Maria Alexandrovna

Born Princess Marie of Hesse in 1824, raised in piety and frugality after her mother's death when she was twelve, she married Tsesarevich Alexander at sixteen - daunted at first by the extravagance of Russian court life but young enough to grow into it wholly. When Alexander became emperor in 1855 and her mother-in-law died five years later, she stepped into public view: co-founding the Russian Red Cross Society, establishing Russia's first all-female schools, backing her husband morally through the abolition of serfdom, and lending her name to the Mariinsky Theatre and Mariinskyi Palace. Tuberculosis took hold in 1863, driving her south for milder winters, and grief deepened after the death of her eldest son just before his wedding. She kept close ties to Hesse, visiting yearly, and was known for wisdom, intellect, and a generosity that extended even to her husband's mistress and her children. She died in 1880.