Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia

Infobox Russian Royalty|grand duke
name = Alexander Mikhailovich
title =Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia


imgw = 170px
caption = Alexander Mikhailovich in costume for a 1903 ball.
imperial house = House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
father =Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia
mother =Princess Cecilie of Baden
spouse = Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
issue =Princess Irina Alexandrovna
Prince Andrei Alexandrovich
Prince Feodor Alexandrovich
Prince Nikita Alexandrovich
Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich
Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich
Prince Vasili Alexandrovich
date of birth =birth date|1866|4|13
place of birth = Tiflis, Georgia
date of death =death date and age|1933|2|26|1866|4|13
place of death = Roquebrune, France
place of burial=|
Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович "Aleksandr Mihailovits" (13 April 1866 - 26 February 1933) was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, and an advisor of the said Emperor.

Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia, the youngest son of Nicholas I of Russia, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (Cecily of Baden). Through his mother, Grand Duke Alexander was a great-grandson of the reputedly imbalanced king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, the last Swedish Grand Duke of Finland (at the time of Alexander's life, Finland belonged to Alexander's agnatic house and its ruler was head of its senior branch, making Alexander entitled to eventual succession to the Finnish Throne and also one of the "Princes of Finland").

He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Grand Duke Alexander was a naval officer (to which, Finland was an important base, the Baltic fleet being Russia's main navy). In his youth, he made a good-will visit to developing Japan on behalf of the Russian Empire, as well as to the Brazilian Empire. He married his first cousin's daughter, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Alexander III on the OldStyleDate|6th August|1894|25th July and was thus a brother-in-law of the last Tsar Nicholas II, to whose close advisors he belonged. His impact on the Tsar has been (mildly) both criticized and appreciated. He and his family, together with his mother-in-law, the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), were rescued from the Crimea by British battleship HMS Marlborough in the quagmire of the 1917 Revolution, and thus they survived.

In exile, Alexander wrote his memoirs. "Once a Grand Duke" (Farrar & Rinehart 1933) is a source of dynastical and court life in Imperial Russia's last half-century. He also spent a time as guest of Ras Taffari (the future Emperor Haile Silassie I of Abyssinia). He talks about why he was invited to Ethiopia ,in his continuation of his biography "Always a Grand Duke".

Together Alexander and Xenia had seven children:

* Princess Irina Alexandrovna (1895-1970)
* Prince Andrei Alexandrovich (1897-1981)
* Prince Feodor Alexandrovich (1898-1968)
* Prince Nikita Alexandrovich (1900-1974)
* Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich (1901-80)
* Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich (1902-1978)
* Prince Vasili Alexandrovich (1907-1989)

Ancestry

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1= 1. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
2= 2. Grand Duke Michael Nicolaevich of Russia
3= 3. Cecilie of Baden
4= 4. Nicholas I of Russia
5= 5. Charlotte of Prussia
6= 6. Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden
7= 7. Sophie of Sweden
8= 8. Paul I of Russia
9= 9. Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg
10= 10. Frederick William III of Prussia
11= 11. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
12= 12. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden
13= 13. Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg
14= 14. Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
15= 15. Frederica of Baden
16= 16. Peter III of Russia
17= 17. Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst
18= 18. Frederick II Eugene, 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. Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Baden
25= 25. Amelia of Nassau-Dietz
26= 26. Ludwig Heinrich Philipp Geyer von Geyersberg
27= 27. Maximiliane Christiana von Sponeck
28= 28. Gustav III of Sweden
29= 29. Sophia Magdalena of Denmark
30= 30. Margrave Charles Louis of Baden
31= 31. Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt