It was an act that shocked the world and
which is still seen as one of the most tragic royal ends of all. On
17 July 1918, the former Russian Imperial Family was executed by
the new Bolshevik government. Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina
Alexandra Feodorovna, and their children, Grand Duchess Olga, Grand
Duchess Tatiana, Grand Duchess Maria, Grand Duchess Anastasia, and
Tsarevich Alexei were first…
Hermitage worker finds 100-year-old candy in a Romanov dress
23rd December 2021
A restorer working at The Hermitage
Museum in St. Petersburg has found a sweet surprise while working
on a Romanov gown. Galina Fedorova, a worker in the Laboratory of
Scientific Tissue Restoration, is working on a 1903 gown and
discovered a piece of candy in the…
A chance listing on the Public Catalogue
Foundation Art UK, for an oil on canvas painting (35.8 x 30.7 cm)
said to be of Russia’s last Empress, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna,
when she was Princess Alix of Hesse (1872-1918) led me to
investigate this extraordinary artwork…
In the Western manuscripts collection
held at the British Library are what are known as the Boyd
Carpenter papers, Vol. V, Add MS 46721: 1884-1917. This remarkable
collection of documents contain letters written in English from or
on behalf of various crowned heads of Europe or their consorts, as
well as other members of Europe’s ruling families. These letters
were written to William Boyd…
In the British Library five letters from
Princess Alix of Hesse, later Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna of
Russia (1872-1918) are preserved. Initially, I thought there were
seven letters of hers at the British Library, but further research
has enabled me to establish that these…
In the summer of 1894, the Tsarevich
Nicholas came to England as a guest of Queen Victoria, first
staying for a brief few days with his fiancée, Princess Alix of
Hesse, at Walton-on-Thames before continuing to Windsor Castle.
This was a blissful period for a young couple…
When Tsarevich Nicholas visited Windsor
as a guest of Queen Victoria in the summer of 1894, he spent a
brief time with his fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse, at Marlborough
House, the London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales on
the Mall. As Nicholas wrote with glee to his mother, Empress Marie
Feodorovna, that following his short visit to Sandringham, the
Norfolk residence of the Prince…
In the summer of 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas
of Russia came to stay at Walton-on-Thames, in the house which his
fiancée, Princess Alix of Hesse’s eldest sister, Victoria, Princess
Louis of Battenberg and her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg had
rented. They would stay in…
On 29 May 1894, Tsarevich Nicholas of
Russia wrote to his mother, Empress Marie Feodorovna, that he could
see the sea from the room in which he was writing, in the imperial
palace of Peterhof and that he had ‘such a longing for the yacht
and want to fly there to join my…
During the time they were at Coburg,
Princess Alix of Hesse and Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia became
engaged, a date they would treasure for the rest of their lives – 8
April 1894. Whilst they were in Coburg, visited the theatre and saw
an operetta of which they would become affectionately fond, Carl
Zeller’s popular piece in three acts, Der Vogelhändler [The
Birdseller]. Both recorded…
