Alexander and Marie spend their anniversary in a fishing hamlet

September 15, 1891

Twenty-five years ago in a "fisherman's hamlet called Jules Bockshusen," Emperor Alexander III and Empress Marie "first plighted their troth."   Today, the "imperial couple had the romantic idea to celebrate the silver anniversary in the same hamlet," reports the Chicago Daily Tribune.

The little poor fishing village is about one mile from Fredensborg castle, and only a few miles from Elsinore,  made famous by Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The couple celebrated in similar manner to the original betrothal.  In 1866, the then Tsarevitch and Princess Dagmar of Denmark "was celebrated in the simplest way under a tent erected on the beach."  After the meal,  King Christian IX of Denmark left the tent and addressed the fishermen, "clustered around," and asked them to drink to the health of his new son-in-law and his beloved daughter."

Today, on the same spot in the same village "a tent was erected" and Alexander and Marie "dined surrounded only by their family and fisher-folk of the place.    The morning "was lovely," and by "special request," the Imperial couple were left alone  to "their innocent enjoyment." 

Empress Marie looked happy and smiled "through her tears," and leaned upon her husband as he spoke to the fishermen, and the "simple affair ended as quietly as it begun."