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Tsar Nicholas II of Russia | Unofficial Royalty (http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/tsar-nicholas-ii-of-russia/)

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Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was born May 18, 1868 at the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, St Petersburg. He was the eldest son of Tsar Alexander III and Maria Alexandrovna (born Princess Dagmar of Denmark). At the time of his birth, he was second in line to the Russian throne, following his father. He had five younger siblings:

Tsar Nicholas II visited Denmark in 1901,   
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in Denmark 1901 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD1zpzS5HtQ)

Nicholas visited Denmark far more often than just 1901, albeit unofficially. His mother Marie was of course Princess Dagmar of Denmark before she married Grand Duke Alexander as he then was, and all the Danish royals and their children and other royals who had connections to the Danish Royal House would have wonderful holidays together each year at one of the family's homes.

Among the royals gathered there were the two sisters Dagmar and Alexandra. Marie/Dagmar's husband Alexander revelled in the happy, jokey informal atmosphere that prevailed, but Alexandra's husband Bertie rarely appeared. It was all too unsophisticated for him, including the practical jokes. However, Alexandra's children, including Prince Eddy and the future George V spent happy days there, as did the children of the future King Frederik of Denmark, and Nicholas and his siblings, and other cousins. 

Alix enjoyed being with her family and Bertie watnted to chase women and she often had long hols with her family wen she was annoyied about one of his affairs.

Which bank in England did Tsar Nicholas II have valuables sent to?

In the First World War Nicholas II changed the name of the imperial capital from the Germanic Saint Petersburg to the Slavic Petrograd.

Nicholas II smoked Benson & Hedges made especially for him.

Nicholas II as Tsarevich visited England for the wedding of Prince George and Princess Mary of Teck.   
Nicholas II , the last Emperor of Russia, visits England for the... News Photo | Getty Images (http://www.gettyimages.com/license/3058165)

In his haste to be married, Nicholas II had allowed no time for preparation of a place for himself and Alexandra to live. They moved temporarily into the rooms Nicholas and his brother George had shared as boys.

In 1896 Nicholas and Alexandra visited Balmoral. Nicholas II disliked Balmoral. He did not like being surrounded by all his wife's German family. He disliked being taken out for sport in the freezing wet weather.

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on November 18, 2018, 09:21:43 PM
In 1896 Nicholas and Alexandra visited Balmoral. Nicholas II disliked Balmoral. He did not like being surrounded by all his wife's German family. He disliked being taken out for sport in the freezing wet weather.

I should have said that Scotland was positively tropical compared to Russia

Nicholas liked his home comforts and he was dismayed when he realised he was expected to join the POW and the other male royals in shooting every day in often lashing rain. It's weird that Bertie was quite the voluptuary but didn't mind harsh conditions on shoots.

Nicholas was also suffering from toothache. Like many Romanovs he was far too fond of sweets and candies and his teeth were rotting. (This family were not big on dental health. One of Nicholas's enormous uncles, Michael, had one tooth waggling in his mouth in middle age.)

I don't know about Alix's 'German family'. Who was German among them?  Certainly not Alexandra Prss of Wales, who loathed Germans. Bertie wasn't fond of some of them himself.  The Duke of Connaught wasn't German, though his wife was. Both were present. It was on this visit that the Tsar and Tsarina were asked to be godparents to George and May of York's eldest child, Edward, who had just been born. They weren't German either.

But Alix's family were German..

 
In 1896 Nicholas and Alexandra visited Balmoral. Nicholas II disliked Balmoral. He did not like being surrounded by all his wife's German family. He disliked being taken out for sport in the freezing wet weather.
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The quote above from LF that was relevant to my reply.

Alix's Hessian family (married or not)  were not at Balmoral with the visiting Tsar and Tsarina. . 

but they were relatives of Alix's - I assume that's what Louis F meant.  Princess Alice was the sister of Edward VII or the POW as he was then.   and so he was her uncle... while of course Alexandra was Nicholas's aunt on his mothers' side...
And the Russian IF married into German Princely families quite a lot.. so German relatives were hardly new to them..

