Editing Alexander III of Russia (section)

==Illness and death==
[[File:Valentin Serov - Alexander III in Danish Royal Life Guards Uniform.jpg|thumb|Alexander III in the uniform of the [[Royal Life Guards (Denmark)|Danish Royal Life Guards]], 1894]]
In 1894, Alexander III became ill with terminal kidney disease ([[nephritis]]). His first cousin, [[Olga Constantinovna of Russia|Queen Olga of Greece]], offered to let him stay at her villa [[Mon Repos, Corfu|Mon Repos]], on the island of [[Corfu]], in the hope that it might improve the Tsar's condition.<ref>King, Greg ''The Court of the Last Tsar: Pomp, Power and Pageantry in the Reign of Nicholas II'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2006) p. 325</ref> By the time that they reached [[Crimean Peninsula|Crimea]], they stayed at the Maly Palace in [[Livadia Palace|Livadia]], as Alexander was too weak to travel any farther.<ref>King, p. 325</ref> Recognizing that the Tsar's days were numbered, various imperial relatives began to descend on Livadia. Clergyman [[John of Kronstadt]] paid a visit and administered Communion to the Tsar.<ref>John Perry & Constantine Pleshakov ''The Flight of the Romanovs: a Family Saga'' (Basic Books, 1999) p. 62</ref> On 21 October, Alexander received Nicholas's fiancée, [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt]], who had come from her native [[Darmstadt]] to receive the Tsar's blessing.<ref>King, p. 326</ref> Despite being exceedingly weak, Alexander insisted on receiving Alix in full dress uniform, an event that left him exhausted.<ref>King, p. 327</ref> Soon after, his health began to deteriorate more rapidly. He died in the arms of his wife, and in the presence of his physician, [[Ernst Viktor von Leyden]], at [[Livadia Palace|Maly Palace]] in Livadia on the afternoon of {{OldStyleDate|1 November|1894|20 October}} at the age of 49, and was succeeded by his eldest son Tsesarevich Nicholas, who took the throne as [[Nicholas II]]. After leaving Livadia on 6 November and traveling to St. Petersburg by way of Moscow, his remains were interred on 18 November at the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]], with his funeral being attended by numerous foreign relatives, including King Christian IX of Denmark, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and [[George V|Duke of York]], and [[Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Duke]] and [[Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia|Duchess]] of [[Saxe-Coburg and Gotha|Saxe-Coburg-Gotha]], and his daughter-in-law to be, Alix of Hesse, and her brother, [[Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse|Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse]].