The Life and Death of Ella Grand Duchess of Russia: A Romanov Tragedy

by Christopher Warwick

Originally published in hardback as Princess, Saint and Martyr, the definitive biography of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna is now released in revised e-book and paperback format as The Life and Death of ELLA Grand Duchess of Russia to commemorate the 150th anniversary of her birth. Described as the ‘Most beautiful princess in Europe’, and a woman ‘capable of arousing profane passion’, this is the story of a woman whose life combined privilege and tragedy, love and riches, conviction and courage, humanity and inhumanity. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Ella was born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. At 20, her marriage to the hardline Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, who became the victim of terrorist assassination, like the marriage of her younger sister Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas II, was partly responsible for the fall of the Imperial House of Romanov. In her widowhood and against great opposition, Ella established the first convent community of its kind in Moscow. As the ordained abbess of the Order of Saints Martha and Mary, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna worked tirelessly with the sick, needy, outcast and untouchable inhabitants of the city’s slum districts. Brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks at the height of the Russian Revolution, Ella was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Imperial Martyr Saint Elisabeth Romanova. This study is based on a wealth of original material, much of it previously unpublished, from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Hesse State Archives in Darmstadt, the State Archives of the Russian Federation in Moscow, and the Russian State Historical Archives in St Petersburg.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Russia, Royalty, Romanovs

371 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2014

Reviews

[Gina Basham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful

In reading other biographies of this era I had began looking for a biography of Ella. Christopher Warwick is always my go to author. A fascinating woman who met a devastating end. I like how Mr Warwick investigates modern myths and arrives at conclusions that dispel or verify aspects of those myths. It is always hard to read biographies of historical characters when you know their chilling fate and this was exceptionally difficult. This is a faithful account of the very real woman who is later canonized a saint. As with other Warwick biographies I can highly recommend. Gbash

[historic_chronicles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ella was the elder sister to Empress Alexandra, the last Tsaritsa, and victim of the fall of the Romanov Dynasty. She was an incredibly inspiring woman who always worked hard to better the lives of those less fortunate than she.

What I loved about this biography is that it was a "true biography". What I mean by this is that Warwick successfully maintained the focus on the life of Ella and did not become overwhelmed by better known figures that surrounded her during her life.

I found this book very easy to read despite the sad story and I would love to read more books in the future by this author.

[Rox · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a lot of pages dedicated to Ella's mother's life and political context that I felt could have been trimmed down considerably, yet took up the first 60 pages of the book; and later on there was still entirely too much focus on the lives of Ella's other relatives rather than on the actual subject of the biography. I felt that there was also excessive detail about (many) trips and buildings, even the ones that had no bearing on our understanding of Ella, so I ended up skipping a lot of paragraphs, and probably finished the book much faster than I would've otherwise.

[♡ Vincent ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I'm becoming engaged to Christ and his service. I give everything I have to him and my neighbour."

Originally published as Ella: Princess, Saint and Martyr

The story of Nicholas and his wife Alexandra (born as Alix of Hesse and by Rhine) has been told for over a century now, but the story of Alexandra's sister and nicholas's sister and aunt in law, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna (born as Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine) hasn't been mentioned outside of her marriage to Nicholas's uncle, Grand Duke Sergei.

Warwick's biography on Ella is a great one! You understand how Ella was as a person and how her life was outside Nicholas and Alexandra. Her life was religious even before she would become a nun! Her kindness in the end, wasn't enough to spare her fate.

The only reason this book isn't 5 stars is due to the fact Ella's mother, Alice, is the main focus of chapter 1-2 of the book, which is fine but having to read about someone's life who you didn't buy the book for is annoying to say the least but even then, it gives us a good idea of the role model Ella may have looked up to during her later years.

Warwick did Ella so much just! The story is beautiful and tragic, which pulls your heartstrings! I highly recommend this biography for all Romanov fans!

[Belle Meri · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent update to Warwick's original biography of Grand Duchess Elizabeth. Both volumes are excellently researched; however, this second edition suffers from some strange, unexpected typographical errors. These aren't so extensive as to make reading the book too difficult, but they were unexpected as I did not run across them when I read the first edition of the book. Regardless, this is an excellent biography of one of the lesser Romanov royals.

[Emily Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Princess Ella was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England who married into the Romanov family. This details her childhood, her royal and political life, and how she gave up her great wealth and position to be a nun and serve the poor. For that, she was executed by the Bolsheviks.
I highly recommend learning more about this modern saint and hero.

[Zosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Obviously an extensively researched book with plenty of new material that provides a complete portait of her life and world. Unfortunately there are some spelling errors and some clunky sentence structures so I had to round down.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Klissia]

"We work, we hope and each day we feel more and more the divine compassion. It is a constant miracle that we are alive"


Horrific piece of Russian History

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was decent and interesting.
I'm more familiar with her sister Alix.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heartbreaking, and lovely, and detailed to the point of overwhelm. I wish a visual map of relations accompanied this book.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulously researched and well-versed, this was an interesting book.

[Lisa of Hopewell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the late Queen and Prince Philip visited Russia for the only time, Philip was asked if he was happy to be there. [paraphrasing] “They killed much of my family, but of course I’m happy to be here….” Ella, like the last Tzarina Alexandra, was his great-aunt–his maternal grandmother’s little sisters. [They were also related to the Queen, of course–all were descendants of Victoria]. Ella was later canonized as a Saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. Prince Philip’s mother based her work in Athens on Ella’s work in Russia.

Ella is the princess who thwarted Kaiser Wilhelm’s desire to marry her.

Sadly for Ella, her husband was the man assigned responsibility for the Khodynka Tragedy when hundreds were trampled to death to get free food and a souvenir cup following the coronation of Nicholas and Alexandra. She and her husband had guardianship of Grand Duke Dmitri who helped kill Rasputin.

Ella’s murder was truly horrific. She was flung down a mine shaft and left to die. Prince Philip gave dna to help identify her remains and those of the family of Nicholas and Alexandra.

Warwick did a commendable job of holding to his stated aim of not letting politics and more famous relative overtake the story. There was a little of that than I thought necessary, but much better than most such books.

Fun P.S. This book led me to the wonderful commedy of manners, The Visits of Elizabeth by Elinor Glyn. Don’t you love following book rabbit trails like this?