The Lover Of The Russian Queen

14 Pages 3429 Words

and strength to carry out the impossible burdens of ruling the complex and vastly complicated Russian empire.Nicholas II was barely twenty-six years old at the time of his accession. During his son’s golden youth, Alexander III did not allow his son Nicholas much participation in affairs of government. It is likely that Alexander III feared that his eldest son was not intellectually capable of handling the inheritance that was rightfully his. Therefore, the father kept postponing the son’s introduction in to the daily running of Russia. Not one person, most of all Alexander III, ever imagined that this young and inexperienced Romanov would ascend the throne as early in life as he did.Nicholas II’s mother, the Empress Maria-Feodorovna, was largely responsible for continuing her son’s adolescence into his twenties. The Empress, a doting mother at best, refused to let her children grow. These behavior would have dire consequences in the future, particularly as the responsibilities of royal life entered the lives of her children. Not only would Nicholas marry a princess whom Maria-Feodorovna and Alexander III did not like, but also her other surviving son, the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich married a twice-divorced commoner. The misfortune of her children was also extended to the imperial couple’s youngest daughter, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, who was forced to marry Duke Peter of Oldenburg, a minor German princeling whose family had settled in Russia and who was notoriously known as one of the most scandalous members of St. Petersburg society.Alexander and Maria-Feodorovna’s opposition to Nicholas’ marriage caused the dying Tsar much distress. Years before, Nicholas had made the acquaintance of Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine who was the youngest sister of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas’ uncle Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich. Alix was also the granddaughter of Prince Charles of Hesse and...