Background
According to her sister Olga"s memoirs, Alexandra had inherited her mother"s "Prussian look".
According to her sister Olga"s memoirs, Alexandra had inherited her mother"s "Prussian look".
Nicholas affectionately spoke of Adini as ".. a little moppet, but very sweet". Alexandra was famous in Saint St. Petersburg society for both her wit and her lively personality. She was also the musician in the family.
A serious student of vocal music, she was talented enough to qualify for lessons from the famous soprano Henriette Sontag.
On 28 January 1844, Alexandra married Prince Frederick William of Hesse (1820–1884) in Saint St. Petersburg. Her husband was the only son of Prince William of Hesse and Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark.
"Fritz", as he was called, had come to Saint St. Petersburg as a prospective bridegroom for Olga, but fell in love with Adini instead on the first evening he spent with the family. The emperor and empress then gave their permission for Alexandra and Fritz to be married.
Alexandra became acutely ill with tuberculosis shortly before her wedding, and this complicated the pregnancy which soon followed.
They stayed in Saint St. Petersburg, where her health rapidly declined. She went into labor prematurely, three months before the child was due, and gave birth to a son, Wilhelm. The infant died shortly after he was born, and Alexandra died later the same day.
Her parents were devastated and their grief would last until the end of their lives.
She was buried at the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint St. Petersburg. Her son was buried in Rumpenheim (Germany).
Eventually he became head of the House of Hesse-Kassel. In the gardens of the Petergof palace near Saint St. Petersburg there is a memorial bench with a small sculpture bust of the Grand Duchess.
Her rooms there have been preserved just as they were at the time of her death.
Six sheaves of wheat made of diamonds, which came to Hesse on one of the gowns in Alexandra"s trousseau, were transformed into a tiara by Anna around 1900.