Empress Maria Alexandrovna,wife of Alexander II - discussion and pictures

no-one said she was actually illegitimate. but i have read in several books that THERE WERE RUMOURS that she was illegitimate. the simple existence of those rumours was enough to taint her image, i'm not sure anyone cared whether they were true or not. and, yes, i'm sure the hesse 'low' origin was also part of the reason alexander's parents didn't agree to the marriage. but i'm also sure the rumours (that no-one ever proved or ever will) didn't help

From the many books I've read about the Romanovs, I haven't seen an exact number given for how many children Alexander II wanted. But even so, he did have quite a few if you count the four with Ekaterina:

with Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt:

1. Nikolai b. 1843
2. Aleksandr III b. 1845
3. Vladimir b. 1847 (He married Miechen)
4. Aleksei b. 1850
5. Maria b. 1853 (She married Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh)
6. Sergei b. 1857 (He married Alix's sister Ella of Hesse)
7. Pavel b. 1860 (He was father to Maria and Dimitri)

With Ekaterina Dolgorukaya:

1. George b. 1872
2. Olga b. 1873
3. Boris b. 1876 (He died the same year)
4. Ekaterina b. 1878

So in total, Aleksandr II had eleven children. Not as many as George III of England (He and his wife Charlotte had FIFTEEN!) but that's still alot...

what about Alexandra?

poor little Alexandra is always forgotten...

I've read that Pavel died when Dmitri was a child, but I thought that Pavel was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1919.

Grand Duke paul was murdered by the Bolshevicks.  NOw Dimitri's mother Alexandra died like 6 days after his birth but his father was a casualty of the Revolution

I've read that Pavel died when Dmitri was a child, but I thought that Pavel was killed by the Bolsheviks in 1919.

The Pavel referred to in the thread was the Tsar Pavel (son of Catherine the Great) not the Grand Duke.

The Pavel referred to in the thread was the Tsar Pavel (son of Catherine the Great) not the Grand Duke.

uhm, that pavel died about 100 years before what we're talking about here... which dmitri are we referring to?

poor little Alexandra is always forgotten...

What happened with Alexandra?  I've only seen her listed in genealogical charts a very few times and I've never heard her discussed.  She was the oldest, wasn't she?  I think she lived several years, what did she die of?

Here's what doesn't make sense to me: the tsar was taking a mistress in order insure more heirs, right? If that's true, it doesn't make sense.

1. Wouldn't any children of the tsar with a mistress be considered illegitamate, thus out of the succession?

2. Since most tsars (particularly A II and N I) had more than six children, even if the mistress' children were legitamate, wouldn't they be further down in the line since they were the product of a second marriage?

what i understand from what people said here is not that he wanted heirs, but children... but that doesn't make much sense to me either. he had many children, and their ages were so different (the difference between nicholas or alexander and paul was very big) that it doesn't make any sense. maybe he loved children, but for god's sake does that mean he has to have one every year till he dies? no, i think he simply had strong feelings for katia and that's most of the explanation...

Well, I think that he wa simply very fond of Princess Ekaterina, and did not neccessarily want more children. Nou doubt he enjoyed them though. Contraception was rather prinimitive at that point in time, so no doubt he accepted that he would have more children, if he wanted them or not. He did want them however, quite well. He did not take Princess Ekaterina as his mistress so he could have more kids though.

When royal/aristocratic/high status men took mistresses, there were always people running around justifying them - their wives were in poor health/were unattractive/were too virtuous/were unable to have more children, and on and on and on - any and every excuse was put forward, frequently contradictory.  There was no real good reason for Alexander II behaving as he did, just that he wanted to - and there was no one to tell him to his face that he was behaving shabbily.  

There were always reasons why for these men, and of course no one told them they were behaving badly. Although, often they were. It was accepted, and part of the tradition for upperclass males. The women just had many children, and put up with it. It is great though that the last two Czarinas of Russia didn't have to deal with this. As for Marie Alexandrovna, she was rather sad woman, in that she was more of another world than this. She wasn't spectectalcular in looks, or social life, or in personality. She wasn't really what people expected of Czarina, although she was a good woman who lived a decent life, and did her best.

i think that she was a good czarina in the sense that she was decent and dignified and i think she did her duty pretty well, unlike alix (for example). i don't think she was very sad to start with, i think she became sad after everything life dealt on her

What happened with Alexandra?  I've only seen her listed in genealogical charts a very few times and I've never heard her discussed.  She was the oldest, wasn't she?  I think she lived several years, what did she die of?

Alexandra was born on August 30 1842, thus she was the eldest of Alexander II.´s children. Her father was actually very fond of her and would remember later how his little daughter sat next to him in his study while he worked and how very nice this used to be. Alexandra or "Lina" as she was called in the family died on June 28 1849 due to tubercular meninigitis. Her mother Maria Alexandrovna never really overcame the grief for her eldest child and even decades later she couldn´t talk about her "Lina" without tears in her eyes.