Ella: Princess, Saint and Martyr [Hardcover]

"the book lingers with you long after you have finished it." (Majesty, September 2006)

"As ... Warwick’s biography of Ella aptly demonstrates, unravel one biography of a late–19th–century European royal and the entire dynasty unfolds." (The Daily Telegraph, November 2006)

"…inspiring…" (Majesty, November 2006)

"Warwick′s biography is freighted with domestic and cultural detail and weighted with tragedy." (The Times, December 2006)

“Christopher Warwick’s well–research biography fills a gap in the literature of royal lives.” (The Times Literary Supplement, February 2007)

"Christopher Warwick has given the story a new power and a subtle shift of meaning." (Royalty Digest, February 2007)

"Christopher Warwick′s acclaimed new biography of Ella sheds new light on a remarkable woman." (Royalty Magazine)

"…a definitive biography…Elisabeth Feodorovna is one of the last century′s true heroes. Christopher Warwick′s book will tell you why." (The Tablet, February 2007)

 

“The remarkable life of Elizabeth, or Ella as she was almost universally known, is revealed in fascinating detail by  Warwick.” (Yorkshire Evening Post, March 2007)

 

“…Warwick has produced a definitive biography…” (The Tablet, March 2007

 

Considered to have been the most beautiful princess in Europe, capable of arousing ‘profane passions’, Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, or ‘Ella’ as she was known, was a  granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain and Grand Duke Louis of Hesse. A privileged, happy Victorian childhood was touched by tragedy not only with the early deaths of her youngest brother and sister but also that of her young mother. Close to Queen Victoria, Ella spent some of her happiest times in Britain. At 20, however, much against the wishes of her  grandmother, who despised everything Russian, Ella became engaged to Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, the authoritarian younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. It was at their wedding that her younger sister, Alix, formed a love match with the future Tsar Nicholas II; an event which not only  sealed the fate of both sisters, but that of the Imperial House of Romanov. But for these two marriages, the history of Russia might have been very different.

With the assassination of her husband, Ella renounced society and, against considerable opposition, founded the first religious Order of its kind in Russia, working for the poor and destitute of Moscow. Though loved for her charitable works and pionerering achievements, Ella, like Nicholas, Alexandra, and fourteen members of their family, met a brutal death at the hands of the Bolsheviks. At the height of the Russian Revolution, she was taken captive to Siberia where, having been clubbed with rifle butts, she was hurled alive into a disused mineshaft and left to die  of her injuries. Later retrieved, her incorrupt body was eventually laid to rest on the Mount of Olives. She was subsequently canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Imperial Martyr Saint Elisabeth Romanova. 

There can be little doubt that the last of the Romanovs,
Russia's imperial family, continue to cast a tantalizing air of mystery and
historical `magic' almost ninety years after Nicholas II and the Empress
Alexandra, their teenaged children and fourteen other members of the
imperial family were slaughtered by the Bolsheviks in the mayhem of
Revolution. For me, one of the most interesting of all the Romanovs was
Ella, otherwise Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna, elder sister of the
last Tsarina.

The story of her life is essentially that of romance, tragedy, murder and
revolution. Add to that the courage she herself displayed at many points in
her life, not least when, despite the fact that she was virtually revered
for the way in which she worked for the welfare of the poor, the sick and
the forgotten of Moscow, she was finally arrested. Taken away under false
pretences to Siberia, it is my belief that she realized that death awaited
her. What she cannot have imagined, however, was the gratuitous manner or
the brutality with which she would meet her end.

Since her death in the summer of 1918, although she features in almost
every book written about Nicholas and Alexandra, there have been so few
biographies of Ella herself. Indeed, when I discovered that hers was a
story with which many people with whom I spoke were either unfamiliar or
did not know, I felt the time was right to redress the balance. It was
therefore just over three years ago, that I set out on my own voyage of
discovery; one that took me from the Royal Archives in Windsor, to St
Petersburg and Moscow, to Darmstadt (the city in which she grew up) and
elsewhere. In my search, through her correspondence and other primary and
little known sources, I discovered so much more about Ella than I already
knew, much of it amusing, surprising and often heartbreaking, but all of it
colourful and fascinatingly human, allowing us to see both the grandeur of
Russia in its final years as well as the simplicity of the home life Ella
and her husband, Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, preferred to lead at their
country estate outside Moscow.

