrote of Xenia, “She is fourteen. I think she likes me.”

At age 15, though Xenia and Alexander wanted to marry, her parents were reluctant because Xenia was too young and they were unsure of Alexander’s character. The Empress Maria Feodorovna had complained of Alexander’s arrogance and rudeness. It was not until January 12, 1894 that Xenia’s parents accepted the engagement, after Alexander’s father, Grand Duke Michael Nikolaievich of Russia, intervened.

Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia

The couple finally wed on August 6, 1894, when Xenia was 19, in the SS Peter & Paul Chapel of the Peterhof Palace. Xenia’s younger sister, Olga, wrote about the joy of the wedding, “The Emperor was so happy. It was the last time I ever saw him like that.” They spent their wedding night at Ropsha Palace, and their honeymoon at Ai-Todor (Alexander’s estate in Crimea). During the honeymoon, Xenia’s father, Alexander III, became ill and died on November 1, 1894. After his death, Xenia’s eldest brother inherited the Crown and became the new Emperor Nicholas II.

In 1918, while in Crimea, Xenia learnt that her brother Nicholas II, his wife, and their children had been murdered by the Bolsheviks. Her last surviving brother, Michael, was also murdered (by shooting) in 1918 outside Perm.

While the Red Army was coming closer to the Crimea, Xenia and her mother, the Dowager Empress Maria, escaped from Russia on April 11, 1919 with the help of Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (née Princess Alexandra of Denmark), Dowager Empress Maria’s sister. King George V of the United Kingdom sent the British warship HMS Marlborough which brought them and sixteen other Romanovs (including five of her sons) from the Crimea through the Black Sea to Malta, and then to England. Xenia remained in Great Britain, while Dowager Empress Maria, after a stay in England, was joined by Olga at Villa Hvidore outside Copenhagen in Denmark.

Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia And Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia

On February 6, 1933, Xenia’s husband Sandro died. Xenia and her sons attended his funeral on 1 March, in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin in the south of France. By March 1937, Xenia had moved from Frogmore Cottage in Windsor Great Park to Wilderness House in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace. She lived there until her death on April 20, 1960. Despite reduced circumstances during her lifetime, Xenia left a small estate to her remaining relatives.

Princess Catherine Dolgorukova and Alexander II of Russia

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Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Lady-in-Waiting, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Mistress, Morganatic Marriage, Prince Michael Dolgorukov, Princess Catherine Dolgorukova, St. Petersburg

Princess Catherine Dolgorukova (November 14, 1847 – February 15, 1922), also known as Catherine Dolgorukova, Dolgoruki, or Dolgorukaya, was the daughter of Prince Michael Dolgorukov and Vera Vishnevskaya. She was a long-time mistress of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and later, as his morganatic wife, was given the title of Princess Yurievskaya.

Alexander and Catherine already had three children when they formed a morganatic marriage on July 18, 1880, after the death of the Emperor’s wife, Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, on June 3, 1880. A fourth child had died in infancy. Catherine became a widow with the assassination of Alexander II on March 13, 1881 by members of Narodnaya Volya.

Catherine first met Alexander when she was twelve and he paid a visit to her father’s estate. At the time, he saw her only as a little girl and probably forgot their visit. After the death of her father, who had left his family without resources, Catherine and her sister were sent to the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg, a school for well-born girls.

The Emperor paid for their education and that of their four brothers. Alexander met the sixteen-year-old Catherine there on an official visit to the school in the fall of 1864 and was immediately attracted. The Emperor was 45 and with Catherine being 16 there was an age difference of 29 years, 6 months, 16 days.

One contemporary described the young Catherine as “of medium height, with an elegant figure, silky ivory skin, the eyes of a frightened gazelle, a sensuous mouth, and light chestnut tresses.” Alexander visited her at the school and took her for walks and on carriage rides. Catherine had liberal opinions, formed in part by her time at the school, and she discussed them with the Emperor . He later arranged for her to become a lady-in-waiting to his wife, who was suffering from tuberculosis.

