1.
Alexander Palace
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The Alexander Palace is a former imperial residence at Tsarskoye Selo, on a plateau around 30 minutes by train from St Petersburg. The Alexander Palace is situated in the Alexander Park, not far from the larger Catherine Palace, today it is undergoing renovation as a museum housing relics of the former imperial dynasty. The Alexander Palace was constructed in the Imperial retreat of Tsarskoe Selo, the Neoclassical edifice was planned by Giacomo Quarenghi and built between 1792 and 1796. It was agreed that the architect had excelled himself in creating a masterpiece, in 1821, a quarter of a century later, the architects son wrote, An elegant building which looks over the beautiful new garden. In Tsarskoe Selo, was designed and built by my father at the request of Catherine II, as a residence for the young Grand Duke Alexander. In keeping with the august status of the person for whom the Palace was conceived and its dignified façade, harmonic proportions, and moderate ornamentation. are also manifested in its interiors. Without compromising comfort in striving for magnificence and elegance, Alexander used the palace as a summer residence through the remainder of his grandmothers and his father, Pauls, reign. When he became emperor, however, he chose to reside in the larger nearby Catherine Palace. Alexander I gave the palace to his brother, the future Nicholas I, from that time on, it was the summer residence of the heir to the throne. From 1830–1850, extensive redecoration was carried out according to designs by D. Cerfolio, A. Thon, D. Yefimov, A. Stakenschneider and others in keeping with rapidly changing tastes. The appearance of the formal and private rooms of the palace during Nicholas reign can be seen in exquisite watercolors by E. Hau, the famous Mountain Hall which had a large slide built in for the children of Nicholas I was built during this time. In 1842, the Imperial couple celebrated their wedding anniversary with a series of galas including a medieval jousting tournament. Two years later, the family mourned the death of Nicholass daughter Grand Duchess Alexandra, on October 19,1860, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna also died at the palace. Alexander III and his Danish born wife Maria Feodorovna had their apartments in the right-hand or western wing of the palace near the gardens, before their accession to the imperial throne, Maria gave birth to their eldest child, the future Nicholas II, at the Alexander Palace. In his diary, the then Tsarevich Alexander recorded the event of the birth of his first child, Around 12.30 my wife came to the bedroom. The pains became stronger and stronger, and Minny suffered very much, helped me hold my darling the whole time. Finally, at 2.30, the last minute came, god sent us a son whom we named Nicholas. I sprang to embrace my darling wife, and she instantly became cheerful and was terribly happy, I had been weeping like a child but suddenly my heart became light and cheerful
2.
Tsarskoye Selo
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Tsarskoye Selo was the town containing a former Russian residence of the imperial family and visiting nobility, located 24 kilometers south from the center of Saint Petersburg. It is now part of the town of Pushkin, Tsarskoye Selo forms one of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. During the Soviet times it was known as Detskoye Selo, in the 17th century, the estate belonged to a Swedish noble. Its original Finnish name is translated as a higher ground. Max Vasmer, on the hand, derives this toponym from the Finnish word for island, saari. By the 18th-century at the latest, it was called Tsarskoye Selo, in 1708, Peter the Great gave the estate to his wife, the future Empress Catherine I, as a present. She founded the Blagoveschensky church there in 1724, and changed the name of the settlement to Blagoveschenskoye and it was Catherine I who started to develop the place as a royal country residence. Her daughter, Empress Elizabeth and her architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli were largely responsible for the building of the Catherine Palace, later Empress Catherine II of Russia and her architect Charles Cameron extended the palace building that is now known as the Cameron Gallery. Currently, there are two palaces, the baroque Catherine Palace with the adjacent Catherine Park and the neoclassical Alexander Palace with the adjacent Alexander Park. The landscape Alexander Park has several Chinoiserie structures, notably the Chinese Village, by the end of the 18th century, Tsarskoye Selo became a popular place of summer residence among the nobility. The guards regiments were stationed to the south of Tsarskoye Selo, the five-domed neoclassical Ascension Cathedral, designed by Cameron, is the chief monument of that area. The Royal Forestry School, perhaps the first such school in Russia, was founded in Tsarskoye Selo in 1803, it was moved to Saint Petersburg in 1811, in 1808, Sophia and Tsarskoye Selo merged and became one town. In 1811, Alexander I opened the celebrated Lyceum next door to the Catherine Palace, among the first students of the Lyceum who graduated in 1817 were Aleksandr Pushkin and Alexander Gorchakov. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin also graduated from the Lyceum, the literary traditions of Tsarskoye Selo were continued in the 20th century by such notable poets as Anna Akhmatova and Innokenty Annensky. The town escaped the 19th century industrialization, although it was between Tsarskoye Selo and St. Petersburg that the first Russian railway was built in 1837 and it was also known for its powerful government radio station that was set up here in 1917. In the spring of 1917, Emperor Nicholas II was held under arrest in his favourite residence, the Alexander Palace. In 1918, Tsarskoye Selo was renamed by the Bolsheviks into Detskoye Selo and in 1937 it was renamed again to the town of Pushkin, thus commemorating the centenary of the poets death. On September 17,1941, the Germans occupied the town of Pushkin, destroying and plundering many historical monuments, buildings and other cultural artifacts, the Red Army liberated the town on January 24,1944
3.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
4.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
5.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
6.
Coburg
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Coburg is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, until the revolution of 1918, it was one of the capitals of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Through successful dynastic policies, the princely family married into several of the royal families of Europe, most notably in the person of Prince Albert. As a result of close links with the royal houses of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Coburg was frequently visited by the crowned heads of Europe. Coburg is also known as the location of Veste Coburg, one of Germanys largest castles, in 1530, Martin Luther lived there for six months during which he worked on translating the Bible into German. Today, Coburgs population is close to 41,500, since it was little damaged in World War II, Coburg retains many historic buildings, making it a popular tourist destination. Coburg lies about 90 kilometres south of Erfurt and about 100 kilometres north of Nuremberg on the river Itz and it is an urban district and is surrounded by the Landkreis Coburg. Coburg lies at the foot of the Thuringian Highland, on three sides it is surrounded by Thuringia. Until reunification in 1990 the border between Bavaria and Thuringia was also the inner German border, the origin of the name Coburg is unclear, the first element may be kuh, which would give a literal meaning of cow borough. Coburg initially referred to a property centred on the hill where Veste Coburg was later built and its oldest remains date to the 12th or 13th century. During the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 reformer Martin Luther spent six months at the castle while his lord, John, Elector of Saxony. Luther was forbidden to attend by the Elector, who feared that he would be imprisoned and burned as a heretic, while quartered at the castle Luther continued with his translation of the Bible into German. In 1547, the residence was moved from the Veste to a former monastery, rebuilt as a Renaissance palace. In 1596, Coburg was raised to the status of capital of one of the dynastys splintered Saxon-Thuringian territories, from 1699 to 1826, it was one of the two capitals of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and from 1826-1918 it was a capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Ernest Frederick, the fourth Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, moved his capital from Saalfeld to Coburg in 1764, Coburg then became capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and later of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In the early 19th century, the medieval fortifications were demolished and replaced by parks. The duke also started the collection of engravings that is today part of the Veste Coburg museum. Under his son, Ernest, the Schlossplatz with what is today the Landestheater Coburg was created and he also rebuilt the Ehrenburg in Gothic revival style
7.
