Nicholas II & Family

[fairy]

Alix had been unsuited, but to be fair, most women would have been at that time.
Unfortunately women in royal positions were pawns in the scramble for political alliances and their rle was to produce Children mainly heirs and spares (and certainly Girls too, that could be again used to tighten bonds with allies).
Alix failed in producing an heir and that weighed very heavily on her.
In good relationships (of any sort) the two spouses talk to each other and seek each others feedback, support and  help.
Alexandra, perhaps due to her mother's early death, was not very well educated and apparently not overly bright. Her husband, the czar unfortunately was not better suited, so the two could not really feed of each other intellectually. What they did however, was they produced this bubble of surreal family life, and possibly due to somewhat realizing that they were inadequate, they feared manipulation and thus encouraged eachother to not heed any outside influence or opinion.

[CyrilSebastian]

In Nicholas and Alexandra, Robert K. Massie wrote: To Marie, Alexandra was still an awkward young German girl, only recently arrived in Russia with no knowledge or background in affairs of state.

[CyrilSebastian]

Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra during a hunting expedition in the Bialowieza Forest in 1897     
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/822507394

[Malenkaya]

Alix had been unsuited, but to be fair, most women would have been at that time.

I come back to this quite often. Who would have been suited to be empress at the time and have the marriage still follow the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Pauline Laws? Margaret of Prussia was considered another candidate but criticized as being dull (and certainly would have been in Maria Feodorovna's shadow). Most of the major princesses I can think of were married off by the time Nicholas' marriage was being discussed. King Christian and Queen Louise's brilliant matchmaking unfortunately ensured that there were quite a few princesses that were a no-go due to the inability to marry a first cousin.

It is one of those royal "what ifs". Ultimately I think it comes down to that there likely was no one that would have been suited to be the bride of Nicholas in that particular situation. Even the males in his family (minus Kirill) were trying to find ways out of being Emperor at any cost.

[CyrilSebastian]

Pierre Gillard, the language tutor with Grand Duchess Olga and Grand Duchess Tatiana in 1911   
http://www.alamy.com/stoc...f-nicholas-144101924.html

[Kristallinchen]

Pierre Gillard, the language tutor with Grand Duchess Olga and Grand Duchess Tatiana in 1911    
http://www.alamy.com/stoc...f-nicholas-144101924.html

Pierre Gillard was lucky that as a foreigner he had the chance to escape the Bolsheviks. Most others accompanying the family in exile weren't so fortunate.

[CyrilSebastian]

The Silk Imperial Crown of Russia was an official coronation gift of the Russian Empire at the coronation of Nicholas II of Russia.

[CyrilSebastian]

Tsar Nicholas II with his daughter Tatiana in 1913   
http://www.alamy.com/stoc...atiana-1913-30984355.html

[CyrilSebastian]

Grand Duchess Marie Nikolaevna was Colonel-in-Chief of the Russian Horse Grenaiders.   
 http://www.gettyimages.com/license/161055085

[Booklover]

Reading a book "Victoria's gene" which is all about the hemophilia disease that she passed on to her descendants. Apparently DNA on the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II revealed that Anastasia was a carrier of the illness, her 3 sisters were not.

[Kristallinchen]

Reading a book "Victoria's gene" which is all about the hemophilia disease that she passed on to her descendants. Apparently DNA on the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II revealed that Anastasia was a carrier of the illness, her 3 sisters were not.

I've read that Maria was a carrier. Appearantly she an operation on her tonsils once and bleeded so much, her mother had to urge the doctor to go on with it.

[Principessa]

Reading a book "Victoria's gene" which is all about the hemophilia disease that she passed on to her descendants. Apparently DNA on the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II revealed that Anastasia was a carrier of the illness, her 3 sisters were not.

I've read that Maria was a carrier. Appearantly she an operation on her tonsils once and bleeded so much, her mother had to urge the doctor to go on with it.

Interesting.

Wasn't there confusion at first about the youngest two daughters, when the bones were discovered? If I am correct the bones of Aleksei and one of his sisters were found on a different spot then the rest of the family.

[Kristallinchen]

Reading a book "Victoria's gene" which is all about the hemophilia disease that she passed on to her descendants. Apparently DNA on the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II revealed that Anastasia was a carrier of the illness, her 3 sisters were not.

I've read that Maria was a carrier. Appearantly she an operation on her tonsils once and bleeded so much, her mother had to urge the doctor to go on with it.

Interesting.

Wasn't there confusion at first about the youngest two daughters, when the bones were discovered? If I am correct the bones of Aleksei and one of his sisters were found on a different spot then the rest of the family.

Yes, the last ones to be discovered were of Aleksey and Maria. Yurovski had them buried elsewhere to confuse any future researchers (as the Tsar had five children and not just three).

[Principessa]

Reading a book "Victoria's gene" which is all about the hemophilia disease that she passed on to her descendants. Apparently DNA on the daughters of Tsar Nicholas II revealed that Anastasia was a carrier of the illness, her 3 sisters were not.

I've read that Maria was a carrier. Appearantly she an operation on her tonsils once and bleeded so much, her mother had to urge the doctor to go on with it.

Interesting.

Wasn't there confusion at first about the youngest two daughters, when the bones were discovered? If I am correct the bones of Aleksei and one of his sisters were found on a different spot then the rest of the family.

Yes, the last ones to be discovered were of Aleksey and Maria. Yurovski had them buried elsewhere to confuse any future researchers (as the Tsar had five children and not just three).

Thank you for the confirmation.

Therefore it could be a mistake that according to the book Anastasia was the only carrier of the hemophilia gene(s). Or it should be Marie or it should be both princesses.

[Principessa]

According to www.sciencemag.org (2009)

https://www.sciencemag.or...oyals-suffered-hemophilia


"...Now, new DNA analysis on the bones of the last Russian royal family, the Romanovs, indicates the Royal disease was indeed hemophilia, a rare subtype known as hemophilia B..."


"..This time, the team found a mutation in F9, which would have inhibited clotting, in bones from Alexei, his sister Anastasia, and their mother Alexandra..."

"..The findings, published online today in Science, indicate that Alexei did indeed have hemophilia B and that his mother and Anastasia were carriers for the disease, bearing out the previous speculation. They also confirm that the other instances of "Royal disease" in the family line were hemophilia, Rogaev says, because they all shared a common genetic heritage. The last carrier of the disease in the royal family was Prince Waldemar of Prussia, who died in 1945..."

"..Katherine High, a hematologist who studies blood coagulation at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, says that the mutation found in the Romanov bones fits an established genetic pattern known to cause hemophilia B, further supporting Rogaev's findings.."


So I guess the statement about Anastasia would be correct based on the above mentioned findings.