Catherine liked the Emperor and enjoyed being in his company, but she didn’t want to become one of a series of mistresses. Though her mother and the headmistress of the Smolny Institute both urged her to seize the opportunity to better her circumstances and those of her family, Catherine and Alexander did not actually become intimate until July 1866, when she was moved by her pity for the Emperor after the death of his eldest son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, Tsarevich of Russia, and after an attempt to assassinate him. Her own mother had died two months before. That night, she later recalled in her memoirs, the Emperor told her: “Now you are my secret wife. I swear that if I am ever free, I will marry you.”

They had four children, 2 boys and 2 girls, born between 1872-1878. The Emperor insisted that Catherine and their children remain nearby. He saw her three or four times a week when she was escorted by the police to a private apartment in the Winter Palace and they wrote to one another every day and sometimes several times each day, often discussing the pleasure they found in making love. In one 28-page letter, written when Catherine was pregnant, she asked the Emperor to remain faithful to her “for I know you are capable in one moment when you want to make it, to forget that you desire only me, and to go and make it with another woman.”

Alexander sketched Catherine in the nude, rented her a mansion in St. Petersburg, and thought of her constantly. Still, great secrecy was required. They never signed their letters to one another with their real names and used the code word “bingerle” to refer to the sex act. When she went into labor with her third child, Boris, in February 1876, Catherine insisted on being taken to the Winter Palace, where she gave birth in the Emperor’s rooms, but the baby was taken back to Catherine’s private residence while Catherine recovered from childbirth in the Emperor’s rooms for nine days. Boris caught cold and died a few weeks later.

The children of Emperor Alexander II and Princess Catherine’s children were given the title Prince/Princess knyaginya:

* Prince George Alexandrovich Yurievsky (May 12, 1872 – September 13, 1913); married Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau, a morganatic daughter of Duke Constantine Petrovich of Oldenburg and Agrafena Djaparidze, Countess von Zarnekau.
* Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (November 7, 1873 – August 10, 1925); married Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, a morganatic son of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau by his wife, Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, daughter of Alexander Pushkin.
* Boris Alexandrovich Yurievsky (February 23, 1876 – April 11, 1876).
* Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (September 9, 1878 – December 22, 1959); married, firstly, Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky; married, secondly, Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky.

The relationship met with tremendous disapproval from the Emperor’s family and from those at Court. Catherine was accused of scheming to become Empress and of influencing the Tsar towards liberalism. She was said to associate with unscrupulous businessmen. Some members of the family feared that Catherine’s children might supplant the Tsar’s legitimate heirs. The Tsar tired of hearing veiled criticisms from relatives and wrote to his sister Queen Olga of Württemberg, (wife of King Charles I of Württemberg) shortly after their marriage that Catherine never interfered in affairs at court, despite the ugly rumors about her. “She preferred to renounce all social amusements and pleasures so desired by young ladies of her age…and has devoted her entire life to loving and caring for me,” the Tsar wrote. “Without interfering in any affairs, despite the many attempts by those who would dishonestly use her name, she lives only for me, dedicated to bringing up our children.”

Fearing that she might become the target of assassins, the Tsar had moved Catherine and their children to the third floor of the Winter Palace by the winter of 1880. Courtiers spread stories that the dying Tsarina was forced to hear the noise of Catherine’s children moving about overhead, but her rooms were actually far away from those occupied by the Empress. Though the Tsar had been unfaithful on many occasions in the past, his relationship with Catherine began after the Empress, who had had eight children, stopped having intercourse with her husband on the advice of her doctors.

After the Empress asked to meet his children with Catherine, the Emperor brought their two older children, George and Olga, to the Empress’s bedside and she kissed and blessed both children. Both the Emperor and his wife were in tears during the meeting. The Emperor told his family that he chose to marry Catherine soon after the death of the Empress because he feared that he would be assassinated and she would be left with nothing. The marriage was unpopular both with the family and with the people, but the Tsar forced them to accept it. He granted Catherine the title of Princess Yurievskaya and legitimized their children, though they had no right to the throne as children of a morganatic marriage.

Some courtiers described Catherine as “vulgar and ugly” and resented that she was there in the place of their dead Empress. One of them, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, wrote that “the eyes, by themselves, would be attractive, I suppose, only her gaze has no depth – the kind in which transparency and naïveté meet with lifelessness and stupidity … How it irks me to see her in the place of the dear, wise, and graceful Empress!”

