Tsar of all the Russias, emperor and autocrat by divine right, Nicolas II married his cousin, Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt, in 1864, who converted to Orthodoxy and took the name of Alexandra Fiodorovna. During the war, rumors multiplied that the Empress would rule the country in secret, organizing treason in favor of Germany, her country of origin. Public opinion lends him an affair with Rasputin, who claims to cure the heir Alexis of hemophilia and leads a life of debauchery, deeply tarnishing the image of the Romanovs.
Nicholas II, overthrown in March 1917, was placed under house arrest in Tsarskoye Selo, then transferred to Tobolsk, in Siberia, with the Empress, their four daughters and Tsarevich Alexis. Then the family was evacuated to the Urals, to Yekaterinburg, in the spring of 1918. On the night of July 16 to 17, 1918, as the White armies approached, the Bolsheviks executed them with their entourage. Rumors will swirl about the survival of some members, including Princess Anastasia.