Maria Feodorovna, known before her marriage as Princess Dagmar of Denmark, was Empress of Russia from 1881 to 1894 as the wife of Emperor Alexander III. She was the fourth child and second daughter of Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. Maria's eldest son, Nicholas, was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. Maria lived for 10 years after Bolshevik functionaries killed Nicholas and his immediate family in 1918.
The House of Romanov was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nicholas II and his immediate family were executed in 1918, but there are still living descendants.
Alexandra Feodorovna, Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine at birth, was the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Emperor Nicholas II from their marriage on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917. A favourite granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, she was, like her grandmother, one of the most famous royal carriers of haemophilia and bore a haemophiliac heir, Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia. Her reputation for encouraging her husband's resistance to the surrender of autocratic authority and her known faith in the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin severely damaged her popularity and that of the Romanov monarchy in its final years. She and her immediate family were all murdered while in Bolshevik captivity in 1918, during the Russian Revolution. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church canonized her as Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer.
Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia was the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and of Tsarina Alexandra. She was born at Peterhof Palace, near Saint Petersburg.
Maria Feodorovna became Empress of Russia as the second wife of Emperor Paul I. She founded the Office of the Institutions of Empress Maria.
The Alexander Palace is a former imperial residence near the town of Tsarskoye Selo in Russia, on a plateau about 30 miles (48 km) south of Saint Petersburg. The Palace was commissioned by Empress/Tsarina Catherine II in 1792.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, was Empress of Russia as the wife of Emperor Nicholas I.
Princess Olga Valerianovna Paley was the morganatic second wife of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia.
Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was Queen of Württemberg from 25 June 1864 until 6 October 1891 as the wife of Charles I of Württemberg.
Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia was a daughter of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and sister of Alexander II. In 1839 she married Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg. She was an art collector and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg.
Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, later Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna "Miechen" of Russia, also known as Maria Pavlovna the Elder, was the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Frederick Francis II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin by his first wife, Princess Augusta Reuss of Köstritz. A prominent hostess in Saint Petersburg following her marriage in 1874 to the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, she was known by many as the "grandest of the grand duchesses".
Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was the elder daughter and fourth child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia and the sister of Emperor Nicholas II.
Margaretta Alexandra Eagar, was an Irishwoman who served as a nanny to the four daughters of Emperor and Empress Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, the Grand Duchesses Olga; Tatiana; Maria; and Anastasia—known collectively as OTMA—from 1898 to 1904.
The Colonnade egg is a jewelled enameled Easter egg made by Henrik Wigström under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1910. The Fabergé egg was made for Nicholas II of Russia, who presented it to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna to celebrate the birth of their only son, the tsarevich Alexei. As a clock-egg, the Colonnade egg contained no surprise.
The Rock Crystal egg or Revolving Miniatures egg is an Imperial Fabergé egg, one in a series of fifty-two jeweled eggs made under the supervision of Peter Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family. It was created in 1896 for Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The egg currently resides in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The wedding of Nicholas II of Russia to Alexandra Feodorovna occurred on 26 November [O.S. 14 November] 1894 at the Grand Church of the Winter Palace.
Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia was the eldest child of the last Tsar of the Russian Empire, Emperor Nicholas II, and of Empress Alexandra of Russia.
Elizaveta Nikolaevna "Liza" Ersberg was a German-Russian parlormaid who served in the Russian Imperial Household. The daughter of a stoker employed by Emperor Alexander III, she was hired by Empress Maria Feodorovna as a parlormaid at the Alexander Palace in 1898. She used her post to obtain a position at court for her friend Anna Demidova, who became a lady-in-waiting to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
Russian court dress was a special regulated style of clothing that aristocrats and courtiers at the Russian imperial court in the 19th-20th centuries had to follow. Clothing regulations for courtiers and those invited to the court are typical for most European monarchies, from the 17th century to the present. In Russia, court etiquette and, accordingly, court dress ceased to exist in 1917 due to the abolition of the monarchy.
