ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA (ALIX OF HESSE)

ALEXANDRA FEODOROVNA (ALIX OF HESSE)

Born and wedded royal, the life of the last Tsarina of Russia, proved to be anything but charmed

Unfortunately, Alexandra’s life would become inextricably tied to the future of the Russian government.

An outsider on the throne of the country of her husband Tsar Nicholas II, led to a country-wide revolution, and the end of The Romanovs

Alexandra Feodorovna, was born Princess Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix, on the 6th June 1872.

Her father was Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse.
Her mother Princess Alice, was the second daughter of Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert.

In November of 1878, diptheria swept through Hesse.
Alix, her sisters Irene and Marie and her brother Ernst, were all infected with the disease.

While Alix, Irene and Ernst recovered, Marie, died shortly before the end of the month.

Their mother Princess Alice, then caught the disease and passed away on 14th December 1878.

After the loss of her mother, Princess Alix became very close to her grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Alix had spent many of her early years, in the United Kingdom, and was often thought to be Victoria’s favourite granddaughter.

As Alix grew, she was considered a beautiful woman, with reddish-blonde hair, high cheek bones, pale skin, dark blue eyes, and long dark eyelashes.

Alix was married relatively late for a princess in those times.
She had already refused to marry her cousin Prince Albert, the eldest son of her uncle, the Prince of Wales.

Even though her family wanted her to marry Albert, Alix had already met the man, she wanted to marry.

The Tsesarevich of Russia, Prince Nicholas Romanov.

Nicholas was the man Alix had lost her heart to.
They first met at her sister Elizabeth’s wedding to Nicholas’ uncle, Grand Duke Sergei, in 1884.

Alix was only 12 years old, but over the years, they grew closer and closer.
Soon they were both very much in love.

At first, Nicholas’ father Tsar Alexander III, told them they could not get married.
Princess Alix’s German family preached disdain for Russia, while Nicholas’s father didn’t hide his enmity towards Germany.

Regardless, Princess Alix and Grand Duke Nicholas fell in love.
Tsar Alexander III later changed his mind, as his health began to fail.

Alix did not like the fact that she had to renounce her Lutheran faith, but she did love Nicholas, and wanted desperately to marry him.

The Russian Tsarina, by law, had to be an Orthodox.

Alix changed her faith, and in time became a strong convert to Orthodoxy.
Princess Alix took on a new name, Alexandra Feodorovna, and left her old life behind.

With her conversion, Alix and Nicholas became engaged in April 1894.

Alexander III died of kidney failure aged 49, on 1st November 1894.
Nicholas unwittingly became Tsar of Russia, at the age of twenty-six.

The new Tsar Nicholas married his beloved Alix, two weeks after the death of his father, on the 14th November 1894.

Nicholas wasn’t ready to take responsibility for Europe’s largest country, which was also filled with ongoing unrest.

Alix was only 22 and she had no clue how to run affairs of state.

Nicholas came to power when peasants were poor and half of the country’s 150 million residents were considered ethnic minorities.

The two certainly had their work cut out for them.

The couple’s coronation as leaders didn’t occur until 1896.
The coronation of the new Tsar and his wife boded ill for their reign.
The day started out cheery enough.
Alix wore an opulent dress filled with diamonds and pearls.

The feast that celebrated the coronation was set up at Khodynka Field about five miles outside of Moscow.

As people sat down to enjoy the dinner, the field collapsed because it was covered with ditches and trenches left over from military drills.
A total of 1,300 people died.

Alix and Nicholas, were very much in love, and devoted to each other.
They were extremely close, and Nicholas relied on Alix for everything.

The couple would go on to have five children –
Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and finally a son and heir Alexei Nikolaevich – who would be the last Tsesarevich.

Alix was an unusually hands-on mother, and she insisted on breastfeeding all her babies.

Almost as soon as her beloved baby boy Alexei was born, Alix realized the horrific truth.
The baby had hemophilia, her family’s cursed disease.

Alix knew the illness’s dangers well, it had already killed her brother and her uncle, and she was wracked with grief and guilt.
Some even claimed she had a mental breakdown.

After 1905, the royal family became friends with Grigori Rasputin, who claimed he could treat Alexei.

<3 Rasputin supposedly 'cured' young Alexei’s hemophilia when the toddler was three years old in 1908. He became the queen’s confidante and adviser. Soon all of Russia was spitefully whispering that Alexandra and Rasputin were engaged in an unholy affair. Though there is no evidence to support this, the damage was done. Though the rumors about his affair with the Tsarina were unfounded, Rasputin’s real bedroom habits were even more scandalous. He had a reputation for his massive carnal appetite, and crowds of women followers would gather outside his apartment, and wait for days to have their 'time' with him. The royal court had enough. On 16th December 1916, they assassinated Rasputin. This sent Empress Alexandra into turmoil, and depression. Alix's health was never robust. Her frequent pregnancies, with four daughters in six years and her son three years after, drew from her energy. She constantly worried about the health of Alexei, bordering on obsessive. She spent most of her time in bed, or reclining on a chaise in her boudoir or on a veranda. Alix was constantly tired, slept badly, and complained of swollen feet. She ate little, but never lost weight, except for the last year of her life. She may have suffered from Hyperthyroidism - a condition resulting in high levels of the thyroid hormone, which can also result in atrial fibrillation, poor heartbeat and lack of energy. 1917 saw the start of the Russian Revolution. Food shortages and famine gripped several Russian cities. Paying for World War I had sapped the country’s resources. People went on strikes and rioted all over the country. Vladimir Lenin rose as the leader of an anti-Tsar revolution. His party was known as the Bolsheviks. Suddenly, the Tsarina and her children were prisoners in their own palace, and Nicholas abdicated the throne. The Romanovs found themselves in the hands of the newly formed revolutionary government. The Bolsheviks sent the Romanov family to live in exile, in a small home in the city of Yekaterinburg. It has been believed, while the family were being transferred to Ipatiev House, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia, were sexually assaulted by their guards. For 78 days the family was held between five gloomy rooms under constant surveillance. They spent their time covertly sewing jewels into the seams of their clothing and corsets, in the hope of an escape. Their captors grew increasingly paranoid about a possible rescue mission for the Royals, and decided to hold them no longer. On the morning of 17th July 1918, the family was ushered into the basement of the Ipatiev House. The doors were nailed behind them. The family of four girls and one little boy were told to line up as though for a picture..... A guard entered and sentenced them all to death. Soldiers shot at an astonished Nicholas and Alix first, before taking aim at their children. Alix's beloved Nicky, was shot at point-blank range in the chest. In her last moments, Alix tried to bless herself with the sign of the cross. She was shot before she could complete the motion. Maria was shot in the thigh and as she lay bleeding, she was stabbed by bayonet, repeatedly in the chest. Because of the jewels sewn into their clothing, the girls were momentarily protected by the bullets, until they were eventually finished off with eight-inch bayonets. As Tatiana tried to escape, she was shot in the back of the head. It was reported that Anastasia was one of the last to die. A drunken guard tried to finish her with a bayonet to the chest, but it would be the leader of the firing squad, who took a gun to her head. Little Alexei suffered the same. 50 year old Nicholas, 46 year old Alix, 22 year old Olga, 21 year old Tatiana, 19 year old Maria, 17 year old Anastasia, and 13 year old Alexei, the last of the Romanov's, the last of the Russian monarchy, were no more. Even 100 years after the Russian Revolution, the last days of The Romanovs still haunt the Russian people.