page_title: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: An informal family photograph of Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of the last Tzar of Russia, with her little brother Michael and cousins, Victoria and Louise, daughters of King Edward VII. Cyfrwng/Medium: Black and White Print
context_page_description: 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.
  She married a cousin, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia, with whom she had seven children. She was the mother-in-law of Felix Yusupov and a cousin of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia who, together, killed Grigori Rasputin, holy healer to her nephew, the haemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia. During her brother's reign she recorded in her diary and letters increasing concern about his rule. After the fall of the monarchy in February 1917, she fled Russia, eventually settling in the United Kingdom. Her grandson Prince Andrew Andreevich has been a head of the Romanov Family since December 2016.
context_section_description: Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna was born on 6 April 1875 at Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg. She was the elder daughter among the six children of Alexander III of Russia and his wife, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (née Princess Dagmar of Denmark).
  After the assassination of her paternal grandfather Tsar Alexander II of Russia, when Xenia was six years old, her father Alexander III ascended to the Russian throne in 1881. It was a difficult political time, plagued with terrorist threats. For security reasons, Alexander III moved with his family from the Winter Palace to Gatchina Palace. 
  There, Xenia and her siblings enjoyed a relatively simple childhood, sleeping on cot beds, waking at 6am, and taking cold baths every morning. Their rooms were also simply furnished, though comfortable.
  Like her brothers, Xenia was educated by private tutors. A special emphasis was laid on the study of foreign languages.
  Apart from her native Russian, Xenia studied English, French, and German. Xenia learnt cookery, joinery, and making puppets and their clothes for their theatre. She also enjoyed riding and fishing on the Gatchina estate, drawing (for which she supposedly had a particular talent), gymnastics, dancing, and playing the piano. She was also a tomboy when she was younger, and somewhat shy.
  Her entire family enjoyed family holidays at the home of her Danish maternal grandparents, Fredensborg Castle. It was on such a visit that she met her cousin and lifelong friend, Princess Marie of Greece, daughter of King George I of Greece and his Russian-born wife, Queen Olga. The Danish composer, Valdemar Vater, paid Xenia a tribute by writing the "Polka Mazurka".
  In the Winter of 1888, she caught typhoid and had to have her hair cut as it began to fall out, though luckily made a full recovery. Only a few years later, she began suffering from some sort of recurring skin disease, possibly Eczema, causing painful red spots.
caption: Grand Duchess Xenia (right), with her brother Michael Alexandrovich and cousins, Victoria and Louise, daughters of Edward VII.
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