II.

Early Career

Alexander, born on April 29 (April 17 according to the Old Style, or Julian, calendar then in use in Russia), 1818, was the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I and the nephew of Alexander I. Although as a boy he received the type of military training favoured by his father, he was also influenced by his tutor, the liberal poet Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky, and was instructed in Russian law by the reforming statesman Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky. As heir to the throne, Alexander acquired extensive experience of government and travelled widely both within the Russian Empire and in Europe. In 1841 he married a princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, who took the name Mariya Aleksandrovna in Russia; they had eight children. After Mariya's death in 1880 Alexander entered into a morganatic marriage (a marriage with a member of a lower social class) with Princess Catherine Dolgorukaya, who had been his mistress for many years and had borne him four children; she was given the title of Princess Yurevskaya on her marriage.