Marie Feodorovna - Your Opinion

[lexi4]

Unfortunately, she did not see past that and realize that her role as Dowager was, in part, to help and ease Alexandra's sudden transition to Empress.

I don't think she could do much to help Alix as she was mourning the death of her husband.
I also think she was too protective of Nicholas and did nothing to help prepare him to become Tsar. Of course, neither did his father.
But she was a remarkable woman and I am sure we will see how beloved she was when her remains are brought back to Russia.
I like her. I think she was a good wife, a good Empress and did her best with her children.
And I also think, she did her best with Alix, but that was hard because she had just lost her husband.

[koloagirl]

 

I have mixed feelings about Marie Feodorovna.

I believe that she was a wonderful Empress and a loving wife to Alexander III - she led society and reveled
in her role as Empress.  
I have tremendous sympathy for her losing her husband so unexpectedly....thrusting her into the "Dowager Empress" role at a young age.

As a mother I think she loved her children very much...
however...she became extremely possessive IMO of
each of them and hated to lose influence over them as they grew older.
I really dislike the way she treated Olga....she was
expected to give her life over to her mother (this while
she was in exile at Hvidore....despite the fact that she
was married with a child (children?).  
I have also read that Olga's children (with her 2nd husband) were considered inferior to her other grandchildren as she highly disapproved of Olga's
divorce (annulment?) and re-marriage to a commoner.

But how can you not be sympathetic to a woman who
after all ending up by losing so much - including her
nearest and dearest - to the revolution?  

[PssMarieAmelie]

I personally admire her, as I do all of Christian IX's daughters- she was a fantastic Empress, a wonderful wife and she did the best she could with her children. I also think that she tried her best with Aleksandra, her daughter in law- but I guess they just had different values.All in all- she did her job and she did her job well.

[Fawzia]

It was always very sad to me, or maybe it was better for her, that up until the day she died she never believed for a second that Nicholas and his family had been murdered.  

[grandduchessella]

Not to mention Misha.  

She outlived all 4 of her sons (GD Alexander died as an infant) and 6 of her grandchildren (including Misha's son George--the last link to him).

[TampaBay]

Marie became Russian with all the Good and Bad associated with being Russian.

Alexandra tried to stay English/German with all the Good and Bad associated with being English/German.

Marie was in Russia for 17 years before becoming Empress.  She had a 17 apprenticeship.

Alexandra was in Russia for what a month or less before becoming Empress.  She had no apprenticeship.

Even if the Marie and Alexandra possessed compatible personalities problems would still have developed.

In my opinion, the problem was Nicholas II not Alexandra & Marie.

TampaBay

[hikaru]

I adore Marie Feodorovna.
She overpassed a lot  of tragedies because of two main features:
1. she was like child - her heart was
every minute open and she was ready  to  be surprised even when she was 70 years
2. She never took the news close to her heart which was the  main difference with Alix was that Alix every
bad news took very close to her heart - i.e. she worried a lot , (as many normal persons).

I think that Maria did not worry about children as Alix do.For Maria her duties as Empresse was more important than her mother duties ( it was usual ) but for Alix her mother's duties was more important.
It is hard to compare.
So for Maria Feodorovna, Alix's position was wrong, nevertheless, she tried to love Alix for the first  period of time.

[Finelly]

I totally admire Maria Federovna.  She was a wonderful wife to a husband who was a bit difficult and certainly very different from her.  She adapted extremely well to her new country and embraced RUssia and the Russians in a way that Alix never did.  She ran the court instead of avoiding it as Alix did.  She had excellent social skills and the ability to influence others in her own charming way.  From what I've read of her marriage, she and Alexander were equal partners who respected one another enormously.  Neither dominated, unlike Nicky/Alix.  
Alix's problem was that she appears to have suffered from chronic depression and social anxiety.  This made her isolate herself and become a hypochondriac.  The more she was isolated, the less in touch with reality she was.  Her whole WORLD was Nicky and her children, plus Rasputin, who served to provide her with some semblence of hope.  Nobody was able to force her to confront reality and take responsibility for things, or to deal with the obligations she kept letting go of.
No wonder Maria F was frustrated!

[Alexander_II]

The major difference between the two women was that Marie Feodorovna was an extrovert whilst Alexandra Feodorovna was quite introverted as a person yet nevertheless, very determined.

Royality is theatrical.  Appearance, confidence and duty are paramount.  The glittering decadence of the Russian court demanded flashy monarchs and in this role the Dowager Empress played her part to perfection.  She understood the people, customs and expectations of her adopted country and as a consequence was greatly loved and venerated by both young and old Russians alike.  In Anglo-Saxon countries, to be reserved is considered a form of courtesy whilst in Russian it verges on rudeness.

Today we encourage individuality in theory anyhow but then, the matriarchs powers were beyond reproach even if they were deemed as being harsh and unjust.

The person who deserves the greatest compassion was the Emperor.  It was very difficult to balance the social and economical problems that confronted him yet alone the will of these two very determined women.

I believe that whilst we can now all sympathise with the Empresses shyness, vulnerability and fate, history has proven that both Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna were prudent to regard her demeanor as unsuitable for the role of consort to the future Emperor of all the Russia's.

[Lass]

I believe that whilst we can now all sympathise with the Empresses shyness, vulnerability and fate, history has proven that both Alexander III and Marie Feodorovna were prudent to regard her demeanor as unsuitable for the role of consort to the future Emperor of all the Russia's.

That's exactly what I think. By the way, welcome to the board, Alexander_II!

[bluetoria]

I think that MF & Alix were such different characters it was impossible for the former to understand the latter. Considering their background and upbringing their lives were so different from the start. Perhaps MF had a more pragmatic outlook (as when she dealt with the death of her first fiance) & couldn't 'reach' the depths of Alix's more contemplative character.

[Finelly]

Marie was far better suited to be an Empress than Alexandra was.  She had the social skills, the ability to balance out her husband and deflect some of his more boorish characteristics, was better able to cope with loss and tragedy, and was probably much stronger emotionally than her daughter in law.

I don't see Alexandra as so much contemplative as self-absorbed.  Marie seemed to have risen above the bad things in her life and done what needed to be done.

[bluetoria]

Marie was far better suited to be an Empress than Alexandra was.  She had the social skills, the ability to balance out her husband and deflect some of his more boorish characteristics, was better able to cope with loss and tragedy, and was probably much stronger emotionally than her daughter in law.

Oh yes, I agree with you. MF had the flair for the role which Alix lacked. But, like her sister, she seemed to want to keep Nicholas first as her son - a relationship she seemed to view as more important than that of a husband & wife. I think there was some hidden jealousy in her treatment of Alix, whom I don't think she helped in any way to adjust herself to the new role in which she found herself. I know that MF was dealing with thedeath of her husband, but I think her reluctance to hand over the role of Empress to Alix, made things even more difficult for her.

I don't see Alexandra as so much contemplative as self-absorbed.  

Introspective, perhaps? I think she was a far more spiritual person than MF & also a far 'deeper' character. Neither of them can be blamed for this, imo. Just different characters.

[pinklady]

Marie was much better suited to the role of Russian Empress and did her "job" extremely well.
Alix was shy and introverted and had a much more serious personality.
The big difference between the two women was that Alix had only one son who was hemophiliac, that is why she worried so much and was more family orientated than Marie, I think.

[bluetoria]

Also MF had managed to produce 'the heir & a couple of spares' in a relatively short time. For the first decade of the reign, Alix had that anxiety hanging over her.