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The Museum
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Maria Feodorovna, Empress of Russia
1847-1928
Maria Fedorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was the second daughter
of Prince and Princess Christian of Denmark who were to be known as "the
grandparents of Europe" for their ability to marry their offspring into
the royal families of Europe. Her elder sister, Princess Alexandra was married
to the Prince of Wales, while
for Princess Dagmar, her mother looked to east and the Romanovs of Russia.
At the age of eighteen she was engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich.
Their relationship however was not a long or happy one as in 1865 Nicholas
took ill and died before they could be married. Luckily, she did not have
far to look for a suitable replacement as she struck up a relationship with
his brother, Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich. Alexander was by all accounts
a a physically imposing man, famed for his ability to bend iron bars. On their
marriage, as per the custom, Dagmar took up the Russian Orthodox faith and
assumed the name Maria Feodorovna.
A period of relative quiet during which Maria gave birth to six children was disturbed by the assassination of Tsar Alexander, Alexander's father. He then took up the vacate title of Tsar, Maria becoming Empress. After Alexander himself died of a virus in 1895 Maria became The Dowager Empress, and seemed to be largely occupied with controlling her offspring. One son, Michael, was gallavanting around Europe having been exiled by his brother Tsar Nicholas who himself earned the consternation of his mother by being very much his own man in matters of state. Maria Feodorovna was particularly irked by the influence that rogue monk Rasputin had over Nicholas's wife.
During the Russian revolution the Empress Dowager lost nineteen members
of her family, including both Nicholas and Michael. Maria then fled Russia
to stay for a period of time in London as a guest of her sister, much as her
son Michael had done some years earlier. Also following in the habits of her
son Maria opened an account at Robert Lewis, who faithfuly supplied her favoured
Gil Blas cigarettes. She later returned to Copenhagen where she died at the
same family home in which she had been born 81 years earlier.
JJ Fox & Robert Lewis, 19 St James's Street,
London, SW1A 1ES
Tel:+44 (0)20 7930 3787 Fax:+44 (0)20 7495 0097
