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October 13, 1928
The former Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia died tonight after a "long illness," reports the New York Times. She was eighty-one years old.
Members of the Danish royal family, and the Empress' two daughters, Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga, "were among those at the bedside.
The Associated Press reports that Marie died at Hvidore Castle at 7:00 pm. The elderly Empress "had been in failing health for weeks and she lapsed into unconsciousness several hours before her death.
Grand Duchess Olga with her husband and two sons, and Grand Duchess Xenia, with her son, Prince Vassili, were present at the deathbed.
Marie, known as the "Lady of Tears," was born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, second daughter of the late King Christian IX. As the wife of Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, Marie "lived a life in which the splendor of the Romanoff Empire and personal tragedy were so intermingled that the mere facts of her existence seemed stranger than fiction could be."
She died believing that her son, Nicholas II, was "still alive."
Empress Marie was one of three daughters of Christian IX of Denmark. Her older sister, Alexandra, married King Edward VII and her younger sister, Thyra, married the Duke of Cumberland, de jure King of Hanover. She was born on November 14, 1847. When she was very young, she became engaged to Tsarevitch Nicholas of Russia, but only a few weeks before their wedding, Nicholas died of lung trouble in Nice. His final wish was for his fiancee to marry his brother, Alexander, the new heir to the throne.
Marie and Alexander were married on October 26, 1866. Shortly before the wedding, Princess Dagmar converted to the Orthodox faith, and changed her name to Marie Feodorovna.
The second tragedy occurred in 1881, when Marie's father-in-law, Alexander II, "whom she is said to have loved deeply," was assassinated by a Nihilist bomb. Her husband, Alexander III, became the Emperor of all the Russias, and she was now the Empress
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Marie, who had inherited the Danish hated for Prussia, "was said to have exerted a strong influence in bringing about the break-up of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, and the formation of the Franco-Russian entente."
Her life as the Dowager Empress was "unhappy and baffled." She lost her influence with her son, Nicholas when his German wife "gained ascendancy over him." Marie Feodorovna was aligned "with other members of the family "in the struggle against Rasputin and the Germanophile faction at the court of her son." She reprimanded her son: "Nicholas, be Czar!"
During the revolution of 1917, Marie "came to show her love and loyalty to her son" by refusing to leave Russia. She retired to the Crimea, where she refused several offers of safe conduct to leave the country. It was only after the end of the war when the Germans left, and "Wrangel's routed army was nearing the little town of Yalta," that Marie accepted her sister, Alexandra's offer, and took "passage on a British warship for England."
She stayed for several months with her sister, Queen Alexandra, before settling into Hvidore, a Danish villa she owned jointly with Alexandra. She remained there until her death, "active, dignified, and keenly interested in world affairs."
Marie held a "bitter hatred" for the Soviet rulers in Russia, and she had a "pathetic belief" that her son was still alive. Her nephew, Grand Duke Kirill, earned a public rebuke from Marie after he had proclaimed himself Emperor of all the Russias in 1924. She did not believe that the title was "vacant."
After the death of her sister, Alexandra, in November 1925, the decline in Marie's health "was noticeable.
4 comments:
This is the first time I've heard that Dagmar believed that Nicholas was still alive after 1918. How pathetically sad. I guess denial is easier than facing an horrific truth.
Really. It was one of the reasons why she was upset when Kirill made his announcement. Mentioned in every bio on Marie
Maria Feodorovna was an intelligent woman. While she always publicly maintained that Nicholas and his family were still alive, it's unlikely she actually believed this. What her public stance did, however, was shut down discussion of the topic in her presence. The details of their deaths were so horrible that her refusal to discuss the issue was intelligent self-protection, a kind of dissimulation many of us practice in minor issues in our own lives when nothing can be done to ameliorate the situation.
Mistake on my hehalf, actually I mentioned earlier in my comment that she lived for 80 years.. she last seen them in 1918 and she died in 1928.. 10 years she wondered and having hope, never knew what had happened to her son and grandchildren.. such a tragic life.
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