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Princesses Dagmar and Alexandra of
Denmark when they visited England in 1865.
Both sisters became Queens of two of the
major world powers in history, Great Britain
and Russia. Dagmar to become the Empress
Marie Feodorovna, Tsarina to Tsar Alexander
of Russia and Alexandra to become the
Queen of England, consort of King Edward
VII of Great Britain.
The two sisters remained very close through
their entire lives and it was Queen Alexandra
(Dagmar) who offered to send the British
battleship H.M.S. Marlborough to remove
Tsarina Marie Fedorovna and those close
to her from Russia and the terror of the
Bolsheviks. |
| Taken on the occasion of the Romanov Tercentenary
in 1913, The Grand Duchess Olga Nicolaevna
was the oldest of the four daughters of
Nicholas and Alexandra. |
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Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra
, the Grand Duchesses and the Tsarevitch
Alexei. The girls were in their teens
and Alexei was quite a bit younger. He,
of course, would have followed his father
as the next Tsar if the revolution had
not occurred. They were all massacred,
mercilessly, early on in the revolution.
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| The Grand Stairs of Catherine Palace in
Tsarskoye Selo, "the Tsar's Village,"
which is 15 miles south of Saint Petersburg.
Catherine Palace was built by the Empress
Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great,
who ordered the architect Rastrelli to "build
a palace which would outshine Versailles."
It had over 200 rooms. Nicholas and Alexandra
preferred to live in the Alexandra Palace.
It was cozier -- it had only 150 rooms. |
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The 9th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough
and their sons. The Duchess was the former
Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of W. K.
Vanderbilt of the United States. The portrait
was painted by John Singer Sargent in
1904. The Marlboroughs are included here
because in 1902 when visiting Russia,
the Duchess ordered an Egg from The House
of Fabergé. The Egg is called Duchess
of Marlborough Egg. It holds the distinction
of being the only major Fabergé
Egg made for an American. It is part of
the Forbes Collection and will be going
back to Russia as part of the recent purchase
by the Russian industrialist. |
Nicholas was 35 years old when this portrait
was painted and had been on the throne for
nearly a decade. He ascended the throne
in 1894 after his father died of complications
arising from injuries received some years
earlier in a train wreck.
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The Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana,
Marie and Anastasia in 1913. The photograph
was taken at the Alexander Palace in St.
Petersburg.
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The Romanovs - the last Imperial Family
of Tsarist Russia.
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The Double Headed Eagle, TheRussian
Imperial Crest.
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Nicholas II and Alexei, the heir apparent
to the throne of Russia.
After
having four daughters
Nicholas and Alexandra were blessed
with a son. The throne of Russia
passed through the male line only in
the Romaov dynasty, which made the
birth of this small boy such an important
event. He was born a
hemophiliac, a disease which prevents
the clotting of blood, which passes
through the female line only and affects
only male descendants. Tsarina
Alexandra was the grand daughter
of Queen Victoria of England and it was
from Victoria that the disease stemmed.
Prior to their discovering it in
one of Victoria's sons nothing was
known about the disease. Several of
Queen Victoria's five daughters passed
it on to their sons as well. (This
photograph, a rare one, came to us
from KE as did all of the others in
this album.)
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