Chapter Text
As a younger Princess of Prussia, Princess Alexandrina Michaela’s marriage perspective were not extremely high. She was the Crown Prince’s 4th daughter, the younger twin of Sophia. She knew it was likely she’d end up marrying one of the many German Princes like her elder sister Charlotte had.
There were several talks going on with several German dynasties, including the Ducal family of Saxe-Altenburg, the Grand Ducal family of Hesse and by Rhine, and the Ducal family of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
The young woman didn’t expect much from her future marriage. If anything, she did not expect to marry at all considering who all the candidates were as she didn’t feel much for any of the men. She did want to feel something for the man she would marry in the future, but there was either no interest from either or a one-sided interest.
However, all that would change when she attended her twin sister’s controversial wedding to Crown Prince Constantine of Greece in Athens, on 27 October 1889. Because there she met her future husband: Tsar Mikael II of Russia.
The Russian Imperial had been born posthumously, 6 months after the death of his father. His parents had only been married since the summer of 1864, and his mother had remarried his father’s younger brother Grand Duke Alexander on 9 November 1866.
As the most senior male heir, Grand Duke Mika succeeded his grandfather to the Imperial throne in 1881. However, his uncle and stepfather had reigned in his place until 28 September 1883 as the Tsar had still been a minor when the Tsar was assassinated.
Recently, potential Royal brides had come into the picture. The list of rumoured potential brides was long and included Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria, Princess Clémentine of Belgium, Princess Joséphine Caroline of Belgium, Princess Louise d’Orléans, and Princess Klara of Bavaria. And had the girl survived into adulthood, Princess Maria of Romania would have been at the top of that list due to Slavophilia.
The Tsar was 25 years of age and would soon need to marry to guarantee a direct line of succession.
The Prussian decided to take her chance and make a move at her twin sister’s wedding. She might not be regarded as beautiful as Sophie, but she was a confident young woman and comfortable in her skin as she didn’t let anyone (especially not her older brother) dictate her move or waltz over her.
There was no way she would marry a man picked out for her by her oldest brother. Who knew what type of men he’d come up with? That was just too much of a risk.
Michaela knew there was a chance that she was not going to be accepted as the Tsar’s bride, primarily due to her German origins. But she was prepared to work at herself, become part of Russia, and gain the admiration of the Russian people. If she had to, she would denounce her brother publicly.
Talking to the young and handsome Tsar was easy, if you could ignore the thunderous looks one would receive from the other Russian delegates.
The Prussian Princess was, luckily, able to do just that. She wasn’t easily intimidated.
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The Tsar’s uncle Alexander had reigned in his place for about 2 years, yet he had still been the power of the throne. He had been prepared to become Tsar of Russia from the day he was born by his grandfather, and had despite his short reign already taken many massive society-changing decisions.
Some decisions had not fallen well with members of the Russian nobility and courtiers, but it had made the 25-year-old immensely popular with the Russian people. And the adoration of the Russian people was most important, as they were the engine of the Russian economy.
Perhaps that was a fact few nobles realised. Sadly, that group included his younger half-brother Nicholas.
Nicholas was… perhaps not stupid and dim-witted, but he was naïve and didn’t seem to understand the intentions of other individuals or see certain correlations despite having a similar education to his elder brother considering he was the heir apparent until a nephew was born.
The eldest son of Princess Dagmar of Denmark knew he’d have to marry, preferably sooner rather than later. Hence he’d been sent to Athens, as several prospective brides were likely to attend.
He knew his mother had wanted him to marry the Greek King’s firstborn daughter Alexandra, but she had chosen to marry his youngest uncle Paul, and now she was pushing him to marry a Montenegrin Princess or a Belgian Princess.
The Dowager Tsarevna was adamant that her eldest son did not marry a German.
Though the platinum blonde understood the political difficulties, he was also of the opinion that one should marry for love instead of politics. He had learned through his history lessons that marrying for politics was anything but advisable if you wanted your marriage to be stable and supporting. He needed to be in love with his wife, so he could focus on making the difficult decisions for his country and his people as the tensions in Europe were rising.
