A Royal Trilogy Alix & Minnie By James-Charles Noonan

Russians were baptized with the names of saints already on the approved list of the Orthodox Church. No other name was permitted them. When a foreign-born wife entered Russia, and this happened only within the imperial family and the highest levels of the Imperial Household as no other Russian was able to interact with foreigners, they had to convert to the Russian Orthodox faith (only a few later exceptions to this rule were permitted by the tsar) and so each had to go through the conversion ceremony at which time a new name from the Orthodox calendar of saints was given to them.

In Minnie’s case, the name Marie was selected as it was one of the names that she was actually given at her baptism in Copenhagen (Marie Sophie Frederikke Dagmar). This was not traumatic for Minnie as all those close to her before and after her marriage would still refer to her intimately as Minnie. And so Minnie she would always be. Officially, however, she had to adopt a new name to accompany her new formal title and rank.

In Russia the second name of each person is known as a patronym. This name identifies a person’s lineage through their father and so if the father’s name was Peter, his sons would bear the second, or patronymic, name Petrovitch, meaning ‘son of Peter’. Likewise, the daughters of a man named Peter would all bear the patronymic name of Petrovna, meaning ‘daughter of Peter’. Very few Russians until the early twentieth century bore a surname. The imperial family, however, did so as each member belonged to the house and family of Romanov.

Russian grand dukes and grand duchesses likewise included the patronymic name along with their title. Using Sasha as an example, his full name was Alexander Alexandrovitch Romanov being the son of Alexander II. When Minnie entered the Orthodox faith, at her conversion she became the True-Believing Grand Duchess Marie Feodorovna. Marie was selected from her baptismal name, but her patronymic name was altogether another matter.

Foreign-born imperial brides had the choice of a patronymic name. If their father’s name appeared on the approved list of Orthodox saints, than she would be permitted to use it, in a Russianized form. King Christian, Minnie’s father, had a name that did not appear on that list as in Orthodoxy the name ‘Christian’ was the title of a believer not a person’s baptismal name. Minnie therefore had to select a new one. Most imperial brides in this same circumstance chose the patronymic: Feodorovna.

The Romanov family patroness was Our Lady of Saint Theodore, an icon of the Blessed Virgin known commonly amongst Russians as the Black Madonna. It is said to be a copy of an icon painted personally by Saint Luke in the early days of the church. It was eventually named the Black Madonna of St. Theodore but no one seems to know why this Russian saint was entrusted with the great icon that came to be the patroness of the imperial family. It became known in Russian as the Feodorovskaya Icon. Feodor is the Russian translation of Theodore. Dagmar, and many Russian imperial brides before and after her, would elect the patronymic name of Feodorovna, a translation meaning ‘daughter of St. Theodore’ but more accurately the choice was to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Romanov family patroness.

The worst of these policies was the official sanction of aggressive anti-Semitic policies in the Russian Empire. The term ‘pogrom’ existed in Russia as early as 1748 and there were many waves of anti-Semitic purges in Imperial Russia from this date forward, but it was after the murder of Alexander II that the Jews in general were to bear much of the blame for the terror that had overtaken Russia as many members of the Nihilist movement responsible for the tsar’s assassination and other terrorist acts were secularized Jews. As a consequence, entire populations of peaceful, devout Jews were terrorized, tortured, murdered or exiled. Young Jewish girls would be excluded from these policies if they agreed to officially register and act as prostitutes.

In the early days of Sasha’s reign, as a direct result of official Russia’s blaming the Jews in general for the tsar’s murder, the term ‘pogrom’ took on a new even more vile meaning. Between the years 1881-1884, large scale, savage riots engineered by the imperial government in Poland, Ukraine and Belarus aimed at the entire population of the Jews in the major cities of these states, took place. More than 200 such riots were fostered with many hundreds of Jews murdered and maimed, their businesses burned out, and families dispersed. Seventeen Russian Jewish women died while being raped multiple times by the rampaging crowds in one such riot in 1881. All of these disturbances always seemed to have a sound reason for the anger of the population but the Jews were always the scapegoats and the central government the hidden cause behind the riots. All of these policies grew out of the hatred within Pobedonostsev and others like him at the highest levels of the imperial government.

