childless brothers and his uncle Vladimir, Marie's husband. In 1912, Emperor Nicholas's only living brother Grand Duke Michael married a commoner, which led Emperor Nicholas to strip him of his military command, imperial honors, and right as the heir presumptive to serve as regent for Tsesarevich Alexei should Emperor Nicholas die prematurely. According to the laws of the succession, Marie's oldest son Kirill, the heir presumptive now that Grand Duke Michael was ineligible and his own father, Vladimir, was dead, would become regent should the Emperor die before Alexei turned 21. However, Emperor Nicholas overruled the existing law and nominated his oldest daughter Grand Duchess Olga as regent with his wife Empress Alexandra as guardian during Alexei's minority. Marie was furious, but Emperor Nicholas refused to change his mind. In 1916, Marie approached Empress Alexandra about a potential marriage between Grand Duchess Olga and her second son Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. Empress Alexandra refused Marie's proposal, claiming that she could not let "a pure, fresh girl, 18 years his junior" marry a "well used, half worn out, blasé young man." Marie was outraged by Empress Alexandra's abrupt refusal. In 1909, Marie's husband died. She was devastated by his death and wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life. During World War I, Marie whole-heartedly supported Russia. Born a German princess, she was troubled by the outbreak of WW1 but decided that she was now a Russian. She reflected: "Neither in my heart nor my mind have I found anything which is not utterly devoted to my Russian fatherland... it is my forty years’ residence in Russia— all the happiness I have known here, all the dreams that have come to me, all the affection and kindness I have received— which has given me a wholly Russian soul.” She hated Wilhelm II, German Emperor and denounced him in the strongest terms: "I am only a Mecklenburger on one point: in my hatred for the Emperor William. He represents what I have been taught from my childhood to detest the most—the tyranny of the Hohenzollerns. Yes, it is the Hohenzollerns who have perverted, demoralized, degraded and humiliated Germany and gradually destroyed in her all elements of idealism and generosity, refinement and charity.” The French ambassador Maurice Paléologue was impressed by Marie's “long diatribe which made me feel all the sentiments of inveterate hatred, of mute and tenacious detestation which the small