The current peace would only hold for so long.
Mika was used to women throwing themselves at him, from all kinds of social backgrounds. He was a ‘catch’, like his mother had been saying to him since he was a teenager. Plus, he was incredibly powerful.
So, when a noble woman approached him, he was ready to rebuff her.
Yet all she was seemingly interested in was making conversation. And surprisingly, she was the twin sister of the bride marrying the Crown Prince of Greece. She was not a woman sent by his mother.
His great-grandfather Nicholas had married a Prussian Princess, a sister of the late Wilhelm I of Germany, and this woman was one of Wilhelm’s 6 granddaughters. It was a coincidence that they met, as it would’ve been incredibly unlikely for them to ever meet anywhere else than a wedding or funeral.
The 25-year-old decided to stay in contact with the Prussian, despite his mother’s wish that he would not consider German brides. But he just wanted to fall in love, and none of the current candidates really ignited anything in him that resembled love or lust.
His fellow Russians had not been happy that he talked to the new German Emperor’s sister, but he ignored their dirty and angry looks. His conversational partner seemed good at ignoring others too, and it was something that made him smirk.
Michaela had little hope that she would eventually marry the Tsar. Yet, Fate had other ideas for her.
It was only 1 and a half years later, just over a month after her 21st birthday, that she was speaking her vows in French in Saint Petersburg’s Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral surrounded by Russian courtiers, the Danish Royals, the Greek Royals, the British Royals, her mother, and her siblings bar Wilhelm.
She had not invited her older brother. After her brother had talked down to her and even called her a traitor after accepting the Tsar’s proposal, she had immediately departed from Berlin for Saint Petersburg without even a word to her oldest brother and refused to read his letters.
Unsurprisingly, her mother-in-law had been incredibly happy with that.
Before her wedding, the Princess had taken the name Anastasia Pavlovna. Through her father’s mother’s mother, she was a great-great-granddaughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia. Hence she had decided to take the patronym Pavlovna upon being received into the Russian Orthodox church. She hadn’t yet officially converted, because she wanted to take her time learning about the Orthodox faith.
Her twin had also married a man of the Orthodox faith, but she had converted after the birth of her son George last year. It had caused one of the biggest argument between Sophia and Wilhelm because he took his status as Head of the Prussian Union of Churches very seriously and hated disobedience more than anything. Wilhelm’s wife Augusta Victoria had even claimed that the argument she had with Sophia had caused her to go into the premature labour of her 6th son Joachim.
That incident before their sister Viktoria’s wedding had confirmed to the 4th born daughter that she needed to leave Berlin as soon as she could and get away from her eldest brother. She hoped to be able to reach her other siblings who were not making such a big deal about the ‘issue of religion’.
The young woman, 20 years of age when the Tsar proposed to her, found her elaborate welcoming into the city of Saint Petersburg heart-warming. She openly promised to the people to be the best Tsarina she could possibly be, spoken in Russian.
Michaela was not yet fluent in Russian and was at that moment better in French due to strict education her mother had provided her and her sisters. She had also been learning Greek since her sister’s marriage, but that was just for fun. Learning Russian and perfecting her French would now become her top priority.
She was married to her husband on 28 July 1891, and she had never felt freer than that moment. She did not regret having to move to Saint Petersburg, and she definitely didn’t mind learning a new culture. She would definitely have to ask her mother-in-law about certain things, especially regarding court etiquette and perhaps other things that were different at German courts.
She would adapt to her new role, and make the Russians proud to call her their Tsarina.
The only time Mika granted a member of his family special permission for marriage, was back in 1906
His youngest half-brother, also named Michael, wanted to marry one of their first cousins, Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Yet Orthodox rules state that this cannot happen unless special permission is granted.
The Tsar had absolutely no issues with the couple getting married, and suggested that Princess Beatrice move to Moscow to take up residence in the Kremlin Palace as a permanent Royal guest. He had already suspected his youngest brother to be in love with her for a while, but the youngest Grand Duke had only found the courage to ask in March 1906.
Thus, that wedding took place on 11 May 1906.
