Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovitch of Russia was the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II. According to his sister, Marie, Duchess of Edinburgh, he was 'an exceptionally nice young man, who... has excellent principles and can be recommended in every possible way'. In April 1884, the year of his marriage to Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, the Grand Duke met his grandmother, Queen Victoria, at Darmstadt. She observed that he was 'very quiet, silent & serious & very delicate looking', and quite different from his brothers. She did not find him 'sympathique', but realised that he was probably shy. By April 1885, however, the Queen was writing that she liked the Grand Duke much better since getting to know him. He was appointed Governor-General of Moscow in 1891, and became increasingly an unfortunate victim of the circumstances in which he found himself. The Grand Duke resigned his post in early 1905, but on 17 February he was assassinated when a bomb was thrown at his carriage.