The Emperor however, was delighted to finally be married to his long-time mistress and to be able to be open about their relationship. In his memoirs, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia wrote that the Emperor behaved like a teenage boy when in Catherine’s presence and she also appeared to adore him. At one point in family company, the Emperor asked George, his oldest child by Catherine, if he would like to become a Grand Duke. “Sasha, for God’s sake, drop it!” Catherine rebuked him, but the exchange fueled the family’s fears that the Tsar planned to make Catherine his Empress and supplant his legitimate heirs with his second family.

The family also resented it when they heard Catherine call her husband by the diminutive “Sasha.” Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich wrote that his father, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich of Russia, was sorry for Catherine because the family treated her so coldly.

Though they were happy together, the troubled political situation and constant threats of assassination cast a shadow over their lives together. On March 1, 1880, an explosion shook the dining room of the Winter Palace. Alexander ran upstairs to Catherine’s rooms, shouting “Katya, my dearest Katya!” She was unhurt, as was the dying Empress, who was so ill she was unaware an explosion had occurred.

Alexander’s brother-in-law, Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, who was there during the assassination attempt, bitterly resented that the Emperor had forgotten his dying wife, Prince Alexander’s sister, who was also in the Palace and might have been injured in the assassination attempt. A year later, on the day that Alexander was assassinated, Catherine pleaded with him not to go out because she had a premonition that something would happen to him. He quieted her objections by making love to her on a table in her rooms and leaving her behind. Within hours he was mortally wounded and was brought back to the palace, broken and bleeding.

When she heard the news, Catherine ran half-dressed into the room where he lay dying and fell across his body, crying “Sasha! Sasha!”[18] In his memoirs, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled that the pink and white négligée she was wearing was soaked in Alexander’s blood. At his funeral, Catherine and her three children were forced to stand in an entryway of the church and received no place in the procession of the Imperial Family. They were also forced to attend a separate Funeral Mass than the rest of the family.

Later life

After the Tsar’s death, Catherine received a pension of approximately 3.4 million rubles and agreed to give up the right to live in the Winter Palace or any of the Imperial residences in Russia in return for a separate residence for herself and the three children. She settled in Paris and on the Riviera, where she became known as a fashionable hostess and was used to having twenty servants and a private railway car, though the Romanov Family continued to look upon her and her children with disdain. Emperor Alexander III had his secret police spy on her and received reports on her activities in France. Grand Duke George Alexandrovich of Russia used illness as an excuse to avoid socializing with her in 1895.

Emperor Nicholas II recalled that Catherine was offended when he refused to be the sponsor when her daughter Olga married the Count of Merenberg in the spring of 1895. Nicholas II’s mother, the Dowager Empress Maria, had been appalled by the idea, so Nicholas declined. Catherine’s son George was an abysmal failure in the Russian Navy, as Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia informed her by letter, but he was granted a place in the Cavalry School. Catherine survived her husband by forty-one years and died on February 15, 1922 aged 74, just as her money was running out.

March 2, 1855: Emperor Alexander II ascends the Russian throne.

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Assassination, Cossacks, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Reforms, Russian Emperors, Russian Empire

Emperor Alexander II (April 29, 1818 – March 13 1881) was born in Moscow as Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). As Emperor he is known for implementing the most challenging reforms undertaken in Russia since the reign of Peter the Great.

Alexander’s most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russia’s serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. The Emperor was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander II adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death.

In 1838–39, as a young bachelor, Alexander made the Grand Tour of Europe which was standard for young men of his class at that time. One of the purposes of the tour was to select a suitable bride for himself. He stayed for three days with the maiden Queen Victoria, who was already Queen although she was one year younger than him. The two got along well, but there was no question of marriage between two major monarchs.

Alexander went on to Germany, and in Darmstadt, he met and was charmed by Princess Marie, the 15-year-old daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine. On April 16, 1841, aged 23, Tsarevitch Alexander married Marie in St. Petersburg; the bride had previously been received into the Russian Orthodox Church, taking the new name of Maria Alexandrovna. The marriage produced six sons and two daughters.