Both Bertie and Alix maintained sizable, impressive and modern kennels at Sandringham. The Princess of Wales favored two breeds in particular—the Pekinese and the Russian Wolfhound. Her Pekinese dogs traveled with her from home to home, several were buried in the garden of Marlborough House and their markers remain there to this day. She typically had one or two on her lap or beside her every day and many portraits of Alexandra include these dogs comfortably settled on her lap. It was from these images of their beloved Princess of Wales with her dogs that the common term, lap dog, came into the common vernacular.

The Russian Wolfhounds, known today properly as the Borzoi, were gifts to Alexandra from her sister, Marie Feodorovna (Minnie), once she had married the tsarevitch and settled in Russia. These impressive Russian hounds were kept exclusively at Sandringham where they were carefully bred by kennel master C. Brundson who remained in service there for fifteen years. Because of Alix’s efforts to expand the breed in England and the West, the Borzoi survived the effects of the Russian Revolution and the Cold War that followed. Alix was known to spend hours with her dogs in their state-of-the-art kennel at Sandringham and in time other breeds were added to her collection including Basset Hounds, Dachshunds, Collies, Samoyeds, Fox Terriers, Pugs, Japanese Spaniels, and towards the end of her life, the Clumber which had begun to move towards extinction but because of her interest in the breed it soon began to thrive once again.

Bertie and Alix’s design for the kennels at Sandringham mimicked suites in the finest hotels. According to a chronicler of that time who wrote: “Each kennel has an inner compartment as a bedroom, fitted with an iron bedstead and straw mattress. They are well ventilated, with good sanitary arrangements, and are whitewashed once a year. Leading from the bedroom is an open ‘sitting-room,’ supplied with straw and a constant supply of fresh water. Iron gates enclose each kennel from the central yard. Good grass runs are adjacent to the kennels.” (Source: mimimatthews.com/2016/04/29/the-dogs-of-alexandra-of-denmark-a-tour-of-the-kennels-at-sandringham/)

Baptized Victoria Alexandra Olga Mary (1868-1935), (Victoria for the queen, Alexandra for her mother Alix, Olga in honor of her aunt the queen of Greece, and Mary in honor of Princess Mary, granddaughter of George III, first cousin of Queen Victoria and good friend to Bertie and Alix. Known affectionately as Fat Mary because of her huge size she would give birth to a daughter in time named Princess Mary of Teck; this girl would become engaged to Prince Eddy who died before they could marry. She then became engaged to his younger brother George and together they would reign in England as George V and Queen Mary).

This daughter of Bertie and Alix, Princess Victoria, would remain a spinster, the companion of Alexandra in her old age. She was known by future members of the royal family as the ‘Snipe’ as she grew into a gossip and meddlesome aunt and as a consequence was not much appreciated by younger royal family members.

As a descendent of George II and thus subject to the Royal Marriages Act and other acts appertaining thereto, Ernst August was required to receive the formal consent of Queen Victoria in order that the marriage would be considered fully valid. In her Privy Council Queen Victoria formally granted her permission as follows:

“Royal consent to the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland (Sep 27, 1878):

Victoria R (actual signature of the monarch) –

Victoria by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen Defender of the Faith to All to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting! Whereas by an Act of Parliament instituted “An Act for the better regulating the future marriages of the Royal Family” it is amongst other things enacted “That no Descendant of the Body of His Majesty King George the Second, Male or Female (other than the issue of Princesses who have married, or may hereafter marry into Foreign Families) shall be capable of contracting Matrimony without the previous consent of His Majesty, His Heirs or Successors, signified under the Great Seal” Now Know Ye that We have consented, and do by these Presents signify Our Consent to the contracting of Matrimony between Our Dear Cousin His Royal Highness The Prince Ernest Augustus William Adolphus George Frederick Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh, Knight of Our Most Noble Order of the Garter, and Her Royal Highness Thyra Amélie Caroline Charlotte Anne daughter of His Majesty the King of Denmark. In Witness whereof We have caused Our Great Seal to be affixed to these Presents. Given at Our Court at Saint James’s the Twenty Seventh Day of September 1878 in the Forty Second Year of Our Reign. By the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.” (Signed with Her Own Hand): National Archives: HO 124/18.

