THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL SUCCESSION
Brien Purcell Horan
Copyright October 1998 by Brien Purcell Horan
An unsigned article entitled
"The Legitimacy of a Kirillovichi Claim to the Throne of all the Russias"
has been recently disseminated. Many people have written in the last several years about the Russian imperial succession laws. Unfortunately, much that has been written is incorrect, especially various articles that refer to Prince Nicholas Romanoff as head of the Russian dynasty.
The author of the unsigned article will be referred to in these pages as "Mr. X". What is useful about "Mr. X's" article is that it groups together in one document many of the
fallacious arguments which have been repeated from time to time to oppose Russian legitimism and which erroneously purport to be based upon the Russian succession laws. These arguments should not be left unanswered. The term "Kirillovichi" refers to the descendants of the Grand Duke Kirill of Russia, senior first cousin of the Emperor Nicholas II. The Grand Duke Kirill at the fall of the monarchy in
March 1917 was, by primogeniture, third in line to the Russian throne. In July 1918, he succeeded as head of the imperial dynasty following the murders of Emperor Nicholas II and of the two dynasts who had been first
and second in line to the throne: respectively, the Grand Duke-Tsesarevich Alexei (only son of Nicholas II) and the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (only living brother of Nicholas II). The Grand Duke Kirill at his
death in 1938 was succeeded as head of the dynasty by his only son, the Grand Duke Wladimir, who in turn at his death in 1992 was succeeded by his only child, the Grand Duchess Maria, present head of the dynasty.
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The writer, a Juris Doctor and practicing lawyer, was formerly in charge of the legal section of the
United States Embassy in Paris. He is a student of the history and laws of the Russian dynasty, and he served for a number of years, until April 1992, as the late Grand Duke Wladimir's personal lawyer. In the latter
capacity, working in collaboration with the Grand Duke's chancellor, the late Ivan Ivanovich Bilibin, he had occasion to familiarize himself with the intricacies of the Russian succession laws. As head of the dynasty from
October 1938 until his death in April 1992, the Grand Duke Wladimir was personally very conversant with the complexities of these laws. In this respect, he was a great exception: over the years many people have
purported to speak authoritatively about the succession laws, but very few of them (including many living descendants of members of the Russian dynasty) have had more than the most elementary understanding of what the laws actually
say.
Grand Duchess Maria's lawful position as dynastic head recently has been challenged by a morganatic pretender, her distant relation (a third cousin once removed), Prince Nicholas Romanoff. Prince Nicholas Romanoff, however, is not a member of the dynasty, because his mother was not of royal birth, as required under the Russian succession laws. Because he is not a member of the dynasty, his claim to be head of the dynasty has no basis in law. His adherents seem to ignore the fact that the succession laws required each dynast to be born of an equal marriage, that is, born of a marriage of a dynast to a spouse of royal birth (or, to be more precise, to a spouse who was a member of a royal or sovereign dynasty). Instead, his adherents overlook the problem of the morganatic (or unequal) marriage of his parents and appear to base their claim on his being, by primogeniture, "the senior male line descendant of the Romanoff dynasty". The flaw in this reasoning is that succession by primogeniture applied only to dynasts, not to those who were non-dynasts on account of being born of a morganatic union between a dynast and a spouse not of royal birth. In any event, Prince Nicholas Romanoff is not even the senior male line morganatic descendant, because several males of the Ilynsky family (descendants of the morganatic marriage between Grand Duke Dmitry of Russia and Miss Audrey Emery) are ahead of him genealogically. As explained elsewhere in this essay, the title "Prince Romanoff" assumed socially by so many morganatic descendants of the Russian dynasty is a subject of controversy, because the title was invented in emigration and has no basis in Russian imperial law. Although a nobiliary lawyer therefore might well quibble about the legality of the style of "Prince
"Mr. X" in his article expresses the erroneous view that the marriage of the late Grand Duke Kirill of Russia (head of the Russian
dynasty from 1918 to 1938), was in violation of the Russian succession laws and that therefore the descendants of that marriage (including the Grand Duchess Maria of Russia, head of the Russian dynasty from 1992 to the present)
should be considered somehow outside of the line of succession. "Mr. X's" conclusion is not supported either by fact or in law, as explained below. The simplest way to disprove "Mr. X's"
contention about Grand Duke Kirill's marriage is to point out that every person who was by birth a member of the Russian dynasty was ipso facto
in the line of succession to the throne. The only method by which a dynast could take himself out of the line of succession was by signing an affirmative act of renunciation of his succession rights. With the exception of several dynasts (all but one of them females) who upon their marriages signed renunciations of their succession rights, there was no such thing as a separate category of people who were dynasts but who were ineligible to succeed to the throne.