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Alfred reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and he was second in the line of succession behind his elder brother, the Prince of Wales. He was known to his family as Affie, after a childhood mispronunciation of the name Alfred, Alfred was christened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley, at the Private Chapel in Windsor Castle on 6 September 1844. His godparents were his mothers first cousin, Prince George of Cambridge, his aunt, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alfred studied violin at Holyrood, Edinburgh, where his accompanist was Hungarian expatriate George Lichtenstein. Alfred remained second in line to the British throne from his birth until 8 January 1864, any legitimate children of his older brother took priority in the succession list. Alfred became third in line to the throne and as Edward and Alexandra continued to have children, in 1856 it was decided that Prince Alfred, in accordance with his own wishes, should enter the Royal Navy. A separate establishment was accordingly assigned to him, with Lieutenant J. C. Cowell, RE and he passed the examination in August 1858, and was appointed as midshipman in HMS Euryalus at the age of 14. In July 1860, while on this ship, he paid a visit to the Cape Colony. He took part in a hunt at Hartebeeste-Hoek, resulting in the slaughter of large numbers of game animals and she and her late husband had made plans for him to succeed to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. Prince Alfred, therefore, remained in the navy, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 February 1863 and he was promoted to captain on 23 February 1866 and was appointed to the command of the frigate HMS Galatea in January 1867. In the Queens Birthday Honours on 24 May 1866, the Prince was created Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Ulster and he took his seat in the House of Lords on 8 June. While still in command of the Galatea, the Duke of Edinburgh started from Plymouth on 24 January 1867 for his round the world. On 7 June 1867, he left Gibraltar, reached the Cape of Good Hope on 24 July and he landed at Glenelg, South Australia, on 31 October. Being the first member of the family to visit Australia. During his stay of five months he visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane. Adelaide school Prince Alfred College was named in his honour to mark such an occasion, at the function he was wounded in the back by a revolver fired by Henry James OFarrell
8.
Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was the only son and heir apparent of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died aged 24 under circumstances still not entirely clear, Prince Alfred of Edinburgh was born on 15 October 1874 at Buckingham Palace, London. His father was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second eldest son of Queen Victoria and his mother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. In 1893, his granduncle, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, brother of his paternal grandfather, thus, the duchy devolved upon Alfreds father, who was at that time the Duke of Edinburgh. Alfred thus became Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. ”The exact circumstances of Alfreds death are not known and his sister Maries memoirs simply say his health broke down, and other writers have said that he had consumption. The Times published an account stating he had died of a tumor, according to theory, Alfred shot himself with a revolver while the rest of the family was gathered for the anniversary celebration. He survived and was looked after at Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha for three days before being sent to the Martinnsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch near Merano in the South Tyrol, Alfred died there at 4,15 pm on 6 February 1899, aged 24 years. He was buried in the mausoleum of the Friedhof am Glockenberg, Coburg. Later in 1899 Alfreds uncle the Duke of Connaught and his son Prince Arthur of Connaught renounced their rights to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg. As a result, his first cousin Prince Charles Edward, Duke of Albany, british Honours United Kingdom, Knight of the Garter,1894 Foreign Honours Order of the Red Eagle,1889 Media related to Alfred, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha at Wikimedia Commons
9.
Marie of Romania
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Princess Marie of Edinburgh, more commonly known as Marie of Romania, was the last Queen consort of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. Born into the British royal family, she was titled Princess Marie of Edinburgh at birth and her parents were Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Maries early years were spent in Kent, Malta and Coburg, after refusing a proposal from her cousin, the future King George V, she was chosen as the future wife of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, the heir apparent of King Carol I, in 1892. Marie was Crown Princess between 1893 and 1914, and became popular with the Romanian people. After the outbreak of World War I, Marie urged Ferdinand to ally himself with the Triple Entente and declare war on Germany, during the early stages of fighting, Bucharest was occupied by the Central Powers and Marie, Ferdinand and their five children took refuge in Moldavia. There, she and her three daughters acted as nurses in hospitals, caring for soldiers who were wounded or afflicted by cholera. On 1 December 1918, the province of Transylvania, following Bessarabia and Bukovina, Marie, now Queen consort of Greater Romania, attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where she campaigned for international recognition of the enlarged Romania. In 1922, she and Ferdinand were crowned in a cathedral in the ancient city of Alba Iulia, in an elaborate ceremony which mirrored their status as queen. As queen, she was popular, both in Romania and abroad. In 1926, Marie and two of her children undertook a tour of the United States. They were received enthusiastically by the people and visited several cities before returning to Romania, there, Marie found that Ferdinand was gravely ill and he died a few months later. Now queen dowager, Marie refused to be part of the council which reigned over the country under the minority of her grandson. In 1930, Maries eldest son Carol, who had waived his rights to succession, deposed his son and usurped the throne and he removed Marie from the political scene and strived to crush her popularity. As a result, Marie moved away from Bucharest and spent the rest of her either in the countryside. In 1937, she became ill with cirrhosis and died the following year, following Romanias transition to a Socialist Republic, the monarchy was excoriated by communist officials. In the years preceding the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Maries popularity recovered, Marie is primarily remembered for her work as a nurse, but is also known for her extensive writing, including her critically acclaimed autobiography. She was born at her parents residence, Eastwell Manor in Kent, on 29 October 1875 and her birth was celebrated by firing the Park and Tower guns. She was named Marie Alexandra Victoria, after her mother and grandmothers, the Duke of Edinburgh wrote that his daughter promises to be as fine a child as her brother and gives every evidence of finely developed lungs and did so before she was fairly in the world
10.
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as well as of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. Born a British princess, Victoria spent her life in England. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, where Victorias father became the duke in 1893. Instead, bowing to pressure, Victoria married in 1894 a paternal first cousin, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, following the wishes of their shared grandmother. Victoria scandalized the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901, the couples only child, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, died of typhoid fever in 1903. Victoria married Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1905 and they wed without the formal approval of Britains King Edward VII, required by the Royal Marriages Act 1772, and in defiance of Tsar Nicholas II. In retaliation, the Tsar stripped Kirill of his offices and honours and they had two daughters and settled in Paris before being allowed to visit Russia in 1909. In 1910 they moved to Russia, where Nicholas recognized her as Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, after the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917, they escaped to Finland where she gave birth to her only son. In exile they lived for years among her relatives in Germany. In 1926, Kirill proclaimed himself emperor in exile and Victoria supported her husbands claims, Victoria died after suffering a stroke while visiting her daughter Maria in Amorbach. Victoria was born on 25 November 1876 in San Anton Palace in Attard, Malta, hence her second name, Melita. Her father, who was stationed on the island as an officer in the Royal Navy, was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and her mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse. As a grandchild of the British monarch, she was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Edinburgh, within her family, she was always known as Ducky. At the time of her birth, she was 10th in the line of succession to the British throne, the princess was christened on 1 January 1877 at San Antonio Palace by a Royal Navy chaplain. Her godparents included her paternal grandmother Queen Victoria, who was represented by a proxy, after the Duke’s service in Malta was over they returned to England where the family lived for the next few years. They divided their time between Eastwell Park, their home in Kent, and Clarence House, their residence in London facing Buckingham Palace. Eastwell, an estate of 2,500 acres near Ashford, with its forest. In January 1886, shortly after Princess Victoria turned nine, the family left England when her father was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean naval squadron, for the next three years, the family lived at the San Anton Palace in Malta, Victorias birthplace
11.
Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, VA, CI, was the fourth child and third daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom as well as of Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Princess Alexandra was born on 1 September 1878 at Rosenau Castle, Coburg. Her father was the Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria and her mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She was baptised on 2 October 1878 at Edinburgh Palace, Coburg and her godparents included her maternal uncle Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia. Nicknamed Sandra by her family, Alexandra spent her childhood first in England, in 1889 the family moved to Coburg, Germany since her father, Alfred, was the heir apparent to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. In 1893, her great-uncle, The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha died without issue. Since Albert was dead, and her uncle, The Prince of Wales had renounced his claim to the throne of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the vacant duchy fell to Alexandras father. Thus, Princess Alexandra was both a British princess and a Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and she was a bridesmaid at the 1885 wedding of Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter The Princess Beatrice to Prince Henry of Battenberg. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893, throughout her life, Alexandra was usually overshadowed by her two eldest sisters, Marie and Victoria. Alexandra, less beautiful and more subdued than her sisters, was plain, placid, during Alexandras formative years, her father, occupied with his career in the Navy and later as a ruler in Coburg, paid little attention to his family. It was Alexandras mother who was the presence in their childrens life. The duchess believed in marrying her daughters young, before they began to think for themselves, at the end of 1895, she arranged Alexandras engagement to Prince Ernst, of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Alexandras grandmother, Queen Victoria, complained that she was too young, Alexandras father objected to the status of his future son-in-law. The House of Hohenlohe-Lagenburg was mediatized - a formerly ruling family who had ceded their rights to others while retaining their equal birth. It was not considered a brilliant match, but they were also related, Ernst was a grandson of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Queen Victorias half-sister. The wedding took place on 20 April 1896 in Coburg, Germany, Princess Marie Melita of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, married Wilhelm Friedrich, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and had issue. Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Princess Irma of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Prince Alfred of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Alexandra lived for the rest of her life in Germany. At the death of her father in 1900, Alexandras husband was appointed regent of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg during the minority of the new Duke, Alexandras only brother, Alfred, had died in 1899
12.
Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a member of the British Royal Family, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She later married into the Spanish Royal Family, and was the wife of Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain and she was called Baby Bee by her family. Princess Beatrice was born on 20 April 1884 at Eastwell Park and her father was the Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria and The Prince Consort. Her mother was Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, the surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse. She was baptised at Eastwell House on 17 May 1884 by the Revd William Lloyd, Beatrice spent much of her early years in Malta, where her father was serving in the Royal Navy. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893, the Duke and Duchess, with their five surviving children, travelled shortly afterwards to Coburg to take up residence. In 1902, Princess Beatrice had a romance with Russian Grand Duke Michael, the brother of Tsar Nicholas II. She began receiving letters from him in September 1902 and, although he was a Russian Grand Duke and she now a German Princess, they corresponded in English, however she was prevented from marrying the Grand Duke as the Russian Orthodox Church forbade the marriage of first cousins. Although such marriages had been allowed previously in the House of Romanov, in November 1903, Michael wrote to Beatrice telling her that he could not marry her. The situation was aggravated by a letter Beatrice then received from her elder sister Victoria Melita, the humiliated Beatrice was sent to Egypt to recover from heartbreak, but pined and wrote reproachful letters to Michael until 1905. Beatrice was then rumoured to be intending to marry Alfonso XIII of Spain and it was at their wedding that Beatrice met a cousin of King Alfonso, Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain, 5th Duke of Galliera. Nonetheless, Beatrice and Alfonso married in a Roman Catholic and Lutheran ceremony at Coburg on 15 July 1909, the couple settled in Coburg until, in 1912, Alfonso and Beatrice were allowed to return to Spain and his rank of Infante was restored. In August 1913, Beatrice was received into the Roman Catholic Church, during King Alfonso XIIIs unhappy marriage, he had numerous affairs and dalliances, some of which produced illegitimate children. He allegedly also made advances toward Princess Beatrice, which she rebuffed, the King expelled her and her husband from Spain, under the pretext of sending Infante Alfonso on a mission to Switzerland. The Spanish Royal Family eventually relented, and Beatrice and her family were allowed to return to Spain where they established their home at an estate in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The 1930s were a time for the family, as the collapse of the Spanish monarchy. After the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, King Alfonso, in the years that followed, the political situation in Spain worsened as various groups wrestled for power. By the late-1930s, the conflicts had erupted into civil war
13.
Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
14.
House of Romanov
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The Romanovs achieved prominence as boyars of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, later the Tsardom of Russia. In 1613, following years of interregnum, the zemsky sobor offered the Russian crown to Mikhail Romanov and he acceded to the throne as Michael I, becoming the first Tsar of Russia from the House of Romanov. His grandson Peter I established the Russian Empire and transformed the country into a continental power through a series of wars, the direct male line of the Romanovs came to an end when Elizabeth of Russia died in 1762. After an era of crisis, the House of Holstein-Gottorp, a cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg which reigned in Denmark, ascended the throne in 1762 with Peter III. All rulers from the middle of the 18th century to the revolution of 1917 were descended from that branch, though officially known as the House of Romanov, these descendants of the Romanov and Oldenburg dynasties are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. In early 1917 the Romanov dynasty had 65 members,18 of whom were killed by the Bolsheviks, the remaining 47 members went into exile abroad. In 1924, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the senior, surviving male-line descendant of Alexander II of Russia by primogeniture, since 1991, the succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, largely due to disagreements over the validity of dynasts marriages. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia claims to hold the title of empress in pretense with her child, George Mikhailovich. There is also a rival non-Romanov claim put forth by Prince Karl Emich of the House of Leiningen supported by the Monarchist Party, according to the Almanach de Gotha, the name of Russias ruling dynasty from the time of Peter III was Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov. However, the name Romanov and House of Romanov were often used in references to the Russian imperial family. The coat of arms of the Romanov boyars was included in legislation on the imperial dynasty, after the February Revolution all members of the imperial family were given the surname Romanov by special decree of the Provisional Government of Russia. Their earliest common ancestor is one Andrei Kobyla, attested around 1347 as a boyar in the service of Semyon I of Moscow, later generations assigned to Kobyla an illustrious pedigree. An 18th-century genealogy claimed that he was the son of the Prussian prince Glanda Kambila, indeed, one of the leaders of the Old Prussian rebellion of 1260–1274 against the Teutonic order was named Glande. His actual origin may have been less spectacular, not only is Kobyla Russian for mare, some of his relatives also had as nicknames the terms for horses and other domestic animals, thus suggesting descent from one of the royal equerries. One of Kobylas sons, Feodor, a member of the boyar Duma of Dmitri Donskoi, was nicknamed Koshka and his descendants took the surname Koshkin, then changed it to Zakharin, which family later split into two branches, Zakharin-Yakovlev and Zakharin-Yuriev. During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the family became known as Yakovlev. The family fortunes soared when Romans daughter, Anastasia Zakharyina, married Ivan IV, since her husband had assumed the title of tsar, which literally means Caesar, on 16 January 1547, she was crowned the very first tsaritsa of Russia. Her mysterious death in 1560 changed Ivans character for the worse, suspecting the boyars of having poisoned his beloved, Tsar Ivan started a reign of terror against them
15.
Alexander II of Russia
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Alexander II was the Emperor of Russia from 2 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881. He was also the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Finland, Alexanders most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russias serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. In foreign policy, Alexander sold Alaska to the United States in 1867, despite his otherwise pacifist foreign policy, he fought a brief war with Turkey in 1877–78, pursued further expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus, and conquered Turkestan. Although disappointed by the results of the Congress of Berlin in 1878, among his greatest domestic challenges was an uprising in Poland in 1863, to which he responded by stripping that land of its separate constitution and incorporating it directly into Russia. Alexander was proposing additional parliamentary reforms to counter the rise of nascent revolutionary, born in Moscow, Alexander Nikolaevich was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and of Charlotte of Prussia. Personal and official censorship was rife, criticism of the authorities was regarded as a serious offence, aleksandrs alleged lack of interest in military affairs resulted from his reaction to the effects of the unsavoury Crimean War of 1853-1856 on his own family and on the whole country. Unusually for the time, the young Alexander was taken on a tour of Russia. He also visited many prominent Western European countries in 1838 and 1839, as Tsesarevich, Alexander became the first Romanov heir to visit Siberia. Alexander II succeeded to the throne upon the death of his father in 1855, the first year of his reign was devoted to the prosecution of the Crimean War and, after the fall of Sevastopol, to negotiations for peace led by his trusted counsellor Prince Alexander Gorchakov. The country had exhausted and humiliated by the war. Bribe-taking, theft and corruption were everywhere, in 1867 he sold Alaska to the United States for $7.2 million after recognising the great difficulty of defending it against the United Kingdom or the former British colony of Canada. After Alexander became emperor in 1855, he maintained a generally liberal course, despite this, he was a target for numerous assassination attempts. On 13 March 1881, members of the Narodnaya Volya party killed him with a bomb and this step had been followed by one even more significant. The hint was taken, in all provinces where serfdom existed, the emancipation was not merely a humanitarian question capable of being solved instantaneously by imperial ukase. It contained very complicated problems, deeply affecting the economic, social and political future of the nation, the emperor gave his support to the latter project, and the Russian peasantry became one of the last groups of peasants in Europe to shake off serfdom. The architects of the manifesto were Alexanders brother Konstantin, Yakov Rostovtsev. On 3 March 1861, six years after his accession, the law was signed and published. The changes included universal military conscription, introduced for all classes on 1 January 1874
16.
Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse)
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Marie of Hesse and by Rhine was, under the name Maria Alexandrovna, Empress of Russia as the first wife of Emperor Alexander II, having been born a German princess. The Mariinsky Theatre and the city of Mariehamn in Åland are named after her, when in 1838, the Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolayevich toured Europe to find a wife, he fell in love with the 14-year-old Marie. She was escorted to Russia by her brother Alexander and was married to the Tsarevich on 16 April 1841, Alexander Nikolaevichs mother, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, objected but her son insisted. Upon Maries conversion to the Eastern Orthodox Church prior to the wedding, adjustment to life at the Russian court proved a difficult challenge for Maria Alexandrovna, prompting her, in later years, to take extended journeys abroad. The damp climate of St. Petersburg did not prove healthy for her, nevertheless, she became the mother of eight children. These pregnancies, together with ill health, often kept her away from activities at the Imperial court, in 1855 Alexander became emperor, which required Maria Alexandrovna to attend more state functions, her health notwithstanding. There she met Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of her nephew and she resisted Alices suggestion that her brother Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Maries only daughter, Maria marry, but the couple would wed in 1874. After Alice died in 1878, Marie invited the children to visit during the holidays she spent with Alexanders family at Heiligenberg. It was also during Maria Alexandrovnas visits to Heiligenberg that her second youngest son, Grand Duke Sergei, met his wife, Alices second daughter, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse. A legend alleges that on a visit to Darmstadt, upon meeting Alix, Marie turned to her maid of honour with the words and that is your empress to be. Maria Alexandrovna knew Alexander was unfaithful and had many lovers. narod. ru Манифестъ, — О кончинѣ Ея Императорскаго Величества Государыни Императрицы Маріи Александровны
17.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
18.
Alexander III of Russia
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Alexander III was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death on 1 November 1894. He was highly conservative and reversed some of the reforms of his father, Alexander II. During Alexanders reign Russia fought no wars, for which he was styled The Peacemaker. Although an enthusiastic amateur musician and patron of the ballet, Alexander was seen as lacking refinement, indeed, he rather relished the idea of being of the same rough texture as some of his subjects. His education was not such as to soften these peculiarities, more than six feet tall, he was also noted for his immense physical strength. A sebaceous cyst on the side of his nose caused him to be mocked by some of his contemporaries. I was struck by the size of the man, and although cumbersome and heavy, there was indeed something of the muzhik about him. The look of his eyes made quite an impression on me. As he passed where I was standing, he raised his head for a second and it was a look as cold as steel, in which there was something threatening, even frightening, and it struck me like a blow. The look of a man who stood above all others, but who carried a burden and who every minute had to fear for his life. In later years I came into contact with the Emperor on several occasions, in more ordinary cases Tsar Alexander III could be at once kind, simple, and even almost homely. Great solicitude was devoted to the education of Nicholas as tsesarevich and this included acquaintance with French, English and German, and military drill. Pobedonostsev instilled into the mans mind the belief that zeal for Russian Orthodox thought was an essential factor of Russian patriotism to be cultivated by every right-minded emperor. On his deathbed the previous tsesarevich was said to have expressed the wish that his fiancée, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, the union proved a happy one to the end, unlike his fathers, there was no adultery in his marriage. The couple spent their night at the Tsesarevichs private dacha known as My Property. To the scandal of many at court, including the Tsesarevich himself, on 1 March 1881 Alexanders father, Alexander II, was assassinated by members of the terrorist organization Narodnaya Volya. As a result, he ascended to the Russian imperial throne in Nennal on 13 March 1881 and he and Maria Feodorovna were officially crowned and anointed on 27 May 1883. On the day of his assassination Alexander II had signed an ukaz setting up commissions to advise the monarch
19.
Nicholas II of Russia
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Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his forced abdication on 15 March 1917. His reign saw the fall of the Russian Empire from being one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic, Soviet historiography portrayed Nicholas as a weak and incompetent leader, whose decisions led to military defeats and the deaths of millions of his subjects. The Anglo-Russian Entente, designed to counter German attempts to influence in the Middle East. Nicholas approved the Russian mobilisation on 30 July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on 1 August 1914 and it is estimated that around 3,300,000 Russians were killed in World War I. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated on behalf of himself and his son, Nicholas, the recovered remains of the Imperial Family were finally re-interred in St. Petersburg, eighty years to the day on 17 July 1998. In 1981, Nicholas, his wife and their children were canonized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, located in New York City. On 15 August 2000 Nicholas and his family were canonized as passion bearers, Nicholas was born in the Alexander Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. He had five siblings, Alexander, George, Xenia, Michael. Nicholas often referred to his father nostalgically in letters after Alexanders death in 1894 and he was also very close to his mother, as revealed in their published letters to each other. His paternal grandparents were Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and his maternal grandparents were King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark. Nicholas was of primarily German and Danish descent, his last ethnically Russian ancestor being Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna, Nicholas was related to several monarchs in Europe. His mothers siblings included Kings Frederik VIII of Denmark and George I of Greece, Nicholas, his wife Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Nicholas was also a first cousin of both King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway, as well as King Constantine I of Greece, Tsar Nicholas II was the first cousin-once-removed of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. To distinguish between them the Grand Duke was often known within the Imperial family as Nikolasha and Nicholas the Tall, while the Tsar was Nicholas the Short. In his childhood, Nicholas, his parents and siblings made annual visits to the Danish royal palaces of Fredensborg and Bernstorff to visit his grandparents, the king and queen. The visits also served as family reunions, as his mothers siblings would come from the United Kingdom, Germany. It was there in 1883, that he had a flirtation with one of his English first cousins, in 1873, Nicholas also accompanied his parents and younger brother, two-year-old George, on a two-month, semi-official visit to England. In London, Nicholas and his family stayed at Marlborough House, as guests of his Uncle Bertie and Aunt Alix, the Prince and Princess of Wales, where he was spoiled by his uncle
20.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
21.
Albert, Prince Consort
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. Albert died at the young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victorias death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Alberts future wife, Victoria, was earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, in 1825, Alberts great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Alberts father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg, Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and she presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economics, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding and his tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel. By 1836, the idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, had arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, at this time, Victoria was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, the son of King George III, had died when she was a baby. Her mother the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Alberts father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victorias mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange. Victoria was well aware of the matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. Alexander, on the hand, she described as very plain. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me and he possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy
22.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
23.
Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
24.
Devonport, Plymouth
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Devonport, formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889, Devonport was originally one of the Three Towns, these merged in 1914 to form what would become in 1928 the City of Plymouth. It is represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the Plymouth Sutton and its elected Member of Parliament is Oliver Colvile, who is a member of the Conservative Party. Plymouth Dock, as Devonport was originally called, began around 1700 as a settlement to house workers employed on the new naval base that was being built around Waters dock. By 1733 its population had grown to around 3,000, by 1811 the population of Plymouth Dock was just over 30,000 and the residents resented the fact that its name made it sound like an adjunct of Plymouth. In 1823 a petition to King George IV requested the town should be renamed, the king agreed, and to celebrate, the town built a column next to the recently completed town hall, both were designed by John Foulston. Devonport was first incorporated as a borough in 1837 under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835. Devonport became a county borough under the Local Government Act 1888, in the mid-eighteenth century a defensive earthwork was constructed around the town and dockyard. Within these dockyard lines, six square barracks were built between 1758-1763 to accommodate the garrison of troops required to man the defences, a series of redoubts were also constructed, forward of the lines, in the 1770s, including that at Mount Pleasant. In the early century, the dockyard lines were strengthened with stone ramparts and armed with guns. These defences became largely redundant with the building of a series of Palmerston Forts around Plymouth in the half of the nineteenth century. Much of the land forming the glacis beyond the lines became Devonport Park in the late 1850s. The high ground south of the town is called Mount Wise, enclosed within the town ramparts, it was given its own redoubt in the 1770s, with eight guns and two mortars protecting the coastal approach to the dockyard. From the late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century both the military Governor and naval Commander-in-Chief of Plymouth were accommodated in houses on Mount Wise. During the millennium decade, Devonport received government New Deal for Communities funding of £48.7 million, since 2009, the investments have begun to transform Devonport – physically, socially, demographically. The Admiraltys release of land plots in Devonport has assisted the Regeneration project. One ex-MoD area, where new homes will be available from 2011, is the Admiralty House site at Mount Wise. Although there are pockets of regeneration work remaining to be completed, in 2011, the Devonport Heritage Trail was introduced, complete with over 70 waymarkers outlining the route
25.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
26.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
27.
Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Ernest II was the sovereign duke of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, reigning from 1844 to his death. Ernest was born in Coburg as the eldest child of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, fourteen months later, his younger brother Prince Albert was born, who became consort of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Ernests father became Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1826 through an exchange of territories, in 1842, Ernest married Princess Alexandrine of Baden in what was to be a childless marriage. Soon after, he succeeded as duke upon the death of his father on 29 January 1844, after King Otto of Greece was deposed in 1862, the British government put Ernests name forward as a possible successor. Negotiations fell through however for reasons, not in the least of which was that he would not give up his beloved duchies in favor of the Greek throne. A supporter of a unified Germany, Ernest watched the political movements with great interest. His support of the conservatives came at a price however, according to historian Charlotte Zeepvat, Ernest became increasingly lost in a whirl of private amusements which earned only contempt from outside. Ernests position was often linked to his brother Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, the two boys were raised as though twins, and became closer upon the separation and divorce of their parents, as well as the eventual death of their mother. Ernest, Hereditary Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, was born at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg on 21 June 1818 and he was the elder son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and his first wife Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He was soon joined by a brother, Prince Albert, who would become the husband of Queen Victoria. Though Duke Ernest fathered numerous children in various affairs, the two boys would have no other legitimate siblings. In 1826, their father succeeded as Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha through an exchange of territories after the death of the uncle, Frederick IV. There are various accounts of Ernests childhood, when he was fourteen months old, a servant commented that Ernest runs around like a weasel. He is teething and as cross as a badger from impatience. He is not pretty now, except his beautiful black eyes, in May 1820, his mother described Ernest as very big for his age, as well as intelligent. His big black eyes are full of spirit and vivacity, Ernest and his brother often lived with their grandmother the Dowager Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld until her death in 1831. He and Albert were brought up and educated together as if they were twins, though Albert was fourteen months younger, he surpassed Ernest intellectually. According to their tutor, they went hand-in-hand in all things, engaging in the same pursuits, sharing the same joys and the same sorrows, they were bound to each other by no common feelings of mutual love
28.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
29.
Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia
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Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia was the sixth son and youngest child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by his first wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander III and uncle of Nicholas II and he entered the Russian Army, was a general in the Cavalry and adjutant general to his brother Tsar Alexander III, and a Knight of the Order of St Andrew. In 1889, he married Princess Alexandra of Greece, his paternal first cousin once removed, the couple had a daughter and a son, but Alexandra died during the birth of their second child. In his widowhood, Grand Duke Paul began a relationship with Olga Karnovitsch, after obtaining a divorce for Olga and in defiance of a strong family opposition, Grand Duke Paul married her in October 1902. As he contracted a marriage with a divorcée in defiance of the Tsars prohibition, Grand Duke Paul was banished from living in Russia. Between 1902 and 1914, he lived in exile in Paris with his wife who gave him three children. In the spring of 1914, he settled back in Russia with his second family, with the outbreak of World War I, Grand Duke Paul was appointed in command of the first corps of the Imperial Guard. Afflicted with ill health, he served only intermittently, during the last days of the Tsarist period, he was one of the few members of the Romanov family who remained close to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna. It fell upon Grand Duke Paul to informed Alexandra of Nicholas IIs abdication, after the fall of the Russian monarchy, Grand Duke Paul initially remained living at his Palace in Tsarskoe Selo during the period of the provisional government. With the Bolsheviks ascending to power, his palace was expropriated and eventually he was arrested and sent to prison. In declining health, he was shot by the Bolsheviks with other Romanov relatives in the courtyard of the Peter and Paul Fortress in January 1919, Grand Duke Paul was born on 3 October 1860 at the Catherine Palace, in Tsarskoye Selo. He was the eight and youngest child of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, née Duchess Maximilienne Wilhelmine of Hesse, as the youngest child in a large family, he was much loved by his parents and siblings. His early years were spent with his two siblings closest in age, his sister Marie, and his brother Grand Duke Sergei from whom he was inseparable. By the time of Paul Alexandrovich birth, his mother was afflicted from tuberculosis, the family was struck by tragedy with the death of Pauls eldest brother, Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich in 1865, when Paul was four years old. The following year his father, Alexander II, started an affair with Princess Catherine Dolgurokova, Grand Duke Paul early years were spent at Tsarskoye Selo and at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg with vacations at Livadia, the family’s Crimean retreat. Paul was a delicate child, he never had a robust constitution. Grand Duke Paul was educated at home by private tutors, from the 1870s, Paul and his brother Sergei were kept in Russia by their studies. They were destined to follow a military career, from 1864 to 1885, their tutor was Admiral Dmitri Arsenyev who encouraged his pupils to have a broad artistic education as well
30.
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
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Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was an Ernestine duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-day states of Bavaria and Thuringia in Germany. It lasted from 1826 to 1918, in the early part of the 20th century, before the First World War, it was the family of the sovereigns of the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1910, the Portuguese king was deposed, and the same thing occurred in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1918, as of 2016, branches of the family still reign in Belgium, the United Kingdom, and the other Commonwealth realms. The former Tsar of Bulgaria, Simeon II, kept his surname while serving as the Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005, after the extinction of the Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg line, the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen exchanged his Duchy for that of Saxe-Altenburg. By then, the Principality of Lichtenberg, on the Nahe River, had already been a part of the Duchy of Coburg for ten years. Ernest III, the sovereign of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, had received it in 1816 from the Congress of Vienna for providing assistance to the Allies in their war against France. But, because of the distance from Coburg and of the unrest caused by the Hambach Festival. The newly created Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was initially a double duchy, ruled by Ernest III as Duke Ernest I in a personal union, the opportunity to unify the two duchies in 1826 was missed. After the Staatsgrundgesetz of 1852, the duchies were bound in a political and real union and they were then a quasi-federal unitary state. It also joined the German Zollverein in 1834, the North German Confederation in 1866 and his elder son and successor, Ernest II, ruled until his own death in 1893. Because he had died childless, the throne of the two duchies would have passed to his late brother Prince Alberts male descendants. But Prince Albert was the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and his eldest son, Edward, besides, he was prohibited by the Constitutions of both duchies from inheriting the throne if there were other eligible male heirs. But he had renounced his claim in favour of his next brother, Prince Alfred. So Alfred became the next Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, reigning as Duke Carl Eduard, Charles Edward, because of his age, began under the Regency of Prince Ernst von Hohenlohe-Langenburg until he came of age in 1905. The new Duke also continued to use his British title, the Duke of Albany, but, because he chose to side with the Germans against the British in the First World War, he was stripped of his British titles in 1919. After the November Revolution ended the monarchy in 1918, the two became two different and independent states, the Free State of Coburg and the Republic of Gotha. But their leaders believed that their new countries were not economically feasible so they began to search for possible mergers, eventually, a referendum was held on 30 November 1919 and the decision was made. On 1 May 1920 the Free State of Gotha merged with the new State of Thuringia, in the German Empire, the Duchy had only one vote in the Bundestag and two votes in the Reichstag
31.
Nicholas I of Russia
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Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
32.
Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Alexandra Alexandrovna of Russia was the eldest child and first daughter of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She died from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half and she was nicknamed Lina or Sashenka within her family. Her father enjoyed having her keep him company while he worked in his study and her death from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half devastated her parents. Her mother was brought to tears by the mention of her eldest child decades after her death. Her father placed a flower from her funeral mass in his diary. They were thrilled when they had a daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. The ghost of Alexandra supposedly appeared along with that of her grandfather, Nicholas I of Russia, the Tsar and others at court were interested in the spiritualism that was fashionable at the time. At one of the meetings, the table rose a few centimeters, spun, the Tsar and others present claimed he felt the touch of ghostly fingers. The spirits responded to questions asked by Alexander II, answering by rapping the letters of the alphabet, a lady-in-waiting later complained that the answers were meaningless and wondered why they were more interested in playing games than providing real answers to the Tsars questions. Alexandras mother refused to come to the second séance, having decided that the ghosts were spirits of lies manipulated by the devil, a blue silk frock worn by Alexandra was still on display in the Winter Palace fifty years after her death, according to Margaretta Eagar. A pretty golden-haired child she was, too, judging from her portrait, wrote Eagar, Eagar also wrote that the name Alexandra was considered unlucky in the Romanov family by the late 19th century because so many Romanov Alexandras had died as children or in their teens. Other ill-fated Alexandras were Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna, Eagar wrote that other branches of the family had named daughters Alexandra, but none lived past age twenty-one. Margaret Eagar, Six Years at the Russian Court,1906, Alexander II, The Last Great Tsar. Free Press, a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc, ISBN 978-0-7432-7332-9 Van Der Kiste, John. ISBN 0-7509-3049-7 thePeerage. com, Alexandra Alexandrovna Romanov, Grand Duchess of Russia
33.