£3,000 payable in 1885 converts to the spending power in 2021 to $87,000.

£8,000 payable in 1885 converts to the spending power in 2021 to $225,000.

Whereas the Corps des Pages was established to properly educate the sons of the highest nobility who planned to enter military service, and whereas the Smolny Institute prepared young ladies for life at Court, or life in a prestigious marriage, there were other fine academies in Saint Petersburg also serving the higher echelons of society. First amongst these was the Alexander Lyceum which was created by Alexander I for the sons of prominent government officials, politicians, diplomats, and foreign high-born citizens as well as those entering into the legal profession.

The May School was established for the high-middle class, educating the sons of prominent intellectuals and university professionals. It stressed the classics as well as subjects of the Enlightenment such as modern philosophy and the arts. The students referred to themselves as the Nevsky Pickwickians, taking this name from Charles Dickens’ great work – The Pickwick Papers. It had an additional meaning in that those called Pickwickians also meant that they exhibited idiosyncratic or unusual ways. The May School took great pride in the fact that their alumni introduced into Russia the Art Nouveau movement. Of course there were many other academies and schools in the capital as well as around Russia, many under imperial patronage, church patronage, or established by charities.

The Oldenburg family was a distant branch of the Romanov family, both families being descendants of the house of Holstein-Gottorp. Many members of this family lived at least part of the year in Saint Petersburg fully participating in the Court life while the remainder of the year they returned to their German homeland. Several members of the Oldenburg family, however, settled permanently in Russia. These were considered full members of the Romanov dynasty but without any rights of succession or the privileges granted to those of grand ducal rank.

The Leuchtenberg family descended from Eugene de Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon I. When Eugene married into the Bavarian royal family, he was given the title of Duke of Leuchtenberg by the Bavarian king. His grandson married the daughter of Tsar Nicholas I (1796 – 1855) who re-created the title ‘Duke of Leuchtenberg’ as a Russian-Finnish title, at the same time elevating this branch of the family to the rank of Imperial Highness with full membership in the imperial family of Russia but without succession rights; their precedence at Court following the least of the grand dukes.

Nicky closely resembled his cousin George of Wales, Alix’s second son. The two closely resembled one another, especially as adults, when they both adopted the van Dyke style beard which both men would wear for the rest of their lives. Courtiers in both Courts could not easily tell them apart but Nicky was clearly the better looking of the two cousins. This is probably so because they both resembled Danish relations, but George of Wales additional had the protruding Hanoverian eyes of his father and that line of ancestors which made him less attractive than Nicholas.

George Alexandrovitch on the other hand resembled the Romanovs, at least his Uncle Paul, Sasha’s youngest brother. Paul, in turn, resembled his mother’s family, the Hessians. George Alexandrovitch, however, did have the cool blue eyes of the Danes even though Minnie’s eyes were brown.

Alexander II had relaxed a similar existing requirement in the previous reign so that Protestant princesses marrying into the imperial family could opt, if their consciences demanded, to avert conversion. This did not apply to anyone marrying a direct heir to the throne. Imperial House Law required any possible future empress to be Orthodox. Alexander II made this adjustment because of the growing numbers of Romanovs needing brides from Protestant houses abroad and because of a growing draught of eligible princesses acceptable to existing Imperial House Laws. Alexander required his written permission for a Protestant princess to retain her faith. This personal decision was not automatic in his reign. Without a bride first becoming Orthodox, or if marriage took place without Alexander II’s expressed permission for the bride to retain her original faith, the offspring of such unions were not automatically entitled to imperial standing, rank, and funding from the Imperial Appanges Department. As such they were not automatically dynasts.

