December 6, 1820: Birth of Alexandrine of Baden, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Part I

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Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Alexandrine of Baden, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duke Leopold of Baden, Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

Princess Alexandrine of Baden (Alexandrine Luise Amalie Friederike Elisabeth Sophie; December 6, 1820 – December 20, 1904) was the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as the wife of Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. She was the eldest child of Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden, and his wife Princess Sophie of Sweden, daughter of King Gustaf IV Adolf of Sweden and his wife, Frederica of Baden.

In 1838–39, the young bachelor, Tsarevich Alexander of Russia, future Emperor Alexander II is, 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. His father Emperor Nicholas I of Russia suggested Princess Alexandrine of Baden as a suitable choice, but he was prepared to allow Alexander to choose his own bride, as long as she was not Roman Catholic or a commoner.

Alexandrine of Baden

Alexandrine already regarded herself as his betrothed, as all the preliminary negotiations had taken place.

In Germany, Alexander made an unplanned stop in Darmstadt. He was reluctant to spend “a possibly dull evening” with their host Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, but he agreed to do so because Vasily Zhukovsky insisted that his entourage was exhausted and needed a rest.

During dinner, he met and was charmed by Princess Marie, the 14-year-old daughter of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse. He was so smitten that he declared that he would rather abandon the succession than not marry her. He wrote to his father: “I liked her terribly at first sight. If you permit it, dear father, I will come back to Darmstadt after England.” When he left Darmstadt, she gave him a locket that contained a piece of her hair.

Alexander and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine were married April 28, 1841 in the Cathedral Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, on the eve of Alexander’s twenty-third birthday. Marie was 17.

At the urging of his brother Prince Albertof Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Hereditary Prince Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (born 1818) began to search for a suitable bride. Albert believed that a wife would be good for his brother: “Chains you will have to bear in any case, and it will certainly be good for you… The heavier and tighter they are, the better for you. A married couple must be chained to one another, be inseparable, and they must live only for one another.” With this advice in mind (although Albert was reprimanded for presuming to counsel his elders), Ernest began searching.

Around this time, Ernst was suffering from a venereal disease brought on by his many affairs; Albert consequently counseled him against marrying until he was fully recovered. He also warned that continued promiscuity could leave Ernst unable to father children. Ernst waited a few years before marrying as a result.

Ernst of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Various candidates were put forward as a possible wife for Ernest. His father wanted him to look to a woman of high rank, such as a Russian grand duchess, for a wife. One possibility was Princess Clémentine of Orléans, a daughter of Louis Philippe I, whom he met while visiting the court at the Tuileries. However, such a marriage would have required his conversion from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism, and consequently nothing came of it. She later married his cousin Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ernest was also considered by Dowager Queen Maria Christina as a possible husband for her young daughter Isabella II of Spain, and by Queen Victoria for her cousin Princess Augusta of Cambridge.

On 13 May 1842, in Karlsruhe, Ernest married Princess Alexandrine. To the consternation of his brother and sister-in-law Queen Victoria, the marriage failed to “settle down” Ernest. Alexandrine accepted all his faults cheerfully enough, however, and began a fierce devotion to Ernest that became increasingly baffling to the outside world.

Though he gave his consent, Ernst’s father, Duke Ernst I of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was disappointed that his first son did not do more to advance the concerns of Coburg. The marriage did not produce any issue, though Ernest apparently fathered at least three illegitimate children in later years.

Julia, Princess of Battenberg. Russian and German noblewoman

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Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, Countess Julia von Hauke, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and by Rhine, House of Battenberg, House of Mountbatten, Lord Louis Mountbatten, Marie of Hesse and By Rhine, Prince Louis of Battenberg, Princess of Battenburg, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Victoria of Hesse and By Rhine

Julia, Princess of Battenberg (previously Countess Julia Therese Salomea von Hauke; November 24, 1825 –September 19, 1895) was the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, the third son of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.

The daughter of a Polish general of German descent, she was not of princely origin. She became a lady-in-waiting to Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of the future Emperor Alexander II of Russia and a sister of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine, whom she married, having met him in the course of her duties.

The marriage of social unequals was deemed morganatic, but the Duke of Hesse and by Rhine gave her own title of nobility as Princess of Battenberg. She was the mother of Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, and is an ancestor of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, and to the current generations of the Spanish royal family.

Life

Julia Therese Salomea Hauke was born in Warsaw, Congress Poland, then ruled in personal union by the Emperor of Russia. She was the daughter of John Maurice Hauke, a Polish general of German descent, and his wife Sophie (née Lafontaine), who was of French, Italian, German, and Hungarian descent.

Julia’s father had fought in Napoleon’s Polish Legions in Austria, Italy, Germany, and the Peninsular War. After his service in the Polish army from 1790 and in the army of the Duchy of Warsaw from 1809 to 1814, he entered the ranks of the army of Congress Poland, was promoted to general in 1828, and was awarded a Russian title.

