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Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (later Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova (6 June 1872 - 17 July 1918), was Empress consort of Russia as spouse of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of the Russian Empire. Born a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was given the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, which canonised her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer in 2000. Alexandra is best remembered as the last Tsaritsa of Russia, as one of the most famous royal carriers of the haemophilia disease, as well as for her support of autocratic control over the country. Her notorious friendship with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was also an important factor in her life. Early life Alexandra Feodorovna was born on June 6, 1872 at the New Palace in Darmstadt as Princess Alix Viktoria Helena Luise Beatrice of Hesse and by Rhine, a Grand Duchy that was then part of the German Empire. She was the sixth child among the seven children of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. Alix was baptized on 1 July 1872 according to the rites of the Lutheran Church and given the names of her mother and each of her mother's four sisters, some of which were transliterated into German. Her godparents were the Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, the Tsarevich of Russia, the Tsarevna of Russia, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, the Duchess of Cambridge and Anna of Prussia. In December, 1878, diphtheria swept through the ducal house of Hesse. Alix and her 3 sisters and her brother, Ernst fell ill. Elizabeth, Alix's older sister had been sent to visit her paternal grandmother, and escaped the outbreak. Alix's mother Alice, who had experience as a nurse from the time her father, Prince Albert, died, tended to the children rather than abandon them to doctors. Alice herself soon fell ill with diphtheria and died on the anniversary of her father's death, December 14, 1878, when Alix was only 6 years old . Alix, Victoria, Irene, and Ernst survived the epidemic, but Princess May did not. Alix was sent to her maternal grandmother's (Queen Victoria) to be cared for and the two became very close. Marriage Alix was married relatively late for her rank in her era, having refused a proposal from Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence (the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) despite strong familial pressure. It is said that Queen Victoria had wanted her two grandchildren to marry, but because she was very fond of Alix she accepted that she did not want to marry him; The Queen even went on to say that she was proud of Alix for standing up to her, something many people, including her own son the Prince of Wales did not do. Alix however, had already met and fallen in love with the Tsarevich of Russia, whose mother was the sister-in-law of Alix's uncle, the Prince of Wales and whose uncle Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was married to Alix's sister Elizabeth. They were also second cousins as they were both great grandchildren of Princess Wilhelmina of Baden. Nicholas and Alix had first met in 1884 and when Alix returned to Russia in 1889 they fell in love. "It is my dream to one day marry Alix H. I have loved her for a long time, but more deeply and strongly since 1889 when she spent six weeks in Petersburg. For a long time, I have resisted my feeling that my dearest dream will come true." Nicholas wrote in his diary ; and Alix reciprocated his feelings. At first, Nicholas' father, Tsar Alexander III, refused the prospect of marriage . Society sniped openly at Princess Alix, safe in the knowledge that Tsar Alexander III and Empress Marie, both vigorously anti-German had no intention of permitting a match with the Tsarevich. Although Princess Alix was his godchild, it was generally known that Alexander III was angling for a bigger catch for his son, someone like Princess Helene, the tall dark haired daughter of Philippe, comte de Paris, pretender to the throne of France. The approach to Helene did not please Nicholas. He wrote in his diary, "Mama made a few illusions to Helene, daughter of the Comte de Paris. I myself want to go in one direction and it is evident that Mama wants me to choose the other one." Fortunately Helene also resisted. She was Roman Catholic and unwilling to give up her faith to become Russian Orthodox. The Tsar then sent emissaries to Princess Margaret of Prussia, daughter of Kaiser Friedrich III and sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Nicholas flatly declared that he would rather become a monk than marry the plain and boring Margaret. Margaret stated that she was unwilling to give up