Then the reference to Alix's German family (relatives) shouldn't have been directly linked by L.F. to Nicholas's reactions to being at Balmoral. Nicholas didn't refer to Queen Victoria as being part of Alix's 'German' family, did he? Or the Duke of Connaught, or the Prince and Princess of Wales? Or any other of Victoria's British-based family who were staying at Balmoral/Birkhall?  Because they were the ones there during the visit and I'm damn sure that the vast majority of them would have thought it bizarre to have been referred to as 'Germans'. In fact none of the British Royal family, in spite of their bloodlines, thought of themselves as being German (with the exception of the long-dead Prince Consort) and hadn't since the time of George II.

Nor did Alice, even though she lived in Hesse-Darmstardt from her early 20s, think of herself as a German woman. Of course the Russian Imperial Family had some German ancestry, including Marie of Hesse, Nicky's paternal grandmother, and several of his uncles and cousins had married Germans. However, Nicky had also grown up with a Danish mother, Dagmar/Marie, who, like her sister Alexandra, loathed Germany, and he was heavily influenced by her. Most of the British Royal family and in fact most of Willy's relations, disliked Kaiser Wilhelm II. And that included Alix.

If Willy and Dona had been at Balmoral with their retinue, or Irene with Henry of Prussia, or even Alix's brother Ernie, (though he was no German nationalist,) one would have understood references to Nicholas disliking being surrounded by Germans during his stay there. However, as there was only some members of the BRF staying at the Scottish retreat the reference to Nicholas 'disliking being surrounded by ALL Alix's German family' at Balmoral seems odd.

Nicholas II hated the prospect of war. He agonized as his advisers unanimously argued that full mobilization was essential if the Russian forces were to be ready for war. He had given his permission for the ukase declaring general mobilization.   
   

Nicholas II had able ministers, but as he felt it necessary to involve himself in everything there was no coordination of government, no real cabinet system.

There couldn't have been a real Cabinet system as there was no Parliamentary democracy in Russia before 1905 and only a very pale imitation of it after that date. Nicholas II continued, with his wife's encouragement, to regard himself as an absolutist monarch and his ministers as mere advisers. 

Throughout their childhood Nicholas admired his brother Grand Duke George's sparkling humor. Whenever his brother cracked a joke, the Tsarevich Nicholas carefully wrote it down on a slip of paper and filed it away in a box. Years later as Tsar, when Nicholas was heard laughing in his study, he would be found reading his collection of George's jokes.       

In foreign affairs, Tsar Alexander III had left a legacy of thirteen peaceful years. He did not aquaint his heir with even the most basic information concerning Russia's international position. It was not until Nicholas II's accession that he learned the terms of the Franco-Russian alliance.

Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra during a hunting expedition in the Bialowieza Forest in 1897     
Tsar Nicholas II Romanov of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna... News Photo - Getty Images (http://www.gettyimages.com/license/822507394)

When the Tsarevich Nicholas was in Coburg with Princess Alix (Alexandra) of Hesse, he summoned a choir across Europe from the Imperial Guard to sing for her.

Nicholas II and Alexandra visited Nicky's uncle Edward VII of England in 1909.   
They received several deputations. They received a deputation from London, led by the Lord Mayor who gave Their Majesties a magnificent gold coffret.

Tsar Paul I had a strict order of succession by proclaiming that the eldest son of the monarch shall inherit the throne. How could Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna have inherited the throne? Could Tsar Nicholas II on his own have changed the Pauline Laws?

In theory the Tsars, being virtual autocrats, could do whatever they wished. In practice however, it is clear that Nicholas did not change the Romanov House Rules as, when he abdicated for himself and his heir in 1917, his brother Michael was named as the next in line.

Possibly, had there been no World War and if Alexei had died in childhood, then something might have been done, especially if Michael had no wish to be Tsar.