Marie of Hesse and by Rhine

(Marie was the legal daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Wilhelmina of Baden, although some gossiping questioned whether the Grand Duke Ludwig or Wilhelmina’s lover, Baron August von Senarclens de Grancy, was her biological father. Alexander was aware of the question of her paternity.)

Empress Maria Alexandrovna died of tuberculosis on June 3, 1880, at the age of fifty-five, and on July 18, 1880, a little more than a month after Empress Maria’s death, Alexander married morganatically his mistress Princess Catherine Dolgorukov, (1847 – 1922) with whom he already had four children. As his morganatic wife, was given the title of Princess Yurievskaya.

Princess Catherine Dolgorukov

Alexander became Emperor when his father, Emperor Nicholas I died on March 2, 1855, during the Crimean War, at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. He caught a chill, refused medical treatment and died of pneumonia, although there were rumors he had committed suicide. He was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

Despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with the Ottoman Empire in 1877–78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Alexander abided by that agreement. Among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander II adopted the title King of Poland.

Alexander II placed a great deal of hope in his eldest son, Tsarevich Nicholas. In 1864, Alexander II found Nicholas a bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and younger sister to Alexandra, Princess of Wales (married to future Edward VII) and King George I of Greece. However, in 1865, during the engagement, Nicholas died and the tsar’s second son, Grand Duke Alexander, not only inherited his brother’s position of tsarevich, but also his fiancée. The couple married in November 1866, with Dagmar converting to Orthodoxy and taking the name Maria Feodorovna.

In time, political differences, and other disagreements, led to estrangement between Alexander and his heir. Amongst his children, he remained particularly close with his second, and only surviving daughter, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. In 1873, a quarrel broke out between the courts of Queen Victoria and Alexander II, when Victoria’s second son, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and later reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, made it known that he wished to marry the Grand Duchess.

Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

The Emperor objected to the queen’s request to have his daughter come to England in order to meet her, and after the January 1874 wedding in St. Petersburg, the Emperor insisted that his daughter be granted precedence over the Princess of Wales, a request which the queen rebuffed.

Assassination

The Emperor survived several assassination attempts in 1866, 1867, and 1879. On the evening of February 5, 1880 Stephan Khalturin, set off a timed charge under the dining room of the Winter Palace, right in the resting room of the guards a story below, killing 11 people and wounding 30 others.

On March 13, 1881, Alexander fell victim to an assassination plot in Saint Petersburg. As he was known to do every Sunday for many years, the Emperor went to the Mikhailovsky Manège for the military roll call. He travelled both to and from the Manège in a closed carriage accompanied by five Cossacks and Frank (Franciszek) Joseph Jackowski, a Polish noble, with a sixth Cossack sitting on the coachman’s left.

The Emperor’s carriage was followed by two sleighs carrying, among others, the chief of police and the chief of the Emperor’s guards. The route, as always, was via the Catherine Canal and over the Pevchesky Bridge. The street was flanked by narrow pavements for the public. A young member of the Narodnaya Volya (“People’s Will”) movement, Nikolai Rysakov, was carrying a small white package wrapped in a handkerchief. He threw the bomb near the horses hooves thinking it would blow up under the carriage.

The explosion, while killing one of the Cossacks and seriously wounding the driver and people on the sidewalk, had only damaged the bulletproof carriage, a gift from Emperor Napoleon III of France. The emperor emerged shaken but unhurt. Rysakov was captured almost immediately. Police Chief Dvorzhitsky heard Rysakov shout out to someone else in the gathering crowd. The surrounding guards and the Cossacks urged the emperor to leave the area at once rather than being shown the site of the explosion.

The assassination of Alexander II.

Nevertheless, a second young member of the Narodnaya Volya, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, standing by the canal fence, raised both arms and threw a bomb at the emperor’s feet which exploded instantly. He was alleged to have shouted, “It is too early to thank God.” Alexander was carried by sleigh to the Winter Palace to his study where almost the same day twenty years earlier, he had signed the Emancipation Edict freeing the serfs. Alexander was bleeding to death, with his legs torn away, his stomach ripped open, and his face mutilated. Members of the Romanov family came rushing to the scene.

The dying emperor was given Communion and Last Rites. When the attending physician, Sergey Botkin, was asked how long it would be, he replied, “Up to fifteen minutes.” At 3:30 that day, the standard of Alexander II (his personal flag) was lowered for the last time.

