BIOGRAPHY / RUSSIAN STUDIES

LITTLE MOTHER OF RUSSIA:

A Biography of Empress Marie Fedorovna

Pricess Dagmar, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and sister Queen Alexandra of England and King George I of Greece, was betrothed to Tsarevitch Nicholas of Russia, a love match on both sides. Tragically, he died just months before their wedding.

Out of duty she married his brother in 1866, and so fifteen years later this poor, obscure princess was raised to the heights of the Russian imperial throne when her husband became Alexander III, after the assasination of his father. Her son was Nicholas II, the last Tsar.

More tragedy was in store. Her husband died in his prime and two of her sons died young. During the First World War, her advice unheeded, the Tsar took command of the army and she could only watch in despair as the country she loved was governed by her daughter-in-law Empress Alexandra and Rasputin, with disasterous results. Russia was engulfed in revolution, leading to the destruction of the dynasty and the Church. Many of her family disappeared, including two sons and five grandchildren—among them the controversial Anastasia.

She escaped on a British warship and was brought to England. The most senior member of the dynasty to survive, her world was law amonth the emigrés and her influence paramount among the surviving Romanovs. She had truly become Matoushka, the mother of the Russian People. She died in Denmark, a tragic relic of a bygone age.

Using previously unpublished material from the Royal Archives and information in Russian, Danish and Finnish previously unavailable in English, this is the first biography of the Empress for 40 years and the first major work in English.

"[Hall's] genealogical expertise illustrates the complex relationships of the royal Danish and imperial Russian families. [She] offers a sympathetic picture of the imperial Russian family, although she does not gloss over her subject's occasional pettiness and selfishness. She reminds us that the Romanovs were all too human."
—John T. Alexander, The Historian

"Hall has answered the need for a new, just, and accessible biography of Empress Marie Feodorovna .... Hall is generous and insightful in analyzing the relationship between the extroverted Marie and her reserved daughter-in-law, Empress Alexandra."
—Brad Hooper, Booklist

"This book vividly illustrates the tragic life of Maria 'Dagmar' Feodorovna and is a must-read for any student of Russian history."
—Bookideas.com

“If you like to know about places, from the State Rooms of palaces to the cosy corner beloved of nineteenth century royalty, if you want to know who was where, and what they wore, and what they did, if you like descriptions of dresses and jewellery and Court ceremonial, you could want no better than this.
      That said, Coryne Hall does offer a very good, and critical, picture of Maria Feodorovna’s life as Dowager Empress, of her travels and her Danish existence at Hvidøre, and of the lives of her younger children.”
—Royalty Digest

“Little Mother of Russia, the first biography in English of this remarkable and largely forgotten woman for 40 years, is factual enough to educate, while entertaining enough to grab your imagination and keep the average reader’s interest.”
—The Herald

Coryne Hall was born in Ealing, West London and developed an interest in history and genealogy from childhood. Her particular fascination for imperial Russian history began when she learnt that her great-grandmother was born in St. Petersburg, an almost exact contemporary of Tsar Nicholas II. Her interest was further fuelled by training in classical ballet, which at the time had a strong Russian influence.¶ She began research in earnest on the life of Empress Marie Feodorovna in 1981. She is a regular contributor to Royalty Digest and the American-based European Royal History Journal.