Recognizing his abilities, Emperor Nicholas I appointed him Deputy Minister of War of Congress Poland and made him a hereditary count in 1829. In the November Uprising of 1830, led by rebelling army cadets, Grand Duke Constantine, Poland’s Russian governor, managed to escape, but Julia’s father was shot dead by the cadets on a Warsaw street. Her mother died of shock shortly afterwards, and their children were made wards of the Emperor.

Julia served as lady-in-waiting to Empress Marie Alexandrovna, wife of Emperor Alexander II and a sister of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine. She met Prince Alexander while performing her duties at court in St. Petersburg. The Emperor did not approve of a courtship between his son’s brother-in-law and a noblewoman, and so the two arranged to leave the St. Petersburg court.

By the time Julia and Alexander were able to marry, she was six months pregnant with their first child, Marie. They were married on October 25, 1851 in Breslau in Prussian Silesia (now called Wrocław and in Poland).

Since Julia did not belong to a reigning or mediatized family, which were the only ones considered equal for royal marriage purposes, she was considered to be of insufficient rank for any of her children to qualify for succession to the throne of Hesse and by Rhine; the marriage was considered morganatic.

Her husband’s brother, Grand Duke Ludwig III of Hesse and by Rhine created her Countess of Battenberg in 1851, with the style of Illustrious Highness (Erlaucht), and in 1858 further elevated her to Princess of Battenberg with the style of “Her Serene Highness”, (Durchlaucht).

The children of Julia and Alexander were also elevated to princely rank. Thus, Battenberg became the name of a morganatic branch of the Grand Ducal Family of Hesse and by Rhine.

Julia converted from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism on May 12, 1875. Princess Julia died at Heiligenberg Castle, near Jugenheim, Hesse, aged sixty-nine, on September 19, 1895, the age of 70.

Prince Alexander of Hesse died of cancer in 1888. They lived to see four of their five children, who had no rights of succession to the Hessian throne, mount a throne or marry dynastically, and to become welcome in-laws to Queen Victoria, whose correspondence reflected a consistent respect and fondness for the Battenberg family.

There were five children of the marriage, all princes and princesses of Battenberg:

• Princess Marie of Battenberg (1852–1923), married in 1871 Gustav, Prince of Erbach-Schönberg (d. 1908), with issue.
• Prince Louis of Battenberg (1854–1921), created first Marquess of Milford Haven in 1917, married in 1884 Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine (1863–1950), with issue (including Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, Queen Louise of Sweden, and Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma). In 1917, he and his children gave up their German titles and took the surname Mountbatten. He was the maternal grandfather of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
• Prince Alexander of Battenberg (1857–1893), created reigning Prince of Bulgaria in 1879, abdicated in Bulgaria and created Count of Hartenau, married morganatically in 1889 Johanna Loisinger (1865–1951), with issue.
• Prince Henry of Battenberg (1858–1896), married in 1885 Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857–1944), youngest child and daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; with issue (including Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg later Queen of Spain). His children resided in the UK and became lords and ladies with the surname Mountbatten in 1917 (see “Name change” below). His eldest son was created the first Marquess of Carisbrooke in 1917.
• Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg (1861–1924), married in 1897 Princess Anna Petrovich-Njegosh of Montenegro (1874–1971), with no issue.

Name change to “Mountbatten”

Julia’s eldest son, Ludwig (Louis) of Battenberg, became a British subject, and during World War I, due to anti-German sentiment prevalent at the time, anglicised his name to Mountbatten (a literal translation of the German Battenberg), as did his nephews, the sons of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice.

The members of this branch of the family also renounced all German titles and were granted peerages by their cousin King George V of the United Kingdom: Prince Louis became the 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while Prince Alexander, Prince Henry’s eldest son, became the 1st Marquess of Carisbrooke.

August 9, 1830: Accession of Louis-Philippe as the King of the French.

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Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, French Revolution, July Revolution, King Charles X of France, King of the French, Louis Philippe, Louis Philippe I of France, Marie Antoinette, Prince Edward Duke of Kent, Queen Marie Antoinette

Louis-Philippe I (October 6, 1773 – August 26, 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 and the last king of France.

Louis-Philippe was born in the Palais Royal, the residence of the Orléans family in Paris, to Louis Philippe II, Duke of Chartres (Duke of Orléans, upon the death of his father Louis Philippe I), and Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince of the Blood, which entitled him the use of the style “Serene Highness”. His mother was an extremely wealthy heiress who was descended from Louis XIV of France through a legitimized line.

Louis Philippe was the eldest of three sons and a daughter, Antoine-Philippe, Duke of Montpensier, Françoise d’Orléans (died shortly after her birth) Adélaïde d’Orléans, and Louis-Charles, Count of Beaujolais a family that was to have erratic fortunes from the beginning of the French Revolution to the Bourbon Restoration.