Winter Palace
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The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Today, the restored palace forms part of a complex of housing the Hermitage Museum. The storming of the palace in 1917 as depicted in Soviet paintings, the palace was constructed on a monumental scale that was intended to reflect the might and power of Imperial Russia. From the palace, the Tsar ruled over 22,400,000 square kilometers and it was designed by many architects, most notably Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in what came to be known as the Elizabethan Baroque style. The green-and-white palace has the shape of a rectangle. The Winter Palace has been calculated to contain 1,786 doors,1,945 windows,1,500 rooms and 117 staircases. Following the February Revolution of 1917, the palace was for a time the seat of the Russian Provisional Government. Later that same year, the palace was stormed by a detachment of Red Army soldiers, on a less glorious note, the month-long looting of the palaces wine cellars during this troubled period led to what has been described as the greatest hangover in history. This policy was manifested in bricks and mortar by the creation of a new city, Saint Petersburg, in 1703. The Tsar intended that his new city would be designed in a Flemish renaissance style, later known as Petrine Baroque, and this was the style he selected for his new palace in the city. The first Royal residence on the site had been a log cabin then known as the Domik Petra I, built in 1704. In 1711 it was transported to the Petrovskaya Embankment, where it still stands, with the site cleared, the Tsar then embarked on the building of a larger house between 1711 and 1712. This house, today referred to as the first Winter Palace, was designed by Domenico Trezzini, the 18th century was a period of great development in European royal architecture, as the need for a fortified residence gradually lessened. This process, which had begun in the late 16th century, accelerated, one of the earliest and most notable examples was Louis XIVs Versailles. Largely completed by 1710, Versailles—with its size and splendour—heightened rivalry amongst the sovereigns of Europe, Peter the Great of Russia, keen to promote all western concepts, wished to have a modern palace like his fellow sovereigns. However, unlike some of his successors, Peter I never aspired to rival Versailles, the first Winter Palace was a modest building of two main floors under a slate roof. It seems that Peter soon tired of the first palace, for in 1721 and it was here that Peter the Great died in 1725. The Winter Palace was not the palace in the unfinished city, or even the most splendid, as Peter had ordered his nobles to construct residences
34.
Gatchina
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Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located 45 kilometers south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov. It is a part of the World Heritage Site Saint Petersburg, khotchino was first documented in 1499 as a village in possession of Novgorod the Great. In the 17th century, in a series of wars, it passed to Livonia, then to Sweden, at that time, Gatchina was a southern vicinity of the new Russian capital, St. Petersburg. In 1708, Gatchina was given by Peter the Great to his sister Natalya Alexeyevna, in 1765, it became the property of Count Orlov. Between 1766 and 1788, Count Orlov built a castle with 600 rooms and laid out an extensive English landscape park over 7 square kilometers, with an adjacent zoo. A triumphal arch was erected to a design by the architect of Gatchina, Antonio Rinaldi, Gatchina Palace was expanded several times by several imperial owners. Rococo interiors were designed by Rinaldi and Vincenzo Brenna and executed by Italian stuccoworkers, interiors were highlighted with parquetry floors, painted ceilings, and distinctly Italian furniture. Catherine the Great took such a liking to the Gatchina Palace and park that at Orlovs death in 1783 she bought Gatchina and granted it to her son. Paul I remained the owner of Gatchina for eighteen years and he invested many resources as well as using his experience from his travels around Europe to make Gatchina an exemplary town and residence. During the 1790s Paul expanded and rebuilt much of the palace, Paul graced the park with numerous additions, bridges, gates, and pavilions, such as The Isle of Love, The Private garden, The Holland garden, and The Labyrinth, among many other additions. A remarkable monument of Pauls reign is the Priory Palace on the shore of the Black Lake, constructed for the Russian Grand Priory of the Order of St John, it was presented to the Order by a decree of Paul I dated August 23,1799. After Pauls death his widow, Maria Fyodorovna owned the grand palace, then Emperor Nicholas I took over ownership from 1828 to 1855. He made the most significant expansion of the palaces and parks, the Arsenal Halls served as the summer residence of Tsar Nicholas I and his court. In 1851, Tsar Nicholas I opened the monument to his father, Paul I, in 1853 the railroad between St. Petersburg and Gatchina opened. At that time, Gatchinas territory was expanded by incorporation of several villages, Tsar Alexander II used Gatchina Palace as his second residence. Alexander II made updates and renovations in the Main Gatchina Palace, Tsar Alexander III, after experiencing the shock and stress of his fathers assassination, made Gatchina his prime residence. The palace became known as The Citadel of Autocracy after the Tsars reactionary policies and he lived most of his time in Gatchina Palace. Nicholas II, the last Russian Tsar, spent his youth in the Gatchina Palace and his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna, widow of Alexander III, was the patron of the city of Gatchina and Gatchina Palace and parks
35.
Peterhof Palace
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The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens located in Petergof, Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the Russian Versailles, the palace-ensemble along with the city center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The dominant natural feature of Peterhof is a sixteen-metre-high bluff lying less than a hundred metres from the shore. The so-called Lower Gardens, at 1.02 km² comprising the part of Peterhofs land area, are confined between this bluff and the shore, stretching east and west for roughly 200 metres. The majority of Peterhofs fountains are contained here, as are several small palaces, East of the Lower Gardens lies the Alexandria Park with 19th-century Gothic Revival structures such as the Kapella. Atop the bluff, near the middle of the Lower Gardens, behind of it are the comparatively small Upper Gardens. Upon the bluffs face below the Palace is the Grand Cascade and this and the Grand Palace are the centrepiece of the entire complex. At its foot begins the Sea Channel, one of the most extensive waterworks of the Baroque period, the Grand Cascade is modelled on one constructed for Louis XIV at his Château de Marly, which is likewise memorialised in one of the parks outbuildings. At the centre of the cascade is a grotto with two stories, faced inside and out with hewn brown stone. It currently contains a modest museum of the fountains history, one of the exhibits is a table carrying a bowl of fruit, a replica of a similar table built under Peters direction. The table is rigged with jets of water that soak visitors when they reach for the fruit, the grotto is connected to the palace above and behind by a hidden corridor. The fountains of the Grand Cascade are located below the grotto and their waters flow into a semicircular pool, the terminus of the fountain-lined Sea Channel. In the 1730s, the large Samson Fountain was placed in this pool and it depicts the moment when Samson tears open the jaws of a lion, representing Russias victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War, and is doubly symbolic. The lion is an element of the Swedish coat of arms, from the lions mouth shoots a 20-metre-high vertical jet of water, the highest in all of Peterhof. This masterpiece by Mikhail Kozlovsky was looted by the invading Germans during the Second World War, a replica of the statue was installed in 1947. Perhaps the greatest technological achievement of Peterhof is that all of the fountains operate without the use of pumps, water is supplied from natural springs and collects in reservoirs in the Upper Gardens. The elevation difference creates the pressure that drives most of the fountains of the Lower Gardens, the Samson Fountain is supplied by a special aqueduct, over four km in length, drawing water and pressure from a high-elevation source. The expanse of the Lower Gardens is designed in the style of french formal gardens of the 17th century
36.
