The Eagle and The Lioness - a Victorian Timeline

(First attempt at a timeline, this can only go well...)
So, in 1838, the future Tsar Alexander II met Victoria, and had a short-lived romance with her. However, they both went their own separate ways, Alexander was assassinated, and Victoria died in 1901, having connected her family with most of Europe's major noble houses.

What, then, if Alexander actually does marry Victoria? First off, he will renounce his claim to the Russian throne...

I have to concede two points as of this post:
1) I don't have any fancy writing up yet, but should soon!
2) my knowledge of Russian history is rudimentary at best, so I'm hoping I can use the research necessary to expand my knowledge of that :)
 
Next on line would be Alexander Nicholayevitsh's younger brother Konstantin. He was quiet liberal so he might be make pretty much similar reforms as OTL Alexander II. Of course if he lives long enough. This marriage might has intresting affects between relationship of Russia and United Kingdom.
 
Next on line would be Alexander Nicholayevitsh's younger brother Konstantin. He was quiet liberal so he might be make pretty much similar reforms as OTL Alexander II. Of course if he lives long enough. This marriage might has intresting affects between relationship of Russia and United Kingdom.

He died in 1892 OTL, so no particular health concerns. That being said, I doubt either Melbourne or Peel would allow the Queen to marry a Russian Tsarevich. Marrying a German petty princeling was unpopular enough.
 
Well, apparently, he was willing to do so, so...
1840-1848 - Europe on the Eve of Revolutions: Part 1 - the Marriage of the Century (and an upset German)
Tsarevich Alexander Nikolayev was, by all accounts, not exactly an unattractive man - a trait contemporaries also ascribed to his father, Nicholas I of Russia. At the same time, Victoria of England was not exactly an unattractive woman. Having both met during Alexander's brief stay in London, they developed a swift romance. Despite objections of Parliament, Victoria was adamant in her decisions. Parliament agreed - on one condition: Alexander would give up his claim to the Russian throne.
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A portrait of Alexander.
Though not expecting the reply to be so adamant, Alexander was willing to cede the claim, writing in his diary that "Paris may be worth a mass, but Victoria is worth an Empire." His father disagreed vehemently. Feeling that the loss of Alexander might be a loss to the Russian Empire as a whole, he reportedly, in a drunken stupor one evening, actively cursed Alexander as a traitor to the empire, and ordered him to leave. Though Alexander did not leave Russia immediately, by 1840 the couple was married.
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Painting of the marriage of Alexander and Victoria by George Hayter.

This does not mean, however, that there was no one else involved. Prince Albrecht, of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had also been a suitor of Victoria. Parliament outright rejected him as an option, as a minor German princedom was no match for potential positive relations with the Russian Empire, an old ally of the Empire. Upon hearing of the marriage of Alexander and Victoria, Albrecht first went into a rage. Having calmed down, he decided to send the couple his congratulations, and would soon reconcile with Victoria - In fact, the United Kingdom was instrumental in allowing the Saxon states to unite, forming a counterweight to Prussian and Austrian power politics in the area.
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Albrecht of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and later the Principal Minister of the United Saxon States.

Meanwhile, in Russia, Konstantin Nikolayevich was declared the Tsarevich. somewhat liberal at heart, Konstantin and his father would have occasional quarrels, with Nicholas afraid that his second son would follow his first and leave. This effectively led to a great deal of reaction in Nicholas' reign. While it is true that railroads kept expanding, a general policy of Russification would hit not just the Poles, but anyone daring enough to promote national identity. Finnish, for example, would from now on be written in Cyrillic, as was the case with the national epic, the Kalevala.

"Вака ванха Вэинэмёинен
итсе туон саноикси виркки:
ъНэистэпэ токи тулиси
каланлуинен кантелоинен,
кун оиси осоаята,
соитон луисен лаатията.ъ
Кун еи тоиста туллуткана,
еи оллут осоаята,
соитон луисен лаатията,
вака ванха Вэинэмёинен
итсе лоихе лаатиякси,
текийэкси теснтелихе.” - Excerpt of the Kalevala in Cyrillic.


The year 1840 thus passed with relative uneventfulness, something that could not be said for the next 8 years...
 
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Apologies for a severe delay (to anyone wondering). I've had a lot of essay deadlines.
Should have a new update up later today. Expect princes being born, minor scuffles in the Balkans, and more!
 
