Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia

Infobox Russian Royalty|grand duchess
name = Alexandra Alexandrovna
title =Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia


imgw = 200px
caption = Alexandra with her younger brother Nicholas.
consort =
issue =
imperial house =House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
father =Alexander II of Russia
mother =Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
date of birth =birth date|1842|8|30|mf=y
place of birth = Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
date of death =death date|1849|7|10|mf=y (age in years and days|1842|8|30|1849|7|10|mf=y)
place of death = Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
place of burial=|

Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia (August 30 1842 - July 10 1849) was the eldest child of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She died from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half.

Life and death

She was nicknamed Lina or Sashenka within her family. Her father enjoyed having her keep him company while he worked in his study. Her death from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half devastated her parents. Her mother was still brought to tears by the mention of her eldest child decades after her death. [Zeepvat (2004), p. 178] [Radzinsky (2005), p. 121] Her father placed a dried flower from her funeral mass in his diary and marked the page in black to signify mourning. [Radzinsky (2005), pp. 92-93] They were thrilled when they had a second daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, because they had so missed having a little girl. [Zeepvat (2004), pp. 25, 94]

Ghostly visit

The ghost of Alexandra supposedly appeared along with that of her grandfather, Nicholas I of Russia, during two palace séances during the 1860s organized by Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna. The Tsar and others at court were interested in the spiritualism that was fashionable at the time. At one of the meetings, the table rose a few centimeters, spun and rapped out the words to "God Save the Tsar!" The Tsar and others present claimed he felt the touch of ghostly fingers. The spirits responded to questions asked by Alexander II, answering by rapping the letters of the alphabet, which he wrote down painstakingly on paper in front of him. A lady-in-waiting later complained that the answers were meaningless and wondered why they were more interested in playing games than providing real answers to the Tsar's questions. Alexandra's mother refused to come to the second séance, having decided that the ghosts were "spirits of lies" manipulated by the devil and her daughter had not actually appeared. [Radzinsky (2005), pp. 120-121]

A portrait and mementoes on display

A blue silk frock worn by Alexandra was still on display in the Winter Palace fifty years after her death, according to Margaretta Eagar. "A pretty golden-haired child she was, too, judging from her portrait," wrote Eagar, a nurse for the four daughters of Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.

Name considered unlucky

Eagar also wrote that the name Alexandra was considered unlucky in the Romanov family by the late 19th century because so many Romanov Alexandras had died as children or in their teens. The British public had wondered why none of the Tsarina's daughters was named in her honor; Eagar explained that the name was not used, despite the fact that Alexandra was their mother's name, because it was considered so unlucky. Other ill-fated Alexandras were Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna. Eagar wrote that other branches of the family had named daughters Alexandra, but none lived past age twenty-one. cite web | author=Eagar, Margaret | year=1906| title= "Six Years at the Russian Court" | work= alexanderpalace.org|url=http://www.alexanderpalace.org/eagar/eagar.html/ |accessdate = January 27| access year=2008]

Ancestry

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1= 1. Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia
2= 2. Alexander II of Russia
3= 3. Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
4= 4. Nicholas I of Russia
5= 5. Charlotte of Prussia
6= 6. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
7= 7. Wilhelmine of Baden
8= 8. Paul I of Russia
9= 9. Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg
10= 10. Frederick William III of Prussia
11= 11. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
12= 12. Louis I, Grand Duke of Hesse
13= 13. Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt
14= 14. Charles Louis of Baden
15= 15. Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt
16= 16. Peter III of Russia
17= 17. Catherine II of Russia
18= 18. Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
19= 19. Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt
20= 20. Frederick William II of Prussia
21= 21. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt
22= 22. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
23= 23. Friederike Caroline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt
24= 24. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt
25= 25. Karoline of Zweibrücken
26= 26. Georg Wilhelm of Hesse-Darmstadt
27= 27. Luise of Leiningen-Heidesheim
28= 28. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden
29= 29. Karoline Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt
30= 30. Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (=24)
31= 31. Karoline of Zweibrücken(=25)

Notes

References

* [http://www.alexanderpalace.org/eagar/eagar.html Margaret Eagar, "Six Years at the Russian Court," 1906.]
*Radzinsky, Edvard (2005). "Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar". Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7432-7332-9
*Van Der Kiste, John (2004). "The Romanovs 1818-1959" Sutton Publishing. ISBN 075093459X
*Zeepvat, Charlotte (2004). "The Camera and the Tsars". Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3049-7

External links

*thePeerage.com, Alexandra Alexandrovna Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10114.htm#i101136]

Persondata
NAME= Alexandrovna, Alexandra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Grand Duchess of Russia
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Royalty of Russia
DATE OF BIRTH= August 30 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH= Saint Petersburg, Russia
DATE OF DEATH= July 10 1849
PLACE OF DEATH= Saint Petersburg, Russia