by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

• Unofficial Royalty: Russian Titles and Patronymics

Known as “The Liberator” for emancipating the Russian serfs and one of five of the twenty Romanov rulers (Ivan VI, Peter III, Paul I, Alexander II, and Nicholas II) to die a violent death, Alexander Nikolaevich was born on April 29, 1818, during the reign of his uncle Alexander I, Emperor of All Russia, in the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Alexander Nikolaevich was the eldest child of the seven children of the future Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia and his wife Princess Charlotte of Prussia, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and was known as Alexandra Feodorovna after her marriage. The infant Alexander was considered an heir to the throne at birth as his uncle Alexander I had only two daughters, and a 201 gun salute was fired upon his birth. He was christened on May 5, 1818, in the Chudov Monastery Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, followed by a gala dinner.

Alexander Nikolaevich had six siblings:

• Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (1819 – 1876), married (1) Maximilian de Beauharnais, 3rd Duke of Leuchtenberg, had issue (2) Count Grigori Stroganov, had issue
• Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (1822 – 1892), married Karl I, King of Württemberg, no issue
• Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna (1825 – 1844), married Landgrave Friedrich-Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel, no surviving issue, died due to childbirth complications
• Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (1827 – 1892), married Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (Alexandra Iosifovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich (1831 – 1891), married Alexandra of Oldenburg (Alexandra Petrovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich (1832 – 1909), married Cecilie of Baden (Olga Feodorovna), had issue

Alexander Nikolaevich’s education was personally supervised by his mother and her personal Russian tutor, Russian poet, and translator Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky.  In addition, Alexander had expert tutors in theology, statistics, mathematics, history, natural history, law, military history and tactics, and foreign policy. He went on tours of Russia and the major European countries, including a trip to London in 1839, where he had a fleeting infatuation in the young Queen Victoria.

It was on one of his European trips, that Alexander met his future wife Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, the youngest child of Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine and Wilhelmine of Baden. There was already a Russian connection in the family. Wilhelmine Marie’s maternal great-aunt Louise of Baden (Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna) had married Emperor Alexander I, Alexander’s uncle. Alexander Nikolaevich’s mother Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, was against the marriage. In a letter to his mother, Alexander wrote: “I love her, and I would rather give up the throne, than not marry her. I will marry only her, that’s my decision!” Finally, after being persuaded by her husband Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna went to Darmstadt to meet Marie. The Empress liked what she saw and gave her permission for the marriage. Alexander and Marie were married at the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia on April 16, 1841. Marie converted to the Russian Orthodox religion and was thereafter known as Maria Alexandrovna.

The couple had eight children:

• Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna (1842 – 1849), died of meningitis at the age of six
• Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich (1843 – 1865), engaged to Dagmar of Denmark (the future wife of his brother Alexander III), died of meningitis at the age of 21
• Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia (1845 – 1894), married Dagmar of Denmark (Maria Feodorovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847 – 1909), married Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Maria Pavlovna), had issue
• Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich (1850 – 1908), had illegitimate issue via an affair with Alexandra Vasilievna Zhukovskaya
• Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (1853 – 1920) married, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, had issue
• Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857 – 1905), married, Elisabeth of Hesse of Hesse and by Rhine (Elizabeth Feodorovna), no issue
• Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (1860 – 1919), married (1) Alexandra of Greece and Denmark  (Alexandra Georgievna), had issue (2) Olga Karnovich, had issue

Maria Alexandrovna was plagued by frequent illness and Alexander had several mistresses. Six weeks after Maria Alexandrovna’s death from tuberculosis on June 3, 1880, Alexander made a morganatic marriage with his long-time mistress Catherine Dolgorukova with whom he had four children. This marriage caused a scandal in the Imperial Family and violated Russian Orthodox rules regarding the waiting period for remarriage following the death of a spouse. Alexander granted his new wife the title of Princess Yurievskaya and legitimized their children who were then styled Prince/Princess (Knyaz/Knyaginya).

• Prince George Alexandrovich Yurievsky (1872 – 1913), married Countess Alexandra von Zarnekau, had issue
• Princess Olga Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (1874 – 1925), married Georg Nikolaus, Count of Merenberg, had issue
• Prince Boris Alexandrovich Yurievsky (born and died 1876)
• Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Yurievskaya (1878 – 1959); married (1) Prince Alexander Vladimirovich Baryatinsky, had issue (2) Prince Sergei Platonovich Obolensky, no issue

In 1855, Alexander became Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias upon the death of his father.  He is known as the most reforming emperor since Peter the Great.  His foremost accomplishment was the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.  In addition, Alexander II reorganized the judicial system, established local self-government called Zemstvo, instituted universal military service in which sons of the rich and the poor were required to serve, ended some of the privileges of the nobility, and promoted higher education in the universities.

A liberal-leaning ruler, Alexander was subjected to several assassination attempts.  On March 13, 1881, Emperor Alexander II signed an order creating several commissions, composed of government officials and prominent private individuals, to prepare reforms in various branches of the government. He then attended a military parade and on his way back to the Winter Palace, a bomb was thrown at Alexander’s carriage, and it landed directly between his legs. The noise from the bomb was deafening, smoke filled the air, wounded people were screaming, and the snow was drenched with blood. When the smoke cleared, Emperor Alexander II lay mortally wounded, his legs crushed and torn from the blast of the bomb. Alexander asked to be taken to the Winter Palace so he could die there. For 45 minutes, his family, including his eldest son Alexander (III), his wife, and their eldest son 13-year-old Nicholas (II), who was clinging on to a cousin for comfort, watched as Emperor Alexander II’s life ebbed away. At 3:35 PM, the emperor died, and as the Imperial Family knelt to pray, his wife Catherine Dolgorukova (Princess Yurievskaya) fainted and was carried from the room, her clothes drenched with his blood.

• Unofficial Royalty: Assassination of Emperor Alexander II of Russia

Emperor Alexander II was buried at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg next to his first wife.

In 1883, construction was started on the Church on the Spilt Blood.  The church was built on the site of Alexander’s assassination and is dedicated to his memory.

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Romanov Resources at Unofficial Royalty

• Tsardom of Russia/Russian Empire Index
• Romanov Births, Marriages and Deaths
• Romanov Burial Sites
• Romanovs Killed During the Russian Revolution
• Romanovs Who Survived the Russian Revolution