A Life for the Tsar King/Ashton

[Joanna]

Empress Alexandra’s Library in the Winter Palace

Coronation Album in Empire Drawing Room

https://winterpalaceresearch.blogspot.ca/2016/08/empress-alexandras-library-in-winter.html

Joanna

[TimM]

Thanks for..  Hey, you're not Greg or Janet 

[Janet Ashton]

https://coronationofnicholasii.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/extracts-from-chapter-five/

Now that the foreign guests are assembled, and journalists wait with pens poised and ticker tape at the ready, the Romanovs begin to arrive in the city with their immediate entourage. Some of the entourage is human; other crucial trappings - which to onlookers seem perhaps more important than the humans! - are not.

Nicholas and Alexandra themselves come down from St Petersburg now, but take up residence outside the city until the ceremonies are to begin.

[Janet Ashton]

Empress Alexandra’s Library in the Winter Palace

Coronation Album in Empire Drawing Room

https://winterpalaceresearch.blogspot.ca/2016/08/empress-alexandras-library-in-winter.html

Joanna

A very interesting post, because it shows how important the coronation album and all it symbolised was to Alexandra. The coronation represented almost an extension of her marriage vows, a wedding to Russia and re-consecration to Nicholas. And, of course, as we know, the two of them believed that they were swearing to keep the autocracy intact.

It is a fascinating branch of study, looking at peoples' libraries and book collections for what they tell us about their view of the world. I wrote a Masters thesis on the library of the famous Ladies of Llangollen (two Georgian gentlewomen who ran away to Wales together), and have also written about Alexandra's reading in the past, albeit her religious reading only.

[TimM]

Amazing how Alexandra became Ms. I Love The Autocracy. 

I mean her grandmother, Queen Victoria, whom she had always been close with, was a Constitutional Monarch.   If Nicky and Alix had adopted such a system in Russia, I strongly believe they might have not had the horrible ending that they had. 

We'll never know, of course, but that is just how I feel.

[Kalafrana]

I'm much enjoying the extracts from the book!

Note that prior to the State Opening of Parliament here, the Imperial State Crown is taken by carriage from the Tower to the Palace of Westminster with a Regalia Escort of the Household Cavalry.

Ann

[Joanna]

It is a fascinating branch of study, looking at peoples' libraries and book collections for what they tell us about their view of the world.

Janet, do you have the info on HM Own Library and story of Zichy watercolors of the coronations?

Joanna

[Janet Ashton]

It is a fascinating branch of study, looking at peoples' libraries and book collections for what they tell us about their view of the world.

Janet, do you have the info on HM Own Library and story of Zichy watercolors of the coronations?

Joanna

I know Zichy painted for earlier coronations, but did he do anything in 1896? I know he was still at court, but if he did anything for Nicholas's coronation I'll admit it's new to me! :-)

Anyway, here are the extracts form Chapter Six, the day on which the sun symbolically came out for the formal entry to Moscow, a moment of great expectation for so many people, offered a first chance to see their Tsar: -

https://coronationofnicholasii.wordpress.com/2016/08/18/extracts-from-chapter-six/ 

[Janet Ashton]

I'm much enjoying the extracts from the book!

Note that prior to the State Opening of Parliament here, the Imperial State Crown is taken by carriage from the Tower to the Palace of Westminster with a Regalia Escort of the Household Cavalry.

Ann

Yes, it's interesting - as we note in the book, even in 1896 only the British monarchy maintained anything approaching the level of display of the Romanovs. Many of the other monarchs had given up being crowned at all, if their ancestors ever even had been. But in Britain and Russia, things seemed to go in the opposite direction, creating or elaborating on a set of ceremonies that became grander and grander as the twentieth century approached.

[Janet Ashton]

Amazing how Alexandra became Ms. I Love The Autocracy. 

I mean her grandmother, Queen Victoria, whom she had always been close with, was a Constitutional Monarch.   If Nicky and Alix had adopted such a system in Russia, I strongly believe they might have not had the horrible ending that they had. 

We'll never know, of course, but that is just how I feel.

Queen Victoria was never really all that meek a monarch, though, and she had to learn to bite her tongue.
By contrast, both Franz Joseph and Wilhelm II were actually constitutional monarchs too, or close to it, though both retained a right to suspend parliament and retreat to some form of personal rule if they wished (in FJ's case, this right was ultimately vested in his prime minister rather than himself). It was the war rather than system of government which cost both these monarchs their power, just like Nicholas and Alexandra. And it was the war which taught George V to take a back seat, I feel. In the crisis over the House of Lords and the Peoples' Budget just before the war, he was inclined to do the opposite.

I think Alexandra found a "meaning" in autocracy by identifying it closely with her husband and his church (as the church indeed encouraged her to do). By doing so, she could "forgive" herself for abandoning the Protestantism of her childhood by seeing that she had a much greater mission in marrying Nicholas and helping him on his way through life. It's easy to become intoxicated with the Orthodox Church, the scenery of Russia, and swallow national myths whole. 