When Grand Duke Vladimir married Marie of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Miechen), she refused to accept Orthodoxy, so devoted to the Lutheran Church was she, but with Alexander II’s permission she entered the imperial family with equal standing and was able to retain her Protestant faith as long as she wished. Much later, near to the end of the dynasty, she converted to the Orthodox Church. With Sasha’s later decree in 1889, however, such permission was no longer granted and no marriage within the imperial family could take place without the bride first converting to Orthodoxy. Minnie fully supported Sasha in this decision.

Marriages between Romanovs and princesses of Catholic houses were virtually impossible as Catholics would not surrender their faith for marriage into the imperial house. Orthodox adherents preferred Protestants to Catholics at any rate as tensions between Rome and Orthodoxy had festered for centuries

Van der Kiste, John. Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings – 1863- 1974. Dover, New Hampshire: Alan Sutton Publishing, 1994, p. 45.

Sadly, when Greece abolished the monarchy in 1973, King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie also lost their beloved estate at Tatoi as it was confiscated at that time by the succeeding government. Continued calls for its return were refused by subsequent governments in Athens. The king took his case to regain his family home, as every citizen has the right to do, suing the Greek government at the European Court of Human Rights for the sum of €500 million. He won a much smaller award as compensation (approximately €12 million) for his lost property but the Greek government paid this sum from the “Extraordinary Natural Disasters Fund” with the intent of causing embarrassment to the king.

The court had no right to enforce how the money was paid to the king. Because the source of the funds used to pay him had come from funds reserved to aid Greeks in hardship, the king chose to use the payment to create the Anna Maria Foundation (named in honor of the queen) with the purpose of giving aid where natural disasters occur. Sadly, the king neither had his property returned nor had funds turned over to him which in good conscience he could accept for himself. The estate sits today unused and abused by vandals.

There is no evidence that their marriage was ever consummated. Ella submitted to her husband’s demanding ways, including his intentional humiliation of her in public. Serge was the most hated of the Romanovs. He was brutal and highly bigoted. Of all the grand dukes, Serge was the most anti-Semitic, the most anti-Catholic and the most brutal in his military commands. Serge routinely surrounded himself with handsome young cadets who worshiped him but otherwise he was generally despised.

Serge Alexandrovitch was blown to bits like his father before him; killed by the nihilists as he exited the Kremlin in Moscow where he served as military governor. Upon hearing the explosion, Elizabeth Feodorovna rushed to the scene on foot to find nothing left of her husband except bits of blood and flesh here and there scattered across the snow. Whereas his father, Tsar Alexander II, had died from a bomb blast that blew away his lower extremities, the nihilist so hated Serge that the bomb used to kill him was built to intentionally kill at least one hundred men. As such only one finger with the jeweled ring which he typically wore was found on a rooftop near to where the blast occurred. Everything else which had not been vaporized in the blast was now mere unrecognizable bloody flesh mounds. Ella had all the bits and pieces gathered and placed in his regimental uniform’s greatcoat, this coat was then placed within a casket, and the casket placed in a nearby church for veneration until his remains could be buried. Ella converted to Orthodoxy and eventually founded a nursing order of nuns known as the Sisters of Martha and Mary using her own money, appanages income, and proceeds from the sale of her jewelry and property to build a motherhouse convent for her new order. Ella was murdered by the Bolsheviks during the revolution.

Mary Adelaide never lived to see her daughter crowned queen. She died at White Lodge following an emergency operation on 27 October 1897. Two weeks prior, she underwent surgery to remove kidney stones and then immediately insisted on participating in the Diamond Jubilee processions and numerous celebrations at Buckingham Palace including a garden party. She also attended the Duchess of Devonshire’s famous fancy dress period ball despite her weakened state. By 23 October she had once more taken to her sick bed. May hurried to White Lodge to be near her mother. Her doctors suggested a malignancy and another surgery quickly was proposed. Mary Adelaide did not survive the procedure.