Aftermath

Alexander II’s death caused a great setback for the reform movement. One of his last acts was the approval of Mikhail Loris-Melikov’s constitutional reforms. Though the reforms were conservative in practice, their significance lay in the value Alexander II attributed to them: “I have given my approval, but I do not hide from myself the fact that it is the first step towards a constitution.”

In a matter of 48 hours, Alexander II planned to release these plans to the Russian people. Instead, following his succession, Alexander III, under the advice of Konstantin Pobedonostsev, chose to abandon these reforms and went on to pursue a policy of greater autocratic power.

The assassination triggered major suppression of civil liberties in Russia, and police brutality burst back in full force after experiencing some restraint under the reign of Alexander II, whose death was witnessed first-hand by his son, Alexander III, and his grandson, Nicholas II, both future emperors who vowed not to have the same fate befall them.

On this day in history: December 4, 1878, birth of Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. Part I.

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Christian IX of Denmark, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperors of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine

Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich was born in the Anitchkov Palace, St. Petersburg, the youngest son and fifth child of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, and his wife, Maria Feodorovna (known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark). His maternal grandparents were King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

His paternal grandmother Empress Maria Alexandrovna (known before her marriage as Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine) a daughter of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, died before his second birthday.

His paternal grandfather, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, was assassinated on March 1, 1881 and, as a result, Michael’s parents became Emperor and Empress of All the Russias before his third birthday. After the assassination, the new Emperor Alexander III moved his family, including Michael, to the greater safety of Gatchina Palace, which was 29 miles southwest of Saint Petersburg and surrounded by a moat.

Michael was raised in the company of his younger sister, Olga, who nicknamed him “Floppy” because he “flopped” into chairs; his elder siblings and parents called him “Misha”. Conditions in the nursery were modest, even spartan. The children slept on hard camp beds, rose at dawn, washed in cold water and ate a simple porridge for breakfast.

On November 1, 1894, Alexander III died at the untimely age of 49. Michael was almost 16 when his father fell fatally ill; the annual trip to Denmark was cancelled. Michael’s eldest brother, Nicholas, became Emperor and Michael’s childhood was effectively over.

In November 1898, he attained legal adulthood and, just eight months later, became heir presumptive to Nicholas as the middle brother, George, was killed in a motorcycle accident. George’s death and the subsequent change in the line of succession highlighted that Nicholas lacked a son. As the succession was limited to males, his three daughters were ineligible.

When Nicholas’s wife, Alexandra, became pregnant in 1900 she hoped that the child would be male. She manoeuvred to get herself declared regent for her unborn child in the event of Nicholas’s death, but the government disagreed and determined that Michael would succeed regardless of the unborn child’s gender. She was delivered of a fourth daughter the following year.

Michael was perceived as unremarkable, quiet and good-natured. He performed the usual public duties expected of an heir to the throne. In 1901, he represented Russia at the funeral of Queen Victoria and was given the Order of the Bath. The following year he was made a Knight of the Garter in King Edward VII’s coronation honours.

Michael was heir presumptive until August 12, 1904, when the birth of Tsarevich Alexei to Nicholas and Alexandra provided an heir apparent. Michael again became second-in-line to the throne, but was named as co-regent for the boy, along with Alexandra, in the event of Nicholas’s death.

Part II tomorrow.

Life of Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia the Elder).

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Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperors of Russia, Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, Maria Pavlovna the Elder, Russian Empire, Russian Revolution

Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (later Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia, known as “Miechen” or “Maria Pavlovna the Elder”; May 14, 1854 – September 6, 1920) was born Marie Alexandrine Elisabeth Eleonore of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, daughter of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz.

A prominent hostess in St Petersburg following her marriage to the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, she was known as the grandest of the grand duchesses and had an open rivalry with her sister-in-law the Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Alexander III of Russia and born Princess Dagmar of Denmark the daughter King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel.

