Monday, November 26, 2007

Marriage of Nicholas and Alexandra



On November 14/26, 1896 Tsar Nicholas II married his cousin Alix of Hesse, just one week after Alexander III's funeral. According to one account:
On the morning of the wedding, the Dowager Empress Marie took her future daughter-in-law to the Winter Palace where the ceremony was to take place.

As troops and crowds lined the streets outside, Nicholas, wearing a Hussar's uniform, arrived at the Winter Palace. The ceremony was straightforward and simple and, out of respect for the late Tsar, no festivities were allowed. "One day in deepest mourning, lamenting a loved one, the next, in smartest clothes being married," was how Alexandra described it.

Immediately after the ceremony, the young couple drove to the Anichkov Palace, enthusiastically cheered by huge crowds. As the marriage had been arranged so hastily, no proper preparations had been made for the couple and they agreed to stay as the guests of Nicholas's mother. The rooms they shared at the Anichkov Palace with Marie were cramped and lacking in privacy.

In these small rooms, Alexandra sat all day, moving into her bedroom when her husband had to receive official visitors in the sitting room. But she was entirely happy; her husband was always near her.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, I just read the Wiki entry on her...she was canonized as a Saint in the Russian Orthodox Church! I guess she and her husband were martyrs...which I suppose their children would be too. Imagine if one day Rome were to do the same for Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI?

Anonymous said...

I've seen this beautiful picture many times in books (and once on a jewelry box) and still am charmed by it.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this. I love to read anything on the Russian royal family!

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, Georgette, one can certainly hope and imagine...but I'm not holding my breath! ;-)

It is a lovely painting, Elisa.

You are welcome, Juliana. I did a lot of research in graduate school on the Romanovs although right now I am a bit rusty....

Sanctus Belle said...

Beautiful picture!

Anonymous said...

I converted to Catholicism from the Russian Orthodox Church, I still have great devotion to these Royal martyrs and am baptized after the martyred prince Alexei. Thank you for not forgetting the other half of the church! Slava Iisusu Hristu!

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, it is, Sanctus Belle.

You are welcome, demjanek. They have long been close to my heart, too.