Louis-Philippe struck up a lasting friendship with Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and moved to England, where he remained from 1800 to 1815.

In 1808, Louis-Philippe proposed to Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George III of the United Kingdom. His Catholicism and the opposition of her mother Queen Charlotte meant the Princess reluctantly declined the offer.

In 1809, Louis-Philippe married Princess Maria-Amalia of Naples and Sicily, daughter of King Ferdinand IV of Naples and Archduchess Maria-Carolina of Austria, the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Franz I. The ceremony was celebrated in Palermo November 25, 1809. The marriage was considered controversial, because she was the niece of Archduchess Marie-Antoinette of Austria, while he was the son of Louis-Philippe II, Duke of Orléans who was considered to have played a part in the execution of her aunt.

Maria-Amalia, Duchess of Orléans with her son Ferdinand-Philippe d’Orléans

Maria-Amalia’s mother, Archduchess Maria-Carolina of Austria, was skeptical to the match for the same reason. She had been very close to her younger sister, Archduchess Marie-Antoinette of Austria, and devastated by her execution, but she had given her consent after he had convinced her that he was determined to compensate for the mistakes of his father, and after having agreed to answer all her questions regarding his father.

In 1830, the July Revolution overthrew King Charles X of France and Navarre who abdicated in favour of his 10-year-old grandson, Henri, Duke of Bordeaux, and, naming Louis-Philippe Lieutenant général du royaume, charged him to announce to the popularly elected Chamber of Deputies his desire to have his grandson succeed him. Louis-Philippe did not do this, in order to increase his own chances of succession.

Louis Philippe II d’Orléans (Father)

Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans (Mother)

As a consequence, because the chamber was aware of Louis-Philippe’s liberal policies and of his popularity with the masses, they proclaimed Louis-Philippe, King, who for eleven days had been acting as the regent for his young cousin, as the new French king, Henri V. With his accession the House of Orléans displaced the senior branch of the House of Bourbon.

Charles X and his family, including his grandson, went into exile in Britain. The young ex-king, the Duke of Bordeaux, who, in exile, took the title of comte de Chambord, later became the pretender to the throne of France and was supported by the Legitimists.

Louis-Philippe was sworn in as King Louis-Philippe I on August 9, 1830. Upon his accession to the throne, Louis-Philippe assumed the title of King of the French – a title already adopted by Louis XVI in the short-lived Constitution of 1791. Linking the monarchy to a people instead of a territory (as the previous designation King of France and of Navarre) was aimed at undercutting the legitimist claims of Charles X and his family.

By an ordinance he signed on August 13, 1830, the new king defined the manner in which his children, as well as his “beloved” sister, would continue to bear the territorial designation “d’Orléans” and the arms of Orléans, declared that his eldest son, as Prince Royal (not Dauphin), would bear the title Duke of Orléans, that the younger sons would continue to have their previous titles, and that his sister and daughters would only be styled Princesses of Orléans, not of France.

In 1832, his daughter, Princess Louise-Marie, married the first ruler of Belgium, Leopold I, King of the Belgians. Their descendants include all subsequent Kings of the Belgians, as well as Empress Carlota of Mexico.

Louis-Philippe and Emperor Nicholas I of Russia

Emperor Nicholas I of Russia

Louis-Philippe’s ascension to the title of King of the French was seen as a betrayal by Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and it ended their friendship.

In 1815, Grand Duke Nicholas arrived in France, where he stayed with the duc d’Orleans, who soon become one of his best friends, with the grand duke being impressed with duc’s personal warmth, intelligence, manners and grace. For Nicholas the worst sort of characters were nobility who supported liberalism, and when the duc d’Orleans become the king of the French as Louis Philippe I in the July revolution of 1830, Nicholas took this as a personal betrayal, believing his friend had gone over as he saw it to the dark side of revolution and liberalism.

Nicholas hated Louis-Philippe, the self-styled Le roi citoyen (“the Citizen King”) as a renegade nobleman and an “usurper,” and his foreign policy starting in 1830 was primarily anti-French, based upon reviving the coalition of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain to isolate France. Nicholas detested Louis-Philippe to the point that he refused to use his name, calling him merely “the usurper.”

July 6, 1796: Birth of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia.

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Catherine the Great, Decembrist Revolt, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Empress Catherine II of Russia, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, Russia, Russian Empire

Nicholas I (July 6, 1796 – March 3, 1855) reigned as Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He has become best known for having been a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth and massive industrialisation on the one hand, and centralisation of administrative policies and repression of dissent on the other.

Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia (née Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg). Five months after his birth, his grandmother, Empress Catherine II the Great, died and his parents became Emperor and Empress of Russia. He was a younger brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801, and of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia.

Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; all of their seven children survived childhood. On July 13, 1817, Nicholas married Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), who thereafter went by the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted to Orthodoxy. Charlotte’s parents were Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Nicholas and Charlotte were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia.

His biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky said that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish.

