Empress maria feodorovna biography

Xenia Alexandrovna Romanova April 6, - April 20, Mikhail Alexandrovitch Romanov November 28, - c. June 12, The future of her daughters and the education of her younger sons kept Maria's empress maria feodorovna biography occupied during the first years of her widowhood. She was influential in the early education of her grandson, the future Alexander II.

Maria tried to surpass the education which Catherine II had provided for her two eldest sons, but didn't choose the best teachers for the younger ones. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Empress of Russia from to Portrait by Vigee-Le Bruns.

Peter and Paul Cathedral. Paul I of Russia. Childhood [ edit ]. Grand Duchess [ edit ]. Engagement [ edit ]. First years [ edit ]. European tour [ edit ]. Last years [ edit ]. Empress of Russia [ edit ]. Charity institutions [ edit ]. Building projects [ edit ]. Foreign relationships [ edit ]. Dowager Empress and death [ edit ]. Issue [ edit ].

Archives [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Ancestry [ edit ]. Ancestors of Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia 8. Princess Eleonore Juliane of Brandenburg-Ansbach 2. Anselm Franz, Prince of Thurn and Taxis 5. Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis Princess Maria Ludovika of Lobkowicz 1. Philip William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt 6. Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt Princess Johanna Charlotte of Anhalt-Dessau 3.

Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt Frederick William I of Prussia 7. Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover. Notes [ edit ]. Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart. Retrieved 1 December The badly damaged roof caved in, but Alexander, using his Herculean strength, lifted the ceiling on his shoulders while Marie and the children crawled uninjured from the car.

Marie, forgetting her own plight, helped the doctors with other members of the court who had been injured in the crash. InAlexander began to suffer from insomnia, headaches, and pain in his legs. The family traveled, on doctors' advice, to the royal hunting lodge near Spola, Poland, but his condition continued to worsen and was finally diagnosed as nephritis.

It was decided that the warm weather in the Crimea would benefit the tsar, but after a brief period of improvement his health again began to deteriorate. Marie spent day and night beside her husband and, despite her deep grief, nursed him until his death on the afternoon of November 1,at age Following the traditional period of mourning, Marie Feodorovna returned to public life.

She served as an advisor to Nicholas II r. In time, a bitterness developed between Marie and her daughter-in-law, Alexandra Feodorovna —because Russian court protocol gave precedence to a dowager empress over the reigning empress. Marie, always splendidly dressed in jewels and fine clothes, made public appearances on the arm of her son, while Alexandra was escorted by one of the grand dukes.

They even quarreled about sharing the imperial jewels. This unintended rivalry died away inhowever, when Marie took a long visit to her family in Denmark and Nicholas moved his family to the Peterhof Palace. Marie lived in the Anitchkoff Palace after her return to Russia and devoted herself to her philanthropic work. A coldness always remained between the pragmatic Marie and the often unstable Alexandra.

Marie openly expressed her dislike of the charlatans, fortune-tellers and mediums serving and advising her daughter-in-law. She found her most pleasant times to be her visits to the family in Copenhagen and to her sister, Queen Alexandra of Great Britain. Marie, who was in England when World War I broke out, left immediately for Russia, but she was detained in Berlin on August 4,and given the choice of returning to England or traveling to Denmark.

Refusing to appeal to the German government, she eventually reached Russia by traveling through Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. During the war, Marie spent much of her time with the Russian Red Cross, which did exceptional work under her leadership and patronage. As the war progressed, the Russian public began to turn against the imperial family.

Empress Alexandra's constant meddling and the people's concerns about the influence of her confidant and advisor, Gregory Rasputin, made Nicholas II appear weak. Marie, at the request of several influential people, attempted to warn her son of the unrest. Events moved rapidly in both the imperial family and the Russian nation. Rasputin was murdered in December Marie traveled to the General Headquarters at Mogilev to see her son.

They spent three days together before he was taken prisoner on March 21, As the train took him away, a tearful Marie waved at her son and made the sign of the cross to him. They would never see each other again. Marie joined other members of the royal family in the Crimean city of Sebastopol, where several loyal officers protected them from the chaos created by the revolution.

Life was difficult and dangerous. Conditions improved during the German occupation of the Crimea, and the Germans offered her safe passage to Denmark through their territory. She refused and remained in the Crimea until British forces arrived after the Armistice ended the war. Marlborough for Great Britain. She eventually left England and returned to her native Denmark, taking up residence in the Hvidore Villa which she and her sister Alexandra had earlier built for themselves.

She constantly feuded over money with her nephew, King Christian Xand stubbornly refused to sell the jewels she had brought from Russia when the king suggested she could pay her own expenses. Marie Feodorovna, dowager empress of Russia, died at the age of 81 at her residence on October 13, Her daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga and Xenia, who had also escaped from Russia, were at her bedside.