Thus, the key issue in considering whether a person was in the line of succession to the Russian throne is to determine whether that person was or is a member of the As discussed in Footnote 3, Grand Duke Kirill, who was third in line to
the Russian throne at the time of the March 1917 abdication of Nicholas II, succeeded as head of the dynasty in July 1918 upon the execution of Nicholas II and the latter's son and brother. In his manifesto of 31 August/13
September 1924, while in exile in France, he proclaimed himself Emperor of Russia, following the precedent of such kings as Charles II of England and Louis XVIII of France, who in exile took the title of king following the
respective executions of Charles I in England and of Louis XVI and Louis XVII in France. The Russian laws governing membership in the imperial house, succession to the throne and other dynastic subjects
are contained in the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial Family (codification of 1906, as amended through 1911). These laws, referred to collectively as "the succession laws"
in this essay, are sometimes described as "the Pauline law", because their original version was promulgated in 1797 by Emperor Paul I. From time to time, female dynasts renounced their succession rights upon
marriage into a foreign dynasty. One example was Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, who renounced upon her marriage in 1879 to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Another example was Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna,
who renounced upon her 1846 marriage to the future King of Wurttemberg. A dynast was allowed to renounce his succession rights under Article 37. Article 38 specified that such a renunciation was valid only
upon its being announced publicly and given legal effect. There is no provision allowing a dynast to renounce the succession rights of his minor children. Thus, a common view held among specialists was that the instrument of abdication signed by Emperor Nicholas II in March 1917 was partially illegal: not in respect of his own abdication but to the extent it also purported to effect a renunciation of the succession rights of his minor son, the Grand Duke-Tsesarevich Alexei. According to this view, the position of head of the dynasty passed in March 1917 to Alexei (murdered in July 1918) rather than to Nicholas II's brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (murdered in June 1918).
For at least the last 80 years of the monarchy, male dynasts were listed in the court calendar by primogeniture in the order of their succession to the throne, while female dynasts were listed according to
other criteria unrelated to the succession. From 1825 to 1831, however, in the early years of the reign of Nicholas I, a unique situation existed: there was a male dynast (Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, younger
brother of Alexander I and older brother of Nicholas I) who, although remaining a dynast and continuing to be listed in the court calendar, had publicly renounced his succession rights. (Due to his morganatic marriage,
Constantine, first in the line of succession during the reign of Alexander I, had in 1822 chosen to sign a renunciation of his succession rights in favor of his younger brother, later Nicholas I. This enunciation was accepted
and given effect upon being made public in 1825.) Accordingly, in 1830, Constantine, although without succession rights, was, as one of the five living male dynasts, listed in the court calendar at a place directly after
Nicholas I's sons, reflecting the personal precedence given to him at court by his imperial brother; but one would exclude Constantine in calculating the order in the succession of the other male dynasts then living.
From this unique precedent, one can surmise that, if a male dynast were to effect a valid public renunciation of his succession rights, he would, as a dynast, still be listed in the court calendar, but in reckoning other dynasts'
place in the line of succession one would exclude from one's numerical count any male dynast who had validly renounced his succession rights. In the event, Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich was the only male dynast to effect
such a renunciation between the time of the promulgation of the Pauline law in 1797 and the publication of the last court calendar in 1917.
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law. Although a nobiliary lawyer therefore might well quibble about the legality of the style of "Prince Romanoff", it would seem churlish
and a transgression of good manners to object to the use of this style in society, given the fact that, although not dynasts themselves, its users are the direct descendants of dynasts. It is unfortunate that, in direct
violation of the laws of the dynasty, several morganatic descendants who for many decades had referred to themselves by the self-assumed style of "Prince Romanoff" have in the 1990s gone a step further and begun to use
the title of "Prince of Russia", a designation that by definition may not be borne by morganatic descendants of Russian dynasts.
The laws set forth a straightforward procedure to follow when a baby was
born who qualified as a dynast. Under Articles 135 and 136, the parent immediately had to inform the emperor in writing of the child's name and birth date. The emperor then would order that the name of the child be
entered in the Genealogical Book of the Imperial Family (maintained by the emperor's chancellery) and that the parents be informed that the child was included in the imperial family (Article 137). It was of course the
emperor's decision as to whether a child satisfied the requirements for dynastic membership. Once he entered the child's name in the Genealogical Book, the issue was closed. Under Article 142, inclusion of a child's
name in the Genealogical Book was proof of membership in the imperial house. The Genealogical Book determined whose names were included as dynasts on the official court calendar and was the basis for entitlement to pensions
and apanages. The two daughters of the Grand Duke Kirill born before the fall of the monarchy were entered in the Genealogical Book, pursuant to the decree of the Emperor Nicholas II dated 15 July 1907. But rather than dismiss "Mr. X" with such a simple rebuttal, let us consider each of his arguments in turn. The Marriage of the Grand Duke Kirill
Russian dynasty. If the question is resolved in the affirmative, then that person's place in the succession flowed automatically from dynastic status. For persons born during
the monarchy, it is simple to determine whether they were dynasts. One need simply consult the last official court calendar, published in 1917, which provided the names of each and every living dynast, with male dynasts
listed by their order in the line of succession to the throne. Grand Duke Kirill was listed in the last court calendar as third in line to the throne. In addition, two of the Grand Duke Kirill's children, Maria and
Kira, were born during the monarchy, and both are listed in the court calendar; the third child, Wladimir, was born in August 1917, shortly after the fall of the monarchy and the publication of the last official court
calendar. Thus, the Grand Duke Kirill and his children were dynasts and therefore in the line of succession. This seems too obvious a fact to point out, but, since "Mr. X" has suggested otherwise, it is
necessary to cite proof in rebuttal.