As a male-line granddaughter of a king with the appellation of Royal Highness she was entitled to a funeral service at Saint George’s Chapel, Windsor. The queen attended and Alix stood beside the coffin throughout the brief service. She was visibly moved by her friend’s death. Fat Mary’s remains were laid in the royal burial vault beneath the chapel and were permitted to remain there when the new royal burial ground at Frogmore was created in 1928. By this time her daughter May was Queen Mary, the consort of George V, and as such she had the power to keep the remains of her beloved mother inside the more prestigious royal burial vault. When the new graveyard at Frogmore was consecrated numerous deceased members of the royal family, however, including those of Prince Frank of Teck, were removed from the vault and transferred to graves created for them at the new site.

In 1885 Tsar Alexander III began the custom of presenting his empress with a valuable, one-of-a-kind object d’art in the form of an enameled egg. These eggs were presented to the empress at Easter each year. Sasha commissioned ten eggs as gifts to Minnie between 1885 and 1916. Each year the theme of the egg was chosen by the tsar in advance and the workshops of Peter Carl Fabergé were charged with their creation. When Nicholas II came to the throne he continued his late father’s custom by ordering two eggs each year as Easter gifts for his mother, Minnie, and his for wife, Alexandra. This custom continued for twenty years with forty Fabergé Eggs being created for the two empresses during the reign of Nicholas II. The collection was broken up and sold off by the Soviet regime after the revolution. It is found today in numerous museums and private collections although a few Fabergé eggs remain in the Kremlin’s exhibit dedicated to the Romanov treasures. Although priceless, some experts say that if sold as a complete collection (which is no longer really feasible) the Russian Imperial Easter Egg Collection would garner upwards of $1 billion dollars.

Fabergé created objects d’art for other Romanovs as well as for Alix and Bertie in Britain. Fabergé also created a valuable picture frame for George V. It stood on his desk for the entirety of his life but it did not contain a photograph of Queen Mary or one of his mother, Queen Alexandra. This Fabergé gold and enamel frame held the likeness of Julie Stoner, the first love of Georgie of Wales.

All of the royal regiments of Europe accepted only the finest looking, most handsome, men for membership in their elite corps. It was no different in Russia. In fact, Russia took the search for handsome men to an extreme. Since the reign of Catherine the Great, imperial practice required that all the officers of its various regiments had to stand no shorter than 5’ 11”. The men of the Preobrazhensky Regiment had to be fair-haired with blue eyes; the Chevalier Guard had to stand at least six feet tall and had to look Germanic rather than Russian; the Semenovsky regiment was filled with only dark-haired men but their eyes likewise had to be blue; and in the Pavlovsky Regiment all officers had to have short-stubbed noses like its founder, Tsar Paul I.

The Russians went even further in their regimental requirements. The horses of each regiment had to exactly match each other in size and coloring: the Dragoons rode chestnut horses, the Chevalier Guards rode matching light bay horses, and the Guard à Cheval had stables full of matching all-black steeds. Breeding programs were a part of each regiment’s life with immense stables and breeding farms established outside the capital for each just for the purpose of producing horses up to the standards of imperial regulations.

Princess Alice of Albany was one of two children born to Prince Leopold and his wife Princess Helena of Waldeck-Pyrmont (sister of Queen Emma of The Netherlands). Alice’s younger brother Charles inherited the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha when Uncle Alfred died (as his only son, Alfred, had died before him at age 24 in 1899). Alice would go on to marry Prince Alexander of Teck, Fat Mary’s third son (and fourth child). Alice became HRH Princess Alexander of Teck at her marriage to Alge in February 1904 in Saint George’s Chapel. She played a visible role in the reigns of Victoria, Edward VII and George V who became her brother-in-law when George married May of Teck (Queen Mary). When the royal family disavowed all of its German origins and titles during the First World War, the Tecks lost their princely titles and their rank of Serene Highness. Each was given an appropriate noble title in Great Britain; Alge became the Earl of Athlone. These changes took effect on 17 July 1917 and thereafter Alice became known as HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone. She retained her rank of Royal Highness, and her title of princess, because Alice was a male-line grandchild of a British monarch.

