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Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of Russia, 1856. In about 1840, '...In the young Princess Mary - then about sixteen years of age - the Cesarewitch [present Emperor Alexander II] saw the ideal of a wife, and he became enamoured of her at once. Within a year they were married, the Princess changing her original names, Maximilienne Wilhelmina Augusta Sophia Maria, into the Marie Alexandrowna, by which she is known to the Russian people... Her elder brother, the Duke of Hesse, has recently used his utmost efforts to second his sister in her great aim - that of arriving at a restoration of peace. Although at war with the Russians, we have learned to respect their many great qualities; and it is a still more softening influence over the asperities engendered by strife to know that the illustrious lady who shares the Russian throne is herself an apostle of peace, civilisation, and progress'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.