romanovsonelastdance: Heir Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich as a baby. Four daughters had been bo
romanovsonelastdance: Heir Tsesarevich Alexei Nikolaevich as a baby. Four daughters had been born and yet no heir. Most Royal families have a certain vein of mysticism but none could surpass the Russian Imperial Family. Their Faith, their Country, the long winter with its monotonous snow and silence, all tend to develop a strain of melancholy in their characters. The Empress desired above all else to have a son, but so far only these sweet daughters had been born. Prayers and pilgrimages, all had been undertaken in vain.When at last the Tzarevitch was born, the religious mysticism of the Empress increased, mainly owing to the sad malady inherited by her son. She was shy, which was a great handicap, in many ways. She was awed by her mother-in-law, the Dowager Empress Marie, and frightened of hurting her feelings. And the Empress could never forget the opposition which the late Emperor and his wife had displayed to her marriage. She believed that Society did not care for her. This idea was fostered by people who wished to estrange the Imperial couple from their subjects. She crept more and more into her shell, eventually only her husband and children counted—they became her complete world. The illness of the lovely little boy was a torture to her and the unacknowledged certainly that he could never really be cured, a martyrdom. Agnes de Stoeckl, My Dear Marquess -- source link