Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)

Maria Feodorovna (Russian: Мария Фёдоровна, romanized: Mariya Fyodorovna; 26 November 1847 – 13 October 1928) was Empress of Russia from 1881 to 1894 as the wife of Emperor Alexander III. She was the fourth child and second daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Louise of Hesse-Kassel. She was also the mother of Nicholas II, the last Russian Emperor.

Maria was born as Princess Dagmar on November 26, 1847 in Copenhagen, Denmark to Christian IX and Louise of Hesse-Kassel. She was the older sister of Queen Alexandra of Denmark. In 1866, she married Alexander III of Russia. They had six children together named Nicholas, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael, and Olga.

In 1881, she became the empress consort after the assassination of her father in-law, Emperor Alexander II. She was the empress for thirteen years until her husband's death in 1894. After his death, she became empress dowager as her eldest son Nicholas II, became emperor

Maria was the empress dowager from 1894 until the fall of the Russian Empire during the Russian Revolution in 1917.  Nicholas and his family were murdered by Bolsheviks on July 17, 1918. Maria and her daughters and other members of the Romanov family managed to escape from the revolution.

She later went back to her home country Denmark and she never returned to Russia. Maria died ten years later in 1928, she was 80 years old.

References

Category:1847 births
Category:1928 deaths
Category:Empresses consort
Category:House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Category:People from Copenhagen
Category:Russian royalty
Category:Exiled royalty