olishkanikolaevna:Women In History: Queens and Princesses57) The Girl of the Doomed NameAlexandra Al

olishkanikolaevna:Women In History: Queens and Princesses57) The Girl of the Doomed NameAlexandra Alexandrovna of Russia (30 August 1842 – 10 July 1849) was the eldest child of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine.She was nicknamed “Lina” or “Sashenka” within her family. Her father enjoyed having her keep him company while he worked in his study. Her death from infant meningitis at the age of six and a half devastated her parents. Her mother was still brought to tears by the mention of her eldest child decades after her death.Her father placed a dried flower from her funeral mass in his diary and marked the page in black to signify mourning.They were thrilled when they had a second daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, because they had so missed having a little girl.A blue silk frock worn by Alexandra was still on display in the Winter Palace fifty years after her death, according to Margaretta Eagar. “A pretty golden-haired child she was, too, judging from her portrait,” wrote Eagar, a nurse for the four daughters of Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. The name Alexandra was considered unlucky in the Romanov family by the late 19th century because so many Romanov Alexandras had died as children or in their teens. The British public had wondered why none of the Tsarina’s daughters was named in her honor; Eagar explained that the name was not used, despite the fact that Alexandra was their mother’s name, because it was considered so unlucky. Other ill-fated Alexandras were Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna, Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna and Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna. Eagar wrote that other branches of the family had named daughters Alexandra, but none lived past age twenty-one. -- source link

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