Marie de Coucy
Alexander II died on 8 July 1249 during an expedition against the Lord of Argyll on the island of Kerrera. Immediately after the news reached her, Marie made sure her 8-year-old son was crowned as soon as possible at Scone. Although her son was a minor and was placed under regency, Marie did not become regent. On 9 June 1250 Marie and her son Alexander III were present in Dunfermline for the observance of the canonisation of Saint Margaret of Scotland and the transference of her remains to the new shrine.
Alexander Palace
Nicholas II abdicated the throne of Russia on 2 March 1917. Thirteen days later, he returned to the Alexander Palace not as Emperor of Russia, but as Colonel Romanov. The Imperial Family were now held under house arrest and confined to a few rooms of the palace and watched over by a guard with fixed bayonets. The regime of their captivity, worked out by Alexander Kerensky himself, envisaged strict limitations in the life of the Imperial Family: an isolation from the outer world, a guard during their promenades in the park, prohibition of any contacts and correspondence apart from approved letters. Gillard noted,