However, Alexi's condition remained a secret from all but a very few, and as far as the Russian people were concerned he was a healthy child.  A huge number of explanations would be necessary and Nicholas would have had to have taken the rest of the Romanovs, a rumbunctious crew, and the Russian nobility with him, on such a path.

Quote from: Curryong on May 08, 2020, 07:35:46 AM
In theory the Tsars, being virtual autocrats, could do whatever they wished. In practice however, it is clear that Nicholas did not change the Romanov House Rules as, when he abdicated for himself and his heir in 1917, his brother Michael was named as the next in line.

Possibly, had there been no World War and if Alexei had died in childhood, then something might have been done, especially if Michael had no wish to be Tsar.

However, Alexi's condition remained a secret from all but a very few, and as far as the Russian people were concerned he was a healthy child.  A huge number of explanations would be necessary and Nicholas would have had to have taken the rest of the Romanovs, a rumbunctious crew, and the Russian nobility with him, on such a path.

but the problems of the Haemophilia would still be there.  Even if people didn't  know that much about haemophlila by that time I think there was a rough idea that there was something to do with the mothers and so I think that other royals and nobles would have been wary of marrying Olga or the other girls...

Before WW1 broke out Olga was taken by her parents to 'accidentally' meet Crown Prince Carol of Romania. His mother Marie was apparently quite keen on a potential match. However Olga didn't like the young man, he wasn't particularly attracted to her and so everything fizzled out. And, somewhere in my memory there's a story of an older man, a Romanov, actually putting himself forward as a suitor for Olga's hand.

Alex was horrified at the thought of her innocent flower being given in marriage to a blas? and rather debauched individual. I'll have to look up who it was. I remember reading it on the Alexander Palace Forums years ago, and Alexandra's reaction was quoted.

Neither man was suitable of course but the point was that the haemophilia link doesn't seem to have come into consideration with those projected matches and no doubt there were others who wanted to marry Olga. .

Also, Lord Mountbatten had a tendresse for the Grand Duchess Marie for years and kept her photo by his bedside until he died. It would have been a very unequal match and no doubt it wouldn't have been considered had she lived, but it doesn't appear that the chance that she (or her sisters) may have been genetic  carriers of the condition put him off. And Marie was the one who underwent a dental operation and bled so copiously that the doctors in attendance were terrified.

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Double post auto-merged: May 08, 2020, 05:47:39 PM

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Later--looked it up. The debauched individual (in his late 30s) was apparently the Grand Duke Boris, whose mother, the GDchess Maria Pavlovna, was referred to by Alix as Aunt Meichen.

Another to be considered was the GD Michael's son Dimitri, the foster child of Sergei and Ella for most of his and his sister's childhoods. Dimitri grew to be a bit of a war hero, was appointed ADC to the Tsar and given a high honour by him. However, Dimitri enjoyed running around with Felix Yusopoff and the two were involved in Rasputin's death, so that was the end of that.

Both Nicholas and Alexandra seem to have been quite amenable to CP Carol. Before he and Olga met in June 1914 Prince Christopher of Greece asked the Tsar whether he could be considered for Olga. Nicky however put him off, saying she was too young. That was in May 1914, a month before the meeting with Carol!

Olga's parents were apparently a bit disappointed that Olga and Carol didn't hit it off (in fact he quite fancied Marie) but God knows what sort of a life she would have had with him. Better than being shot dead in a cellar by revolutionary thugs, but only just.

If there had been no war and no death of Rasputin, I think Olga may have ended up with her cousin Dimitri.

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Double post auto-merged: May 08, 2020, 06:16:51 PM

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Dimitri was of course the son of GD Pavel not Michael! Typed too fast!

This picture taken in 1910 shows Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra on board the yacht Standart.   
An exhibition Nicholas II. Family Album Stock Photo - Alamy (http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-on-exhibition-nicholas-ii-family-album-32278198.html)

Tsar Nicholas II participated in the Borodino ceremonies which were a centenary celebration of the battle before Moscow in 1812 when Kutuzov's army gave battle to Napoleon.   
Nicholas attended cathedral services, receptions, parades, and processions.