Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
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Tzarevna Natalya is pronounced dead...

user image 2019-04-26
By: Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
Posted in: Plotline Entry

5 agonizing days later, the screams stop… But no outcry of a newborn is heard. The Grand Duchess develops high fever and in delusions she has a moment of euphoria before taking final breath. The room is left in a state of complete disarray - the light is dim, the blood around the body has soaked the sheets multiple times over and the stench is unbearable unless you've gotten used to it.

Tzarevna Natalya is Dead.png

The Ober-Kamerger Knyaz/Prince Golitsyn emerges bearing the bad news - the newborn son suffocated in the womb and the mother is dead. The courtiers lament, whether for the deceased mother or loss of an heir to the Russian throne.

Sharing Terrible News.png

In utter grief, Tzarevich/Grand Duke Pavel refuses to surrender the body for funeral preparations, and he is left alone there for the rest of the day.

Read more in "Tzarevna is Expecting" plotline:   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_YiErkELGBmeIPXbRwcxHNaZlS2IoB9g6tNJ4Yj-U7o/edit?usp=sharing


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Abbondio Rezzonico
26 Apr 2019 10:03:16PM @abbondio-rezzonico:

Most dramatic pictures, well done.

My thoughts instantly turned to a story in my own (rl) family, which has been passed down the generations about one of the mourning rites at the Russian court. One of my so-many-great-grandmothers was a mistress of the robes there in the 19th century. When one of the Romanovs died the highest ranking nobles had to take turns to sit in vigil for hours and hours. In this particular case (I'd have to look up which one, but it was a grand duchess if memory serve me right) the embalming had been a bit of a rushed job and not a very good one either; and it was high summer. The story was richly detailed on the slow decay of the corpse and the unbearable stench; which made many of the sitters quite sick to their stomachs. Nevertheless, court protocol demanded that they would sit it out. It's probably needless to say that the supply of smelling salts went rapidly down that week... there was also a vague detail about one courtier who actually got mortally ill because of it all. Talk about duty...


Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova
27 Apr 2019 03:36:07AM @ekaterina-vorontsova-dashkova:

That's really cool! Yes, court procedures don't often make rational sense lol


Tatiana Dokuchic
01 May 2019 09:37:16AM @tatiana-dokuchic:

Abbondio Rezzonico:

One of my so-many-great-grandmothers was a mistress of the robes there in the 19th century.

That's very interesting, Abbondio.  Meanwhile, one of my "great-grandmothers" was a midwife in the Russian Empire.  I can't help but wonder what she would have thought about this tragic pregnancy and if there was any way the mother could have been saved.  Given my background I tend to be pro-midwife anti-doctor especially when talking about historical events.