Feodorovna, and the two helped arrange the marriage of Eugenia's son to Maria's daughter Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. Military and professional career Like his two brothers, Alexander served in the Russian army. He held the position of Adjutant-General to Emperor Alexander III. He was also the commanding general of the Imperial Guard. Alexander served on the State Council In 1889, Alexander resigned the office of commanding general of the Imperial Guard, because of the increasingly anti-German tone pervading into Russian politics, and also because he wanted to remove barriers that would bar his succession to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Emperor Alexander refused his resignation, but gave the duke an eleven-month leave of absence. Alexander was one of the richest princes in Russia in both landed and funded property; this was also partly due to the wealth of his wife, whose inherited wealth, as the granddaughter of Nicholas I of Russia, was said to be enormous. Alexander was also second-in-line to the throne of Oldenburg, as Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg had only one young son, Hereditary Grand Duke Nikolaus; were he to die before his father, Alexander would have become heir presumptive. Because of this wealth, it was expected that Alexander and his family would remain in Russia and give up their claim to the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, were they to succeed to that particular territory. Alexander was a doctor of medicine and undertook active management of the hospitals he helped in founding. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Emperor Nicholas II appointed Alexander to the post of supreme chief of the medical service of the military and naval forces. Though his selection as a royal duke was unusual to hold such a high medical-related position, there had been another precedent in another royal house, Prince Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria, who at that time was serving as surgeon general to the German army. Candidate for Bulgarian throne After Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria abdicated on 7 September 1886, various replacement candidates were proposed by the great European powers, particularly by the governments of Russia and Germany. Because of his Russian background, Alexander was recommended at his government's suggestion for the Bulgarian crown. Not only was he married to a Russian princess, and was himself the grandson of a Russian grand duchess, but he also held the positions of Adjutant-General to Emperor Alexander, and was