Different wife for Nicholas II

I'm in the early stages of research for a potential timeline and found out that Princesse Helene d'Orleans was the leading candidate as Nicholas II's wife. Now, iotl he ignored his parents' preference and married Alix of Hesse. The future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

My understanding is that Nicholas had to ask his wife twice to marry him and, his parents' choice had the eye of a British prince. Noting the above, are there any other suitable candidates for marriage?
 
I'm in the early stages of research for a potential timeline and found out that Princesse Helene d'Orleans was the leading candidate as Nicholas II's wife. Now, iotl he ignored his parents' preference and married Alix of Hesse. The future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

My understanding is that Nicholas had to ask his wife twice to marry him and, his parents' choice had the eye of a British prince. Noting the above, are there any other suitable candidates for marriage?
A Hohenzollern wife could lead to complications later on.
 
I'm in the early stages of research for a potential timeline and found out that Princesse Helene d'Orleans was the leading candidate as Nicholas II's wife. Now, iotl he ignored his parents' preference and married Alix of Hesse. The future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

My understanding is that Nicholas had to ask his wife twice to marry him and, his parents' choice had the eye of a British prince. Noting the above, are there any other suitable candidates for marriage?
This is actually harder to pull off without ASB that it seems, because Nicky had his heart set on Alix from pretty much the moment he saw her arrive with a retinue of other German princesses and royals for a marriage in St. Pete to one of the members of his family (I forget which one). Nicky was an odd duck, but he was stubborn. People often seem him as a push over and in some ways he was, and he was indecisive and at times meek because daddy beat (mentally) a lot of out of him. But where he and his brothers did rebel was in the affairs of the heart. It was their private sanctuary.

Princesse Helene d'Orleans was a political match, to align Russia and France. And his father favored it, but Nicky cottoned on to the scheme and realized Helene was presented as an alternative to Alix and dug in his heels.

What I truly believe changed the game for everyone was that Alexander III's injury from the train derailment was discovered (after the fact) to be much more serious than first thought and the heir to throne had to get married and stop fooling around with ballerinas (Little Kschessinskaya was brought in to gently ease the pain virginity from Nicky before the life in the Guards would lead him down the "wrong path" of sodomizing some drummer boy or getting busy with *pearls clutched in horror* a Jewish gal or a gypxy). Nicky realized that the time had come for him to marry and that all wanted him to marry and dug in his heels and waited for them to allow him to marry Alix and he out-waited them.

Now... suppose there is no train derailment at Borki. Not saying Alex III lives longer. Doesn't have to. But let's say there is no derailment at Borki. There is no bruise and no kidney trouble for Alex III and that means no one expects the heir to the throne to marry for another five years as compared to OTL. That means the time is on the side of Alex III and his faction and they can wait out Nicky and once he's done with ballerinas, they present him a more "suitable" bride.
 
This is actually harder to pull off without ASB that it seems, because Nicky had his heart set on Alix from pretty much the moment he saw her arrive with a retinue of other German princesses and royals for a marriage in St. Pete to one of the members of his family (I forget which one). Nicky was an odd duck, but he was stubborn. People often seem him as a push over and in some ways he was, and he was indecisive and at times meek because daddy beat (mentally) a lot of out of him. But where he and his brothers did rebel was in the affairs of the heart. It was their private sanctuary.

Thanks for your thoughts and, this would also be for an ASB SI.

That aside I thought that the best place to ask this question would be in the Post 1900 forum.

Thus far I have three options: Princesse Helene d'Orleans, Princess Elena of Montenegro, and Princess Alix of Hesse. Are there any other candidates that you are aware of that would be a good match for Nicholas II?
 
Helene couldn't marry Nicholas for the same reason she couldn't marry Prince Eddy (the Duke of Clarence) who also fancied her. By law, neither man could marry a Catholic wife without losing his future throne ; and the Pope threatened to excommunicate her entire family if they allowed her to convert.

Nicholas was friendly with his cousin Prince George (the Duke of York) and looked a lot like him. Possibly Nicholas ends up engaged to May of Teck ? Her family has little influence but she at least isn't a hemophilia carrier, and won't invite Rasputin over.
 
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Thanks for your thoughts and, this would also be for an ASB SI.

That aside I thought that the best place to ask this question would be in the Post 1900 forum.

Thus far I have three options: Princesse Helene d'Orleans, Princess Elena of Montenegro, and Princess Alix of Hesse. Are there any other candidates that you are aware of that would be a good match for Nicholas II?
I'm not sure, but there were plenty of princesses out there and the only stumbling block was the Russian faith. Then again, in the immortal words of a sex-crazed pragmatic gnome: "Paris is worth a Mass." I'd think some of them would modify the faith of their fathers for a chance to rule a country with eleven time zones.
 
This is actually harder to pull off without ASB that it seems, because Nicky had his heart set on Alix from pretty much the moment he saw her arrive with a retinue of other German princesses and royals for a marriage in St. Petersburg to one of the members of his family (I forget which one).
Easiest solution then would seem to be avoid having her attend the wedding. A suitably timed, tragically lethal or merely temporarily debilitating, illness of accident and he never sets eyes on her.


Helene couldn't marry Nicholas for the same reason she couldn't marry Prince Eddy (the Duke of Clarence) who also fancied her. By law, neither man could marry a Catholic wife without losing his future throne...
How does that track with Nicholas' parents trailing Helene d'Orleans as the preferred candidate considering that she was Roman Catholic? I ask as I'm not really au fait with the inheritance rules of the House of Romanov.
 
How does that track with Nicholas' parents trailing Helene d'Orleans as the preferred candidate considering that she was Roman Catholic? I ask as I'm not really au fait with the inheritance rules of the House of Romanov.

They expected her to convert.

http://www.romanovfamily.org/succession.html
... for all future generations a sine-qua-non condition for having the right to claim the Throne of Russia was an absolute compliance with the Pauline Laws, which included the obligation of the bride to belong to the Russian Orthodox Faith at the time of the wedding.

However her father and Pope Leo XIII both forbade her to do so.
 
They expected her to convert.
Ah, right. When you wrote 'neither man could marry a Catholic wife without losing his future throne' I took that to mean even converting wouldn't be considered kosher and therefore bar them from the line of succession.
 
The biggest impact of a alternate wife for Nicholas II would be if the Czarina gives birth to a healthy male heir and if she is accepted by the Russian people.
Alexandria wasn’t very popular with both rich and poor Russians.

An interesting twist would be what if Alix of Hesse and Mary of Teck switched roles? Would Alix be accepted by the British people? Would Mary be able to get her family sanctuary in
England if WWI and the Russian Revolution still play out as OTL?
 
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