Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia

Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia in costume for a 1903 ball.
Born	April 13 1866(1866--) Tiflis, Georgia
Died	February 26 1933 (aged 66) Roquebrune, France
Occupation	Royalty
Parents	Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and Olga Feodorovna of Baden

Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович Aleksandr Mihailovits (13 April 1866 - 26 February 1933) was a dynast of Russian empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the husband of Emperor Nicholas II's sister, and an advisor of the said Emperor.

Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia, the youngest son of Nicholas I of Russia, and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (Cecily of Baden). Through his mother, Grand Duke Alexander was a great-grandson of the reputedly imbalanced king Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, the last Swedish Grand Duke of Finland (at he time of Alexander's life, Finland belonged to Alexander's agnatic house and its ruler was the head of its senior branch, making Alexander entitled to eventual succession to the Finnish throne and also one of the "princes of Finland").

He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Grand Duke Alexander was a naval officer (to which, Finland was an important base, the Baltic fleet being Russia's main navy). In his youth, he made a good-will visit to developing Japan on behalf of the Russian empire, as well as to Brazilian empire. He married his first cousin's daughter, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the eldest daughter of Alexander III on the 6th August [O.S. 25th July] 1894 and was thus a brother-in-law of the last Tsar Nicholas II, tho whose close advisors he belonged. His impact on the Tsar has been (mildly) both criticized and appreciated. He and his family, together with his mother-in-law the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark), were rescued from Crimea by British battleship HMS Marlborough in the quagmire of the 1917 revolution, and thus they survived. In exile, he wrote his memoirs, a source of dynastical and court life in imperial Russia's last half-century ("Once A Grand Duke", Farrar and Rinehart, Inc, New York, 1933). He also spent a time as guest of Empress Zauditu of Ethiopia, another eastern christian princess, in Eastern Africa.

Together Alexander and Xenia had seven children:

• Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia (1895-1970)
• Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia (1897-1981)
• Prince Fyodor Alexandrovich of Russia (1898-1968)
• Prince Nikita Alexandrovich of Russia (1900-1974)
• Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia (1901-80)
• Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich of Russia (1902-1978)
• Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (1907-1989)

Ancestry

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