Leaving aside for the moment the issue of a spouse's religion, there were two main legal requirements that had to be followed by a member of the Russian dynasty The laws set forth a
straightforward procedure to follow when a baby was born who qualified as a dynast. Under Articles 135 and 136, the parent immediately had to inform the emperor in writing of the child's name and birth date. The emperor
then would order that the name of the child be entered in the Genealogical Book of the Imperial Family (maintained by the emperor's chancellery) and that the parents be informed that the child was included in the imperial family
(Article 137). It was of course the emperor's decision as to whether a child satisfied the requirements for dynastic membership. Once he entered the child's name in the Genealogical Book, the issue was closed.
Under Article 142, inclusion of a child's name in the Genealogical Book was proof of membership in the imperial house. The Genealogical Book determined whose names were included as dynasts on the official court calendar and
was the basis for entitlement to pensions and apanages. The two daughters of the Grand Duke Kirill born before the fall of the monarchy were entered in the Genealogical Book, pursuant to the decree of the Emperor Nicholas II
dated 15 July 1907.
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For at least the last 80 years of the monarchy, male dynasts were listed in the court calendar by primogeniture in the order of their succession to the throne, while
female dynasts were listed according to other criteria unrelated to the succession. From 1825 to 1831, however, in the early years of the reign of Nicholas I, a unique situation existed: there was a male dynast (Grand
Duke Constantine Pavlovich, younger brother of Alexander I and older brother of Nicholas I) who, although remaining a dynast and continuing to be listed in the court calendar, had publicly renounced his succession
rights. (Due to his morganatic marriage, Constantine, first in the line of succession during the reign of Alexander I, had in 1822 chosen to sign a renunciation of his succession rights in favor of his younger brother, later
Nicholas I. This enunciation was accepted and given effect upon being made public in 1825.) Accordingly, in 1830, Constantine, although without succession rights, was, as one of the five living male dynasts, listed in
the court calendar at a place directly after Nicholas I's sons, reflecting the personal precedence given to him at court by his imperial brother; but one would exclude Constantine in calculating the order in the succession of
the other male dynasts then living. From this unique precedent, one can surmise that, if a male dynast were to effect a valid public renunciation of his succession rights, he would, as a dynast, still be listed in the court
calendar, but in reckoning other dynasts' place in the line of succession one would exclude from one's numerical count any male dynast who had validly renounced his succession rights. In the event, Grand Duke Constantine
Pavlovich was the only male dynast to effect such a renunciation between the time of the promulgation of the Pauline law in 1797 and the publication of the last court calendar in 1917.
H.I.H. the Grand Duke Kirill of Russia (1876-1938) married H.R.H. Princess Victoria Melita of Great Britain and Ireland (1876-1936). Without stating so directly,
"Mr. X" seems to imply that the Grand Duke's wife should be considered a morganatic spouse, that is, a spouse who was not of royal birth. But it is difficult to think of a person whose antecedents are decidedly more
royal than those of the princess. She was born a member of the British Royal Family and was tenth in line to the British throne at her birth. Her father, Admiral of the Fleet H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh, K.G. (Prince
Alfred of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Edinburgh), was the second son of Queen Victoria. Her mother, the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, was the only daughter of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. Since
the princess was born into a family that reigned over a kingdom, she was by definition of royal birth.
in contracting a marriage. Failure to follow these requirements meant that the descendants of the
marriage would not be considered members of the dynasty and thus would not be in the line of succession. The first requirement was that the marriage receive the Emperor's approval. The second requirement was that the
intended spouse be of royal birth.
"Mr. X" also argues that the Grand Duke Kirill's marriage was objectionable because it did not have
the approval of the Emperor. But of course it is a matter of historical record that the Emperor Nicholas II did accord his approval to the marriage. In his decree of 15 July 1907, the Emperor recognized the marriage,
stated that "the consort of H.I.H. Grand Duke Kirill" would bear the title of H.I.H. Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia, and proclaimed that the child born of this marriage was Article 36 states: "Children born of a marriage between a member of the Imperial Family and a person not of corresponding birth, that is, not belonging to a royal or sovereign house, have
no right of succession to the Throne." Article 126 states: "All persons of imperial blood who are born of a marriage between a person of imperial blood and a person of corresponding birth which marriage was
authorized by the reigning emperor are recognized as members of the Imperial House." Her only son, the Grand Duke Wladimir of Russia, was at his birth in 1917 20th in line of succession to the British throne.
"The consort of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Kirill Wladimirovich is to be styled Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, with the predicate of Imperial Highness, and the daughter born of the marriage of
Grand Duke Kirill Wladimirovich with Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, named Maria in holy baptism, is to be recognized as a Princess of the Imperial Blood, with the predicate of Highness belonging to great-grandchildren of an
Emperor."
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Article 183 specifies: "Permission of the reigning emperor is necessary for the marriage of every member of the Imperial
House…".
At the time of the 1907 decree, the only child born of the marriage was H.H. Princess Maria Kirillovna of Russia. Later two other children were born, H.H. Princess Kira of Russia and H.H.
