Alexandra Albedinskaya

Alexandra Sergeyevna Albedinskaya (Алекса́ндра Серге́евна Альбединская; 30 November 1834 – 12 September 1913) was a Russian noble and courtier.

Alexandra Albedinskaya was the royal mistress of Tsar Alexander II of Russia from the early 1850s until 1862.

Biography
Alexandra Albedinskaya was born to chamberlain Prince Sergei Alekseevich Dolgorukov and Maria Alexandrovna, nee Countess Apraksina.

Alexandra Albedinskaya was a descendant of a member of the Supreme Privy Council of Prince Alexei Grigoryevich Dolgorukov. The latter betrothed one of his daughters, Ekaterina to the Russian Emperor, Peter II. Alexandra Sergeevna was a distant relative of Princess Ekaterina Mikhailovna Dolgorukova (1847–1922) (she was the fourth cousin of Mikhail Mikhailovich, father of the future Princess Yuryevskaya). Albedinskaya had four brothers ( Nikolai, Alexander, Alexei, Dmitry) and four sisters (Anna, Margarita, Varvara, Maria).

Alexandra Albedinskaya was baptised on 20 November 1834 in the Court Cathedral in the Winter Palace under the perception of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich (the future Alexander II).

Maid of honour
In 1853, Alexandra Albedinskaya was appointed a maid of honour to the court of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. She was appointed in order to “save her from home oppression”. According to Anna Tyutcheva, she initially had friendly relations with Alexandra Albedinskaya, but then “instinctively felt in her whole being some kind of isolation, which made me restrained as well.” "They said that she was always the subject of hatred from her mother, who beat her so much that she developed a disease that resembled a herd in her. She fell into a state of tetanus, which sometimes lasted for whole hours.” Dolgorukova “was amazingly gifted, perfectly fluent, spoke five or six languages, read a lot, was very educated and was able to use the subtlety of her mind without the slightest shadow of pedantry or frivolity, juggling thoughts and especially paradoxes with a slight grace of a magician."

- Anna Tyutcheva