her Protestant religion to become Russian Orthodox. As long as he was well, Alexander III ignored his son's demands. He only relented as his health began to fail in 1894. Alix was troubled by the requirement that she renounce her Lutheran faith, as a Russian Tsaritsa had to be Orthodox; but she was persuaded and eventually became a fervent convert. She and Nicholas became engaged in April 1894. Alexander III died on 1 November 1894 and Nicholas became Tsar of all the Russias at the age of twenty-six. The marriage was not delayed. Alexandra and Nicholas were married in the Chapel of the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg on 14-26 November 1894. The marriage that began that night remained unflawed for the rest of their lives. It was a Victorian marriage, outwardly serene and proper, but based on intensely passionate physical love. Her older sister Ella, was not only her sister, but her aunt by marriage. In fact, she, like Nicky was a first cousin to Britain's King George V; Nicky was a first cousin to three other monarchs as well: Christian X of Denmark, Constantine I of Greece, and King Haakon VII of Norway. Alix of Hesse accompanied the Imperial family as they returned to Saint Petersburg with the body of the Tsar, and it is said that the people greeted their new Empress-to-be with ominous whispers of "She comes to us behind a coffin." Coronation Alexandra Feodorovna became Empress of Russia on her wedding day. It was not until 14th May 1896, that the coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra took place inside the Kremlin in Moscow. The following day, tragedy struck the coronation celebrations when the deaths of several thousand peasants became known. The victims were trampled to death at the Khodynka Field in Moscow when they believed there were not enough commemorative gifts for everyone. By the time the police and more cossacks arrived, the meadow resembled a battlefield. By afternoon the city's hospitals were jammed with wounded and everybody knew what had happened. Nicholas and Alexandra were stunned. He declared he could not go to the ball being given that night by the French Ambassador, the Marquis da Montebello. The Tsar's uncles urged him to attend not to offend the French. Tragically as would happen so often in his reign, Nicholas gave in and he and Alexandra attended the ball. Sergius Witte commented, "We expected the party would be called off. Instead it took place if nothing had happened and the ball was opened by Their Majesties dancing a quadrille." It was a painful evening. "The Empress appeared in great distress, her eyes reddened by tears" the British Ambassador informed Queen Victoria. Masses of simple Russians took the disaster at Khodynka Meadow as an omen that the reign would be unhappy. Other Russians, more sophisticated or more vengeful used the tragedy to underscore the heartlessness of the autocracy and the contemptible shallowness of the young Tsar and his 'German woman'. The Empress Alexandra was unpopular at court and with the Russian people. When she appeared she was silent, seemingly cold, haughty and indifferent. She was hurt by their unenthusiastic reception, and declared herself to be tired of the loose morals and etiquette of the Russian court. Alexandra was called prim and dull, provincial, uninteresting and haughty. There is a story that captures the battle between Tsarina Alexandra and society perfectly. At one ball, Alexandra spotted a young woman whose decolletage she considered too low. A lady-in-waiting was dispatched to the woman saying, "Madam, Her Majesty wishes me to tell you that in Hesse-Darmstadt, we don't wear our dresses that way." The woman replied, "Really?" at the same time pulling the front of her dress still lower. "Pray tell Her Majesty that in Russia, we do wear our dresses this way." Alexandra made few attempts to forge bonds with the other members of the large Romanov family and she generally attended as few court occasions as possible. She was unfavourably compared to the popular Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and younger sister of the Princess of Wales. In Russia, Dowager Empresses outranked Empress Consorts, unlike at most European royal courts. Alexandra's stubborn attitude did not allow her to make any attempt to learn from her more experienced mother-in-law who could have helped her so much. The Dowager Empress had lived in Russia for seventeen years before coming to the throne; Alexandra had barely a month between her arrival and her marriage. Alexandra knew better than to publicly criticise "Mother dear". The Tsarina's aunt, German Empress Friedrich, wrote to Queen Victoria that "Alix is very imperious and will always insist on having her own way; she will never yield one iota of power she will imagine she wields ... " Alexandra's