Prince Wladimir of Russia. As stated before, in July 1918, following the murders of Nicholas II and of the only son and the only brother of Nicholas II, Grand Duke Kirill automatically became head of the dynasty, by operation
of Article 53. Article 53 states: "On the demise of an emperor, his heir accedes to the Throne by virtue of the law of succession itself, which confers this right upon him. The accession of an emperor to the
Throne is counted from the day of the demise of his predecessor." Thus, when the Grand Duke Kirill became head of the dynasty in July 1918 (or emperor, in monarchist reckoning), his children (Maria, Kira and the 11 month
old Wladimir) were advanced to grand ducal rank by automatic operation of law. Article 146 bestows the titles of grand duke or grand duchess on the children and grandchildren of an emperor. On 31 August/13 September
1924, as head of the dynasty, Grand Duke Kirill took the title of Emperor and formally bestowed upon his 7-year-old son Wladimir the title of Grand Duke-Tsesarevich. The Russian title of grand
"recognized as a Princess of the Imperial Blood." Approval of the marriage of a dynast was in the discretion of the emperor. He had authority
to withhold such approval. Once he accorded his approval, however, the matter was closed.
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duke is, like
that of tsar, one of the most venerable titles of the Russian monarchy. Until 1886, all male dynasts were grand dukes. In 1886, however, there were so many male dynasts that the succession appeared secure and Emperor
Alexander III felt that he could safely limit the grand ducal title to the sons and grandsons of emperors, giving to more distant dynasts the title of Prince of the Imperial Blood (Prince of Russia). His intention was not to
bring about the eventual extinction of the ancient title of grand duke but rather to limit the designation to the senior members of the family. He could not have foreseen that 18 dynasts, including 9 of the 17 grand dukes,
would be murdered during the Revolution. Nor could he have foreseen that in the decades following the abdication of Nicholas II the surviving dynasts would contract 26 morganatic marriages but only 4 equal marriages.
[These four equal marriages were those of the Grand Duke Wladimir (who married a Bagration princess of Georgia), his sister Maria (who married the Prince of Leiningen), his sister Kira (who married the head of the Prussian Royal
House), and his daughter Maria (who married a Prince of Prussia).] It would be nonsensical to argue that by amending the succession laws in 1886 Alexander III intended in any way to prevent the children and grandchildren of
future heads of the dynasty (considered by monarchists as de jure emperors) from using the grand ducal title. And the fact that the only equal marriages in the Russian dynasty after 1917 were contracted by the descendants of
the Grand Duke Kirill shows that the senior line was the only branch of the dynasty that considered itself duty-bound, generation after generation in the post-revolutionary years, to have an eligible heir available. A quarter
century ago, the Grand Duke Wladimir's head of chancellery and private secretary, the late Ivan Bilibin (B.A. Oxon.), described the reasons which impelled the Grand Duke Kirill to take the title of Emperor: "After the
defeat of the Whites in the Civil War, which followed three unconstitutional acts [Note: the abdication of Nicholas II not only for himself but also for his son; the conditional abdication of Nicholas II's brother
Michael; and the provisional government's contravention of its terms of reference by declaring Russia a republic prior to the convening of a constituent assembly to decide upon the form of government]…, the dynasty had to
reassert its rightful position. In 1922, when the fate of the late imperial family was still regarded as uncertain, the Grand Duke Kirill assumed the office of Curator of the Throne. In 1924 the Grand Duke was convinced
that the late imperial family and the Grand Duke Michael had been assassinated, and issued a manifesto in which he assumed the title of Emperor. An instruction was issued at the same time that he would use this title only
among Russians. This drastic step was regarded as essential in order to make it clear that the acts of 1917 were null and void and that the dynasty was in no way affected by them.. When the Grand Duke Kirill died in
1938, his son and heir, the Grand Duke Wladimir, issued a manifesto in which he stated: 'Following my father's example, in profound awareness of the sacred duty incumbent upon me, I assume by inheritance, …[the position] of
Head of the Imperial House of Russia which has devolved upon me by right of succession [and] all the rights and duties which belong to me by virtue of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial
Family.' The words 'following my father's example' put it beyond doubt that the Grand Duke assumed the title of Emperor, but he did not say so specifically, as the Grand Duke Kirill did in his manifesto of 1924. An
instruction was issued at the same time from the Grand Duke's Office, stating that the Head of the Imperial House would continue to use the title of Grand Duke, thus extending to all the 'incognito' which the Grand Duke Kirill had
limited to his relations with foreigners. At the same time yet another instruction was issued, stating that a number of people had sworn allegiance to the Head of the Imperial House as Emperor and that he had accepted their
oaths. I think this gives a very clear picture of the Grand Duke's views in this matter. He considers that his father's assumption and use of the Imperial Title was necessary in order to secure the future of the
dynasty. As this has already been done by his father, he does not consider it necessary for him to continue the use of the Imperial Title, which in conditions of exile often causes unnecessary embarrassment. The latent
Imperial Title, however, implied in his accession manifesto, secures the future of the dynasty, including, for instance, the perpetuation of the grand ducal title for future generations, which otherwise would have gone into
abeyance." (Walter J .P. Curley, Kings Without Crowns (1973), pp. 85-86).
