Alexandra Feodorovna Empress of Russia

The youngest of five siblings, Alexandra, was born Alix of Hesse and by Rhine on the 25th May 1872. Alix met her future husband Nicholas at the wedding of her elder sister Ella to Grand Duke Sergei of Russia and returned for another visit six years later when they fell in love.

Alix at 15.

Although Alix was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Hesse was a grand duchy and not a particularly distinguished house. Nicholas’s parents did not consider Alix of good enough lineage to marry the heir to the imperial throne and refused their permission.

Although she was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Hesse was a grand duchy and not a particularly distinguished house. Nicholas’s parents did not consider Alix of good enough lineage to marry the heir to the imperial throne and refused their permission. Furthermore, they were both anti-German. Queen Victoria opposed the match. She liked Nicholas but disliked Russia. Alix’s father also was not in favour, fearing that his daughter would come to some harm in Russia. The only ones in the young couple’s corner were Ella and Sergei, but they didn’t carry much weight compared to those who opposed the match.

Nicholas was determined and refused all other offers. He would have Alexandra or remain a bachelor, and his persistence paid off. When his father’s health began to fail, Alexander III gave his permission. However, at that time, a new and unexpected stumbling block arose. Imperial brides were required to convert to the Russian orthodox faith. Although she loved Nicholas, Alix had been raised as a Lutheran and was reluctant to convert.

Nicholas was devastated. He pleaded, and she cried but held firm until her sister told her that she herself had not been obliged to give up Lutheranism to convert to Orthodoxy. Alexandra surrendered.

An official engagement photo.

Nicholas was devastated. He pleaded, and she cried but held firm until her sister told her that she herself had not been obliged to give up Lutheranism to convert to Orthodoxy. Alexandra surrendered.

On 1st November 1894, Alexander III died, and three weeks later, Nicholas and Alexandra were married. Many saw her as a bad omen, coming as she did so soon after the tsar’s death.

She was never popular with the Russian people, who saw her shyness as coldness and arrogance and had trouble communicating because she spoke English and German but not French, the language of the court and upper class, and only started learning Russian when she became empress. Her mother-in-law and many of the imperial family despised her.

In roughly two-year intervals, she gave birth to four beautiful, healthy daughters and then, finally, the long-awaited heir. Alexandra created a close-knit family life away from the court and the turmoil that beset Russia, devoting herself to her husband and children, especially to the tsarevich, Alexei, a haemophiliac who she cared for, disregarding her own health, for the rest of her life. The parents decided to keep Alexei’s tragic disease secret from the Russian people, shrouding the boy in mystery. Had they not done so, I feel the family would have become the focus of sympathy.

With the outbreak of World War I, Alexandra was vilified even more, being German, and in the newspapers, she was accused of being a German spy. (Germany was a pot in which Russian royalty and nobility frequently dipped to find wives.) Alexandra and her two oldest daughters, Olga and Tatiana, took nursing courses, and she opened rooms at the Catherine Palace at Tsarkoe Selo as a hospital. Only then did she earn a measure of respect from the people.

It didn’t last long because the revolution was coming.

Alexandra the Empress

It is impossible to find a photo of her where she doesn’t look melancholic.

I’m curious to know why in this photo she is wearing a glove on one hand and not on the other.

Learn more about Alexandra and her family in my new book The Disappearance of Michael Romanov – coming soon.

Fortune’s Child by James Conroyd Martin

Excellent narrative of the early life of Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I. Her story is told by Stephen, who was imprisoned by her, then released after 5 years when she is dying and wants an honest account of her life. The author describes her as a great beauty, and I’m sure she must have been to rise to such heights. Hers is not the kind of life anyone would expect to lead to the imperial throne. Raped at the age of twelve, she determined not to follow her older sister into a life of prostitution. Instead, she had quite a list of ‘careers’: a popular comedic actress, which led to her mostly unclothed still portraits, such as Leda and the Swan, then as a seamstress and part of a troupe of leaping dancers. (6th-century term for ballet, I assume.) When one of her lovers becomes governor of an African province, she goes with him with the expectation of marriage and a better life. When that doesn’t work out, she is cast adrift in the world, penniless, friendless, and far from home.

Theodora is a wonderful character, and the author draws her with precision. She never gives up. When she is thrown down by the troubles that fall on women in a man’s world, she manages to drag herself upright again. Strong, resilient, and ambitious, she is determined to rise not just for her own sake but to improve the circumstances of her two sisters.

On the ship carrying her home to Constantinople, she meets Philip, who tells his own story along with hers. A beautiful boy, he was sold by his father to become one of the ‘cut ones’. He is a gentle youth with a good heart. The pathos of his mutilation is amplified by his love for Theodora and described movingly by the author.

If I have to nitpick, I would say that the end of the book seemed a little rushed. However, there is now a second book about Theordora and I look forward to reading that.

Great book, memorable characters, an altogether satisfying read. Highly recommended.

*****

I started “Fortune’s Child” when I lived in Hollywood a couple of decades ago. An agent who was trying to sell an incomplete Push Not the River told me to start working on something else. As it happened, I was taking an Art Appreciation course at a community college. One day we were studying the exquisite mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora from the Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, and the professor pointed to Theodora and said, “I’m not a writer, but if I were, that is the woman I would write about.”

Little did he know what he had unloosed.

I went down to the Hollywood Public Library and took out at least a dozen books on the period and the reign of Justinian and Theodora. The empress seemed to me like the Eva Peron of the sixth century, and I was hooked. I made a good start on her story, but life threw some curves. I went back to finishing Push Not the River, but when it didn’t sell, other agents came and went. One publisher held on to it for two years. I returned to teaching and the years passed. When St. Martin’s Press picked up Push Not the River in 2003, I figured my Theodora book would follow. Ah~but St. Martin’s wanted a sequel, so that led to other books and more years.

So~now Theodora is getting her just due. Please give Fortune’s Child a chance.

Fate goes ever as it must.