(Book 1) Les dernières années de la cour de Tzarskoié-Sélo
CHAPTER I6
Empress Alexandra Feodorovna belonged to the family of Hesse, known for its morbid moods. She was the daughter of Grand Duke Louis of Hesse and Princess Alice, the fourth daughter of Victoria, Queen of England, her paternal grandfather and her father had been sick for most of their lives. Her brothers and sisters had suffered from hereditary diseases, as she did also. This is what I was told by one of the famous Russian professors, who was well informed as to the health issues presenting the Empress.
‘The morbid history of illness within the Hesse family was transmitted, in the male line, in the form of haemophilia, an illness accompanied by changes in the neurovascular system an in the composition of the blood itself’.
In the female side of the bloodline, the hereditary illness was apparent in other forms. Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fedorovna was a very sick lady.
‘For Alexandra Feodorovna, the hereditary illness was manifested, in her youth, through a very weak nervous system and great impressionability; later, due to the unfavourable conditions of life at the Court, the nervous system began to show definite alterations, hystero-neurasthenic phenomena and some psychological problems. ‘The hysteric nature of the nervous symptoms is proven to us through the ease with which the Empress accepted positive suggestions from some, and negative suggestions from others. ‘Her neurasthenic symptoms are apparent in the form of a great weakness ‘asthenia’ in the body in general, and in the cardiac muscle in particular, with painful sensations in the precordial region. ‘These complaints are also associated with oedema in the legs, due to poor circulation’. ‘The problems in the neurovascular system just mentioned are also evidenced by the regular changes in skin colour ‘dermographism’ and by the appearance of rather large red patches on the face’. ‘As for the psychological problems ‘loss of psychological balance’, these are mainly shown through a state of deep depression, a great indifference to everything around her, and a tendency towards religiousn daydreaming’. ‘The neurovascular phenomena concerned here ‘dilation or constriction of the vessels’ become more pronounced as the critical age approaches. They are then complicated by a feeling of anxiety, a weakening of centres of inhibition, and intellectual problems mainly affecting the logical functioning of intellectual functions.’ It was this illness, hysteron-neurasthenia, which had caused the Empress’ exaggerated likes and dislikes, her bizarre way of thinking and acting, her religious exaltation, her belief in the supernatural in general, and her faith in Rasputin in particular. Initially, her illness had only affected her personal life and that of her family. But as the critical age approached, and the illness became more and more pronounced, the Empress had felt the need to intervene in State matters,