Princess Victoria Melita had had a previous
marriage. Her first husband was Grand Duke Ernest Ludwig of Hesse and the Rhine. This first marriage had been arranged by Queen Victoria, who was the grandmother both of the bride and the groom and who was anxious to
see two of her favorite grandchildren united in matrimony. As has been revealed in a number of biographies, Ernest Ludwig was not naturally inclined towards marriage, and the union was a disaster. As soon as Queen
Victoria died in 1901, the marriage was dissolved. Following the divorce, the Grand Duke Kirill sought permission from Nicholas II to marry Princess Victoria Melita. This raised a very delicate problem,
because Ernest Ludwig was the only brother of the Empress Alexandra of Russia. Nicholas II's consort was very upset by the divorce and resisted a Russian marriage for her ex-sister-in-law. Hence, approval of the
marriage was delayed until 1907. "Mr. X" theorizes that the Grand Duke Kirill's marriage must have been invalid because his wife was a divorcee. This is incorrect. The succession laws place
no obstacle in the path of a dynast's marriage to a divorcee. To cite one example, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich of Russia, the famous World War I commander, married a royal divorcee, but this fact had no legal effect on
either his status or hers. Furthermore, the succession laws allow divorce.
"Mr. X" then attacks the marriage as violative of the rules of the Orthodox Church, on the basis that Grand Duke
Kirill and his wife, as grandchildren of the Tsar-Liberator, Emperor Alexander II, were first cousins. This objection need not detain us unduly. The preeminent role of the emperor in the administration of the
Russian The wife of Grand Duke Nicholas was Princess
Stana of Montenegro, one of the daughters of the personally colorful and impressive King Nicholas of Montenegro. She had divorced her first husband, the Duke of Leuchtenberg, in 1906 and married the Grand Duke six months
later. Articles 194 and 195 provide for the divorce of dynasts. Article 196 provides for their remarriage following divorce. In 1820, 23 years after promulgation of the succession laws, Emperor
Alexander I granted a divorce to his brother Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich so that the latter could remarry. This did not impair Constantine's succession rights, which remained unaffected until he affirmatively renounced
them in 1822. In the final years of the monarchy, Nicholas II accorded divorces to his sister (Grand Duchess Olga) and to his first cousin (Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna). In the Orthodox faith, one is permitted a maximum of
two divorces. I am grateful to Professor Russell Martin of Westminster College (Ph.D., Harvard University) for sharing with me his detailed knowledge of the Russian Orthodox Church and its connections over the
centuries with the Romanoff dynasty. Dr. Martin has correctly pointed out that the Russian church rarely enforced the traditional canonical rules against marriage within certain degrees of consanguinity. It is important
to note that not only first cousin marriages technically violated the consanguinity rules, but also marriages between first cousins once removed and even between second cousins: there was no such thing as different
"degrees of validity", so all such unions would equally transgress the strict letter of Orthodox rules. Nonetheless, there were innumerable valid marriages in the history of the Russian monarchy that technically
violated the consanguinity rules of the Orthodox church, including the unions of Tsar Ivan III in 1472 to Zoe Paleologa; of Emperor Peter III to Empress Catherine II (second cousins); and, after promulgation in 1797 of
the Pauline laws, of Emperor Nicholas I in 1817 to Princess Charlotte of Prussia (second cousins); of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich in 1824 to Princess Charlotte of Wurttemberg (first cousins once removed); of Grand Duke
Constantine Nikolayevich in 1848 to Princess Alexandra of Saxe-
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Through her
Russian mother, Princess Victoria Melita was a first cousin of Emperor Nicholas II. Through her English father, she was also a first cousin of Empress Alexandra.
Orthodox Church in the last two centuries of the monarchy was perhaps unique among the major branches of Orthodoxy. As Emperor Paul I stated in his declaration of 5 April 1797, the day of his coronation, the Orthodox faith is "inseparable" from the Russian throne, "because the sovereign in Russia is the Head of the Church." When Peter the Great ascended the throne in 1682, the Russian Orthodox Church was directed by its patriarch, who wielded considerable autonomous power. Emperor Peter I set out consciously to subordinate the church to imperial control, and as part of that effort he suppressed the office of patriarch. This suppression remained in effect until the fall of the monarchy and came to an end only in 1918, when the patriarchate was revived with permission of the Bolshevik government. By a decree in 1721, Emperor Peter formally replaced the patriarchate with an entity called the Governing Holy Synod. From this date onwards, the church ceased to be independent of the state, and its administration became a state function. The Governing Holy Synod, through which the emperor administered the church, was in practical terms a state ministry of religion. Unlike a government ministry, however, the Synod was headed not by a minister but by a council composed of bishops and responsible to the emperor. Under Articles 62 to 65, the monarch, acting through the Governing Holy Synod, administered the church, and as emperor and autocrat he held the titles of "Supreme Defender and Guardian of the Dogmas" of the Russian Orthodox Church. Like several other of the major faiths of Christianity, the Russian Orthodox Church had established a code of rules and laws which nonetheless were subject to exceptions and dispensations, except for matters of dogma. The decision of the emperor and autocrat as to church matters was supreme, except, again, for matters of dogma. Upon ordination, Russian Orthodox priests even took an oath in which they swore to defend without reservation "all the powers, rights and prerogatives belonging to the High Autocracy of His Majesty."
Therefore, the procedure for any bishop or member of the Holy Synod to object to a dynastic marriage based upon degree of kinship would be to urge the emperor not to
Professor Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime (1974), p. 241.
