Tsarfan - you have not LOST the argument. We have all GAINED. I speak for myself, but I do think the debate has been illuminating for all of us. Not least for you and me.
I, for one, am eternally grateful to you for making me THINK. Rather than pay lipservice to the source material I have accessed over the years, I have been forced to confront the fact that, in this instance at least, we are left with more questions than answers. I come away from this debate feeling that Nicholas and Alexandra were little more than bit players in the drama.
Isabel has been right from the outset. These mind games were just the tip of the iceberg in the shifting dynamics of family, dynastic and national politics.
In my own mind, I have no doubt that haemophilia played an even greater part than I contemplated heretofore. If we assume Alexander and Marie were aware of the potential of this problem from the outset, they were prepared to overlook it for what they perceived as the bigger picture. All this had little to do with a young couple in love. That was secondary. This is the only satisfactory explanation as to why they, so easily, didn't just capitulate, but became protagonists.
Perhaps there is something in my suspicion that Alexandra was aware that she was more a liability than an asset. Perhaps Alexandra really was much more realistic regarding haemophilia and its ramifications than I, for one, ever imagined. This, for me, now becomes the only viable reason to her objections to marrying Nicholas. All the indicators point to this. She refused to marry elsewhere. She longed for her own family. She was alone with Ernie, playing First Lady, until she was supplanted by Ducky. What did the future hold for her? With the exception of the occasional rather mild, for her, interjection from Queen Victoria, her entire family was in favour of the marriage. Nicholas was in love with her. She was in love with Nicholas. Giving up religion? It wasn't as though she was being required to turn her back on Christianity.
Alexandra was reared on the tragic story of little Frittie. She had to make annual pilgrimages to his grave The window he fell through had been converted into a stained glass memorial. She lived with that every day of her life.
What could she do when all parties were promoting the match - ultimately sealed by a man she loathed, but he was a major player both within the family and international politics - the German Kaiser? Why was 'Cousin Willie' selected to apply pressure when it looked as though Nicholas would walk away? At the end of the day, Alexandra was left with no choice, she had to conform.
Kerensky wrote - 'If there had been no Rasputin, there would have been no Lenin.'
I would take that further. Had there been no haemophilia, there would have been no Russian revolution.
tsaria