Cursed Facts About Maria Feodorovna, The Little Mother Of Russia

How did a woman born so blessed end up so utterly cursed? Starting as a Danish princess, Maria Feodorovna rose to become a celebrity Tsarina known for her seductive beauty, iron will, and influence over her son Nicholas II.

But in the blink of an eye, she lost every last shred of her glamour and power—and it happened in one of the most infamous plot twists in history.

1. Her Family Loved Making Babies

Despite the name we know her by now, Maria Feodorovna wasn’t Russian at all. She was born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, and her family was nothing to sneeze at. Her favorite sister, the elder Alexandra of Denmark, went on to marry King Edward VII of England. Meanwhile, her father King Christian IX was famous as “The Father-in-Law of Europe” because of the scads of good matches he made for his girls. But when Maria’s time came, she blew her sisters out of the water.

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2. People Went Wild For Her Beauty

As Maria came of age, it became clear she was going to catch a very big fish indeed. Simply put, she was beyond gorgeous, and there are reams of historical evidence to prove it. Practically every person with a pulse wouldn’t stop raving about her “Grecian outline of face,” her “inborn majesty,” and her “flashing eyes,” not to mention her keen intelligence, way with words, and innate fashion sense.

No less than Queen Victoria was eyeing up Maria for marriage to one of her younger sons, and even noted that she was “cleverer” than her sister Alexandra. But Maria had one man in particular in mind.

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3. She Met A Russian Prince Charming

In the 1860s, when Maria was barely a teenager, she met Nicholas Alexandrovich, the Crown Prince of Russia. The encounter set off a drastic chain of events. Nicholas, or “Nixa” as his family called him, fell madly in love with Maria after only seeing a photograph of her. In short, Nixa had it bad, and wrote to his mother, “I think only about her.”

So when he actually went over and met her in person, he instantly set his plan in motion.

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4. Her Lover Was One Heck Of A Catch

For the next while, Nixa did everything he could to put himself in the best light for Maria—and to be fair, he was one fine specimen. The very ideal of Romanov manhood, Nixa was slender yet strong, intelligent yet lively, and nicknamed the “

crown of perfection” in his home country. His charisma assault worked a charm: Soon enough, Maria was just as head over heels for the Tsarevich as he was for her.

By the summer of 1864, Nicholas proposed. Tragically, this is where things went terribly, terribly wrong.

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