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Altenburg (second cousins); of Grand Duchess Helen Wladimirovna in 1882 to Prince Nicholas of Greece
(second cousins); of Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich (assassinated 1905) in 1884 to Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and the Rhine (murdered 1918) (first cousins once removed); of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich in 1889 to
Princess Alexandra of Greece (first cousins once removed); of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich in 1894 to Grand Duchess Xenia (first cousins once removed); of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich in 1900 to Princess Marie of
Greece (first cousins once removed); and even of Emperor Nicholas II in 1894 to Empress Alexandra (second cousins). The spouses of these marriages all received their husband's rank, and children born of these marriages
were not disqualified in any way as dynasts. Grand Duchess Serge Alexandrovich (Princess Elizabeth of Hesse and the Rhine), who became a nun after the assassination of her husband in 1905 and who was murdered by the
Bolsheviks in horrific circumstances with four male dynasts in July 1918, was canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and in the 1990s by the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia. As to unions contracted by
female dynasts, one can cite the 1809 marriage of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna (sister of Alexander I and Nicholas I) to her first cousin, Duke George of Oldenburg. This marriage, like the others mentioned, received the
consent of the Emperor, and the Oldenburg descendants of the marriage, who settled in St. Petersburg and became Orthodox, included several Russians generals. These Oldenburgs, through their Romanoff descent in the female
line, had eventual succession rights to the Russian throne. A great-grandson of the marriage, Duke Peter of Oldenburg, married one of the sisters of Emperor Nicholas II.
It is important to recall that, for purposes of an analysis of a dynast's succession rights, we must confine ourselves strictly
to the succession laws themselves. In promulgating the succession laws in 1797, Emperor Paul I stated that he had established them so "that the successor [to the throne would] be determined by the law itself and that there be not the slightest doubt as to the successor." In the years before the fall of the monarchy, the Grand Duke Kirill's place in the order of succession was completely clear: he was listed as third in line of succession on the official court calendar, his equal marriage had received imperial approval, and his children were dynasts. In considering whether to approve a proposed dynastic marriage, it was the role of the emperor and autocrat, as supreme defender and guardian of the dogmas of the church, to weigh any religious or other issues surrounding the marriage and then to resolve those issues definitively by taking a decision to approve or disapprove the marriage.
If "Mr. X" means to argue that, for succession purposes, an equal dynastic marriage receiving imperial approval is nonetheless subject to a collateral legal attack from laws or rules other than the succession laws, his
argument cannot be sustained. Such a suggestion, if admitted, would render the official order of succession uncertain, tentative and ultimately meaningless, thus defeating the principal intention of Paul I in
promulgating the succession laws: namely, to ensure that the identity of the successor to the throne was clear from the succession laws themselves.
grant his approval and dispensation to the marriage.
Similarly, if the emperor, as guardian of the dogmas of the church, had objections to the degree of kinship, he was free to withhold his approval of the marriage and consequent dispensation of the consanguinity restrictions.
He gave his approval and dispensation to the marriage of the Grand Duke Kirill.
Moreover, "Mr. X" should not ignore the attitude of
the church itself to the exiled dynastic heads and thus to the marriage of Grand Duke Kirill. After the Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church splintered into two principal branches. The Russian Orthodox Church in
Russia, headed by a patriarchate in Moscow restored by permission of the Bolshevik government, was subject to the dictates of the Communist state during the Soviet period and had no contact or association with the dynasty. In
exile, however, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, headed by a Synod of Bishops with its headquarters in New York City, ministered to the spiritual needs of the emigration. The senior dynast of
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The present writer is
unaware of opposition of any kind on the part of the Holy Synod to imperial approval of the marriage. Records establish that the Empress Alexandra nursed a lingering resentment against her first cousin and ex-sister-in-law,
Princess Victoria Melita, for having divorced Alexandra's German brother, but even Father Yanysheff, the Confessor of the Empress, expressed the view that the degree of kinship between the betrothed posed no significant obstacle to
an eventual marriage. The marriage ultimately was performed in an Orthodox chapel by a Russian Orthodox priest. Professor Martin has explained that a corollary of the Orthodox church's view of marriage as a sacrament is
the notion that once an Orthodox marriage has been performed and the sacrament dispensed, the sacrament is deemed to be dispensed for all time. In other words, the marriage is valid and cannot be canonically attacked
after the fact.
Act of Emperor Paul I, 4 April 1797: "…Having established the order of succession, I shall explain its aim, which is this: that the State never be without a successor; that the successor be determined by the law itself; that there be not the slightest doubt as to the successor..."