Gulf of Finland
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The Gulf of Finland is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland and Estonia all the way to Saint Petersburg in Russia, where the river Neva drains into it, other major cities around the gulf include Helsinki and Tallinn. The eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland belong to Russia, as the seaway to Saint Petersburg, the Gulf of Finland has been and continues to be of considerable strategic importance to Russia. Some of the problems affecting the Baltic Sea are at their most pronounced in the shallow gulf. The area of the gulf is 30,000 km2, the length is 400 km and the width varies from 70 km near the entrance to 130 km on the meridian of Moshchny Island, in the Neva Bay, it decreases to 12 km. The gulf is shallow with the depth decreasing from the entrance to the gulf to the continent. The sharpest change occurs near Narva-Jõesuu, which is why this place is called Narva wall, the average depth is 38 m with the maximum of 100 m. The depth of the Neva Bay is less than 6 metres, therefore, a channel was dug at the bottom for safe navigation. Because of the influx of fresh water from rivers, especially from the Neva River. The average water temperature is close to 0 °C in winter, in summer, it is 15–17 °C at the surface, the gulf is usually frozen from late November to late April, the freezing starts in the east and gradually proceeds to the west. Complete freezing is usually reached by late January, and it not occur in mild winters. There are frequent strong winds causing waves, surges of water. The northern coast of the gulf is high and winding, with abundant small bays and skerries only a few large bays, the coast is mostly sloping, there are abundant sandy dunes, with occasional pine trees. The southern shores are smooth and shallow, but along the entire coast runs the Baltic Klint with the height up to 55 m, in the east, the gulf ends with Neva Bay and on the west merges with the Baltic Sea. The gulf contains numerous banks, skerries and islands, starting from 1700, nineteen artificial islands with fortresses were built in the gulf by Russia. Their purpose was defense from attacks from water and their construction was urged by the Great Northern War of 1700–1721 and those include Fort Alexander, Krasnaya Gorka, Ino, Totleben, Kronshlot and others. The largest rivers flowing into the gulf are Neva, Narva, keila, Pirita, Jägala, Kunda, Luga, Sista and Kovashi flow into the gulf from the south. From the north flow Sestra River, Porvoo, Vantaa and several small rivers
37.
Catherine Palace
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The Catherine Palace is a Rococo palace located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo,30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the residence of the Russian tsars. The residence originated in 1717, when Catherine I of Russia hired German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to construct a palace for her pleasure. In 1733, Empress Elizabeth commissioned Mikhail Zemtsov and Andrei Kvasov to expand the Catherine Palace, construction lasted for four years, and on 30 July 1756 the architect presented the brand-new 325-meter-long palace to the Empress, her dazed courtiers, and stupefied foreign ambassadors. More than 100 kilograms of gold were used to gild the sophisticated stucco façade, in front of the palace a great formal garden was laid out. The interior of the pavilion featured dining tables with dumbwaiter mechanisms, the grand entrance to the palace is flanked by two massive circumferences, also in the Rococo style. A delicate cast-iron grille separates the complex from the town of Tsarskoe Selo, although the palace is popularly associated with Catherine the Great, she actually regarded its whipped cream architecture as old-fashioned. In her memoirs she censured her predecessors reckless extravagance, The palace was then being built and that house has been pulled down six times to the foundation, then built up again till it was brought to its present state. The sum of a six hundred thousand rubles was spent on the construction. Accounts exist to prove it, but besides this sum the Empress spent much money out of her own pocket on it, according to Catherines wishes, many remarkable structures were erected for her amusement in the Catherine Park. These include the Dutch Admiralty, Creaking Pagoda, Chesme Column, Rumyantsev Obelisk, upon Catherines death in 1796, the palace was abandoned in favour of Pavlovsk Palace. After the Great Fire of 1820, Alexander I engaged Vasily Stasov to refurbish some interiors of his grandmothers residence in the Empire style, twenty years later, the magnificent Stasov Staircase was constructed to replace the old circular staircase leading to the Palace house church. Unfortunately, most of Stasovs interiors—specifically those dating from the reign of Nicholas I—have not been restored after the destruction caused by the Germans during World War II, when the German forces retreated after the siege of Leningrad, they intentionally destroyed the residence. Leaving only the shell of the palace behind. Prior to World War II, Soviet archivists managed to document a fair amount of the interior, which proved of great importance in reconstructing the palace. Although the largest part of the reconstruction was completed in time for the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg in 2003, much work is still required to restore the palace to its former glory. The Great Hall, or Light Gallery, as it was called in the 18th century, is an apartment in the Russian baroque style designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli between 1752 and 1756. The Great Hall was intended for important receptions such as balls, formal dinners
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Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
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Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was the fifth son and seventh child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Grand Duke Sergeis education gave him lifelong interests in culture and the arts, like all male members of the Romanov dynasty, he followed a military career, and he fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, receiving the Order of St George for courage and bravery in action. In 1882, his brother, Tsar Alexander III, appointed him Commander of the 1st Battalion Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment, in 1889, Grand Duke Sergei was promoted to the rank of Major General. In 1884, Sergei married Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine and their marriage remained childless, but they became the guardians of the two children of his brother, Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, Grand Duchess Maria, and Grand Duke Dimitri. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich and his wife promoted the marriage of Sergeis nephew, Tsar Nicholas II, with Princess Alix of Hesse, between 1891 and 1905, Grand Duke Sergei served as Governor General of Moscow. His reputation was tarnished as he was blamed by the Khodynka Tragedy. His conservative policies, extreme even by standards, made him a polarizing figure. In 1894 Grand Duke Sergei was made a member of the State Council, in 1896 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed as Commander of Moscow military district. After thirteen years of service, Grand Duke Sergei resigned from the Governorship on January 1,1905, targeted by the SR Combat Organization, he was assassinated by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin. Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich was born on 11 May 1857 in the Zubov wing of the Catherine Palace at Saint Petersburg. He was the child and fifth son among the eight children of Alexander II of Russia and his first wife Maria Alexandrovna, née Duchess Maximilienne Wilhelmine of Hesse. By the time Sergei was born, his mother was already in declining health, although she was not a particularly affectionate mother, except to her daughter, her three youngest children, Marie, Sergei and Paul, were close to her and especially to one another. As time passed and the Empresss health made it necessary for her to avoid the harsh Russian climate, they spent long sojourns abroad in Jugenheim outside Darmstadt, a family tragedy hit them there. In April 1865, shortly before Sergeis eighth birthday, his eldest brother and godfather Nicholas, as a child, Sergei was shy, studious, and withdrawn. Under the influence of his mother, whose reserved character he resembled, from the 1870s, Sergei and his younger brother Paul were kept in Russia by their studies. They were destined to follow a career, but their tutor, Admiral Arseniev, encouraged Sergeis linguistic, artistic. He was fluent in languages and learned Italian in order to read Dante in the original. His interest in Italian art and culture intensified as he grew older and he painted well and was musical, playing the flute in an amateur orchestra
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Livadia Palace
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Livadia Palace was a summer retreat of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family in Livadiya, Crimea. The Yalta Conference was held there in 1945, when the palace housed the apartments of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, today the palace houses a museum, but it is sometimes used for international summits. The residence was frequented by Alexander II of Russia, while his successor Alexander III used to live in the smaller palace and it was perhaps disagreeable associations with the latter circumstance that led his son Nicholas to have both palaces demolished and replaced with a larger structure. Around 1909, Nikolay Krasnov, Yaltas most fashionable architect, responsible for the ducal residences in Koreiz, was engaged to prepare plans for a new imperial palace. The Tsars diary indicates that the design was discussed in the Imperial Family. After 17 months of construction, the new palace was inaugurated on 11 September 1911, in November Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna celebrated her 16th birthday at Livadia. After the February Revolution in 1917, Nicholass mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and they were eventually rescued by the British ship HMS Marlborough, sent by the Dowager Empresss nephew, King George V. Participants included officers, noncoms, and soldiers who were awarded the German Ritterkreuz, the palace was once used as a mental institution, and is now a historical museum. Most of the furnishings have been lost, but anything that has been recovered can be seen for a small fee. In August 2007 the palace was recognized as a landmark of history by the Seven Wonders of Ukraine project. Numerous academic conferences have been held at the palace, Palace staff actively publish their research. Visitors are particularly interested in the events of 1945, the Livadia Palace is built of white Crimean granite in the Neo-Renaissance style. A gallery connects the palace with a church of the Exaltation of the Cross. The palace contains 116 rooms, with interiors furnished in different styles, there are a Pompeian vestibule, an English billiard-room, a Neo-baroque dining room, and a Jacob-style study of maple wood, which elicited particular admiration of Nicholas II
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Crimea
