Monday, December 6, 2021

Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick's description of Alexandra

Source:

Discretions, by Frances "Daisy" Greville, Countess of Warwick, 1931


The description:

(More thoughts on a Princess who married into a foreign country...)

The unhappy Czarina, whom I knew as a girl, found herself in the same situation, only in far more trying circumstances. I remember her faintly as Princess Alix of Hesse. She was then a wholesome, thoroughly normal person. Indeed one might have met scores of educated and agreeable girls in Germany of her type. She loved to laugh and joke, and there were certainly no indications of any mystic leanings in her character. Years later my son went to Russia with Lord Milner, and was there entertained by the Czar. The Czarina was there, but he was unable to recognise in her the woman I had described. Court life had turned her into a nervous wreck, submissive to all manner of influences. Despite the fact that I knew her as a thoroughly rational girl, I cannot help wondering whether her faith in Rasputin was not a matter of belief in his mystic power rather than his political worth........

It should be remembered that there were many contributory causes to the sad mistakes made by the Czarina, and the overwrought state of her nerves was certainly not incomprehensible. For long years she had above all things desired to have a son, forgetting the terrible curse that in her case was likely to accompany the gift. The little heir to the Russian throne was afflicted with a terrible disease from birth. It is not difficult to picture the anguish of the mother who realised that the son she had desired with all her soul was destined to a life of wretchedness almost from the cradle. He could not live like other children and dared not run the risk of playing even an ordinary game with those who would have been his playmates in the normal course of things, for fear of an injury that to any other child would have been of no importance, but to him might prove fatal. It is scarcely to be wondered that her mental balance was so disturbed, and that her behaviour appeared eccentric.


Above: Alexandra with Alexei.


Above: Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick.

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