A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, stated Riasanovsky, “Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate.” He was the younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I.

With two older brothers, it initially seemed unlikely Nicholas would ever become tsar. However, as Emperor Alexander I and Grand Duke Constantine both failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained likely to rule one day. In 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to Constantine and accepting the throne for himself.

The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, confirmed his refusal of the Russian Imperial Throne.

Additionally, on December 25, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named December 1, the date of Alexander I’s death, as the beginning of his reign. During this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power. This led to the Decembrist Revolt on December 26, 1825, an uprising Nicholas was successful in quickly suppressing.

Nicholas I was instrumental in helping to create an independent Greek state, and resumed the Russian conquest of the Caucasus by seizing Iğdır Province and the remainder of modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan from Qajar Persia during the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. He ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War (1853–1856), with disastrous results. Historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. William C. Fuller notes that historians have frequently concluded that “the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy.” On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its geographical zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers (7.7 million square miles), but had a desperate need for reform.

June 11, 1829: Marriage of Wilhelm I of Prussia and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.

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Eliza Radziwill, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick William IV of Prussia, Prince Charles of Prussia, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Wilhelm I of Germany

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (Augusta Marie Luise Katharina; September 30, 1811 – January 7, 1890)
Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Augusta was the second daughter of Charles-Friedrich, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Maria Pavlovna of Russia, a daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie-Dorothea of Württemberg.

Wilhelm I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; March 22, 1797 – March 9, 1888) of the House of Hohenzollern was King of Prussia from January 2, 1861 and the first German Emperor from 18 January 18, 1871 to his death. Wilhelm was the first head of state of a united Germany, and was also de facto head of state of Prussia from 1858 to 1861, serving as regent for his brother, Friedrich-Wilhelm IV.

Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Meeting with Wilhelm

Augusta was only fifteen years old when, in 1826, she first met her future husband, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia who was more than fourteen years older than her. Wilhelm thought the young Augusta had an “excellent personality,” yet was less attractive than her older sister Marie, whom Wilhelm’s younger brother, Charles of Prussia, had already married. Above all, it was Wilhelm’s father who pressed him to consider Augusta as a potential wife.

While the marriage of Augusta and Willem was bumpy the marriage of Marie and Charles was happy. Although they had married for family and dynastic reasons, their marriage had been happy and harmonious, and they had been deeply attached to each other.

Princess Marie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

At this time, Wilhelm was in love with the Polish Princess Elisa Radziwill. The Crown Prince at the time was Wilhelm’s elder brother, Crown Prince Friedrich WilhelM (later King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV). He and his wife Elisabeth Ludovika, daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and his Queen Friederike, Margravine of Baden, had been married three years and had no children. Although it was not anticipated that they would remain childless (which turned out to be the case), the court did expect that Wilhelm, as heir presumptive to the throne, should make a dynastic marriage and produce further heirs.

King Friedrich-Wilhelm III was indulgent of the relationship between his son Wilhelm and Elisa, but the Prussian court had discovered that her ancestors had purchased their princely title from Emperor Maximilian I, and she was not deemed noble enough to marry a potential King of Prussia. Ironically, Crown Princess Elisabeth Ludovika, who as a Bavarian princess was considered to be of correct rank, counted both Bogusław Radziwiłł and Janusz Radziwiłł among her ancestors, albeit through female descent.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

It was suggested by some courtiers that if Eliza Radziwill was adopted by a family of adequate rank, then a marriage with Prince Wilhelm was possible. In 1824, the Prussians turned to the childless Emperor Alexander I of Russia to adopt Elisa, but the Russian Emperor declined. The second adoption plan by Elisa’s uncle, Prince August of Prussia, likewise failed because the responsible committee considered that adoption does not change “the blood.” Another factor was the Mecklenburg relations of the deceased Queen Louise’s influence in the German and Russian courts (she was not fond of Elisa’s father).

Thus, in June 1826, Wilhelm’s father felt compelled to demand the renunciation of a potential marriage to Elisa. Thus, Wilhelm spent the next few months looking for a more suitable bride, but did not relinquish his emotional ties to Elisa. Eventually, Wilhelm asked for Augusta’s hand in marriage on August 29, (in writing and through the intervention of his father). Augusta agreed and on October 25, 1828, they were engaged.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Historian Karin Feuerstein-Prasser has pointed out on the basis of evaluations of the correspondence between both fiancées, what different expectations Wilhelm had of both marriages: He wrote to his sister Charlotte, the wife of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, with reference to Elisa Radziwill: “One can love only once in life, really” and confessed with regard to Augusta, that “the Princess is nice and clever, but she leaves me cold.” Augusta liked her future husband and hoped for a happy marriage, in the end, it was an inwardly happy marriage despite outward appearances.

On June 11, 1829, Wilhelm married his fiancée in the chapel of Schloss Charlottenburg.

