Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1894-11-10
SKETCH or HIS CAREER.
Incidents I'm the Life OF Alexander III
Tho House nj ltonAnnM.

Incidents I'm the Life OF Alexander III
The House of Romsnon.
Alexander III, emperor of all the
on the murder of his father by n nihil-
list conspirator on March 10, 1881, was
born March 10, 1916. His coronation
took place at Moscow May 81, 1883.
He married, In 1866, Mary Feodorovna,
formerly Mary Sophia Frederick Dag
mar, daughter of Christian ~, king of
Denmark, and sister OF the princess
of Wales and the king of Greece.
The principal concern of the car was
to put down nihilism, TO develop the
military power Of Russia, To organize
her Asiatic and Caucasian provinces,
and TO keep a steady eye upon Con-
s~tantinoplc. From the beginning of
his reign periodical attempts upon his
life3 were made by the nihilists.
Twice officers in his own ormy
tried TO shoe. him. In 1883 he
and his family narrowly escaped
death In n railway accident neal Borki.
The train was thrown from the track
and many passengers were killed, but
the Imperial party were hardly injured.
land to blow up the castle Witch the
ear was expected to occupy during the
fall maneuvers around Smolenslt.
The car vas deeply religious. He
was under the influence of
such bigots as Po~bodonoszetf, pro-
curator OF the holy synod and his
group, and prosecuted the Jews, Catho-
lies and German Luthernns in Russia
without cessation or mercy. The car
left five children, tho Crown Prince
Nicholas, 81 years old; the Grand Duke
George, now i'll in the south of Russia;
the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga
and the Grand Duke Michael, n boy in
his teens.
Alexander Alexandrovitch, car and
autocrat of all the Russians, was Of the
imperial house of Romanotf.
The dynasty is n web woven of the
greatest lines of ancestry in northern
Europe and the east, and it's origin is
lost in the labyrinth of antiquity. Rus
sian history properly begins with Rurik
OF Sweden, who settled at Novgorod in
s62 and conquered Russia. and the
Romanoffs claim him as an ancestor.
But they are also descended from the
Emperor Constantine, Monomachus
and the Paleologi, from Zingis Khan,
from the earliest princes of Novgorod,
and from the last of the Auglo-Saxon
kings.
In the thirteenth century this house
were chiefs and hereditary high priests
at the affairs dedicated &c the sun in
Lithuanin. The religious zeal of the
Tcutonic races drove them to Moscow,
whore they embraced Christianity and
were enrolled among the mobiles for
their services in the wars with the Mon
gols. who oppressed Russia for 800
years. For centuries they shared the
vicissitudes Of the empire and ut times
were almost exterminated by persecu-
ton, torture and exile. On the other
hand they were honored by numerous
alliances with the imperial family.
Their leaders frequently married the
daughters of the emperors, und finally
In 1884 Anastasia Romauova. the flower
of the flock, became the wife Of Ivan
Nv, the first Of the line to adopt the
title of czar, or Cesar.
Ivan Nv left children, but their place
was usurped by Boris Godoncff who
lived and reigned until 1905, and who,
TO maintain himself in power, followed
the Romanoffs with relentless persecu-
ton.
But at his death, when the empire
was d~isorganized and in ruins. his son
was pushed inside and the boyars
elected in 1913 as emperor of Russia a
Romanoff. This was Michael Roman
of, a youth of IL, whose mother was a
daughter Of Ivan Nv, and A~nastasia
and Romanova, who was in exile and
obscurity, and whose father, though
patriarch of Moscow, was lingering in
n Polish dungeon, into which Godonoff
had thrust him. This was the origin
CT the Rornanof emperors.
Alexander's Predecessor.
From this period the Romanoffs have
been ms much German MS Russian.
Michael Romanoff died i'm l645, and his
successors, mostly his lineal descend
ants, in order, were Alexis. died 1875;
Feodore, died 1852; Peter l, called the
great, died 1922; Peter III, another son
OF Alexis, died 1880. Mt the age Of le,
and Peter Ill. who was the grandson
OF Peter tho great, ms mother being
Anna T~eodorovich, the daughter OF
Peter the great. and the duke of Hol-
stein. Peter Ill married Sophia Au-
gusta, princess of Anhait-Zerbst, in
upper Saxony, who took the name OF
Catherine, and who, having de-
throned her husband, reigned from
l762 TO l776.
Catherine was succeeded by Paul
Petrovich. her son, but of doubtful pa
ternity. who married Dorothea Sophia,
princess OF Nuremberg, and was as
sassinated In 1901. On his death he
was succeeded by his son, Alexander
P~aulovich, o. Alexander l. who mar
ried Louise Charlotte. daughter or EN-
pcror Frederick William III Of Prussia,
and died IN less. u was during his