[Maria Sisi]

Everybody always asks how Alix, who grew up in liberal England under constitutional monarch grandma, could end up championing autocracy as hard as she did right to the bitter end. In reality its seems to have started with grandma and didn't start in Russia at all. 

In Virginia Rounding's book she goes in length of how negative an influence the Queen was on her. Victoria was a domestic tyrant who always had to dominate the scene and have her way. As the Queen of Hearts (perhaps inspired by Victoria herself) in Alice in Wonderland said, "Always MY WAY!!!" It was she who encouraged Alix to act like a constant invalid and use her health as a reason to get out of things she didn't want to do and to virtually emotionally blackmail those closest to her. It was she who fostered Alix's shyness and pretty much told her it was okay to hide away instead of showing herself in public. All the negative aspects of Alix's personality was fostered and apparently encouraged by grandma.

Albert was the one who taught Victoria how to rule as a constitutional monarch and still be the center of everything because she was tittering on disaster before he came (lady Flora Hastings/openly favoring Melbourne, and openly refusing to work with the other side, anyone?). Otherwise without him she would have been more openly trying to dominate everything and the end of the monarchy would have likely came.

Russia being an autocracy gave Alix the outlet to shamelessly act out openly as grandma had in private. Victoria most certainly would have acted very similarly to Alix had she been Empress of Russia although probably with more success since she was smarter and more practical. Alix had all of grandma's negative but not much of her positive.

[NicolasG]

I find amazing that so many people simply think that the transition to some kind of constitutional government could be easily done in Russia, had it not being for the "weak-willed" Nicholas II, the "silly" Alexandra and Rasputin, the "representative of the power of darkness". These same people would probably express doubt about the possibility of planting palm trees along the avenues of Sant Petersburg...

"It was stupid of the tsar not to do away with autocracy and become a constitutional monarch" is a view that ignores completely the situation in the Russian countryside, the little support for liberal politicians (and their dubious behaviour), the widespread terrorism, the revolutionary networks...

[DNAgenie]

Everybody always asks how Alix, who grew up in liberal England under constitutional monarch grandma, could end up championing autocracy as hard as she did right to the bitter end. In reality its seems to have started with grandma and didn't start in Russia at all. 

In Virginia Rounding's book she goes in length of how negative an influence the Queen was on her. Victoria was a domestic tyrant who always had to dominate the scene and have her way. As the Queen of Hearts (perhaps inspired by Victoria herself) in Alice in Wonderland said, "Always MY WAY!!!" It was she who encouraged Alix to act like a constant invalid and use her health as a reason to get out of things she didn't want to do and to virtually emotionally blackmail those closest to her. It was she who fostered Alix's shyness and pretty much told her it was okay to hide away instead of showing herself in public. All the negative aspects of Alix's personality was fostered and apparently encouraged by grandma

I disagree with the idea that Alix was unduly influenced by Queen Victoria's attitudes. The sad fact was that although Alix shared many of the Queen's personality traits, rather than being influenced by them, she inherited them.

Modern research indicates that a child's personality is determined before it is three, so although training can have some influence, the main parameters are already laid out. Alix's father was a cheerful extrovert but Alix was the opposite, as she got most of her personality traits from her mother, who was Victoria's daughter. Princess Maud died when Alix was seven, and Alix's basic attitudes would not change after that By then the framework of her personality was already determined.

Queen Victoria was horrified by the idea that Alix wanted to marry Nicholas, and did all she could to discourage the match, without effect. You can't blame Victoria for all the mistakes Alix made, although they were alike in many ways. Alix was her own woman, she lived her life as she saw it, and she paid the price for her beliefs. I feel very sorry for her.

[TimM]

I find amazing that so many people simply think that the transition to some kind of constitutional government could be easily done in Russia, had it not being for the "weak-willed" Nicholas II, the "silly" Alexandra and Rasputin, the "representative of the power of darkness". These same people would probably express doubt about the possibility of planting palm trees along the avenues of Sant Petersburg...

"It was stupid of the tsar not to do away with autocracy and become a constitutional monarch" is a view that ignores completely the situation in the Russian countryside, the little support for liberal politicians (and their dubious behaviour), the widespread terrorism, the revolutionary networks...

Yeah, but keeping the Autocracy didn't exactly help them either. 

Looks like Nicky and Alix were screwed no matter what they did. 

[Janet Ashton]

Speaking of autocracy.....Chapter 7 sees Nicholas receiving his diplomatic guests as he awaits his coronation, and many of these guests have an important role in the way he sees his coming role as Emperor. Here are a few extracts to whet your whistles...:-)

https://coronationofnicholasii.wordpress.com/2016/08/21/extracts-from-chapter-seven/