Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia

Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia (;  – 26 February 1970) was the only daughter and eldest child of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. She was the first grandchild of Tsar Alexander III and the only biological niece of Tsar Nicholas II. Irina was married to the wealthiest man in Imperial Russia, Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov. Her husband was one of the men who in 1916 murdered Grigori Rasputin, "holy healer" to Irina's hemophiliac cousin, Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. Early life Before her marriage on , Irina, the eldest child and only daughter in a family of seven children, was considered one of the most elegant women in Imperial Russia. Her family had spent long periods living in the south of France beginning in about 1906 because of her father's political disagreements with the Tsar. Irina's father, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, was carrying on an affair with a woman in the south of France and often asked her for a divorce, which she refused to grant him. Her mother, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, enjoyed extramarital affairs as well. Irina's parents tried to hide their unhappy marriage from their seven children, and Irina had a happy childhood. Irina was often called Irène, the French version of her name, or Irene, the English version. Her mother sometimes nicknamed her "Baby Rina." The Romanovs, heavily influenced by the French and English, spoke French better than Russian and often used the foreign versions of their first names to refer to each other. Marriage Her husband-to-be, Felix Yusupov, was a man from a very wealthy family who enjoyed dressing in women's clothing and had sexual relationships with both men and women, scandalizing society, but he was also genuinely religious and willing to help others even when his own financial circumstances were reduced. At one point, in a fit of enthusiasm, he planned to give all his riches to the poor in imitation of his mentor, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. "Felix's ideas are absolutely revolutionary," a disapproving Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna once said. He was persuaded not to do so by his mother, Zenaida, who said he had a duty to marry and continue the family line because he was her only surviving son. The future murderer of Rasputin also had a horror of the bloodshed and violence of war.