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Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaevna was the fourth child and third daughter of Nicholas I and Alexandra Fyodorovna. She was born in Tsarskoe Selo in 1825. The whole family was devastated at the sudden death of Alexandra in 1844. She had fallen in love with Prince Frederick William, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, who was also the heir to the Danish throne. They were married in St Petersburg on 16 January 1844, but the eighteen-year-old bride contracted tuberculosis. To everyone’s dismay, Alexandra died giving birth to a still-born son called Wilhelm in Tsarskoe Selo on 10 August 1844.