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[[Image:elisabethhesse.gif|thumb|Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, 1894]]
'''Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna of Russia''' (Елизавета Фёдоровна), née ''Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Luise Alice of Hesse and by Rhine'' ([[February 24]], 1864 – [[July 18]], 1918), was the wife of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Sergei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia], the fifth son of Emperor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia Alexander II of Russia] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Alexandrovna_%28Marie_of_Hesse%29 Maria Alexandrovna] (née Princess Marie of Hesse-Darmstadt). She was After the second child and daughter assassination of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdomher husband, she went on to found a daughter of Queen Victoria. She was also convent dedicated to ministering to the elder sister of [[Alexandra Fyodorovna]]poor, the last empress of Russia. Elizabeth and was affectionately called '''Ella''' later martyred by her familythe Bolsheviks, and glorified as a New Martyr.
== Early Life ==
Elizabeth was the second child and daughter of Grand Duke Louis IV of Hesse and Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, a daughter of Queen Victoria. She was also the elder sister of [[Alexandra Fyodorovna]], the last empress of Russia. Elizabeth was affectionately called '''Ella''' by her family.
In the winter of 1878, diphtheria swept through the Hesse household, killing both Elizabeth's youngest sister and her mother, Princess Alice. Elizabeth was not in Hesse at the time and was the only member of the family not affected by this outbreak.
Orphaned at the age of 14, she was partly brought up by her grandmother, Queen Victoria. <ref>Ludmila Koehler, ''Saint Elisabeth the New Martyr'', (New York: The Orthodox Palestine Society, USA, 1988), p. 12.</ref> Having had an English mother, and then living in England, she and her sister Alexandra were most comfortable speaking English, and most of the letters exchanged between Tsar Nichols, Tsaritsa Alexandra, and the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, are written in English.
Elizabeth once caught the eye of her elder cousin William, II but Elisabeth flatly rejected him and instead married Grand Duke Sergei of Russia in June 1884.
== Life in Russia ==
