Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)
On the morning of 13 March 1881, her father-in-law Alexander II of Russia, aged 62, was killed by a bomb on the way back to the Winter Palace from a military parade. In her diary, Maria later described how the wounded, still living Emperor was taken to the palace: "His legs were crushed terribly and ripped open to the knee; a bleeding mass, with half a boot on the right foot, and only the sole of the foot remaining on the left." Alexander II died a few hours later. Although the people were not enamoured of the new emperor, they adored Russia's new empress. As Maria's contemporaries said of her: "She is truly an empress." She was not altogether pleased with her new status. In her diary she wrote, "Our happiest and serenest times are now over. My peace and calm are gone, for now I will only ever be able to worry about Sasha." Despite being haunted by her father-in-law's gruesome death and her anxiety over the safety of her husband, at Alexander II's funeral, she was at least afforded the comfort of the presence of her brother-in-law and favourite sister, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the latter of whom, despite her husband's reluctance and Queen Victoria's objections, stayed on in Russia with Maria for several weeks after the funeral.
Nicholas II of Russia
By that autumn, Alexander III lay dying. Upon learning that he would live only a fortnight, the Tsar had Nicholas summon Alix to the imperial palace at Livadia. Alix arrived on 22 October; the Tsar insisted on receiving her in full uniform. From his deathbed, he told his son to heed the advice of Witte, his most capable minister. Ten days later, Alexander III died at the age of forty-nine, leaving twenty-six-year-old Nicholas as Emperor of Russia. That evening, Nicholas was consecrated by his father's priest as Tsar Nicholas II and, the following day, Alix was received into the Russian Orthodox Church, taking the name Alexandra Feodorovna with the title of Grand Duchess and the style of "Imperial Highness".