the day (first Grand Duke Kirill and then his son) was recognized as the dynastic head by the first three successive leaders (Metropolitans Anthony, Anastasy, and Filaret) of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad. At the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia, headed by the Patriarch Alexei II and with its headquarters in Moscow, asserted its independence from the state. In November 1991,
shortly after the failed Communist Putsch and several weeks before the official dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Grand Duke Wladimir traveled to Russia for the first and only time in his life. He was
received in St. Petersburg by the Patriarch
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This remained the position of the Russian Orthodox Church
Abroad throughout the Soviet period. (The tenure of these three successive metropolitans was from 1920 to 1985). In his researches, Professor Russell Martin has unearthed a fascinating memorandum written by Bishop John of
Shanghai and San Francisco shortly after the death of Grand Duke Kirill. The memorandum urged the commemoration of Grand Duke Wladimir as dynastic head in all services of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. It was
presented by Bishop John (later an archbishop and subsequently canonized as St. John of Shanghai) to the Synod of Bishops of the Church Abroad in 1939. Professor Martin also has translated the minutes of a council of
the Synod of Bishops of the Church Abroad, held in Yugoslavia in September 1939; this was the first bishops' council to convene after the death of Grand Duke Kirill. The minutes reflect a unanimous vote to approve a
letter of loyal greeting to "His Imperial Highness the pious Sovereign and Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich, Head of the Russian Imperial House." In 1984, with the approval of the Synod, Archbishop Anthony, head of the
diocese of Los Angeles and Central California and a very senior hierarch of the Synod, issued (in Russian, French and English) an excellent and authoritative book on the succession, entitled Succession to the Imperial Throne of
Russia and with an introduction by Prince Cyril Toumanoff, professor emeritus of history at Georgetown University, a recognized authority on nobiliary and dynastic questions, and a high official of the Sovereign Military Order of
Malta. In essence, the book identified Grand Dukes Kirill and Wladimir as the two successive dynastic heads since the exile of the dynasty; it recognized that Prince Vassily of Russia (died 1989), then the only other
living male dynast, was first in line of succession after Grand Duke Wladimir; and it asserted that, upon the deaths of Grand Duke Wladimir and Prince Vassily, the succession would pass to the daughter of the former, Grand
Duchess Maria Wladimirovna, and then through the female line to her son, Grand Duke George. It also explained that, should the line of dynasts descended from Grand Duke Wladimir die out, the succession technically would then
pass to the appropriate descendant of the equal marriage of the late Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna (elder daughter of Grand Duke Kirill) to Charles, Prince of Leiningen. (Following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in
1806, the dynasties that had occupied the thrones of the former co-states of the Holy Roman Empire were denominated in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as "mediatised houses", which gave their members equality of birth for
purposes of marriage with dynasts of royal and sovereign houses. Grand Duke Kirill, like the Almanach de Gotha, considered the princely house of Leiningen to be a mediatised house possessing equality of birth. See
Almanach de Gotha, Part II [1938 ed.]). Although the legitimist monarchism of the Church Abroad remained intact throughout the Soviet period, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of an independent patriarchate
in Moscow produced enormous strains within the émigré church. The decision of Grand Duke Wladimir, in the final six months of his life and in the face of strong opposition from several émigré bishops, to visit St. Petersburg
in 1991 and confer privately with Patriarch Alexei II caused great resentment and bitterness within certain segments of the Church Abroad.
In autumn 1991, Anatoly Sobchak, then mayor of St. Petersburg and
for a period of time a member of the cabinet, invited the Grand Duke Wladimir to attend as special guest of honor the November 1991 ceremonies in which the former imperial capital would revert to its original name of St.
Petersburg. Although the Grand Duke was in failing health and deeply wished to set foot on Russian soil as soon as possible, he felt that he had to risk cancellation of the trip on a matter of principle: that is,
he absolutely declined to apply for a Russian visa, on the basis that he was Russian and that the Bolshevik order depriving the imperial dynasty of Russian citizenship was illegal and invalid. He expressed the view that
to seek a Russian visa would constitute a denial of his Russian nationality and an acceptance of the Bolshevik decree. President Yeltsin then personally intervened and approved an order allowing the Grand Duke Wladimir and
the Grand Duchess Leonida to enter Russia without visas. They flew on a private jet from
Alexei, who acknowledged him as head of the
imperial house. When the Grand Duke died in April 1992, the Patriarch delivered the eulogy at his funeral mass and formally described him as "head of the Russian dynastic house".
Continuing his
attack on the marriage, "Mr. X" next suggests that the marriage was in violation of the dynastic laws because, at the time of their marriage, the bride of the Grand Duke Kirill was Protestant, not Orthodox. He
therefore implies that the Russian succession laws required all
dynasts to marry Orthodox spouses. This too is incorrect. In fact, the succession laws were very flexible. They required the direct heir to the throne, that is, the Tsarevich, to marry an Orthodox spouse. They also allowed the Emperor the option, if he so chose, to require other senior dynasts to marry Orthodox spouses. For example, if the Tsarevich as first in line were sickly or a confirmed bachelor or had no sons, the Emperor might well require the second in line to marry an Orthodox spouse. When Emperor Paul I promulgated the succession laws in 1797, however, there were very few Orthodox monarchies, and he had no wish unduly to impede the marriage of those Russian dynasts more remote in the line of succession to suitable royal princesses from Protestant Germany who might not wish to change their religion.
In his eulogy at the funeral mass on April 29, 1992, before dozens of bishops and priests and some 15,000 mourners in St. Isaac Cathedral, St. Petersburg, the Patriarch stated in part as follows: "I
was very impressed by his deep faith, his love for Russia and her people, whom he wished to help…His whole life outside, all his feelings and efforts, Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich dedicated to a country he considered his own…His
faith and long patience were not in vain. On the eve of his passage to the other world, he stepped on his native soil…On his return from Russia, he never ceased to dedicate all his strength to assist his country, and despite
his fragile health, he went to the United States to persuade various American business circles to help Russia and to have faith in his country. He died during this trip." The English spouse of the
Grand Duke Kirill was baptized as a member of the Church of England. After her marriage to Grand Duke Kirill, she converted to Orthodoxy. Her Russian mother, despite marrying into the British Royal Family, had remained
devoutly Orthodox and had maintained an Orthodox chapel in her English residence. From early childhood, Princess Victoria Melita, through the influence of her mother, is said by one of her biographers to have been drawn
towards the Orthodox faith. (The spouse of the Grand Duke Wladimir has been Orthodox throughout her life.) In 1797, the only Orthodox kingdoms in Europe were the Russian Empire of the Romanoff dynasty, and
the two kingdoms ruled (until 1801 and 1810, respectively) by different branches of the Bagration dynasty:
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Paris (having been escorted to the plane by the Russian Ambassador to Paris and his military attache) to St.
