Alexandra of Hesse
Tsarina Alexandra of Russia (nee Her Serene Highness Princess Alexandra of Hesse) (Alix Victoria Helena Louise Beatrice), (25 April 1872 - 16/17 July 1918), was the consort of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the last Tsar of Russia. She was also a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Although called Alix before her marriage, she assumed the name Alexandra Feodorovna upon baptism into the Russian Orthodox Chruch
Alexandra is remembered as the last Tsarina of Russia, and for her authoritarian control over the country. Her relationship with the Russian mystic, Grigori Rasputin was also an important factor in her life.
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Early Life
Alexandra was born on June 6, 1872 at Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. Her father was His Grand Ducal Highness Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, the ruling Duke of Hesse. Her mother was The Grand Duchess of Hesse (nee HRH The Princess Alice), the second eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. As a daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, she was styled Princess Alexandra of Hesse with the style Her Serene Highness.
Both her parents died when she was young. Her mother, Princess Alice, died when she was six, and her father, The Grand Duke of Hesse, died when she was twenty. Alexandra's brother, Prince Ernst Ludwig succeeded to the Duchy of Hesse upon the death of his father.
As she lost her mother at an early age, Alexandra became very close to her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and was often thought to be Victoria's favourite granddaughter. Alexandra spent many of her early years in the United Kingdom, and stayed frequently with her English relatives at Balmoral Castle and Osborne House.
Marriage
As a Royal Princess of Hesse, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Alexandra was courted by many royal princes around Europe for her hand in marriage. She had however, already met a distant cousin, the Tsarevich of Russia, Nicholas. At first, Nicholas' father, Tsar Alexander III refused the prospect of marriage, but later relented on his death bed. Alexander III died shortly afterwards and Nicholas was now Tsar of all Russia.
Alexander and Nicholas married on November 26, 1894 at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. The had four children:
- Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia, (November 15, 1895 - July 16, 1918)
- Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, (June 10, 1897 - July 16, 1918)
- Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, June 26, 1899 - July 16, 1918)
- Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, June 18, 1901 - July 16, 1918)
- Tsarevich Alexei of Russia, (August 12, 1904 - July 16, 1918)
Unfortunately, Alexandra was a carrier of haemophilia, inherited from Queen Victoria through her mother, Princess Alice. Alexandra transmitted the disease to her son, Alexei.
Tsarina Alexandra
In 1895, Nicholas and Alexandra were crowned Tsar and Tsarina of all Russia in an extravagant ceremony in Moscow. The coronation ceremony was marred by the deaths of several thousand peasants, who had come to receive gifts. This bad omen for the reign of Nicholas and Alexandra did not go unnoticed.
Generally however, Alexandra was unpopular at court and with the Russian people. She tired of the stiffness and etiquette of the Russian court, and generally attended less receptions than her predecessor. Her failure to produce an heir to the Russian throne in her first four attempts was also judged harshly.
Alexandra was also fiercely protective of her husband's role as Tsar, and actively supported his rights as an autocratic ruler.
Rasputin
The birth of Alexei occurred at the height of the Russo-Japanese War on August 12, 1904. The Tsarevitch was the heir apparent to the throne of Russia, and Alexandra had fulfilled her most important role as Tsarina, in bearing a child for the succession. Such excitement was short-lived, when it was discovered that Alexei suffered from haemophilia, which could only have been transmitted from Alexandra's side of the family. Haemophilia was generally fatal in the early 20th century, and had already claimed several of Europe's royalty including Alexandra's uncle, HRH Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany and was also apparent in the Spainish Royal Family. As such, the disease was kept secret from the Russian people.
At first Alexandra turned to Russian doctors and medics to treat Alexei, however their treatments generally failed. In 1912, Alexei suffered a life-threatening hemorrhage in the thigh and groin while the family were in Spala. It was at this point that Alexandra took the advice of her intimate friend Anna Vyrubova and sent a telegram to Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin's response, that Alexei was over the worst and the doctors should leave him to recover, coincided with his revival. From 1912 onwards, Alexandra came to rely increasingly on Rasputin, and to believe in his ability to ease Alexei's suffering. This reliance enhanced Rasputin's political power, which was critically to undermine Romonov rule during the First World War.
World War One
The outbreak of World War I was a pivotal moment for Russia and Alexandra. The War pitted Russia against Germany, the home of Alexandra's birth, and where her brother was Grand Duke of Hesse. This made Alexandra very unpopular with the Russian people, who accused her of collaboration with the Germans. The German Kaiser, Wilhelm II was also Alexandra's cousin.
When the Tsar travelled to the front line in 1915 to take personal command of the Army, he left Alexandra in charge back in Moscow. Alexandra was very paranoid about loyalty, and sacked any court official she suspected of being against the Tsar. She also was under the control of Rasputin, which was the focus of strong rumours and scare stories of German spies in the Russian court. Raspuitin was eventually murdered by courtiers in 1916.
Revolution
Russia crashed out of World War I in 1917, and the February Revolution that followed, forced the Tsar to abdicate the throne for himself and the Tsarevich Alexei. Alexandra was now a perilous position as the wife of the deposed Tsar, and hated by the Russian people. Despite the fact that he was a cousin of both Alexandra and Nicholas, King George V refused to allow them to evacuate to the UK.
The provisional Russian government that formed after the revolution kept Nicholas, Alexandra, and their children confined in the royal residence The Alexander Palace, until they were moved to Tobolsk in Siberia in August 1917, a step by the Kerensky government designed to remove them from the capital and from possible harm. They remained in Tobolsk until after the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 (the "October Revolution"), but were moved to Red-controlled Yekaterinburg. The Tsar and Tsarina and all their family, including the gravely ill Alexei, along with several family servants, were executed by firing squad in the basement of the Ipatiev House where they had been imprisoned, on the night of July 16 (or 17), 1918 by a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky.
Identification and burial
Alexandra's body was buried with her family in a disused mine-shaft, 12 miles north of Yekaterinburg. In the early 1990s, following the fall of the Soviet Union, the bodies of the Romanovs were located, exhumed and formally identified. A secret report by Yurovsky, which came to light in the late 1970s, but did not become public knowledge until the 1990s, helped the authorities to locate the bodies. DNA analysis was a key means of identifying them. A blood sample from HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (a great grandson of Alexandra's mother, HRH The Princess Alice) was used to identify Alexandra and her daughters through their mitochondria genes. Alexandra, Nicholas and their children (except Aelexi and one daughter, whose remains were missing) were reinterred in the Romanov family crypt in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in 1998 with much ceremony on the 80th anniversary of the execution.
In 2001 she and her family were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Her life was dramatized in Nicholas and Alexandra.
Titles
- Her Serene Highness Princess Alix of Hesse
- Her Imperial Majesty Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia
de:Alexandra von Hessen-Darmstadt
nl:Alexandra Fjodorovna
Categories: 1872 births | 1918 deaths | Saints | Russian tsarinas