Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia
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Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna of Russia (24 June 1825 - 10 August 1844) was a daughter of Nicholas I of Russia and his wife, Charlotte of Prussia. In the family, she was known as "Adini". Alexandra was reportedly her father's favorite child; according to her sister Olga's memoirs, he maintained that she alone among his children had inherited her mother's "Prussian look". She was famous in Saint Petersburg society for both her beauty and her lively personality.
On 28 January 1844, Alexandra married Friedrich Wilhelm Karl George Adolf, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1820-1864) in St. Petersburg. Her husband was the only son of Prince William of Hesse and Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark.
Alexandra became acutely ill with tuberculosis shortly before her wedding, and this complicated the pregnancy which soon followed. She was never well enough to travel to Hesse and take up her new position with her husband. They stayed in St. Petersburg, where her health rapidly declined.
She went into labor prematurely, three months before the child was due, and gave birth to a son, Wilhelm. The infant died shortly after he was born, and Alexandra died later the same day. She was buried with her baby son in her arms, at the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul in St. Petersburg.
Ten years later, Friedrich Wilhelm married Princess Anna of Prussia (1836-1918) as his second wife. They had six children. Eventually he became head of the House of Hesse-Kassel.
In the gardens of the Peterhof palace near Saint Petersburg there is a memorial bench with a small sculpture bust of the Grand Duchess. Her rooms there have been preserved just as they were at the time of her death.
