Alexandra was clearly incapable of ruling a major nation, but it still seems like romantic fantasy that Irene could have, as Nicky's wife, avoided the downfall of the Romanov's and avoided the devastation of Russia's WWI entanglement. given the true facts of the 20th century following the end of WWI, had Irene been such a savior, she would then have been arguably the most pivotal, important person of the century, if not greater. This is implausible. What occured from about 1905 onward was a massive lava flow of rebellion that no one in the position of wife of czar could have successfully averted, imo. had she or anyone else been able to, she would have superceded the diplomatic, political, social, and personal skills of all the major European leaders, ministers, politicians, and industricalists of the time. It doen's seem like a reasonable assumption.
