The Courtship of the Last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia: Alexandra and Nicholas Romanov

Nicholas and Alexandra Romanov were the last tsar and tsarina of Russia. History has described them in two very different ways. On the one side, they are looked at as a foolish, or even evil, royal couple that was totally responsible for the downfall of the Russian monarchy and the disastrous period in Russian history that followed. On the other side, they are looked at as gullible, ill-suited rulers who became scapegoats for the Russian Revolution. Either way, they were at least partly to blame for what became of the Russian royal family, but before that, they were simple people who were hopelessly in love with each other and not cut out for the responsibilities that came with their lineage.

When Nicholas and Alexandra first met in 1884, Nicholas was 16-years-old and Alexandra was only 12. At the time, she was known as Alix H or Sunny, a nickname that did not suit her gloomy, shy demeanor. She would become Alexandra when she became a Romanov. Alix H. was a descendant of the imposing Queen Victoria and a princess of Hesse. Nicholas was the tsarevitch of Russia – the next in line to be ruler of “all the Russias.”

The pair met at the wedding of Alix’s older sister and Nicholas’ uncle. They hit it off immediately and spent several days getting to know each other. Nicholas fell deeply in love with his young second cousin. Alix was a little too young for that sort of thing, but she was certainly fond of Nicholas. Nicholas was an outdoorsy kind of man, while Alix was on her way to becoming a learned young woman. They were not the likeliest of lovers, but they were both romantics and that would be the backbone of their future relationship.

It would be years before the future Alexandra Romanov and Nicholas would see each other again. Nicholas continued his education, of which learning five languages was about the only useful lesson. Alix was heavily influenced by her serious grandmother. This, coupled with the devastating losses she suffered in her early youth turned Alix into a serious and shy figure. When she was just a little girl, she lost her mother, a brother and a sister. Her brother died from complications of hemophilia – a genetic condition that would play a huge role in the later lives of both Nicholas and Alexandra.

Five years after they met, Alexandra and Nicholas met again in St. Petersburg. She was now 17-years-old and he was a man of 21 years. Here, their love for each other would be cemented to the chagrin of the Russian court, Nicholas’ father and Alix H.’s overbearing grandmother. They remained in each other’s company for one and a half months, before parting ways once again. The gossipy crowd in Russia was unkind to young Alix H. They despised her stiffness of character, as they were mostly giddy and frivolous. Victoria was not thrilled with the idea of Alix moving to Russia and the tsar was not pleased with having a woman of a different religion as a daughter. If she would not convert, there would be no proposal. It would, again, be five years before the lovers met again.

In 1890, the tsar contrived an affair between Nicholas and a beautiful Russian ballerina. The two hit it off well and saw each other for some time, but Nicholas never forgot about his Alix. In fact, when he knew he would see her again in April of 1894, he said goodbye to his lover (whether they ever made love is up to our imaginations). When he met with the future Alexandra Romanov in Coburg for a wedding, he asked her to convert and to marry him. She gave him no answer until the following day, at which time her answer was yes. They were not married until November of that year, just weeks after Nicholas’ father died.

Nicholas II was crowned tsar in May of 1896. That day, Alexandra Romanov became the tsarina of Russia. Their marriage would be marked beautiful children, regrettable illness, mutual love and the questionable figure of Grigory Rasputin. Their political life would be plagued by way, rebellion, rumors (both true and false) and the eventual abolishment of the Russian monarchy. There is no happy ending, but there was, at least, a happy beginning.

Source

Kurth, Peter, Tsar, Little, Brown and Company, 1995