Alexandra+Feodorovna

created by Alyssa, period 1 edited by Samira Warsame Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)

__Early Years:__ Alexandra was born June 6, 1872 at the New Palace in Darmstadt,part of the German Empire. She was the sixth child of seven children of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.This making Alexandra the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Alix was baptised on July 1, 1872 under the Lutheran church and named after her mother and her mothers four sisters. Her Godparents were Prince and Princess of Wales, Russian Tsar and Tsarina, Princess Beatrice of the U.K and Duchess of Cambridge. She was nicknamed "Alicky" or "Sunny" by her family and later by Nicholas. In December 1878, diphtheria spread through the royal house. Alix, her three sisters and her brother caught the disease. Alix's older sister was sent to her grandmother and did not get the disease because she was sent away. Their mother Alice took care of all the sick children instead of getting a doctor, because of this she died on December 14, 1878.Alix, her two sisters and brothers survived but the youngest girl did not.

__Engagement:__ Alix got married late for the time period she lived in, she refused the engagement of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. //Her refusal from the proposal gained her grandmother Queen Victoria's respect. Although the Queen wanted them two to wed, she accepted her denial. It was said that the Queen was proud of Alix for holding her grand despite the stong familial pressure she was getting.// Alix had met Grand Duke Nicholas, heir to throne of Russia in 1884 and fallen in love with him in 1889 and got enganged in April 1894. They shared a great-grandmother making them second cousins. //This was not the only way they were related though. They also shared A great-great grandfather King Wilhelm of Prussia- which made them third cousins, once removed// Nicholas's parents Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna disapproved of Alix because she was German. //And they were hardcore anti-german.// Although they were her godparents, they never thought Alix was good enough for their son and wanted Nicholas to marry //more suitable women, preferably one from higher royalty. Like Helene, daughter of Philippe// pretender to the throne of France. //The idea of marrying Helene did didn't stick with Nicholas. He wrote in his diary, "Mama made a few allusions to Helene, daughter of the Comte de Paris. I myself want to go in one direction and it is evident that Mama wants me to choose the other one." Fortunately for Nicholas, Helene wouldn't mary NIcholas as well. She was Roman Catholic and unwilling to give up her faith to become Russian Orthodox. The tsar then sent emissaries to Princess of Prussia, daughter of German emperor Frederic III and sister of German Emperor Wilehelm II. Nicholas flatly declared that he would rather become a monk than marry the plain and boring Margaret. Margaret stated in any case that she was unwilling to give up her Protestant religion to become Russian Orthodox. As long as he was well, Alexander III ignored his son's demands. He only relented as his health began to fail in 1894. Alix was troubled by the requirement that she renounce her Lutheran faith, as a Russian tsarina had to be Orthodox, but she was persuaded and eventually became a fervent convert//

__Empress:__ Alexander III died //from a painful battle with nephritis// on November 1 1864 and his son Nicholas became the Emperor. Alix and Nicholas marriage was not delayed, they got married on November 26 1894, on this day Alix became Empress of Russia. It wasn't till 1896 that the coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra happened in Moscow. Unlike her mother-in-law the Alix the new Tsarina of Russia was disliked by the people and subjects. The people thought she was cold and cruel but her friends say that she was only shy and nervous in front of the people. Her inabilitly to produce a son also created hate from the people. Eventually her second child was a boy following a daughter Olga. Alexei the son was born a haemophiliac. Alix had a terrible relationship with her mother-in-law because Marie resented Alix for marrying her son, she did not approve of her son marrying a German woman and was appaled by her daughter-in-laws inability to win over the Russian peple. Marie had more power than the Tsarina herself and she used that against Alix, in royal balls and other formal gatherings Marie would enter on her sons arms while Alix had to trail behind. Alix had very little time before her marriage to learn the rules of the Russian court which contributed to her unpopularity Alexandra was very supportive of her Husband Nicholas and often gave him bad advice. During WW1 all the complaints the Russians had about her like her German birth and her devotion to Rasputin lead to the death of her family. //the tsarinas unpopularity began the day after her coronation. Thousands of death occurred due to the rumour of there not being enough food at the coronation. The small numbers of police could not keep order. When this tragdy struck the tsar had refused to go to the ball being thrown by the french ambassador, but his uncles forced him to go so not to offend him. Nicholas and Alexandra reluctantly went. At the ball it looked like Alexandra was upset by the event, but there presence at the ball caused the russian people to believe they didn't care and that their reign would be bad. On top of her being a german woman, she was deemed heartless.//

__Children:__ One year after her marriage to Nicholas, Alexandra gave birth to her first child Olga on November 15, 1895. //This was a disappointment for the tsar and the russian people because of the Pauline Laws stating that a woman could not be heir to throne.// After her there were three more girls born Tatiana on June 10 1897, Maria on June 26, 1899 and Anastasia on June 18, 1901. Three years after Alix gave birth to the long waited heir and first son Alexei on August 12 1904, he was born with Hemophilia a incurable bleeding disease. //Knowing that Alexandra gave her son the bleeding disease she kept him close and was very protective of him. She stated that when he was well, the whole palace and everyone in it beamed. He was the centre of it all.//

__Rasputin:__ Alexei the son and heir to the throne who had hemophilia was diagonsed when he was only a few weeks old when they noticed that his bruises would not go away and did not heal. His disease could have only been transmitted from Alexandras side of the family. She had many family members who carried the gene, like Queen Victoria //(it was famously known as the english disease)// and Alexandras brother who died from this disease. At first Alix turned to Russian doctoers to treat her son, but their treatments usually failed because there was no known cure. Upset by this information Alix turned toward religion for comfort familiarizing herself with the orthodox rituals and saints and spent hours praying for her son. In desperation Alix turned to a so called holy men, one of them was Grigori Rasputin, he thought he had the cure for her son. From the start Alix had great faith in Rasputin even though she was told many bad things about him, she did not believe anyone and said that these bad things were rumours. He lived in his appartment with his daughter Marie. People would come to his house seeking blessings, healings and favours from the Tsarina. In 1912 Alexei suffered a life threatening hemmorhage in his thigh. Alix and Nicholas took turns at his bedside and tried to comfort him. After hearing words of her son Alix sent a message to Rasputin asking if her son would die and he replied saying that Alexei would survive. After this Alix relied more on Rasputin because her son Alexei had survived. //Rasputin was a drunk who bathed in the fame he was getting from being Alexei's witch doctor. Many believed he was having an affair with tsarina (which was true) and in having Alexandra's trust that gave him more power and security.//

__Word War 1:__ The outbreak of WW1 created more tension betweet Alix and the Russian people because the Russian Empire was fighting against the stronger German Empire. The Tsar travelled to the front line leaving Alix in charge in the capital of Saint Petersburg. She had no experience of government and could never keep the government stable. she only paid attention to the advice of Rasputin, and their relationship was believe to be sexual.

__Execution:__ The Provisional government formed after the Russian Revolution and kept Nicholas, Alexandra and their children confined in their house until they were moved to Sibera in August 1917 to remove them from the capital and possible harm. on Tuesday July 16 1918 the Royal family was excueted by a man of the Bolsheviks party Yakov Yurovsky.

__Sources:__ Wikipedia