Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)
Alexandra Feodorovna was the last empress of Russia as the consort of Nicholas II from their marriage on until his forced abdication on. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra was one of the most famous royal carriers of hemophilia and passed the condition to her only son, Alexei.
Alexandra was deeply involved in the personal and political life of her husband, Tsar Nicholas II. Her reputation suffered due to her influence over Nicholas, particularly in her insistence on maintaining autocratic rule in the face of growing revolutionary pressures in Russia. Her relationship with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin became a subject of controversy. Rasputin's alleged ability to alleviate Alexei's suffering from hemophilia increased Alexandra's reliance on him, damaging the public perception of the Romanovs and fueling rumors about Rasputin's power within the royal family. These associations with Rasputin and her opposition to political reform were seen as contributing factors to the collapse of the Romanov dynasty.
Following Nicholas II's abdication, the imperial family were placed under house arrest by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. On 17 July 1918, they were murdered by Bolshevik forces in Yekaterinburg, marking the violent end of over three centuries of Romanov rule. Despite her unpopularity during her reign, Alexandra was canonized as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
Early life
Alexandra was born on 6 June 1872 at the New Palace in Darmstadt as Princess Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse and by Rhine, a grand duchy then part of the German Empire. She was the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria.Alix was baptised on 1 July 1872 in the Protestant 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 mother wrote to Queen Victoria, "'Alix' we gave for 'Alice' as they murder my name here: 'Ali-ice' they pronounce it, so we thought 'Alix' could not so easily be spoilt." Her mother gave her the nickname of "Sunny", due to her cheerful disposition, a name adopted later by her husband. Her British relatives nicknamed her as "Alicky", to distinguish her from her aunt-by-marriage, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who was known within the family as Alix.
Alix's godparents were the Prince and Princess of Wales, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Tsesarevich and Tsesarevna of Russia, and Princess Anna of Prussia.
Alix's older brother Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine suffered from hemophilia and died in May 1873 after a fall, when Alix was about one year old. Of her siblings, Alix was closest to Princess Marie, who was two years younger; they were noted as "inseparable".
In November 1878, diphtheria swept through the House of Hesse; Alix, her three sisters, her brother Ernst, and their father fell ill. Elisabeth, Alix's older sister, was visiting their paternal grandmother, and escaped the outbreak. Alix's mother Alice tended to the children herself, rather than abandon them to nurses and doctors. Alice fell ill and died on 14 December 1878, when Alix was six years old. This was the 17th anniversary of Alice's own father's death. Marie also died, but the rest of the siblings survived. She described her childhood before the deaths of her mother and sister as "unclouded, happy babyhood, of perpetual sunshine, then of a great cloud".
Queen Victoria doted on the motherless Alix and became a surrogate mother to her. She felt highly protective of Alix and declared that "while I live Alicky, til she is married, will be more than ever my own child." She handpicked Alix's tutors and instructed them to send detailed reports back to Windsor every month. She invited Alix and her surviving siblings to England for their holidays, and they grew close to their British cousins. Every birthday and Christmas, she sent Alix gifts of dresses, jewelry, lace, and dolls. Alix signed herself "your loving and grateful child," rather than grandchild, in her letters. Alix reflected that she saw Queen Victoria as "the best and dearest of grandmamas," "a very august person," "a Santa Clause," and "the dearest and kindest Woman alive." When she was betrothed to Nicholas, Alix assured Victoria that "my marrying will make a difference to my love for You." When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Alix openly wept at her memorial service in Saint Petersburg and shocked the Russian courtiers who considered her cold and unfeeling.
Along with her sister, Princess Irene, Alix was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her godmother and maternal aunt, Princess Beatrice, to Prince Henry of Battenberg. At the age of 15, she attended Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1887.
In March 1892, when Alix was nineteen years old, her father Grand Duke Louis IV, died of a heart attack. According to her biographer, Baroness Buxhoeveden, Alix regarded the death of her father as the greatest sorrow of her life. Buxhoeveden recalled in her 1928 biography that "for years she could not speak of him, and long after when she was in Russia, anything that reminded her of him would bring her to the verge of tears".
Proposed matches
Queen Victoria greatly favored Alix and she wanted Alix to become the queen consort of the United Kingdom, which she considered "the greatest position there is." On 2 March 1888, she wrote to Alix's oldest sister Victoria that "My heart and mind are bent on securing dear Alicky for either Eddy or Georgie", respectively the second in line to the British throne and his brother, the future George V, both of whom were Alexandra's first cousins. In 1889, Victoria invited Alix and Eddy to Balmoral in hopes that they would fall in love. Eddy grew infatuated with her and proposed, but Alix was not interested in him and rejected his proposal. However, Victoria still persisted and tried to convince Alix of the benefits of the match. Victoria wrote to Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, Alix's older sister, that Alix "should be made to reflect seriously on the folly of throwing away the chance of a very good husband, kind, affectionate and steady, and of entering a united happy family and a very good position which is second to none in the world!" Alix's older sister Ella opposed the match because "he does not look over strong and is too stupid." In May 1890, Alix wrote a letter to Eddy that although it "pained her to pain him," she only saw him as a cousin and could not marry him. She wrote to Victoria that she would marry Eddy if she were "forced" by the family but that both of them would be miserable. Victoria was disappointed, but she decided that Alix had shown "great strength of character" in refusing to acquiesce to such strong pressure.In 1891, Queen Victoria tried to arrange a match between Alix and Prince Maximilian of Baden. She asked Louis to invite the prince to Darmstadt as soon as possible. When he arrived in Darmstadt, Maximilian told Alix that he intended to propose to her. Alix was surprised and unhappy, and she later reflected that "I did not know him at all." She asked her older sister Victoria to intervene and help her reject Maximilian politely.
