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Our Sasha is gone. The loss of a promising prince during the Year of Revolution, 1848

Prince Alexander (1818-1848) was the second son of King Willem II of the Netherlands and younger brother to King Willem III. Commonly believed to have suffered from poor health for most of his life, he succumbed to tuberculosis at the tender age of 29. Or so the story goes. As it turns out, Alexander was much more than an insignificant weakling who happened to die at a time when his country was too preoccupied with constitutional reform and revolutionary threat to spare his loss much thought. This article, based largely on never-before publicised documents such as Alexander’s personal correspondence and journals, tells the untold tale of a promising prince, a cherished son, and a beloved brother. It shines a new light on Alexander’s life, his fatal illness, and the void his death left at the heart of the Dutch Monarchy during a time of great political upheaval.