failure to produce an heir to the Russian throne in her first four attempts was a source of great disappointment. Alexandra was fiercely protective of her husband's role as Tsar, and actively supported his rights as an autocratic ruler. She was a fervent advocate of the divine right, and believed that it was unnecessary to attempt to secure the approval of the people. During the first world war, with the national passions aroused, all the complaints Russians had about the Empress - her German birth, her coldness, her devotion to Rasputin - blended into a single, sweeping torrent of hatred. Alexandra and Her Children Directly above the Mauve Boudoir at the Alexandra Palace were the nurseries of her children. In the morning, Alexandra could lie back on her couch and through the ceiling hear the footsteps of her children and the sound of their pianos. A private elevator and private staircase led directly to the rooms above. Alexandra, to the Russian people, was a cold-hearted German woman, with no ability to see the needs of those around her, unless they were family. This was true to a certain extent, as Alexandra was, like her husband, very focused on family. The empress, from her childhood, was painfully shy; a trait shared by her grandmother, Queen Victoria. She hated public appearances and neglected them and only appeared when absolutely necessary. Alexandra preferred to retreat to the sidelines, giving way to her mother-in-law; something which by law was Maria Feodorovna's right. This shyness and desire to be alone had a deep impact on her five children and the empire. Alexandra never made the effort to win the affections of the Russian people. Almost one year after her marriage to the Tsar, Alexandra gave birth to the couple's first child: a girl, named Olga, was born on 15 November 1895. Olga could not be the heir due to the Pauline Laws implemented by Tsar Paul I. Only a male could succeed to the Russian throne. Olga was well-loved by her young parents. Three more girls followed Olga: Tatiana on 10 June 1897, Maria on June 26, 1899 and Anastasia on 18 June 1901. Three more years passed before the empress gave birth to the long-awaited heir. Alexei Nikolaevich was born in Peterhof on 12 August 1904. To his parents' dismay, Alexei was born with hemophilia, an incurable bleeding disease. With her eldest daughter, Olga, Alexandra sometimes had a difficult time. Perhaps this was due the fact that Olga was first born. Olga was most like her father. Shy and subdued, she impressed people with her kindness, her innocence and the strength of her private feelings. As she grew older, Olga read widely, both fiction and poetry, often borrowing books from her mother's own tables before the Empress had read them. "You must wait Mama, until I find out whether this book is a proper one for you to read." Alexandra understood her second daughter, Tatiana much better. In public and in private, Tatiana surrounded her mother with unvarying attention. If a favor was needed, all the imperial children agreed that "Tatiana must ask Papa to grant it." During the family's final months, Tatiana helped her mother move from place to place, pushing her about the house in a wheelchair. The next daughter, Maria, liked to talk about marriage and children. The Tsar thought she would make some man an excellent wife. Maria was considered the angel of the family. Anastasia, the youngest and most famous daughter, was the "shvibzik," Russian for "imp." She climbed trees and refused to come down unless specifically commanded to come down by her father. Her Aunt and Godmother, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna once recalled a time when Anastasia was teasing so ruthlessly that she slapped the child. When they were children, Alexandra dressed her daughters as pairs, the oldest two and the youngest two wearing matching dresses. As Olga and Tatiana grew older, they played a more serious role in public affairs. Although in private they still referred to their parents as 'Mama' and 'Papa', in public they referred to 'the Empress' and 'the Emperor'. Nicholas and Alexandra intended that both their older daughters should make their official debuts in 1914 when Olga was nineteen and Tatiana seventeen. The first world war intervened and the plans were canceled. By 1917, the four daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra had blossomed into young women whose talents and personalities were, as fate decreed, never to be unfolded and revealed. Alexandra doted on Alexei. The children's tutor, Pierre Gilliard wrote, "Alexei was the center of a united family, the focus of all its hopes and affections. His sisters worshiped him. He was his parents' pride and joy. When he was well, the palace was transformed. Everyone and everything in it seemed bathed in sunshine." Having to