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The peninsula is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson and west of the Russian region of Kuban. It is connected to Kherson Oblast by the Isthmus of Perekop and is separated from Kuban by the Strait of Kerch, the Arabat Spit is located to the northeast, a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Crimea has historically been at the boundary between the world and the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Crimea and adjacent territories were united in the Crimean Khanate during the 15th to 18th century, in 1783, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire. It became the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine in 1991, with Sevastopol having its own administration, within Ukraine, the ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet and its facilities were divided between Russias Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Naval Forces. The two navies shared some of the harbours and piers, while others were demilitarised or used by either country. Sevastopol remained the location of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters with the Ukrainian Naval Forces Headquarters also based in the city, most of the international community does not recognize the annexation and considers Crimea to be Ukrainian territory. Russia currently administers the peninsula as two federal subjects, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Ukraine continues to assert its right over the peninsula, the classical name Tauris or Taurica is from the Greek Ταυρική, after the peninsulas Scytho-Cimmerian inhabitants, the Tauri. In English usage since the modern period the Crimean Khanate is referred to as Crim Tartary. The Italian form Crimea also becomes current during the 18th century, the omission of the definite article in English became common during the later 20th century. The name Crimea follows the Italian form from the Crimean Tatar name for the city Qırım which served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde, the name of the capital was extended to the entire peninsula at some point during Ottoman suzerainty. The origin of the word Qırım is uncertain, suggestions argued in various sources include, a corruption of Cimmerium. A derivation from the Turkic term qirum, from qori-, other suggestions that have not been supported by sources but are apparently based on similarity in sound include, a derivation from the Greek Cremnoi. However, he identifies the port, not in Crimea, no evidence has been identified that this name was ever in use for the peninsula. The classical name was revived in 1802 in the name of the Russian Taurida Governorate, in the 8th century BCE the Cimmerians migrated to the region and subsequently the Scythians as well it being the site of Greek colonies. The most important city was Chersonesos at the edge of todays Sevastopol, the Persian Achaemenid Empire expanded to Crimea. Later occupiers included the Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, the Byzantine Empire, Khazars, the Kipchaks, the Golden Horde, consideration of the succeeding residents of the peninsula by their linguistic grouping is also of relevance
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Mark Twain
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Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter and he later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, the short story brought international attention and was even translated into classic Greek. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of financial setbacks. He chose to pay all his creditors in full, even though he had no legal responsibility to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halleys Comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it as well and he was lauded as the greatest American humorist of his age, and William Faulkner called him the father of American literature. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri, and they were married in 1823, Twain was of Cornish, English, and Scots-Irish descent. Only three of his siblings survived childhood, Orion, Henry, and Pamela and his sister Margaret died when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin died three years later. His brother Pleasant died at six months of age, slavery was legal in Missouri at the time, and it became a theme in these writings. His father was an attorney and judge, but he died of pneumonia in 1847, the next year, Twain left school after the fifth grade to become a printers apprentice. In 1851, he working as a typesetter, contributing articles and humorous sketches to the Hannibal Journal. He educated himself in libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. Twain describes his boyhood in Life on the Mississippi, stating there was but one permanent ambition among his comrades. Pilot was the grandest position of all, the pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay. As Twain describes it, the pilots prestige exceeded that of the captain, bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $500, payable out of Twains first wages after graduating. It was more than two years before he received his pilots license, piloting gave also him his pen name from mark twain, the leadsmans cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms, which was safe water for a steamboat
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Fyodor Tyutchev
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Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev was a Russian poet and statesman. Tyutchev was born into an old family in Ovstug near Bryansk. Most of his years were spent in Moscow, where he joined the literary circle of Professor Merzlyakov at the age of 13. His first printed work was a translation of Horaces epistle to Maecenas, from that time on, his poetic language was distinguished from that of Pushkin and other contemporaries by its liberal use of majestic, solemn Slavonic archaisms. His family tutor was Semyon Raich, a poet and translator under whose guidance Tyutchev undertook his first poetic steps. From 1819 to 1821 Tyutchev studied at the Philological Faculty of Moscow University, after graduating he joined the Foreign Office and in 1822 accompanied his relative, Count Ostermann-Tolstoy, to Munich to take up a post as trainee diplomat at the Russian legation. He was to remain abroad for 22 years, in Munich he fell in love with Amalie von Lerchenfeld, the illegitimate half-sister of a young Bavarian diplomat, Count Maximilian Joseph von Lerchenfeld. Tyutchevs poem Tears or Slyozy coincides with one of their meetings, a late poem of 1870 with the title K. B. long accepted on dubious evidence as addressed to Amélie, is now thought much more likely to refer to Tyutchevs sister-in-law Clotilde von Bothmer. Tyutchevs last meeting with Amélie took place on March 31,1873 when she visited him on his deathbed, the next day, Tyutchev wrote to his daughter Daria, Yesterday I felt a moment of burning emotion due to my meeting with. My dear Amalie Krüdener who wished to see me for the last time in this world, in her person my past and the best years of my life came to give me a farewell kiss. In Munich, he came under the influence of the German Romantic movement, among the figures, he knew personally were the poet Heinrich Heine and the philosopher Friedrich Schelling. In 1826, he married the Bavarian widow of a Russian diplomat Eleonore Peterson, neither of his wives understood Russian to begin with. That is hardly surprising since Tyutchev spoke French better than Russian, in 1836, a young former colleague at the Munich legation, Prince Ivan Gagarin, obtained Tyutchevs permission to publish his selected poems in Sovremennik, a literary journal edited by Pushkin. Although appreciated by the great Russian poet, the superb lyrics failed to spark off any public interest. The death of Eleonore in 1838 hit Tyutchev hard and appears to have silenced him as a poet for some considerable time, and for ten years afterwards, he wrote hardly any lyric verse. Instead, he turned his attention to publishing articles in Western periodicals such as the Revue des Deux Mondes outlining his strongly held views on Russias role in the world. In 1837, Tyutchev was transferred from Munich to the Russian legation in Turin and he found his new place of residence uncongenial to his disposition and after marrying Ernestine, he resigned from his position there to settle in Munich. He continued to live in Germany for five years without position before returning to Russia
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Princess Alice of the United Kingdom
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Princess Alice of the United Kingdom was the third child and second daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. Alice was the first of Queen Victorias nine children to die, Alice spent her early childhood in the company of her parents and siblings, travelling between the British royal residences. Her education was devised by Alberts close friend and adviser, Baron Stockmar, when her father, Prince Albert, was diagnosed with typhoid fever in December 1861, Alice nursed him until his death on 14 December that year. Following his death, Queen Victoria entered a period of intense mourning, on 1 July 1862, while the court was still at the height of mourning, Alice married the minor German Prince Louis of Hesse, heir to the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The ceremony—conducted privately and with unrelieved gloom at Osborne House—was described by the Queen as more of a funeral than a wedding, the Princesss life in Darmstadt was unhappy as a result of impoverishment, family tragedy, and worsening relations with her husband and mother. Alice was a patron of womens causes and showed an interest in nursing. When Hesse became involved in the Austro-Prussian War, Darmstadt filled with the injured, one of her organisations, the Princess Alice Womens Guild, took over much of the day-to-day running of the states military hospitals. As a result of activity, Queen Victoria became concerned about Alices directness about medical and, in particular, gynaecological. In 1871, she wrote to Alices younger sister, Princess Louise, be very silent and cautious about your interior. In 1877, Alice became Grand Duchess upon the accession of her husband, in the latter months of 1878, diphtheria infected the Hessian court. Alice nursed her family for over a month before falling ill herself, another daughter, Elisabeth, who had married Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, was, like the tsaritsa and her family, killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. Alice was born on 25 April 1843 at Buckingham Palace in London and she was the second daughter and third child of Queen Victoria, and her husband Albert, Prince Consort. She was christened Alice Maud Mary in the chapel at Buckingham Palace by The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Howley. She was named Alice to honour Victorias first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, Maud, the Anglo-Saxon name for Matilda, was chosen in honour of one of Alices godparents, Princess Sophia Matilda of Gloucester, a niece of King George III. Mary was chosen because Alice was born on the day as her maternal great-aunt. Her gender was greeted with mixed feelings from the public, and even the Privy Council sent a message to Albert expressing its congratulation, Alices birth prompted her parents to find a larger family home. Buckingham Palace was not equipped with the apartments that Victorias growing family needed. Therefore, in 1844, Victoria and Albert purchased Osborne House on the Isle of Wight as a holiday home
Russian Empire: Order of St. Catherine
United Kingdom: Lady of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, first class
Spain: Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa
