Alexandra Feodorovna

She was the Empress Consort of Russia who was assassinated by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.She unknowingly passed on haemophilia to her only son and the heir to the Russian throne. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and is remembered as the last Tsarina of Russia. She had a gentle and kind nature but was badly misunderstood by the ladies of the Russian Court.

She was Alexandra Feodorovna.

This beautiful but shy Tsarina was born Princess Alix of Hesse on 6th June, 1872. Her parents were Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, (2nd daughter of Queen Victoria). Alix was the 6th child and 4th daughter among 7 children.

This little Princess was christened Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix, and she came into this world at the New Palace in Darmstadt. The little girl’s nickname was “Sunny”, a favourite name her mother gave her daughter because Alix always had a cheerful disposition.

In 1878, November, diphtheria reared its ugly head in the House of Hesse killing Aliz’s younger sister and mother. Alix wrote that, before this, her childhood had been an “unclouded, happy babyhood, of perpetual sunshine, then a great cloud.”

Queen Victoria became a surrogate mother to her granddaughter, doting on Alix and she felt protective over her, saying: “while I live Alicky (Alix) til she is married, will be more than ever my own child.” The Queen handpicked her granddaughter’s tutors, instructing them to send detailed reports to Windsor every month, Alix, for her part, began her schooling in earnest. Handwriting, history, literature, geography, French, in fact all the subjects that she would be ‘expected’ to know as a wife of a head of state.

In 1884, Alix attended her sister Elizabeth’s marriage to the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in St.Petersburg. It was here that the 12 years of age Princess met the 16 years of age Tsesarevich Nicholas, who was the nephew of the groom. Nicholas was also the heir-apparent to the Imperial throne of Russia. The two young people fell in love.

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 loved Nicholas but was hesitant to marry him because she would have to renounce the Lutheran faith she had been raised in, and join the Russian Orthodox Church. However, when speaking with Ella, her sister, she was told that there was no need to renounce the Lutheran faith in order to convert to Orthodoxy.

Alice accepted Nicholas’s proposal of marriage.

Writing to her old governess, Alix said: “I am more happy than words can express. At last, after these five sad years!”

Nicholas declared: “My soul was brimming with joy and life.”

On 1st November, 1894, Alexander III died at the age of 49 and Nicholas was now Tsar Nicholas II. Alix’s consecration into the Russian Orthodox Church was the morning after the death, and it was then that she became the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna.

The young couple married on 26th November, 1894. She was 22, he was 26. Alexandra felt that the wedding seemed like a continuation of the funeral liturgy. The couple had a short honeymoon with Nicholas returning to work three days after the wedding.

Alexandra was not popular with the Russian aristocracy. She spoke English and German, but struggled with French, which was the official language of the Court. Her shyness and introverted nature was interpreted as arrogance and coldness. However, Alexandra did speak and write Russian well, proving that she wanted to be a part of the Russian Court.

Alexandra and Nicholas had 4 daughters and the heir, a son. Unfortunately, most of Alexandra’s pregnancies needed extensive bedrest which was not generally known. Again, the ladies of the Russian Court assumed that their Empress was not interested in them.

Alexandra did, however, have a passion for social work, supporting charities out of her own purse. When she was not pregnant, Alexandra would visit schools and hospitals, even setting up a school for nurses and housemaids. She wanted to open a Workhouse for the very poor. Charitable work was more important to the new Empress than attending the social season.

Realising the many difficulties that were facing Nicholas and herself, Alexadra found comfort in her new faith, the Russian Orthodox Church, something she had always been zealous for.

When Alexandra gave birth to Alexei, the son and heir to the Russian throne, she at last gained some popularity. The whole of Russia rejoiced. In their eyes, ‘she had fulfilled her greatest duty.’

The joy was short-lived when the doctors discovered that Alexei had hemophilia before his first birthday. Alexandra was beside herself and wore herself out taking special care of her only son. Her health began to suffer and she developed heart problems.

During all of this time, a revolution began to rear its ugly head, and the political landscape became dangerous. It started with ‘Bloody Sunday’ when protest and violence gave way to reports of 100 up to 350 people wounded or dead.

Tsar Nicholas II tried his best to avoid a full-blown revolution, but whatever he did was not good enough for the Russian government or citizens. His ‘disastrous leadership’ during the First World War put the final nail in the Royal family's coffin.

This and Alexandra’s obsessive friendship with Rasputin put such a gulf between them and their people, that it would never heal.

Alexandra’s life fell apart. Her husband was forced to abdicate on 15th March, 1917, and the family was trapped in Alexandra Palace. They were now under house arrest. In August, 1917, Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were moved to Tobolsk in Siberia. The Kerensky government moved the Royal family to take them out of the Capital and out of possible harm.

In 1918, the Royal family was moved to the Bolshevik-controlled Yekaterinburg. They arrived at the house ‘Ipatiev House’ on 30th April, and this was their new prison. They lost most of their privileges, as well as their personal possessions, and were guarded by 75 men who did guard duty at the house.

Life here was a nightmare for Alexandra and her family. For one hour only they were allowed to exercise in the rear garden under the watchful eye of the guards. There was little or no mail and the only newspapers they were allowed to read were out of date ones.

In the early morning of July 17th, 1918, Nicholas, Alexandra and their 5 children were murdered by firing-quad (most of the history books say they were executed). Their only crime was being Royal. Tsar Nicholas II's last words were: “You know not what you do.”

A very sad end to the life of Alexandra Feodorovna who only wanted to show kindness to the world she was born into.

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