Overview

Described as the 'most beautiful princess in Europe', and a woman 'capable of arousing profane passion', this is the story of a woman whose life combined privilege and tragedy, love and riches, conviction and courage, humanity and inhumanity. A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Ella was born Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine. At twenty, her marriage to the Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, who became the victim of terrorist assassination, like the marriage of her younger sister Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas II, was partly responsible for the fall of the Imperial House of Romanov. In her widowhood and against great opposition, Ella established the first convent community of its kind in Moscow. As the ordained abbess of the Order of Saints Martha and Mary, Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna worked tirelessly with the sick, needy, outcast, and untouchable inhabitants of the city's slum districts. Brutally murdered by the Bolsheviks at the height of the Russian Revolution, Ella was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as the Holy Imperial Martyr Saint Elisabeth Romanova. This study is based on a wealth of original material, much of it previously unpublished, from the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Hesse State Archives in Darmstadt, the State Archives of the Russian Federation in Moscow, and the Russian State Historical Archives in St Petersburg.

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Christopher Warwick is an acknowledged authority on British royal history. The authorized biographer of Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, he is a respected writer, broadcaster, and speaker, who regularly takes part in television and radio programs, as well as television documentaries. A frequent commentator on royal events, including the wedding of William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Queen's Golden- and Diamond Jubilees and the celebrations of the ninetieth birthday of Her Majesty the Queen, for CTV (Canadian Television News Network), Christopher has also acted as guest speaker for, among others, Cunard, Historic Royal Palaces, the Windsor Festival, and Alison Weir Tours. He is the author of a number of bestselling books, among them the acclaimed biography Ella: Princess, Saint and Martyr, which was subsequently released in eBook format as The Life and Death of Ella, Grand Duchess of Russia; Her Majesty, a lavish, large-format celebration of the life and reign of Elizabeth II; Princess Margaret: A Life of Contrasts; and George and Marina, Duke and Duchess of Kent, a revised edition of which was released as an eBook in 2016. British-born Julian Elfer is an award-winning New York City-based actor and audiobook narrator with over fifty titles to his credit. Recently hailed by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for his lead performance in the Mint a Theatre Company's A Day by the Sea, Julian brings a unique facility for characterization in fiction and an empathy for the personalities and events of the past.

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