Services were held at the Russian Church in Copenhagen, and, despite her desire to be buried on Russian soil, she was laid to rest in her father's vault in Roskilde Cathedral. Lowe, Charles. Alexander III of Russia. Tisdale, E. Marie Feodorovna: Empress of Russia. NY: The John Day Even when bored in committee she never looked bored. Her empress maria feodorovna biography and, above all, her tact conquered everybody".

She said that if Nicholas did not agree, she would 'leave for Denmark, and then without me here let them twist your head around'". Maria Feodorovna's grandson-in-law, Prince Felix Yusupovnoted that she had great influence in the Romanov family. Sergei Witte praised her tact and diplomatic skill. Nevertheless, despite her social tact, she did not get along well with her daughter-in-law, Tsarina Alexandra, holding her responsible for many of the woes that beset her son Nicholas and the Russian Empire in general.

She was appalled with Alexandra's inability to win favour with the public, and also that she did not give birth to an heir until almost ten years after her marriage, after bearing four daughters. The fact that Russian court custom dictated that an empress dowager took precedence over an empress consort, combined with the possessiveness that Maria had of her sons, and her jealousy of Empress Alexandra only served to exacerbate tensions between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

They were utterly different in character, habits and outlook". By the turn of the twentieth century, Maria was spending increasing time abroad. During her nearly three-month visit to England inMaria Feodorovna attempted, unsuccessfully, to get her sister, now Queen Dowager Alexandra, to claim a position of precedence over her daughter-in-law, Queen Mary.

Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mistress of Langinkoski retreat, was also otherwise a known friend of Finland. During the first Russification periodshe tried to have her son halt the constraining of the grand duchy's autonomy and to recall the unpopular Governor-General Nikolai Bobrikov from Finland to some other position in Russia itself. During the second Russification period, at the start of the First World Warthe Empress Dowager, travelling by her special train through Finland to Saint Petersburg, expressed her continued disapprobation for the Russification of Finland by having an orchestra of a welcoming committee play the March of the Pori Regiment and the Finnish national anthem " Maamme ", which at the time were under the explicit ban from Franz Albert Seynthe Governor-General of Finland.

InMaria's empress maria feodorovna biography son, George, died of tuberculosis in the Caucasus. During the funeral, she kept her composure, but at the end of the service, she ran from the church clutching her son's top hat that been atop the coffin and collapsed in her carriage sobbing. When Olga attempted to contract a morganatic marriage with Nikolai KulikovskyMaria Feodorovna and the tsar tried to dissuade her, yet, they did not protest too vehemently.

InMaria faced trouble with her youngest son, when he secretly married his mistress, much to the outrage and scandal of both Maria Feodorovna and Nicholas. Maria Feodorovna disliked Rasputin and unsuccessfully tried to convince Nicholas and Alexandra to send him away. She considered Rasputin a dangerous charlatan and despaired of Alexandra's obsession with "crazy, dirty, religious fanatics".

Nicholas remained silent and Alexandra refused. Maria recognized the empress was the true regent and that she also lacked the capability for such a position: "My poor daughter-in-law does not perceive that she is ruining the dynasty and herself. She sincerely believes in the holiness of an adventurer, and we are powerless to ward off the misfortune, which is sure to come.

She does not perceive that my one aspiration is to see my son happy. Yet I see we are nearing some kind of catastrophe and the Tsar listens to no one but flatterers… Why do you not tell the Tsar everything that you think and know… if it is not already too late". In MayMaria Feodorovna travelled to England to visit her sister. In Berlin the German authorities prevented her train from continuing toward the Russian border.

Instead she had to return to Russia by way of neutral Denmark and Finland. Upon her return in August, she took up residence at Yelagin Palacewhich was closer to St. Petersburg renamed Petrograd in August [ 64 ] than Gatchina. During the war, there was great concern within the imperial house about the influence Empress Alexandra had upon state affairs through the Tsar, and the influence Grigori Rasputin was believed to have upon her, as it was considered to provoke the public and endanger the safety of the imperial throne and the survival of the monarchy.

In parallel, several of the Grand Dukes had tried to intervene with the Tsar, but with no more success. Initially, she refused to make the appeal, and her sister-in-law Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna stated to the French Ambassador: "It's not want of courage or inclination that keeps her back. It's better that she don't. She's too outspoken and imperious.

The moment she starts to lecture her son, her feelings run away with her; she sometimes says the exact opposite of what she should; she annoys and humiliates him. Then he stands on his dignity and reminds his mother he is the emperor. They leave each other in a rage". Reportedly, Empress Alexandra was informed about the planned coup, and when Maria Feodorovna made the ultimatum to the Tsar, the empress convinced him to order his mother to leave the capital.