live with the knowledge that she had given him the bleeding disease, Alexandra was obsessed with protecting her son; she kept a close eye on him at all times and consulted a number of mystics who claimed to be able to heal him during his nearly fatal attacks. Alexandra spoiled her only son and let him have his way. She seemed to pay more attention to him that any of her four daughters. When Alexei's illness was finally announced to the public in 1912, Alexandra became an unpopular figure with her people. Her German background during Great War only made this hatred grow. Children Grand Duchess Olga Nicholaevna 15 November 1895 17 July 1918 Grand Duchess Tatiana Nicholaevna 10 June 1897 17 July 1918 Grand Duchess Maria Nicholaevna 26 June 1899 17 July 1918 Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicholaevna 18 June 1901 17 July 1918 Tsesarevich Alexei Nicholaevich 12 August 1904 17 July 1918 World War One The outbreak of World War I was a pivotal moment for Russia and Alexandra. The war pitted the Russian Empire of the Romanov dynasty against the much stronger German Empire of the Hohenzollern dynasty. When Alexandra learned of the Russian mobilisation, she stormed into her husband's study, slamming the door behind her. Alexandra's friend, Anna Vyrubova sat outside, waiting, listening to the angry voices coming from the room which were growing louder by the minute. In the middle of the loud voices, the door opened, and Alexandra ran out as Anna and into the bedroom. Anna followed her and found the Tsarina lying on the bed, crying hysterically, "War!" she choked. "And I know nothing of it! This is the end of everything." The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine, ruled by her brother, formed part of the German Empire. This was, of course the place of Alexandra's birth. This made Alexandra very unpopular with the Russian people, who accused her of collaboration with the Germans. The German Kaiser, William II, was also Alexandra's first cousin. Ironically, one of the few things that Empress Alexandra and her mother-in-law Empress Maria had in common was their utter distaste for Kaiser Wilhelm II. When the Tsar travelled to the front line in 1915 to take personal command of the Army, he left Alexandra in charge as Regent in the capital Saint Petersburg. Her brother-in-law, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recorded, "When the Emperor went to war of course his wife governed instead of him." In the two and a half years that followed, the Russian government deteriorated with a shocking rapidity that is without parallel in modern history. Alexandra had no experience of government, and constantly appointed and reappointed incompetent new ministers, which meant the government was never stable or efficient. The Tsarina's involvement in political affairs was her own doing. To the Tsar she wrote, "Let me help you, my treasure. Surely there is some way in which a woman can be of help and use. I do so yearn to make it easier for you. ... I long to poke my nose into everything." This was particularly dangerous in a war of attrition, as neither the troops nor the civilian population were ever adequately supplied. She paid great attention to the self-serving advice of Rasputin, and their relationship was widely, though falsely, believed to be sexual in nature. It is alleged that when the Tsarina met with Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador, she told him, "I have no patience with the ministers who try to prevent him from doing his duty. The situation requires firmness. The Emperor, unfortunately, is weak; but I am not, and I intend to be firm." Alexandra was the focus of ever increasing and extremely negative rumours, and widely believed to be a German spy in the Russian court. Revolution World War I put what proved to be unbearable burden on Imperial Russia's government and economy, both of which were dangerously weak. Mass shortages and hunger became the daily situation for tens of millions of Russians due to the disruptions of the war economy. Fifteen million men were diverted from agricultural production to fight in the war, and the transportation infrastructure (primarily railroads) were diverted towards war use, exacerbating food shortages in the cities as available agricultural products could not be brought to urban areas. Inflation was rampant which, combined with the food shortages and the poor performance by the Russian military in the war, generated a great deal of anger and unrest among the people in Saint Petersburg and other cities. The decision of the Tsar to take personal command of the military against advice was disastrous as he was directly blamed for all losses. His relocation to the front, leaving the Tsaritsa in charge of the government, helped undermine the Romanov dynasty. The poor