1840-1848 - Europe on the Eve of Revolutions: Part 2 - A Prince, A diplomat, and a Depression

In 1841, the Royal Family of England changed. Whereas before, the Hannoverians had a form of reign going on, the birth of the Heir to the Throne of the United Kingdom established a new dynasty - that of the Romanov-Hannovers. The influence of the Romanov-Hannovers on British politics is not minor, culminating in the Alliance between the United Kingdom, American Union, and Italy in an effort to counter what they considered the “socio-revanchist polities” of France and Russia. The child, born on January 5 1841, was named Arthur Alexander George Henry Romanov-Hannover, and was the first of 5 children.

Russia, meanwhile, saw Nicholas I sink into a spiral of ever worsening depression - which has been argued by historians such as Ulyanov to have negatively impacted the last years of his reign from 1842-1850. Such an example did indeed come in 1842, during the Northern Crisis.

A quick look into the Northern Crisis shall follow next post.
 
1840-1848 - Europe on the Eve of Revolutions: Part 3- The Crisis in the North
The Northern Crisis was one of the most defining events in the early 19th century. It provided a look into the psyche of a man who had lost everything, while costing the lives of 200 Russian soldiers and roughly 150 civilians in Finland.

The catalyst to the Crisis was, in fact, the Cyrillicization of Finnish. Although several Finnish establishments accepted it with grumbling, various other intellectuals loudly protested. When it was hinted that Swedish in the Russian Empire might also be Cyrillicized, Fenno-Swedes joined in the protests, and general movements began against the Russian Empire. The principle rallying point was the Fenno-Swede poet Johan Runeberg.
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Runeberg, though initially a poet, would later become a rallying point for Finnish independence movements.

Runeberg was born in 1804, but currently resided in the Russian Empire. Upon hearing of the plans, Runeberg issued a declaration, nowadays known as Scandinavia's Rallying Cry (Swedish Skandinaviens stridsrop, Danish Skandinaviens kampråb, Norwegian Skandinavias kamprop and Russian Клич Скандинавии, Klich Skandinavii.) The proclamation is reported to have spanned 10 pages in its original form, which was shortened to 3 paragraphs for the Scandinavian Union's Constitution. At the time, however, the Rallying Cry was more of a call for aid to the other Scandinavian countries - Sweden and Denmark. Though Denmark did not profess any interest in the situation, King Karl Johan of Sweden and Norway felt intrinsically bound to the rights of "Those who were Swedes Abroad", and lent Swedish support to the plight of the Finns. This considerably worsened relations between the Swedes and the Russians, and a surprising amount of Russian and Swedish forces started to gather in Bothnia and around Gelsingfors, Capital of the Grand Duchy of Finland. War was starting to seem increasingly inevitable as more and more sabres were rattled between the two kingdoms.
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Karl Johan of Sweden was often blamed by Russian scholars for escalating the Northern Crisis into an actual conflict.

This upset the Prince-Consort Alexander. Knowing that he couldn't stand by while his old country went to war, he offered both parties to come to London to negotiate an end to the Crisis. Although both the King of Sweden and the Tsar arrived to negotiate, their soldiers were not given such a luxury of going - and this caused considerable conflict to erupt. As long as a century into the future, Russian and Swedish historians still argued about who fired the first shot. Russian sources such as Ulyanov actively blamed Karl Johan for not telling his soldiers to stand down, leading to them firing at a Russian soldier in the early morning hours of August 20th, 1842. However the Swedes disagreed on a very fundamental level, and blamed Russian hard-handedness against the protestors which in turn forced the hand of the Swedes. The truth is a bit more complex, and still shrouded in a lot of darkness. The Swedes of Åland, on the 10th of August, rose up against the Russians. This led the Russians to crack down heavily on protests in Gelsingfors in the afternoon of the 18th of August, and troop movements into Sweden caused the Swedes to fire onto the Russians. Although this firmly places the Russians in the wrong, there has recently been an increase of evidence suggesting that the Åland rebellion was sponsored by the Swedes.
 
In theory, I'm writing from hindsight, as if I were writing a high school textbook. This means that some future plans are already mentioned.
In practice, I should never ever become a textbook writer. :p
The American Union is a state established in the former USA after the increasing dominance of "Texas politics" in the 1870s.
 
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