Alexandra Feodorovna (Russian: Александра Фёдоровна, romanized: Aleksandra Fyodorovna; born Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine; 6 June 1872 – 17 July 1918) was the last empress of Russia as the consort of Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917.
Alexandra first met Nicholas in 1884, when she attended the wedding of her sister Elisabeth to Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich in Saint Petersburg. They continued their courtship over the following decade. In April 1894, Nicholas travelled to Coburg to attend the wedding of Alexandra’s brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, to Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. During the visit, he proposed to Alix. She initially declined because marriage to the Russian heir required her to convert from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy, but she later accepted. They married on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894.
Alexandra and Nicholas had five children: Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, and Tsarevich Alexei. Alexei had hemophilia, and his illness influenced Alexandra’s relationships with religious advisers and healers.
Alexandra’s association with Grigori Rasputin developed through the wider imperial and aristocratic circle. According to Lili Dehn, a close friend of Alexandra who later recounted her experiences in The Real Tsaritsa, Rasputin was first brought to the attention of the Grand Duchesses Militza and Anastasia of Montenegro, who were connected to the imperial family and friendly with Alexandra. Dehn wrote that the two Grand Duchesses discussed Rasputin, arousing Alexandra’s curiosity and leading her and Nicholas to express a wish to meet him. Alexandra came to believe that Rasputin could help Alexei during episodes of hemophilia, strengthening her trust in him. His relationship with the imperial family later became the subject of political criticism and public speculation.
Alexandra supported the preservation of the Russian autocracy and opposed some proposed political reforms. The extent of her political influence over Nicholas II, as well as her responsibility for decisions made by the imperial government, has remained a subject of historical debate. After Nicholas II’s abdication in March 1917, Alexandra and the imperial family were placed under house arrest and later transferred to Yekaterinburg. On 17 July 1918, Alexandra, Nicholas and their five children—Olga, 22; Tatiana, 21; Maria, 19; Anastasia, 17; and Alexei, 13—were murdered by Bolshevik forces at Ipatiev House, along with several members of their household and their dogs, Joy, Jemmy, and Ortipo.
Alexandra was reinterred with Nicholas II and three of their children in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg in 1998. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized her as a passion bearer in 2000.
Alexandra was born on 6 June 1872 at the New Palace, Darmstadt as Princess Alix Viktoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse and by Rhine, a grand duchy then part of the German Empire. She was the sixth child and fourth daughter among the seven children of Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his first wife, Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, the second daughter of Queen Victoria.
Alix was baptised on 1 July 1872 (her parents' tenth wedding anniversary) in the Protestant Lutheran Church and given the names of her mother and each of her mother's four sisters, some of which were transliterated into German. Her mother wrote to Queen Victoria, "'Alix' we gave for 'Alice' as they murder my name here: 'Ali-ice' they pronounce it, so we thought 'Alix' could not so easily be spoilt." Her mother gave her the nickname of "Sunny", due to her cheerful disposition, a name adopted later by her husband. Her British relatives nicknamed her as "Alicky", to distinguish her from her aunt-by-marriage, Alexandra, Princess of Wales, who was known within the family as Alix.
Alix's godparents were the Prince and Princess of Wales (her maternal uncle and aunt), Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (her maternal aunt), the Duchess of Cambridge (her great-great-aunt), the Tsesarevich and Tsesarevna of Russia (her future parents-in-law), and Princess Anna of Prussia.
Alix's older brother Prince Friedrich of Hesse and by Rhine ("Frittie") suffered from hemophilia and died in May 1873 after a fall, when Alix was about one year old. Of her siblings, Alix was closest to Princess Marie ("May"), who was two years younger; they were noted as "inseparable".
In November 1878, diphtheria swept through the House of Hesse; Alix, her three sisters, her brother Ernst ("Ernie"), and their father fell ill. Elisabeth ("Ella"), Alix's older sister, was visiting their paternal grandmother, and escaped the outbreak. Alix's mother Alice tended to the children herself, rather than abandon them to nurses and doctors. Alice fell ill and died on 14 December 1878, when Alix was six years old. This was the 17th anniversary of Alice's own father's death. Marie also died, but the rest of the siblings survived. She described her childhood before the deaths of her mother and sister as "unclouded, happy babyhood, of perpetual sunshine, then of a great cloud".
Queen Victoria doted on the motherless Alix and became a surrogate mother to her. She felt highly protective of Alix and declared that "while I live Alicky, til she is married, will be more than ever my own child." She handpicked Alix's tutors and instructed them to send detailed reports back to Windsor every month. She invited Alix and her surviving siblings to England for their holidays, and they grew close to their British cousins. Every birthday and Christmas, she sent Alix gifts of dresses, jewelry, lace, and dolls. Alix signed herself "your loving and grateful child," rather than grandchild, in her letters. Alix reflected that she saw Queen Victoria as "the best and dearest of grandmamas," "a very august person," "a Santa Clause," and "the dearest and kindest Woman alive." When she was betrothed to Nicholas, Alix assured Victoria that "my marrying will [not] make a difference to my love for You." When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Alix openly wept at her memorial service in Saint Petersburg and shocked the Russian courtiers who considered her cold and unfeeling.
Along with her sister, Princess Irene, Alix was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of her godmother and maternal aunt, Princess Beatrice, to Prince Henry of Battenberg. At the age of 15, she attended Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 1887.
In March 1892, when Alix was nineteen years old, her father Grand Duke Louis IV, died of a heart attack. According to her biographer, Baroness Buxhoeveden, Alix regarded the death of her father as the greatest sorrow of her life. Buxhoeveden recalled in her 1928 biography that "for years she could not speak of him, and long after when she was in Russia, anything that reminded her of him would bring her to the verge of tears".
Queen Victoria greatly favored Alix and she wanted Alix to become the queen consort of the United Kingdom, which she considered "the greatest position there is." On 2 March 1888, she wrote to Alix's oldest sister Victoria that "My heart and mind are bent on securing dear Alicky for either Eddy or Georgie", respectively the second in line to the British throne and his brother, the future George V, both of whom were Alexandra's first cousins. In 1889, Victoria invited Alix and Eddy to Balmoral in hopes that they would fall in love. Eddy grew infatuated with her and proposed, but Alix was not interested in him and rejected his proposal. However, Victoria still persisted and tried to convince Alix of the benefits of the match. Victoria wrote to Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, Alix's older sister, that Alix "should be made to reflect seriously on the folly of throwing away the chance of a very good husband, kind, affectionate and steady, and of entering a united happy family and a very good position which is second to none in the world!" Alix's older sister Ella opposed the match because "he [Eddy] does not look over strong and is too stupid." In May 1890, Alix wrote a letter to Eddy that although it "pained her to pain him," she only saw him as a cousin and could not marry him. She wrote to Victoria that she would marry Eddy if she were "forced" by the family but that both of them would be miserable. Victoria was disappointed, but she decided that Alix had shown "great strength of character" in refusing to acquiesce to such strong pressure.