Married life

The first weeks of marriage were harmonious; Augusta was taken favorably in the Prussian King’s court, however, Augusta soon started to be bored with its military sobriety, and most courtly duties (which may have counteracted this boredom) were reserved to her sister-in-law, Crown Princess Elisabeth.

Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Queen of Prussia and German Empress

In a letter which Wilhelm wrote on January 22, 1831 to his sister Charlotte, he has mixed feelings of his wife’s “lack of femininity”. Prince Friedrich (later Emperor Frederick III of Germany), was born later that year on October 18, 1831, three years after their marriage and Louise, was born on December 3, 1838, seven years later.

The life of Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Queen Consort of Denmark

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Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Frederick-Francis III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Grand Duchess, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, King Christian IX of Denmark, King Christian X of Denmark, King Frederik IX of Denmark, King Frederik VIII of Denmark, Knud of Denmark, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (December 24, 1879 –December 28, 1952) was Queen of Denmark as the spouse of King Christian X. She was also Queen of Iceland (where the name was officially Alexandría) from December 1, 1918 to June 17, 1944.

Duchess Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Family

Alexandrine was born a Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in the city of Schwerin, Germany. Her father was Friedrich-Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; her mother was Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, the second of the seven children of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife, Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (born Princess Cecilie of Baden). Alexandrine was also a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia

Duchess Alexandrine’s father, Friedrich-Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Duchess Alexandrine’s mother, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia

She was a paternal first cousin of Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia, the wife of Felix Yusupov, one of the murderers of Rasputin.

Cecilie, Alexandrine and Friedrich-Franz of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with their mother Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Alexandrine’s only brother was Friedrich-Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1882-1945), while her only sister was Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1886-1954) wife of German Crown Prince Wilhelm, eldest son of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Marriage and issue

Duchess Alexandrine married Prince Christian of Denmark on April 26, 1898, in Cannes, France, when she was 18 years old. They had two children:

* Prince Frederik (1899–1972), later King Frederik IX of Denmark; married Princess Ingrid of Sweden.
* Prince Knud (1900–1976), later Knud, Hereditary Prince of Denmark; married Princess Caroline-Mathilde of Denmark.

In 1902, the couple were given Marselisborg Palace, and the garden was to become one of her greatest interests. Alexandrine became crown princess in 1906 with the death of King Christian IX of Denmark and in 1912 she became Queen Consort of Denmark upon the death of King Frederik VIII and the accession of Alexandrine’s husband as King Christian X. As Queen, Alexandrine is not considered to have played any political role, but is described as being a loyal support to her spouse.

She was interested in music, and acted as the protector of the musical societies Musikforeningen i København and Den danske Richard Wagnerforening. She was known for her needlework, which she sold for charitable purposes. After the death of her mother-in-law, Louise of Sweden in 1926, she succeeded her as the official protector of the various charity organisations founded by Louise. She enjoyed golf and photography. During World War I, she founded Dronningens Centralkomité af 1914 (“The Queen’s Central Committee of 1914”) to the support of poor families. She survived the 1918 flu pandemic.

Prince Christian and Princess Alexandrine of Denmark with their eldest son Prince Frederik.

The couple was given great popularity as national symbols during the World War II occupation, which was demonstrated during a tour through the country in 1946. Before the occupation, she and her daughter-in-law were engaged in mobilising the Danish women. Her rejection of General Kaupisch on April 9, 1940 became a symbol for her loyalty toward Denmark before her birth country Germany.

When the General of the occupation forces first asked for an audience with the monarch, Christian was persuaded to receive him by his daughter-in-law as he would any other, which was supported by Alexandrine. He asked to do so alone, but Alexandrine told him she would interrupt them. When the General was about to leave, she came in; and when he greeted her, she said: “General, this is not the circumstance in which I expected to greet a countryman.”

It was reported, that although Alexandrine was seen as shy and disliked official ceremonies, she had a “sharp” intelligence, and she was, together with her daughter-in-law, Ingrid of Sweden, a true support of the monarch and a driving force for the resistance toward the occupation within the royal house.

It was also reported, that in contrast to the monarch himself and the Crown Prince, the Queen and the Crown Princess never lost their calm when the nation was attacked. As she was not the Head of the Royal House, she could show herself in public more than her spouse, who did not wish to show support to the occupation by being seen in public, and she used this to engage in various organisations for social relief to ease the difficulties caused by the occupation. Kaj Munk is quoted to describe the public appreciation of her during World War II with his comment: “Protect our Queen, the only German we would like to keep!”

King Christian X of Denmark with Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany

In 1947, she was widowed; on his death in Amalienborg Palace, Copenhagen, in 1947, Christian X was interred along other members of the Danish royal family in Roskilde Cathedral near Copenhagen. Their son succeeded as King Frederik IX of Denmark. Queen Alexandrine became the first queen dowager of Denmark to opt not to use that title. Instead she was known as Her Majesty Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. She was the paternal grandmother of the current reigning Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II.