At the time of her death Alice was Queen Victoria’s last surviving grandchild and the longest living blood member of the British royal family. She died on 3 January 1981 at the age of ninety-seven. Others in the royal family would also live to an advanced age but in her time, Alice was the oldest and most venerated member of the old royal family.

There is a difference between a body lying-in-repose and it lying-in-state. In the former, the viewing of the dead queen was a strictly private affair – exclusive to Victoria’s family and the Household officials at Osborne. Her being placed on view for them in a private setting is referred to diplomatically as lying-in-repose.

When a head of state, or head of a church, is placed on public display, either in an open or a closed casket, specifically for public veneration, the term applied to this form of viewing is properly known as a lying-in-state. Monarchs, presidents, and popes, as well as, heads of other churches, all lie-in-state. All other officials, however, lie-in-repose. Victoria left instructions that she was not to lie-in-state. The only public view of her casket by the public was during its transfer from Osborne to Windsor.

Technically this nation-state was known as the Kingdom of the Pontifical States with the reigning pope being simultaneously a secular king. For 1,000 years the popes were known as pope-king (il papa-re). After Garibaldi’s march on Rome, with the pope and his Court fleeing to safety behind the Vatican’s walls, a new nation was proclaimed, unified Italy, under a monarchy of the House of Savoy. The official title of the new nation was the Kingdom of Italy and from that time onward popes never left the confines of the original Vatican territory. This self-imposed exile triggered a political standoff which became known as the Roman Question. Those who supported the new king and his government (people the popes considered usurpers) were excommunicated and barred from the Vatican. Those who remained loyal to the pope were excluded from Roman society. This went on until 1929 when the new Vatican City State was created, given to the pope as sovereign but not king, and a huge indemnity was paid to the Church in reparation by the Italian state.

When Italy originally confiscated the Papal States with it went billions of dollars in property value seized at the same time. The Church lost all of its revenue sources and the money it used for charity and so in 1929 all of these issues had to be rectified in a series of treaties signed by the two parties known as the Lateran Pacts. In 1903, however, visiting heads of state could not go from one Court to the other—the Papal Court to the Royal Court or vice versa. Visitors had to go back to their embassy or hotel after visiting one monarch and then start out again as neither side would permit direct entry to their palaces from the other side. The Roman Question plagued European affairs for decades and it is for these reasons King Victor Emmanuel III did not want Bertie to visit Pope Leo XIII.

HIMY Standard

HIMY Polar Star

HMY Victoria and Albert III

George V, Bertie’s son and heir;

Kaiser Wilhelm II, Bertie’s nephew;

Frederick VIII of Denmark, Bertie’s brother-in-law;

George I of Greece, Bertie’s brother-in-law;

Haakon VII of Norway, Bertie’s son-in-law (and nephew by marriage);

Alfonso XIII of Spain, Bertie’s nephew by marriage;

Manuel II of Portugal, Bertie’s Saxe Coburg cousin;

Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Bertie’s Saxe Coburg cousin;

Albert I of Belgium; Bertie’s Saxe Coburg cousin.

Besides the nine reigning monarchs; forty other royal mourners rode in procession on horseback:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the Turkish Crown Prince, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovitch, the Duke of Aosta representing Italy, Prince Fushimi of Japan, Crown Prince Constantine of Greece, Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria representing the House of Wittlesbach, Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg, the Crown Prince of Serbia, Prince Hendrik of The Netherlands, Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (cousin Augusta’s son), Henry of Prussia, Charles of Saxe Coburg, Johann Georg of Saxony, Prince Carl of Sweden, the Sovereign Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the Hereditary Prince Mohamed Ali of Egypt, Prince Arthur of Connaught, Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, his son Prince Albert, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, the Duke of Fife, the Duke of Teck, Prince Frank of Teck, Prince Alexander of Teck, Prince Andrei of Greece and his brother Prince Christopher, Grand Duke Michael Michaelovitch (Miche-Miche), Prince Max of Baden, the Crown Prince of Montenegro, Prince Philip of Saxe Coburg, the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (cousin Augusta’s grandson), Imperial Prince Luis of Brazil, Prince Pierre, Duc de Penthievre, grandson of the late king Louis-Phillipe, Prince August Leopold of Saxe Coburg, Prince Wolrad of Waldeck and Pyrmont, Prince Bovaradej of Thailand, Count Gliechen, and Count von Mensdorff-Pouilly-Dietrichstein.

