On this day — 24 April (O.S. 12 April) 1865 — Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich died in Nice, France
Born at Tsarskoye Selo on 20 September (O.S. 8 September) 1843, and nicknamed «Nixa», he was the eldest son of the Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich, eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I, and the Tsarevna Maria Alexandrovna. In 1855, his paternal grandfather died, and his father succeeded to the throne as Emperor Alexander II.
In the summer of 1864, Nicholas became engaged to Princess Dagmar of Denmark. In 1865, he contracted an ailment that was initially incorrectly diagnosed as rheumatism. Nicholas’s symptoms at that time included back pain and a stiff neck, as well as sensitivity to noise and light.
His health rapidly worsened, and it was eventually determined that he was suffering from cerebro-spinal meningitis. In the spring of 1865, Nicholas continued to decline, and he died on 24 April 1865, at the Villa Bermont in Nice, France.
It is believed that on his deathbed, Nicholas expressed the wish that his fiancée become the bride of his younger brother and future tsesarevich, Alexander, and in 1866, the couple (future Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna) was married.
Nicholas’s death at the early age of 21 thoroughly devastated his mother Empress Maria Alexandrovna, who never recovered from his death.
In 1867, construction began on the Chapelle du Tsarévitch Nicolas Alexandrovitch, named in his honour in Nice, on the exact place where Nicholas was said to have died, and in 1868, the chapel was consecrated.
The unexpected death of the young heir to the throne shocked both the Russian Empire and the Romanov family. Had Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Nicholas Alexandrovich lived, he would have married Princess Dagmar of Denmark, and ascended the Russian throne as Emperor Nicholas II, upon the death of his father Emperor Alexander II in March 1881. Sadly, this was not to be.
Memory Eternal! Вечная Память!
