As he was closely related to the Russian imperial family, Alexander made several attempts to save
Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Several days after Nicholas's abdication on 15 March 1917, Alexander visited
Meriel Buchanan, the daughter of
Sir George Buchanan, British ambassador to the Russian court, with the hopes of gaining her father's help. She noticed that the duke seem distracted and somehow different, "then I realized suddenly that he had discarded all his decorations, and no longer wore the golden
aiguillettes. Russia had no Emperor now, I remembered". Alexander said he had come to urge her father, Sir George, to take swift action and get the tsar and his family out of Russia. In the end, nothing came of these plans, as monarchist groups could not decide whether or not to restore Nicholas or his son
Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich. Near the end of 1917, while lodging with
Felix Yusupov, Alexander was arrested by
Bolshevik authorities, along with four or five prominent members of the monarchical party. In 1919, a
Bolshevik wireless message sent to
The Washington Post asserted that after a meeting of Russian monarchists in
Siberia, Alexander was offered and accepted the Russian throne, though no further reports confirmed this.
Death Alexander died in exile on 26 September 1942 in
Salies-de-Béarn, France. He was succeeded as
Duke of Leuchtenberg by his younger half-brother
Prince Sergei. ==Honours and arms==