Twelve year-old Caésar was known formally as Caésar of Knotts. He was a wire-hair Fox Terrier whom the late king adored. Caésar traveled everywhere with the king and his position in the cortege seem most appropriate at the time of the king’s death although a dog had never before been included in a royal funeral.

This practice would be repeated in 1945 at Franklin Roosevelt’s funeral when his dog, Fala, was present in the processions. It was again repeated in 2005 at the funeral of Prince Rainier of Monaco when his dog, Odin, followed his master’s casket in procession to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Monaco-Ville.

Caésar would survive his royal master by four years, dying in 1914, after spending the last years of his life with Queen Alexandra.

Those that followed in carriages were:

Queen Alexandra, Empress Marie Feodorovna, Tyra Duchess of Cumberland, the Princess Royal, Princess Victoria, Queen Maud, Queen Mary, Prince Edward (David) the future Edward VIII, his sister Mary, his brothers Albert (the future George VI), his brothers George and Henry, the late king’s sisters Princesses Christian and the Duchess of Argyll and Princess Henry of Battenberg; his sisters-in-law the duchesses of Connaught and Albany, his niece Princess Patricia of Connaught, his granddaughters Princesses Alexandra and Maud of Fife, Bertie’s two nieces Helena-Victoria and Marie Louise, Thyra’s son Prince George of Hanover, President Roosevelt, Prince Zaitao of China, and several representatives of non-monarchical governments.

Alexandra of Fife was Alix and Bertie’s granddaughter, the eldest surviving child of their daughter Louise and the Duke of Fife. Alexandra had been engaged to her first cousin, Christopher of Greece, son of Willy and Olga, but both sets of parents frowned on the two marrying, seeing both as unsuited to one another. So the engagement was permitted to lapse.

In December 1911 the Fife family set out for Egypt to avoid the coming harsh English winter. While crossing the Mediterranean, a severe storm overtook their ship and it sank. The Fife’s were thrown into the unusually cold waters where they remained for a long while. Although they all eventually made it safely to shore, they were all soaked to the skin and had to walk four miles to the nearest shelter. The Duke of Fife developed pleurisy and subsequently pneumonia, dying on 29 January 1912, at the age of 62. His eldest daughter succeeded him in the title.

The Romanov detainees in the Crimea were:

At Ai-Todor: The Dowager Empress Marie; Grand Duchess Xenia; Prince Demitri, Xenia’s son; Princess Irina, her daughter, and Irina’s husband Prince Felix; Prince Felix’s parents; Prince Vassili, Xenia’s son. (Xenia’s husband Grand Duke Sandro had already left Russia to help secure aid for the imperial family). Also at Ai-Todor were Princess Sophia Dolgoruky wife of Prince Serge Dolgoruky, Minnie’s equerry, who was in service to her at this time; Countess Zenaide Mengden, Minnie’s lady-in-waiting; Princess Aprak Obolensky, another lady-in-waiting; and three English governesses to the children in the group – Misses King, Henton and Coster. All of the above were also joined by their households from the Ai-Todor estate.

At Dulber (which is just down the hillside from Ai-Todor): Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholevitch; his wife Grand Duchess Anastasia; Grand Duke Peter Nicholevitch; Peter’s wife Grand Duchess Militza; their daughter Princess Marina; their second daughter Princess Nadezhda and her husband Prince Nicholas Orlov; and Prince Roman, son of Grand Duke Peter. All of the above were also joined by their households from the Dulber estate.