On August 28, 1874 she married her second cousin, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia (April 22, 1847 – February 17, 1909) the third son of Alexander II of Russia (and a brother of Emperor Alexander III. She had been engaged to George Albert I, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, but broke it off as soon as she met Vladimir. It took three more years before they were permitted to marry as she had been raised a Lutheran and refused to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia

Emperor Alexander II finally agreed to let Vladimir marry her without insisting on her conversion to Orthodoxy. Upon her marriage she took the Russian name of Maria Pavlovna – the name she is best known by. Maria remained Lutheran throughout most of her marriage, but converted to Orthodoxy later in her marriage, some said to give her son Kirill a better chance at the throne. As a result of marrying the son of a Russian Emperor, she took on a new style Her Imperial Highness; the couple had four sons and one daughter.

Life in Russia

In Russia, she lived at the Vladimir Palace situated on the Palace Embankment on the Neva River. Socially ambitious, it was there that she established her reputation as being one of the best hostesses in the capital. An addiction to gambling, which saw her defy a prohibition by Nicholas II on the playing on roulette and baccarat in private homes, resulted in her temporarily being banned from Court. In 1909, her husband died and she succeeded him as president of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Her Grand Ducal court, was in the later years of the reign of her nephew, Emperor Nicholas II the most cosmopolitan and popular in the capital. The Grand Duchess was personally at odds with Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. She wasn’t the only Romanov who feared the Empress would “be the sole ruler of Russia” after Nicholas took supreme command of the Russian armies on August 23, 1915 hoping this would lift morale.

Escape from Russia

The Grand Duchess held the distinction to be the last of the Romanovs to escape Revolutionary Russia, as well as the first to die in exile. She remained in the war-torn Caucasus with her two younger sons throughout 1917 and 1918, hoping to make her eldest son Kirill Vladimirovich the Tsar. As the Bolsheviks approached, the group finally escaped aboard a fishing boat to Anapa in 1918. Maria spent fourteen months in Anapa, refusing to join her son Boris in leaving Russia.

When opportunities for escape via Constantinople presented themselves she refused to leave for fear she would be subjected to the indignity of delousing. She finally agreed to leave when the general of the White Army warned her that his side was losing the civil war. Maria, her son Andrei, Andrei’s mistress Mathilde Kschessinska, and Andrei and Mathilde’s son Vladimir, boarded an Italian ship headed to Venice on February 13, 1920.

Nicholas II, Last Emperor of Russia

She made her way from Venice to Switzerland and then to France, where her health failed. Staying at her villa (now the Hotel La Souveraine), she died on September 6, 1920, aged 66, surrounded by her family at Contrexéville.

Her eldest surviving son, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, of Russia married, in 1905, his first cousin Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Vladimir’s sister Grand Duchess Maria the Duchess of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, spouse of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Gotha (second son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom).

Other than the fact that first cousin marriages were not allowed, she was also the former wife of Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse of and By Rhine, the brother of the Empress Alexandra (born Alix of Hesse and by Rhine daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig IV of Hesse and By Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom (second daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom).

Alexandra, Last Emperess of Russia.

This marriage between Cyril and Victoria Melita was not approved by Nicholas II and Cyril was stripped of his imperial titles. The treatment of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna’s son created a strife between her husband, Grand Duke Vladimir, and the Emperor. However, after several deaths in the family put Cyril third in the line of succession to the Imperial Throne, Nicholas agreed to reinstate Cyril’s Imperial titles, and the latter’s wife was acknowledged as HIH Grand Duchess Viktoria Fedorovna.

November 26, 1847: Birth of Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Part I.

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Birthday, Christian IX, Dagmar of Denmark, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Kingdom of Denmark, Maria Feodorovna, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

Maria Feodorovna (November 26, 1847 – October 13, 1928), known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was a Danish princess and Empress of Russia as spouse of Emperor Alexander III (reigned 1881–1894). She was the second daughter and fourth child of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Cassel; her siblings included Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, King Frederik VIII of Denmark and King George I of Greece, Thera Duchess of Cumberland and Valdemar of Denmark. Her eldest son became the last Russian monarch, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia. She lived for ten years after he and his family were killed.

Princess Marie Sophie Frederike Dagmar was born at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, a member of a relatively impoverished princely cadet line. Her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.

