Empress Maria Alexandrovna, born
princess Marie of Hesse-Rhein (1824-1880).
(click on the picture to go back
to "the Six last Empress of Russia")
Empress Maria Alexandrovna was born princess of Hesse-Rhein.
She married Czar Alexander II,
they got six boys and two girls. Maria worked eagerly with colleges
for girls in her new country. After the arrival to Russia she
got tuberculosis which followed her as a dark shadow for the rest
of her life. She loved the Livadia palace
on the Crimea, because she could live there as an ordinary person.
When Maria got really sick, Alexander took another woman, princess
Catherine Dolgorukij (1847-1922). They lived together in the Winter Palace as husband and wife, and
when Maria past away, 1881, they got married, just a month after
her death.