performance of the military led to rumours believed by the people that the German-born Tsaritsa was part of a conspiracy to help Germany win the war. The severe winter of 1916-17 essentially doomed Imperial Russia. Food shortages worsened and famine gripped the cities. The mismanagement and failures of the war turned the soldiers against the Tsar. . The mood of the army is perhaps captured well by one scene in Jean Renoir's movie, La Grande Illusion. Alexandra sends boxes to Russian prisoners of war. Thrilled to think they are receiving vodka, they open them to discover bibles, and promptly riot. By March 1917, conditions had worsened. Steelworkers went out on strike on 7 March, and the following day, International Women’s Day, crowds hungry for bread began rioting on the streets of Saint Petersburg to protest food shortages and the war. After two days of rioting, the Tsar ordered the Army to restore order and on 11 March they fired on the crowd. That very same day, the Duma, the elected legislature, urged the Tsar to take action to ameliorate the concerns of the people. The Tsar responded by dissolving the Duma. On 12 March soldiers sent to suppress the rioting crowds mutinied and joined the rebellion, thus providing the spark to ignite the February Revolution (like the later October Revolution of November 1917, the Russian Revolutions of 1917 get their names due to the Old Style calendar). Soldiers and workers set up the "Petrograd Soviet" of 2,500 elected deputies while the Duma declared a Provisional Government on 13 March. Alexander Kerensky was a key player in the new regime. The Duma informed the Tsar that day that he must abdicate. In an effort to put an end to the uprising in the capital, Nicholas tried to get to Saint Petersburg by train from army headquarters at Mogiliev. The route was blocked so he tried another way. His train was stopped at Pskov where, after receiving advice from his generals, he first abdicated the throne for himself and later, on seeking medical advice, for himself and his son the Tsarevich Alexei. Alexandra was now in a perilous position as the wife of the deposed Tsar, hated by the Russian people. Nicholas finally was allowed to return to the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo where he was placed under arrest with his family. Despite the fact he was a first cousin of both Nicholas and Alexandra, King George V refused to allow them to evacuate to the United Kingdom, as he was alarmed by their unpopularity in his country and the potential repercussions to his own throne. Murder Tuesday, 16 July 1918 dawned hot and dusty in Ekaterinburg. The day passed normally for the former imperial family. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Nicholas and his daughters took their usual walk in the small garden. Early in the evening Yurovsky sent away the fifteen year old kitchen boy Leonid Sedinev, saying that his uncle wished to see him. At 7pm, Yurovsky summoned all the Cheka men into his room and ordered them to collect all the revolvers from the outside guards. With twelve heavy military revolvers lying before him on the table he said, "Tonight, we shoot the entire family, everybody." Upstairs Nicholas and Alexandra passed the evening playing bezique; at ten thirty, they went to bed. The former Tsar and Tsaritsa and all of their family, including the gravely ill Alexei, along with several family servants, were executed by firing squad and bayonets in the basement of the Ipatiev House, where they had been imprisoned, early in the morning of July 17, 1918, by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky. In the basement room of the Ipatiev House, Nicholas asked for and received three chairs from the guards. Minutes later a squad of soldiers, each man armed with a revolver, entered the room. Their leader Yurovsky casually pronounced, "Your relations have tried to save you. They have failed and we must now shoot you." Nicholas rose from his chair and only had time to utter, "What ...?" before he was shot in the head. Alexandra watched the murder of her husband and two servants before military commissar Peter Ermakov killed her with a gun shot to the left side of her head before she could finish making the sign of the cross. Ermakov, in a drunken haze, stabbed her dead body and that of her husband's, shattering both their rib cages. Alexandra lay next to her husband Nicholas in a pool of blood. Titles Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine (1872-1894) Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia (created in 1894 by Alexander III prior to her marriage) Her Imperial Majesty The Empress of all the Russias (1894-1917) Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Alexandra of Hesse and by Rhine (1917-1918) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
William B.
