Nicholas II. On November 1, 1894, succeeded Alexander III as "Emperor of All the Russias," was being the Princess Dagmar, a daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, and sister to Queen Alexandra, the Duchess of Cumberland, and George V of Greece. During the famine of 1891, he was, at his own request, made president of the committee of succor, and worked hard in the organization of relief. As Czarevitch, he held several military commands in his own country - in the famous Preobrajensky regiment among others - and in England, he had conferred upon him, in 1893, the order of the garter. He married the Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt in November, 1894. Four daughters came first, but a son was born on August 12, 1904, and was named Alexis. The coronation of the czar took placed with impressive ceremonial at Moscow in May, 1896, and in August of the same year he commenced a tour which included visits to the emperors of Austria and Germany, to the king of Denmark, to Queen Victoria, and to the president of France. The famous peace proposals which he made to the powers during 1898 led to the first peace conference at The Hague in 1899, the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration there, and indirectly to the second conference in 1907. He was gifted with linguistic facility, and fluently spoke French, German, Italian, and especially English. Following the revolution effected by the Russian Duma, Czar Nicholas abdicated the throne, March 15, 1917. In August, 1917, he was sent to Tobolsk in western Siberia where he met his death at the hands of the revolutionaries.

---