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.