There had been another request, from his other surviving half-brother Nicholas.
Nicholas had been forced to marry Princess Hélène of Orléans by their mother. But the marriage was not a happy one, despite resulting in the birth of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duke Alexander Nikolayevich of Russia.
The unhappiness had caused issues for both, and the eldest sibling had granted their divorce. Yet he would not grant Nicholas the permission to marry Princess Alix of Hesse.
It was only after over 3 years of marriage that his own wife was gaining the admiration of the Russian people, and that same hard-working mentality was not visible in the youngest surviving Hessian Princess.
It had caused Nicholas to leave Russia and settle in Darmstadt in order to marry Alix.
Because of his defiance, Mika had to set in stone that his brother’s children with Alix of Hesse would not receive Imperial titles or any Russian noble titles at all.
War.
It was any peace-loving monarch’s nightmare.
It was Mika’s nightmare, as he had not wanted this to happen.
Anti-Austrian sentiment in the Balkan had erupted. Though that area had always been explosive, it had also been an area which had never been able to develop on their own as they had almost always been under the control of a foreign superpower, whether that be an Asian power, an Arab power, or a European power. And then there was the issue of the people living within the Balkan area having issues with each other as well, which also did not help with the region’s stability.
The assassination of the Austrian-Hungarian heir apparent had been the final straw for all of Europe to erupt into war again, a war that had spanned over 4 years from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918 and had taken 20 million lives and forever changed at least 21 million who bore the scars of war.
The Russian Empire had suffered at least 3,394,369 deadly casualties which included military personnel and civilians. Despite the better rationing and increased hygiene, Russia still counted 730,000 deaths due to malnutrition and disease ravaging the population.
Every Russian death felt like losing one of his own sons and daughters to the Tsar, and he had not stopped wearing black since the war had begun. His worn out and tired appearance resonated with the Russian people, as it was how every Russian was feeling at that time.
The 53-year-old man was adamant to never let such a catastrophe happen again. He called for everyone to learn from the events, to understand what exactly led to the outbreak of this World War. He hoped that the people would learn that aggression would only ever mean pain and destruction, and that war was not great in any sense of the word.
But with the treaty of Versailles, his call was lost in the wind.
It greatly angered the father of 8, but there was nothing he could do about it, now it had been signed. He did have something else to do that did need his attention: the big Spanish Flu outbreak.
That, and the upcoming weddings of 2 of his children.
His eldest son Alexei was set to marry Princess Margaretha of Sweden, the oldest daughter of Prince Carl of Sweden, Duke of Västergötland, and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark. They were 2nd cousins, and thus always allowed by the Orthodox Church to marry.
And his 2nd born daughter Anastasia was going to marry Prince Axel of Denmark, the second son of Prince Valdemar of Denmark and Princess Marie of Orléans. They too were 2nd cousins.
One of his children had already married a month before the war broke out. His 2nd son, Paul, had married a niece of the German Empress. Princess Karoline Mathilde of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, who changed her name to Irina Feodorovna, had been Augusta Viktoria’s youngest niece through her younger sister Karoline Mathilde.
That marriage had been a surprise, as there had not even been a rumour of the match.
Yet Mika had allowed the wedding to take place. He did not see the girl’s low ancestry and her family’s status as a non-reigning house as an issue. But he had advised the couple to not take a prominent role in court life due to the courtiers taking offense in the match.
The Duchess by birth had behaved exemplary since her arrival in Saint Petersburg, and she and Paul had settled in Ipatiev House, a simple mansion in Yekaterinburg which they had bought from Nikolai Nikolayevich Ipatiev.
The couple did have children, but thus far they only had 3 daughters who could not inherit the throne.
Sergei and George would probably not marry for a few years. Hopefully then, sentiment had changed and German brides would be welcomed as potential Grand Duchesses.
Perhaps it was a far stretch to ask for yet another future Tsarina of German descent. But the next Tsarina was a woman of French descent and her dynasty reigned over Sweden. Margaretha’s marriage to the Tsarevich strengthened the bond between Russia and the Scandinavian nations.
Yet it was a love match, and that was the most important detail of all.