Well this discussion is interesting and I apologize if I wasn't clear. And very interesting about Sergei A. Where can I read about that?
I, too don't believe that he was 'strong' in marrying for love. "Strong" would have denied his own needs and plowed forward. But I do think that it takes a level of self-awareness to know that he was going to have a hard time being Tsar and needed the kind of Empress that would support him morally and be available to him on a spiritual or emotional level to make his life less difficult. I always see it this way: being Tsar was getting harder and harder across the years, particularly as the cities filled with more factory workers all needing improved living conditions, and living close enough to communicate their needs to each other. Nicholas was a smart guy, and even a less intelligent heir could easily see how dangerous and complex the life of a monarch had become: his grandfather, Sissy, Otsu, etc. We know that he dreaded wearing the crown. If the rest of your life, once your father died, were to be a rough road, wouldn't it be fairly rational to conclude that you were going to have to build support into your private life in order to function? So Alix is not necessarily a selfish choice, but practical. He certainly saw how his father aged rapidly once he was Tsar (and image how scary that would be to a boy-young man).
I also think that comparing his choice of Alix to Misha's decision, or Pavel, or Kyril, isn't just. Alix wasn't spectacularly royal, tho' we can't deny her good connections! Misha and Kyril wanted to marry against the laws of the Church, and that is complicated. And both of them acted without the Tsar's permission, which Nicholas did not do. But I do agree with all of you that Nicholas should have thought longer and harder about Irene's son. Funny, I was just reading letters of Queen Victoria to Victoria Battenberg where the Queen expresses concern about Ernie marrying into a potential hemophilia risk (Maud!). She doesn't name the disease, but it is clear what she is saying. Of course, her science is all wrong, but no one understood the genetic particulars yet. My point is that England's royals were thinking about marrying women who would bring healthy lineage and who were healthy enough to begin a long string of childbearing. Alix was neither of these things, tho, of course it is way easier to see that in 2011 than in 1894.
My fascination with Nicholas is watching how people view him now. We look backwards through the Revolution, 1905, Spala, Khodynka, and things look different from that perspective than they do looking from 1894 forward. It's off topic, nothing to do with Mathilde, so I'll just summarize: it is so much about how we ourselves look at suffering.
Mathilde talks about how much her discussions with Nicholas meant to her (as memories, I suppose). So perhaps he had some of that deep attachment with her, too.
Naslednik
