Tsesarevich Nikolai, eldest son of Tsar Alexander II
Nikolai, Tsesarevich of Russia (1843-1865), eldest son and heir of Tsar Alexander II. The Tsesarevich was a gifted young man trained in a liberal tradition by the finest tutors available in the expectation that he would one day have reigned as Tsar. After celebrating his engagement to Princess Dagmar of Denmark with his family in Darmstadt in October 1864, the Tsesarevich went on to Italy to continue the educational tour he had started some months before. In Florence he suddenly fell victim to back pain so severe, he had to be carried. He spent six weeks in bed, undergoing a series of painful treatments for a spinal abscess, and as soon as he could be moved he was taken to Nice, where his mother was spending the winter. There, French doctors disagreed with the diagnosis, viewing the 21-year-old's back pain as rheumatism and prescribing spinal massage. The massage spread the infection to Nikolai's bone marrow and brain and his condition deteriorated steadily. He died on 24 April 1865. On his deathbed he requested that Princess Dagmar should marry his younger brother Alexander. Dagmar later became Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Tsar Alexander III