Queen Alexandrine died in Copenhagen on December 28, 1952 and is interred next to her husband in Roskilde Cathedral.

May 6, 1954: Death of Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Crown Princess of Germany and Prussia.

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Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany and Prussia, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, Grand Duke Frederick Francis III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, King Frederick William III of Prussia, Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia, Princess Charlotte of Prussia

Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Cecilie Auguste Marie; September 20, 1886 – May 6, 1954) was the last German and Prussian Crown Princess as the wife of German Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of German Emperor Wilhelm II.

Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Crown Princess of Germany and Prussia.

Cecilie was a daughter of Friedrich-Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia, the only daughter and second child of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Emperor Nicholas I’s wife was Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), the eldest surviving daughter of King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia (r. 1797–1840). Princess Charlotte of Prussia was a sister of Friedrich-Wilhelm IV and of Wilhelm I, German Emperor, the great-grandfather of Crown Prince Wilhelm. This means that Duchess Cecilie and her husband, Crown Prince Wilhelm, were 3rd cousins with King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia being their closest common ancestor.

Incidentally, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Princess Charlotte of Prussia were also 3rd cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia.

Duchess Cecilie’s father, Friedrich-Franz III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Duchess Cecilie’s mother, Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna of Russia

Duchess Cecilie was brought up with simplicity and her early life was peripatetic, although she spent most of her childhood in Schwerin, at the royal residences of Ludwigslust Palace and the Gelbensande hunting lodge, only a few kilometres from the Baltic Sea coast. Her father suffered badly from asthma and the wet damp cold climate of Mecklenburg was not good for his health. As a result, Cecilie spent a large amount of time with her family in Cannes in the south of France, favoured at the time by European royalty, including some whom Cecilie met such as Empress Eugénie and her future husband’s great-uncle, Edward VII.

Cecilie, Alexandrine and Friedrich-Franz of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with their mother Grand Duchess Anastasia.

During the winter visit of 1897 to Denmark, Cecilie’s sister, Alexandrine, met her future husband, Crown Prince Christian, later Christian X of Denmark, shortly before the death of their father at the age of 46. After returning to Schwerin, Cecilie spent time with her widowed mother in Denmark. The wedding of her sister took place in Cannes in April 1898. After the death of her father, she traveled every summer, from 1898 to 1904, visiting her relatives in Russia. Cecilie lived there in Mikhailovskoe on Kronstadt Bay, the country home of her maternal grandfather, Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia.

During the wedding festivities of her brother Friedrich-Franz IV, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Schwerin in June 1904, the 17-year-old Duchess Cecilie got to know her future husband, Wilhelm, German Crown Prince. Emperor Wilhelm II had sent his eldest son to the festivities as his personal representative. Taller than most women of her time at 182 centimetres (over 5’11”), Cecilie was as tall as the German Crown Prince. Wilhelm was struck by her great beauty, and her dark hair and eyes. On September 4, 1904, the young couple celebrated their engagement at the Mecklenburg-Schwerin hunting lodge, Gelbensande. The German Emperor had a wooden residence built nearby for the couple as an engagement present. On September 5, the first official photos of the couple were taken.

Official engagement photo of Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Wedding

The wedding of Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the German Crown Prince Wilhelm took place on June 6, 1905 in Berlin. Arriving from Schwerin at Berlin’s Lehrter Station, the future Crown Princess was greeted on the platform with a gift of dark red roses. She was greeted at Bellevue Palace by the entire German Imperial Family and later made a joyeuse entrée through the Brandenburg Gate to a gun salute in the Tiergarten. Crowds lined the sides of the Unter den Linden as she passed on the way to the Berlin Royal Palace. Emperor Wilhelm II greeted her at the palace and conducted her to the Knight’s Hall where over fifty guests from different European royal houses awaited the young bride including Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, as well as representatives from Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands. On her wedding day, Emperor Wilhelm II presented his daughter-in-law with the Order of Louise.

The wedding ceremony took place in the Royal Chapel and also the nearby Berlin Cathedral. The royal couple received as wedding presents jewellery, silverware and porcelain. At the wish of the bride, Richard Wagner’s famous wedding march from Lohengrin was played along with music from The Meistersinger from Nuremberg conducted by Richard Strauss. On her wedding day, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin became Her Imperial and Royal Highness The German Crown Princess and Crown Princess of Prussia. She was expected to one day become German Empress and Queen of Prussia. After the end of the wedding festivities, the German Crown Princely couple made their summer residence at the Marble Palace in Potsdam.

German Crown Princess

As German Crown Princess, Cecilie quickly became one of the most beloved members of the German Imperial House. She was known for her elegance and fashion consciousness. It was not long before her fashion style was copied by many women throughout the German Empire. Every year at the beginning of the court season in January, the couple would return to the Crown Prince Palace in Berlin on Unter den Linden. Cecilie’s first child was born on July 4, 1906 and given the traditional Hohenzollern name of Wilhelm.