Engagement
In 1884, Alix attended the wedding of her sister Elisabeth to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in St. Petersburg. At this wedding, the 12-year-old Alix met the 16-year-old Tsesarevich Nicholas, nephew of the groom and heir-apparent to the Imperial throne of Russia. In his diary Nicholas called Alix "sweet little Alix" and declared "we love each other." He gave her a brooch as a sign of his affection, and they scratched their names into a windowpane.In January 1890, Alix visited her sister Ella in Russia. She and Nicholas skated together, met at tea parties, and played badminton. Nicholas wrote in his diary: "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."
Alix's sister Ella and her husband Sergei were enthusiastically in favor of the match between Nicholas and Alix. Ella and Alix's uncle, the future King Edward VII, told his mother, Queen Victoria, that "Ella will move heaven and earth to get to marry a Grand Duke." Ella wrote to Ernest, "God grant this marriage will come true."
Nicholas and Alix were second cousins through Wilhelmina of Baden, the mother of both Nicholas's paternal grandmother, Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, formerly Princess Wilhelmine Marie of Hess-Darmstadt, the first wife of Tsar Alexander II, and Alix's paternal grandfather, Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine, brother of Louis III, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine.
Queen Victoria opposed the match to Nicholas. She personally liked Nicholas, but she disliked Russia and Nicholas's father and worried that Alix would not be safe in Russia. She wrote to Alix's older sister Victoria of her suspicions that Sergei and Ella were encouraging the match. After the betrothal was announced, she reflected: "The more I think of sweet Alicky's marriage the more unhappy I am. Not as to the personality for I like very much but on account of the country and the awful insecurity to which that poor child will be exposed."
Alexander and Maria Feodorovna were both vehemently anti-German and did not want Alix as a daughter-in-law. Maria Feodorovna told her sister Alexandra of Denmark that the youngest daughter of an undistinguished grand duke was not worthy to marry the heir to the Russian throne, and she believed that Alix was too tactless and unlikeable to be a successful empress. Alexander favored Princess Hélène of Orléans, the tall, dark-haired daughter of Philippe, Comte de Paris, pretender to the throne of France. Nicholas was not attracted to Hélène, writing in his diary: "Mama made a few allusions to Hélène, 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." Hélène also resisted this match, as she was Roman Catholic and her father refused to allow her to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. Alexander sent emissaries to Princess Margaret of Prussia, sister of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Nicholas declared that he would rather become a monk than marry Margaret; she in turn was unwilling to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church from being Protestant.
When his health failed in 1894, Alexander III decided to allow Nicholas to marry Alix so that he could secure the succession. Maria reluctantly permitted Nicholas to propose to Alix. Nicholas was ecstatic and immediately inquired about Alix.
Despite her love for Nicholas, Alix was initially reluctant to marry Nicholas because she did not want to renounce her Lutheran faith to join the Orthodox Church. She wrote to Nicholas that "I cannot against my conscience" because "What happiness can come from a marriage which begins without the real blessing of God?" Nicholas was devastated, but he remained hopeful because Ella assured him that Alix was "utterly miserable" and had a "deep and pure" love for him. Nicholas begged her "not say 'no' directly" and declared, "Do you think there can exist any happiness in the whole world without you!"
In April 1894 Alix's brother Ernest Louis married Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Princess Victoria was Alexander III's niece by his sister Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and Nicholas's first cousin, so several Russians attended the wedding, including Grand Dukes Vladimir, Sergei and Paul, Grand Duchesses Elisabeth Feodorovna and Maria Pavlovna, and Nicholas. Nicholas was determined to persuade Alix to marry him. He was evidently confident in his future success: he brought Father Ioann Yanyshev, confessor to the Imperial family, to teach Alix about Russian Orthodoxy, and he brought Ekaterina Adolfovna Schneider to teach Alix Russian.
The day after his arrival in Coburg Nicholas proposed to Alix and tried for two hours to persuade her to convert to Orthodoxy. She wept continuously but refused. Ella spoke to Alix afterwards and she convinced Alix that she did not need to renounce Lutheranism to convert to Orthodoxy. Ella herself had not been required to abjure her Lutheran faith when she converted to Orthodoxy. The next day Alix spoke to Wilhelm II and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She accepted Nicholas's second proposal.
Following the engagement Alix returned to England and her grandmother. In June Nicholas travelled to England to visit her and attend the christening of the eldest son of Prince George, Duke of York. Alix and Nicholas were both named as godparents of the boy, who reigned briefly as Edward VIII of the United Kingdom in 1936. Alix wrote to her old governess that "I am more happy than words can express. At last, after these five sad years!" Nicholas declared that "my soul was brimming with joy and life."
In September, as Alexander III's health declined, Nicholas obtained the permission of his dying father to summon Alix to the Romanovs' Livadia Palace in Crimea. Escorted by her sister Ella from Warsaw to the Crimea, she traveled by ordinary passenger train. The dying tsar insisted on receiving Alix in full dress uniform and gave her his blessing.