She was baptised as a Lutheran and named after her kinswoman Marie Sophie of Hesse-Cassel, Queen Dowager of Denmark as well as the medieval Danish queen, Dagmar of Bohemia. Her godmother was Queen Caroline Amalie of Denmark. Growing up, she was known by the name Dagmar. Most of her life, she was known as Maria Feodorovna, the name which she took when she converted to Orthodoxy immediately before her 1866 marriage to the future Emperor Alexander III. She was known within her family as “Minnie”.

Princess Dagmar, Prince Vilhelm, Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Alexandra

The rise of Slavophile ideology in the Russian Empire led Alexander II of Russia to search for a bride for the heir apparent, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, in countries other than the German states that had traditionally provided consorts for the tsars. In 1864, Nicholas, or “Nixa” as he was known in his family, went to Denmark where he was betrothed to Dagmar. On April 22, 1865 he died from meningitis. His last wish was that Dagmar would marry his younger brother, the future Alexander III. Dagmar was distraught after her young fiancé’s death. She was so heartbroken when she returned to her homeland that her relatives were seriously worried about her health.

Dagmar of Denmark and Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich

She had already become emotionally attached to Russia and often thought of the huge, remote country that was to have been her home. The disaster had brought her very close to “Nixa’s” parents, and she received a letter from Alexander II in which the Emperor attempted to console her. He told Dagmar in very affectionate terms that he hoped she would still consider herself a member of their family. In June 1866, while on a visit to Copenhagen, the Tsarevich Alexander asked Dagmar for her hand. They had been in her room looking over photographs together.

Dagmar of Denmark and the future Emperor Alexander III of Russia

She converted to Orthodoxy and became Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia. The lavish wedding took place on November 9, 1866 in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg. Financial constraints had prevented her parents from attending the wedding, and in their stead, they sent her brother, Crown Prince Frederick. Her brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales, had also travelled to Saint Petersburg for the ceremony; pregnancy had prevented the Princess of Wales from attending. After the wedding night, Alexander wrote in his diary, “I took off my slippers and my silver embroidered robe and felt the body of my beloved next to mine… How I felt then, I do not wish to describe here. Afterwards we talked for a long time.” After the many wedding parties were over the newlyweds moved into the Anichkov Palace in Saint Petersburg where they were to live for the next 15 years, when they were not taking extended holidays at their summer villa Livadia in the Crimean Peninsula.

On May 18, 1868, Maria Feodorovna 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.

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 Tsar Alexander II and the sister of the tsarevich.

The death of Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

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Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Emperor Alexander III of Russia, German Empire, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Prince Alfred Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

On this date in history: February 6, 1899. The death of Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, at the age of 24.

HRH Prince Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Prince Alfred of Edinburgh was born on October 15, 1874 at Buckingham Palace, London. His father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, was a daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.

He was a grandson of both Queen Victoria and Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

The exact circumstances of Alfred’s death are not known, and varying accounts have been published. His sister Marie’s memoirs simply say his health “broke down”, and other writers have said that he had “consumption.” The Times published an account stating he had died of a tumor, while the Complete Peerage gives the generally accepted account that he “shot himself.

Various authors have speculated on reasons why he might have killed himself, and one author, Frank Bush, claimed to have been a descendant of a secret marriage between Alfred and Mabel Fitzgerald, granddaughter of the 4th Duke of Leinster, and claimed that friction between Alfred and his family over the “secret marriage” was the cause of the suicide. Despite the lack of documentary evidence, and the lack of contemporary reference, other authors have repeated Bush’s assertion that Alfred and Mabel married, including John van der Kiste and Bee Jordaan in Dearest Affie, and the assertion is repeated as fact in the official family history (Das Haus von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha).

According to theory, Alfred shot himself with a revolver while the rest of the family was gathered for the anniversary celebration. He survived and was looked after at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha (Thuringia) for three days before being sent to theMartinnsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch near Meran in the County of Tyrol (Austria-Hungary, now Italy). Alfred died there at 4:15 pm on February 6, 1899, aged 24 years. He was buried in the ducal mausoleum of the Friedhof am Glockenberg [de], Coburg, Bavaria (southern Germany).

Later in 1899 Alfred’s uncle the Duke of Connaught and his son Prince Arthur of Connaught renounced their succession rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. As a result, his first cousin Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, became heir presumptive.