page_title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)
section_title: Declining health
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse) / Declining health
caption_attribution_description: English: Мария Александровна (императрица pоссийской империи)
context_page_description: Maria Alexandrovna, born Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine was Empress of Russia as the first wife and political adviser of Tsar Alexander II. She was one of the founders of the Russian Red Cross.
  The legal daughter of Grand Duke Ludwig II of Hesse and Princess Wilhelmine of Baden, Wilhelmine Marie was raised in austerity but was well educated by her mother, who died when her daughter was very young. She was only 14 years old when the Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich fell in love with her while he was traveling to Western Europe. She arrived in Russia in September 1840, converted to the Orthodox Church, changed the name Wilhelmine Marie for Maria Alexandrovna, and took the title of Grand Duchess. For fourteen years, she was Tsarevna, the wife of the heir of the Russian throne. Although she didn't enjoy court life because of her withdrawn nature, she identified with her adopted country.
  After the death of Nicholas I, Maria Alexandrovna became the Russian Empress consort and was known for her intellect. She organized and expanded the funds of the Russian Red Cross, established Russia's first all-female schools, and helped Alexander II to end the serfdom.
context_section_description: As Empress consort, Maria Alexandrovna had to attend many state functions, but from the 1860s her health declined. The doctors advised her to spend the winters in a warm climate and stop  
  intercourse with her husband in an effort to prolong her life. Preferring to remain in Russia, she agreed to the suggestion of recuperating in Crimea. Alexander II then bought for his wife the Livadia villa, a two-story wooden villa from the heirs of Polish Count Lev Potocki. At the end of August 1861, Maria, her husband, and their children Alexei, Sergei and Paul visited Crimea for the first time. She was charmed by the southern flora, the mild climate, the beautiful house, and the surrounding park. The modest villa was expanded with the additions of a large palace, a small palace, and a church. Construction took place between 1862 and 1866 under the direction of Ippolito Monighetti, a Russian architect who had redecorated her apartments in the Catherine Palace in the 1850s. 
  Feeling better, Maria Alexandrovna financed the Mariinsky Theatre in St Peterburg in 1859-1860, built according  to the plans of architect Albert Cavos as an opera and ballet house. The theatre opened on 2 October 1860, with a performance of Mikhail Glinka's opera  A Life for the Tsar. The new theatre was named Mariinsky after its imperial patroness. (The name was changed during the Soviet period, but the original name was restored in 1992, and at present there is a bust of the Empress in the main entrance foyer.) 
  The humid summers in Saint Petersburg began to take a toll on Maria's frail constitution, to the point she was absent from Russia's capital for long periods of time. In June 1864, she left Russia, accompanied by her husband and their three youngest children, to take the waters in the Bavarian spa of Bad Kissingen. King Ludwig II of Bavaria came to meet his distant aunt and became infatuated with her. In late July, Alexander II returned to Russia, but Maria traveled to Bad Schwalbach, where she celebrated her birthday with Ludwig II. In late August, the whole family was reunited in Darmstadt.
  As she was still sick, Maria Alexandrovna spent the winter in Nice, where she received the announcement of the Tsarevich's engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Nicholas was nevertheless in frail health and joined his mother in Nice in early 1865, but was seriously ill with meningitis of the spine by then. Attended by her brother Alexander and her sister-in-law, the Empress didn't leave her son's side during his illness. Nicholas was initially misdiagnosed with simple rheumatism and deteriorated rapidly. The whole family gathered around his deathbed on 24 April [O.S. 12 April] 1865. Princess Dagmar, who was with the Romanovs during her fiancé's final days, was quickly engaged to his brother, the future Emperor Alexander III, whom she would marry the following year. Both Alexander II and Maria were devastated by the death of their eldest son on whom their hopes for the future lay. The Tsarina spent the following year grieving and found some solace with her family in Hesse, since her brother Karl had recently lost his only daughter Anna. 
  In 1866, Alexander II and Maria Alexandrovna celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. With the passing of the years, they still respected each other but grew apart romantically, particularly after the  deterioration of her health and
  the death of their eldest children. Alexander had many affairs, but they didn't threaten their marriage. From the mid-1850s until 1862, he had a relationship with Alexandra Sergeevna Dolgoruki, one of Russia's most illustrious noblewomen and the Tsarina's ladies-in-waiting. This affair ended in 1862 when Alexandra married General Pyotr Pavlovich Albedinsky (1826-1883). 
  In 1865, Alexander II fell deeply in love with 18-year-old Catherine Dolgoruki, a distant cousin of his former mistress. Catherine resisted his advances for over a year, but they became lovers in July 1866. Empress Maria inevitably heard about the affair, but she initially didn't attach great importance to it.
  In order to have co
caption: Empress Maria Alexandrovna wearing a mourning dress.
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