At the time, the German monarchy appeared to be very secure. Nonetheless in private she had a fiery temper, not countenancing contradiction. Although in public the marriage of the Crown Prince and Princess appeared to be perfect, cracks quickly appeared due to the Crown Prince’s wandering eye and controlling behavior. Very early on, he began a series of affairs that strained the relationship between husband and wife – on one occasion announcing to his wife his latest escapade, whereupon she thought of drowning herself.
In spite of her husband’s unfaithfulness, however, Cecilie had given birth to six children by 1917.

She herself developed a passionate relationship with Baron Otto von Dungern (1873-1969), her husband’s aide de camp – attempting, once, to get into bed with Dungern. On discovering that Dungern was also having an affair with another woman at court, she confessed to her husband who told him to resign with the words: “Only my consideration for his imperial majesty (his father, Kaiser William II) prevents me from grinding you into the dust.”

World War I

At the time of the outbreak of war in 1914, Cecilie was once again pregnant. She was distressed when her first daughter, Princess Alexandrine, was born with Down’s syndrome. Due to the rigidity of Hohenzollern court protocol, the information about the condition was not released. As German Crown Princess, Cecilie was expected to carry on with her duties unaffected, which in time of war consisted largely of regular visits to the war wounded in an effort to sustain morale.

Cecilie’s husband the Crown Prince served on the western front in the south under the direct command of Field Marshal Hindenburg. In the last phase of the war, great difficulties affected the German people. For Cecilie, with strong family links to the Russian court through her mother, the Russian revolution of March 1917 greatly affected her. Her uncles, Grand Dukes Nicholas, George and Sergei Michailovich were all murdered.

Revolution and the overthrow of the German monarchy

The political and economic situation in the last year of the war became more and more hopeless. On November 6, 1918, the new German imperial Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, met with Minister Wilhelm Solf to discuss the future of the German Empire. They were both of the opinion that the monarchy could only survive with the removal of the Emperor and his son the Crown Prince and the setting up of a Regentship under the nominal rule of the young son of Crown Princess Cecilie.

Such idea quickly disappeared with Friedrich Ebert becoming Chancellor and a republic being declared a few days later. Both the Emperor and the Crown Prince crossed the border to seek exile in neutral Netherlands. The monarchy collapsed with the defeat of Germany at the end of the war. Cecilie with her young children was living in Potsdam during the revolutionary period. She had moved from her new home of Cecilienhof with her children to join her mother-in-law in the relative safety of the New Palace. It was here that the Empress Auguste Viktoria informed her daughter-in-law, “The revolution has broken out. The Emperor has abdicated. The war is lost.”

Crown Prince and Princess Wilhelm and Cecile of Prussia visiting with Cecilie’s sister Alexandrine and her husband the future King Christian X of Denmark.

The former German Crown Princess was nothing but realistic about the new political situation confronting her family and Germany. The former Empress went into exile to join her husband. The Crown Princess was quite prepared to do the same, but wanted to stay in Germany with her children if at all possible. This she was allowed to do and on November 14, she quietly left the New Palace and returned to her private home Cecilienhof. As a result of a change of circumstances, Cecilie reduced her household staff by 50%.

Her children’s tutor also left her service and as a result her two eldest sons, Princes Wilhelm and Louis Ferdinand, for the first time attended as day students at a nearby school.Cecilie had considerable sympathy for the plight of the German people. In reply to an address from the German Women’s Union in Berlin, the former Crown Princess stated, “I need no sympathy. I have the beautiful situation that can befall any German woman, the education of my children as good German citizens.”

Crown Prince Wilhelm was only allowed to return to Germany from his enforced exile in 1923. Before then visits to him were difficult. Fortunately for the Hohenzollern family they still possessed considerable private holdings in Germany due to a provisional agreement worked out between the Hohenzollern family and the Prussian state in November 1920.

Castle Oels, a castle with 10,000 hectares of workable land in Silesia, now modern day Poland, provided substantial income for Cecilie’s family. In the absence of her husband, Cecilie became the leading figure in the once ruling House of Hohenzollern. The former Crown Princess was under no illusions that the empire would be restored, unlike her father-in-law exiled in Doorn in the Netherlands.

The Emperor’s return was completely impossible. With the election of Gustav Stresemann as Chancellor of the Weimar Republic in August 1923, negotiations for the former Crown Prince commenced. On the evening of November 13, 1923, Cecilie met her husband at Castle Oels. The years of separation and the behavior of Wilhelm had made the marriage now merely one in name only, but Cecilie was determined to keep things together even at a distance. More and more she lived in Cecilienhof at Potsdam, while her husband lived in Silesia.