During my research, my quest for Ella led me to question several aspects of
her life that others seemed to have accepted without so much as raising an
eyebrow, but which were frequently distorted by conflicting versions of
events and even so-called facts that were nothing of the kind. Ella's
marriage and the last days of her life are just two of the areas that I
looked at and seriously questioned. The historian Hugo Vickers has said of
Ella, Princess Saint & Martyr 'the book lingers with you long after you
have finished it' while Alison Weir, one of our leading popular historical
writers, called it, 'riveting and unutterably moving ... powerful, stunning
and poignant.' I would like to think those views mean that I have done
justice to a remarkable character and a remarkable life.

Christopher Warwick

CONSIDERED AT THE TIME to have been the most beautiful princess in Europe, capable of arousing "profane passions", Ella was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and the daughter of Princess Alice of great Britain and Grand Duke Louis of Hesse. Following the tragically early deaths of her youngest brother and sister and also that of her young mother, Ella spent some of the happiest years of her youth in Britain with her grandmother Queen Victoria. At 19, however, much against the wishes of the Queen, who disliked everything Russian, Ella became engaged to grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, the authoritarian younger brother of Tsar Alexander III. It was at their wedding that her younger sister, Alix, formed a love match with the future Tsar Nicholas II; an even which not only sealed the fate of both sisters, but that of the Imperial House of Romanov. Without these two marriages, the history of Russia might have been very different.

Following the assassination of her husband, Ella renounced society and, against considerable opposition, founded the first religious Order of its kind in Russia, working for the poor and destitute of Moscow, Though loved for her charitable works and pioneering achievements, Ella, like Nicholas, Alexandra and fourteen members of their family, met a brutal death at the hands of the Bolsheviks. At the height of the Russian Revolution, she was taken captive to Siberia where, having been clubbed with the rifle butts, she was hurled alive into a disused mineshaft and left to die of her injuries. She was subsequently canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Imperial Martyr Saint Elisabeth Romanova.

′...RIVETING, ANS SO UNUTTERABLY MOVING. WHAT A TOUR DE FORCE!...COMBINE[S] SPARKLING DETAIL WITH THE GRIM REALITIES OF THE LAST DECADES OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA. [CHRISTOPHER WARWICK′S] ELLA LIVES, AND WE LIVE ALL THE DRAMAS AND THE TRAGEDIES WITH HER. THIS IS A POWERFUL, STUNNING AND POIGNANT BOOK THAT DESERVES WIDESPREAD RECOGNITION.′
—ALISON WEIR, CELEBRATED BEST–SELLING AUTHOR OF, AMONG OTHERS, ELEANOR OF AWUITAINE, HENRY VIII, ELIZABETH THE QUEEN, THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII, INNOCENT TRAITOR, AND ISABELLA: SHE–WOLF OF FRANCE

′THE READER IS IN EXPERT HANDS AS CHRISTOHER WARWICKS TELLS TEH INSPRING, PARTLY TRAGIC STORY OF THE GRAND DUCHESS ELISABETH, LEADING FROM ITS ROMATIC START TO ITS TERRIBLE CONCLUSION. WARWICK HAS MASTERED THE MATERIAL, AND GUIDES US SYMPATHETICALLY THROUGH THE STORY, ADDING MUCH THAT IS NEW. THE BOOK LINGERS WITH YOU LONG AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED IT.′
—HUGO VICKERS, ROYAL HISTORIAN AND BEST–SELLING AUTHOR OF ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER, ALICE: PRINCESS ANDREW OF GREECE, CECIL BEATON, LOVING GARBO AND MANY OTHERS

Christopher Warwick is the author of several best–selling biographies, among them the authorized Princess Margaret; King George VI & Queen Elizabeth; George & Marina, Duke & Duchess of Kent; Queen Mary′s Photograph Albums and The Universal Ustinov, a popular study of the celebrated actor, writer and raconteur, Sir Peter Ustinov. He has also written widely for newspapers and magazines both at home and abroad, and frequently appears on television and radio.