EMPRESS ALEXANDRA

Sub-titled 'The Special Relationship Between Russia's Last Tsarina and Queen Victoria'. When Queen Victoria's second daughter Princess Alice married the Prince Louis of Hesse and Rhine in 1862, even her own mother described the ceremony as 'more of a funeral than a wedding' thanks to the fact that it took place shortly after the death of Alice's beloved father Prince Albert. Sadly, the young princess' misfortunes didn't end there and when she also died prematurely, her four motherless daughters were taken under the wing of their formidable grandmother, Victoria. Alexandra was just six years old when her mother died of diphtheria in 1878. Alix, the youngest of Alice's daughters and allegedly one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, was a special favourite of the elderly queen, who hoped that she would marry her cousin Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, and one day reign beside him as Queen. However, the spirited and stubborn Alix had other ideas. Alexandra had already fallen in love with the Tsarevitch Nicholas of Russia - a match that horrified her grandmother. Melanie Clegg takes a fresh and intimate look at the close relationship that existed between the last Empress of Russia who became Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and her grandmother Queen Victoria. Although Victoria was disappointed by Alexandra's decision to marry Nicholas, the two continued to correspond until the end of her life in 1901. Interspersed with snippets from diaries and letters. 16 pages of illus. 216 pages.