The couple would come together when necessary for the sake of family unity for occasions such as family weddings, confirmation of children, christenings and funerals. In 1927, a final financial agreement was reached between the Hohenzollerns and the Prussian state. Cecilie remained active within several charity organizations such as the Queen Luise Fund, Chair of the Fatherland’s Women Union and the Ladies of the Order of St. John, while keeping clear of any political involvement. With the coming to power of the National Socialist Party of Adolf Hitler in 1933, all such charitable organizations were dissolved.

Under Nazi German rule 1933-1939

During 1933-1945, Cecilie lived a private life at Cecilienhof in Potsdam. Her eldest son, Prince Wilhelm forfeited his position as possible heir when he married Dorothea von Salviati on June 3, 1933. This occurred as she was not from a suitable royal family. Even though the royal house was formally deposed, its strict house rules still persisted.

The former Crown Prince and Princess were more understanding of their son than the exiled Emperor. Cecilie was not perturbed and made the best of the situation and was delighted when she became a grandmother for the first time on June 7, 1934. In 1935, Cecilie’s second son Prince Louis-Ferdinand worked, after studying economics and working for a time in the United States as a mechanic for Ford, with Lufthansa. Her third son, Hubertus, after spending a period of time farming joined the military and then the air force to become a pilot. The youngest son Friedrich went into business.

Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia and his wife Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia

In May 1938, at Cecilienhof, Prince Louis-Ferdinand married the Russian Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia the second daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (the pretender to the Russian throne) and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Emperor Alexander II of Russia. This meant that Prince Louis-Ferdinand married the Russian Grand Duchess Kira we’re 2nd cousins once removed from their common descent from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. This wedding would be the last great family occasion before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.

World War II

A period of relative calm for Cecilie’s family and for Germany came to an end with the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. Cecilie’s 24-year-old nephew, Prince Oskar, fell as a casualty five days after the start of the invasion of Poland. More personal tragedy occurred when her eldest son, Prince Wilhelm, was mortally wounded in battle at Valenciennes in France on 25 May 1940. He died on May 26, in a field hospital at Nivelle. His funeral took place in the Church of Peace at Potsdam on May 28, Over 50,000 people lined the way to his final resting place in the Antique Temple near the remains of his grandmother, former Empress Auguste Victoria. The huge turnout in respect for a Prince, who had died a hero’s death, from the former ruling dynasty, alarmed and infuriated Adolf Hitler. As a result, no Prince from a former German dynasty was allowed to serve at the front and in 1943 Hitler ordered that they all be discharged from the armed forces.

In 1941, the former German Emperor Wilhelm II died. At the age of 55, Cecilie’s husband became Head of the House of Hohenzollern. While under the monarchy this would have meant a great change for Cecilie and her husband. She would have been the new German Empress and Queen of Prussia and her husband would have become German Emperor and King of Prussia as Wilhelm III.

During this time, Cecilie and her husband increasingly retreated to Castle Oels to live a quiet life, far away from the dangers of Berlin. Even Potsdam, only 30 minutes away by train from the capital was too close for comfort. With the war going badly, Cecilie and her family left the advancing danger of the Soviet army to return to Potsdam where they celebrated Christmas in December 1944. It would be the last such occasion at her beloved home. In February 1945, Cecilie left Cecilienhof for the last time.

Final years

Cecilie fled the Red Army in February 1945 to the sanatorium of Dr. Paul Sotier (personal physician of Emperor Wilhelm II) Fürstenhof in Bad Kissingen in Bavaria. On 20 September 1946, she celebrated her 60th birthday. She was joined on this occasion by her husband and some of their children. Wilhelm had settled into a small house in Hechingen. Tragedy struck again when yet another son, this time Prince Hubertus, died from appendicitis on 8 April 1950. In early 1951, the health of the former Crown Prince deteriorated and on July 20, he died. On July 26, his funeral took place at Castle Hohenzollern where he was buried in the ground near an urn containing the ashes of the late Prince Hubertus. On the arm of her son, Prince Louis Ferdinand, Cecilie bade a final farewell to her husband. She remained in Bad Kissingen until 1952 when she moved to an apartment in the Frauenkopf district of Stuttgart.

In 1952, Cecilie’s memoirs, ‘Remembrances’ were published. In an act of healing and friendship, the former Crown Princess Cecilie was received by King George V of the United Kingdom’s widow, Queen Mary, in May 1952 during a visit to England. Cecilie visited for the first time to attend the christening of her granddaughter, Princess Victoria Marina of Prussia the daughter of her son Prince Frederick. Tragedy once again struck when Cecilie’s sister, the Danish Queen Mother, Queen Alexandrine died on December 28 of the same year. On January 3, 1953, Cecilie attended her funeral at Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark. From this time on, the former German Crown Princess never fully recovered. She managed to struggle on with the help of her family until May 1954 6, when she died on a visit to Bad Kissingen. It was the 72nd anniversary of the birth of her late husband. On May 12, 1954, her funeral took place and her remains were interred next to Crown Prince Wilhelm in the grounds of Castle Hohenzollern.

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.