Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)
1872 – 1918 German-Russian The last Empress of Russia
The devout, unpopular last empress whose trust in Rasputin damaged the crown.
- Religion
- Born a German Lutheran, she converted to Russian Orthodoxy and embraced it with intense, mystical devotion; her faith drew her to Rasputin.
- Affiliations
- House of Romanov by marriage; granddaughter of Britain's Queen Victoria; executed with her family in 1918.
Alexandra married Nicholas II and threw herself into Orthodox devotion with a convert's zeal. Her son's hemophilia drew her to the mystic Rasputin, whose apparent power over the boy she read as a sign of holiness. Her influence over the government during the war deepened public hatred of the monarchy, and she was killed with her family in 1918.
Connections
- family of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia — Her son, whose illness shaped her turn to Rasputin.
- family of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia — His mother, whose faith centered on his survival.
- associate of Grigori Rasputin — She trusted him as a holy man who could help her hemophiliac son.
- associate of Grigori Rasputin — The empress saw him as a holy healer for her son and defended him fiercely.
- family of Nicholas II — Her husband, the last tsar.
- family of Nicholas II — His wife, the last empress.