Author Topic: Alix's suitor's  (Read 18158 times)

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Offline Clemence

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2013, 02:08:59 PM »
Just watched a BBC documentary on King George and Queen Mary. Very nice portait of both. And I still wonder, how could Queen Victoria think so well of Alix and of May as for becoming queens of England. I mean, the two had so little in common, and also proved to be different, so why do you think the Queen really thought both could be fine for wives and queens?
'' It used to be all girls without clothes. Now it’s all clothes with no girls. Pity.''

Offline CountessKate

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #16 on: May 30, 2013, 03:21:33 PM »
Just watched a BBC documentary on King George and Queen Mary. Very nice portait of both. And I still wonder, how could Queen Victoria think so well of Alix and of May as for becoming queens of England. I mean, the two had so little in common, and also proved to be different, so why do you think the Queen really thought both could be fine for wives and queens?

I'm not sure that being two different personalities with little in common had much to do with why Queen Victoria considered that they both could make good Queens of Great Britain and good wives to their husbands.  She was extremely fond of her first choice for her grandson, Alix, who was very much at home in the UK and Prince Eddy had fallen in love with her, quite an advantage when royal couples had restricted choices of marriage partners.  She no doubt thought Alix was a serious-minded young woman who would steady the rather unsteady Prince Eddy - exactly in fact what she thought about the second choice, Mary.  There is no evidence that the traits of personality which made Alix a less than satisfactory empress later on were obvious to Queen Victoria during her lifetime. 

Offline IvanVII

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2013, 11:20:32 PM »
The things that worked against her as empress in Russia would not have necessarily worked against her in the UK. She would not have been seen to be an outsider and the role of the monarch in the UK was a well defined constitutional monarchy as opposed to the autocracy of Russia. Switch the two and who knows maybe we have a different history.......

Offline Clemence

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2013, 11:23:45 AM »
Well, my thoughts were mostly of how Queen V supposed the ladies should manage Eddy, the Queen knew her grandson weaknesses and all, she was fond of Alix but thought very highly of May. And I do not have the idea Eddy was ever really in love with someone unless he was told that someone was somehow available and suitable. So, supposing Alix and Eddy did get married, and he didn't die so soon, do we have any reasons to believe dear Alix would feel more loved by her mother in law Alexandra than she was by her sister in Russia? Do we have any reason to believe she would be less possesive, less shy, less unlucky to have an haemophiliac son?
'' It used to be all girls without clothes. Now it’s all clothes with no girls. Pity.''

Offline CountessKate

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2013, 03:16:57 PM »
Well, my thoughts were mostly of how Queen V supposed the ladies should manage Eddy, the Queen knew her grandson weaknesses and all, she was fond of Alix but thought very highly of May. And I do not have the idea Eddy was ever really in love with someone unless he was told that someone was somehow available and suitable. So, supposing Alix and Eddy did get married, and he didn't die so soon, do we have any reasons to believe dear Alix would feel more loved by her mother in law Alexandra than she was by her sister in Russia? Do we have any reason to believe she would be less possesive, less shy, less unlucky to have an haemophiliac son?

I am not convinced that Eddy fell in love with women because he was told they were available/suitable.  Eddy certainly thought himself he was in love with Alix, who was both available and suitable, and was certainly encouraged by Queen Victoria, but she was very beautiful even for the pretty low standards of current European princesses and given his limited options, there is no reason to believe he wasn't actually smitten.  Whether he would have remained in love had Alix been in any way forthcoming is open to doubt, since he in fact subsequently fell in love with Hélène of Orleans who was available but unsuitable, and shortly after that came to nothing he wrote flirtatious letters to  Lady Sybil St Clair Erskine who was available/unsuitable (not royal) in which he referred to yet another love who was probably at least unsuitable since he did not name her.  There is no indication he fell in love with May of Teck - she was merely Queen Victoria's second choice, another serious young woman who Queen Victoria primarily, but also the Prince of Wales, thought would help to steady this rather feckless young man.
I assume you mean that Alix was shy and unlucky to have a haemophiliac son, and Alexandra was possessive and not likely to be very welcoming to her as a daughter-in-law.  Since Alexandra was possessive of her second son George, and would probably have proved to be the same to her first son Eddy (and in reality was difficult as a mother-in-law to Mary), it is likely that she would have been the same as her sister - difficult and possessive - had Alix married Eddy.  However, Eddy and Alix would have had longer to develop their roles before taking centre stage as monarchs which of course in Great Britain were not political and there would have been less pressure on Alix as a social leader and her shyness might have been less of an issue. 
Since haemophilia is transmitted in the female line, if Alix were to have had sons had she married Eddy, they would have had a high likelihood indeed of having haemophilia.  However, there would have been somewhat less pressure on her to have sons since daughters could inherit the throne of Great Britain and that would presumably make the issue less important in a dynastic sense.  So I agree with the previous remarks that the things that worked against Alix as Empress in Russia would not necessarily have worked against her in Britain, or at any rate not nearly to the same extent.
The one great problem would have been in WW1 when her Germanic ties would have been quite as disadvantageous in Britain as they were in Russia.

Offline Clemence

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #20 on: June 02, 2013, 03:18:44 AM »
Thank you so very much for sharing thoughts, you helped me consider things I wasn't able to put together. At some point I thought the great passionate love that united Alix and Nicholas was somehow the reason they both became so isolated from everyone else, so maybe had Alix married Eddie, which was not the love of her life, things might have developed differently. Plus the problem with the (possible) haemophiliac sons (but also daughters, since we know not if some/any/which of Queen Victoria's grandchildren inherited the defective gene) would be a different problem in the U.K. than it was in the Imperial Russia.
'' It used to be all girls without clothes. Now it’s all clothes with no girls. Pity.''

Offline CountessKate

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Re: Alix's suitor's
« Reply #21 on: June 02, 2013, 04:31:36 AM »
Thank you so very much for sharing thoughts, you helped me consider things I wasn't able to put together. At some point I thought the great passionate love that united Alix and Nicholas was somehow the reason they both became so isolated from everyone else, so maybe had Alix married Eddie, which was not the love of her life, things might have developed differently. Plus the problem with the (possible) haemophiliac sons (but also daughters, since we know not if some/any/which of Queen Victoria's grandchildren inherited the defective gene) would be a different problem in the U.K. than it was in the Imperial Russia.

I don't think that passionate love was the reason Nicholas and Alix began to isolate themselves from the court.  I think this was due to a number of factors, which included the continued leading role of Nicholas' mother, which effectively allowed Alix to reduce her role; her pregnancies and absorption in family life, and to a certain extent ill-health, which made her find social life physically difficult; her personal dislike of purely social duties, fostered by Queen Victoria, and her opposition to what she saw as a dissolute element in Russian high society, and indeed in the imperial family; actual shyness and social ineptitude; and support for her attitude from Nicholas.  It is hard not to see these factors not making difficulties in Britain for her, but as I suggested, there were likely to be mitigating factors.  However, it is worthwhile mentioning that there is no indication that Eddy would have been particularly sympathetic to social withdrawal on her part or her preference for a life focused on the family, which doesn't say a lot for there being any commonality of attitudes or interests or a very good outcome for their marriage had it taken place.