his post. Alexander III also criticized his uncle's extramarital affairs. By then, Nicholas Nicholaievich was living openly with his mistress. His wife left him for good in 1881 and moved to Kiev, but the Grand Duchess refused to grant the divorce he wanted. The couple's adult sons took their mother's side in the family breakup, but continued to live at the palace and confronted Catherine once she was waiting for their father in the Palace he shared with his wife. Catherine Chislova nagged Nicholas to provide for her and their children, he soon became financially embarrassed and had to mortgage Nicholas Palace in St. Petersburg. In 1882, Nicholas Nicolaievich was put under supervision due to the squandering of his fortune; he lived as a private gentleman in a modest house. Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaievich, unable to get a divorce, hoped to survive his wife and then marry his mistress, but it was Catherine Chislova who died unexpectedly in Crimea while Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna would survive him by nine years. Shortly after his mistress' death, Nicholas went mad; he had oral cancer that spread to his brain. Suffering from delusion, he was convinced that all women were in love with him. During one ballet performance, the Grand Duke even attacked a young male dancer that he took to be a woman. In 1890, Nicholas Nicolaievich was declared insane and kept locked indoors in Crimea. He died in Alupka, Crimea on 25 April 1891. The Grand Duke's reputation at the imperial court was low and his death was not deeply felt. He had squandered all his tremendous wealth and his palace was immediately sold to cancel his massive debts. Honours Russian Knight of St. Andrew, 8 August 1831 Knight of St. Alexander Nevsky, 8 August 1831 Knight of the White Eagle, 8 August 1831 Knight of St. Anna, 1st Class, 8 August 1831 Knight of St. George, 4th Class, 24 October 1854; 2nd Class, 15 July 1877; 1st Class, 28 November 1877 Knight of St. Vladimir, 1st Class, 1 January 1863 Knight of St. Stanislaus, 1st Class, 1865 Foreign Ancestry References Bibliography Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia, Once a Grand Duke, Cassell, London, 1932. Beliakova, Zoia, The Romanov Legacy : The Palaces of St. Petersburg, Hazar Publishing, 1994, . Chavchavadze, David, The Grand Dukes, Atlantic, 1989, King, Greg The Court of the Last Tsar, Wiley, 2006, . Perry, John and Pleshakov,