Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918)

Alexandra Feodorovna (1872–1918), Russian empress, wife of Nicholas II; née Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, daughter of Princess Alice of England and Duke of Hesse Ludwig IV, granddaughter of Queen Victoria The young Princess Alice of Hesse, having lost her mother eight years old, was brought up by her grandmother, Queen Victoria, in England. In 1886, she came to visit her sister, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Then she met the heir, Nikolai Alexandrovich. Young people, who, moreover, were in a rather close relationship (according to the princess's father, they are second cousins), immediately imbued with mutual sympathy.In 1893, Alexander III became seriously ill. Here the question, dangerous for the succession to the throne, arose - the future sovereign is not married. Nikolai Alexandrovich categorically stated that he would choose a bride for himself only for love, and not for dynastic reasons. With the mediation of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, the emperor's consent to the marriage of his son with Princess Alice was obtained. However, Maria Feodorovna did not hide her dissatisfaction with what, in her opinion, the unsuccessful choice of the heir. The fact that the princess of Hesse joined the Russian imperial family in the mournful days of suffering of the dying Alexander III probably made Maria Feodorovna even more opposed to the new empress. close to her people. She turned out to be an exemplary mother and raised her four daughters in modesty and decency. The last years of Alexandra Feodorovna's reign are full of bitterness and despair. After the abdication of Nicholas II, she was arrested by General Kornilov; being left alone with the conspirators, she showed amazing courage; together with her husband and children she was exiled by the Provisional Government to Tobolsk, and then by the Bolsheviks to Yekaterinburg, where she was shot with her whole family on July 17, 1918; canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church (2000).