She never again returned to Russia's capital. Empress Alexandra commented about her departure: "it's much better Motherdear stays … at Kiev, where the climate is better and she can live as she wishes and hears less gossip". In Kiev, Maria engaged in the Red Cross and hospital work, [ 68 ] and in September, the 50th anniversary of her arrival in Russia was celebrated with great festivities, during which she was visited by her son, Nicholas II, who came without his wife.

When Rasputin was murdered, part of the Imperial relatives asked Maria to return to the capital and use the moment to replace Alexandra as the Tsar's political adviser. Maria refused, but she did admit that Alexandra should be removed from influence over state affairs: "Alexandra Feodorovna must be banished. Don't know how but it must be done.

Otherwise she might go completely mad. Let her enter a convent or just disappear". After travelling from Kiev to meet with her deposed son, Nicholas II, in MogilevMaria returned to the city, where she quickly realised how Kiev had changed and that her presence was no longer wanted. She was persuaded by her family there to travel to the Crimea by train with a group of other refugee Romanovs, arriving at the end of March.

After a time living in one of the imperial residences in the Crimea, she received reports that her sons, her daughter-in-law and her grandchildren had been murdered. However, she publicly rejected the report as a rumour. On the day after the murder of the Tsar's family, Maria received a messenger from Nicky, "a touching man" who told of how difficult life was for her son's family in Yekaterinburg.

My Lord save my poor, unlucky Nicky, help him in his hard ordeals! The truth was too painful for her to admit publicly. Her letters to her son and his family have since almost all been lost; but in one that survives, she wrote to Nicholas: "You know that my thoughts and prayers never leave you. I think of you day and night and sometimes feel so sick at heart that I believe I cannot bear it any longer.

But God is merciful. He will give us strength for this terrible ordeal. Although Maria Feodorovna steadfastly believed Nicholas and his family survived, she firmly regarded Franziska Schanzkowska famously known as "Anna Anderson" as a fraud falsely claiming to be her granddaughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Despite the overthrow of the monarchy inthe former Empress Dowager Maria at first refused to leave Russia.

Only in early Aprilat the urging of her empress maria feodorovna biography, Queen Dowager Alexandradid she begrudgingly depart, fleeing Crimea over the Black Sea to London. The party of 17 Romanovs included her daughter the Grand Duchess Xenia and five of Xenia's sons plus six dogs and a canary. Although Queen Alexandra never treated her sister badly and they spent time together at Marlborough House in London and at Sandringham House in Norfolk, Maria, as a deposed empress dowager, felt that she was now "number two", in contrast to her sister, a popular queen dowager, and she returned to her native Denmark in November The All-Russian Monarchical Assembly held in offered her the locum tenens of the Russian throne but she declined with the evasive answer "Nobody saw Nicky killed" and therefore there was a chance her son was still alive.

She provided financial support to Nikolai Sokolov, who studied the circumstances of the death of the Tsar's family, but they never met. The Grand Duchess Olga sent a telegram to Paris cancelling an appointment because it would have been too difficult for the old and sick woman to hear the terrible story of her son and his family. In NovemberMaria's favourite sister, Queen Alexandra, died.

That was the last loss that she could bear. Petersburg in accordance with her wish to be interred next to her husband. A number of ceremonies took place from 23 to 28 September The crowd around the coffin was so great that a young Danish diplomat fell into the grave before the coffin was interred. Following a service at Saint Isaac's Cathedralshe was interred next to her husband Alexander III in the Peter and Paul Cathedral on 28 Septemberyears after her first arrival in Russia and almost 78 years after her death.

She is portrayed by Helen Hayes in the Hollywood historical drama Anastasia. Irene Worth portrays her in the epic Nicholas and Alexandra. Ursula Howells played the role in one episode of the drama Fall of Eagles. Gwyneth Strong and Jane Lapotaire portrayed the Empress as a teenager and adult woman respectively in the television series Edward the Seventh.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. Empress of Russia from to Empress Maria in Alexander III of Russia. Appearance and personality [ edit ].

Empress maria feodorovna biography

Early life [ edit ]. Engagements and marriage [ edit ]. First engagement [ edit ]. Second engagement and marriage [ edit ]. Tsarevna [ edit ]. Empress of Russia [ edit ]. Empress Dowager [ edit ]. World War I [ edit ]. Revolution and exile [ edit ]. Death and burial [ edit ]. Issue [ edit ]. Legacy [ edit ]. Honours [ edit ]. Paintings by Maria Feodorovna [ edit ].

Ancestry [ edit ]. Ancestors of Maria Feodorovna Dagmar of Denmark 8.