Petersburg. In a cable from the U.S. Consulate General in St. Petersburg to the State Department, an American diplomat in attendance at the Grand Duke's only press conference during the trip expressed his amazement that, upon
the Grand Duke's entry into the auditorium, the many Russian journalists among the 300 Russian and foreign journalists present rose spontaneously to their feet in unison as a mark of respect. In early 1992, during President
Yeltsin's state visit to France, the Grand Duke had an opportunity personally to thank the Russian president when they met at the Russian embassy in Paris. At the Grand Duke's death in April 1992, the Russian Government,
acting at the behest of President Yeltsin and the Patriarch, issued a decree allowing his interment in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, the traditional burial place of Russian emperors and dynasts from the death of Peter the
Great in 1725 to the fall of the monarchy. Grand Duke Wladimir was the first Romanoff to be buried there since the death of Grand Duke Constantine in 1915. Following the burial of Grand Duke Wladimir, the remains of his
parents, Grand Duke and Grand Duchess Kirill, were disinterred from their crypt in Coburg, Germany and buried with military honors in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in 1995. The remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his
family were buried in July 1998; in July 1918, their Bolshevik murderers had hidden the remains of the Emperor and his family in a secret, unmarked pit near Ekaterinburg, but they were unearthed by archaeologists in July 1991.
When the Grand Duke
Kirill married, he was not particularly senior in the line of succession. In fact, four people stood between him and the throne at the moment of his marriage. Given this, Nicholas II approved the marriage without
prescribing any requirement that Princess Victoria Melita become Orthodox, something that she eventually did in any event a year after her marriage. Article 184 provided as follows: "With the
permission of the reigning emperor, members of the Imperial House may enter into marriage both with persons of the Orthodox faith and with persons of other denominations." This was qualified by Article 185, which
addressed marriages of the most senior dynasts: "The marriage of a male dynast of the Imperial House who might succeed to the Throne to a person of another faith may not take place until she embraces Orthodoxy."
It was the Emperor who interpreted and defined the meaning of "a male dynast who might succeed to the Throne": as explained above, he could limit this to the Tsarevich or extend it more widely,
depending on the circumstances. The children of approved marriages between male dynasts of the imperial house and Protestant royal princesses were full members of the dynasty. For example, in 1884, with the emperor's
permission, Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia, nephew of Alexander II, had married a Princess of Saxe-Altenburg who was devoutly Lutheran and remained so throughout her married life in Russia. But her numerous
sons and two daughters were full members of the dynasty. Another example is provided by the case of the Grand Duke Kirill's parents. In 1874, the Grand Duke Kirill's father, Grand Duke Wladimir Alexandrovich, then
fourth in line to the throne, married a Duchess of Mecklenburg who These four were the Emperor Nicholas II himself (then only 37), his only son
Alexei (who was 1 year old and whose haemophilia was not yet entirely apparent to the family), Grand Duke Michael (the Emperor's 26 year old younger brother, who was unmarried and was still expected to contract a dynastic
marriage), and Grand Duke Wladimir Alexandrovich (Grand Duke Kirill's 58 year old father). In addition, Article 187 provides that the marriage of grand dukes and grand duchesses was to be announced by manifesto
listing the title of the newlyweds and, "if the wife has converted to the Orthodox faith", with an indication of the name given to her at baptism. Article 128 states that the eldest son of the emperor
and the eldest son in each generation descending from that eldest son of the emperor are each considered an heir to the throne. This clarification helps place Article 185 in context. Proof that the children
of Grand Duke Constantine and his Lutheran wife were in the line of succession is provided not only by their inclusion in the Genealogical Book of the Imperial Family and in the official court calendars but also by the decree
issued by Nicholas II on 24 August 1911 with respect to Constantine's daughter, Princess Tatiana of Russia. Princess Tatiana renounced her rights of succession upon her 1911 marriage to a prince of the Bagration
dynasty. Nicholas II decreed as follows: "H.H. Princess Tatiana Constantinovna has presented to Us, over her own signature, a renunciation of her right of succession to the Imperial Throne of all the Russias, which
belongs to her as a member of the Imperial House of Russia. The Governing Senate will take the necessary steps to make this public." The present writer has italicized a portion of the decree to illustrate the fact
that if one was a member of the dynasty, one was ipso facto in the line of succession.
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the Kingdom of Georgia and the Kingdom of
Imeretia. The Orthodox monarchies of Greece, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria and Montenegro only came into being in the 19th century.
remained Lutheran after the marriage. The
sons of this marriage were all dynasts and were listed in the official court calendar in their order of succession to the throne. In 1908, the Grand Duke Kirill's mother converted from the Lutheran faith to Orthodoxy, and on
10 April 1908 Nicholas II issued a manifesto announcing his joy at the conversion and giving his aunt the title of "Orthodox Grand Duchess". Political Issues "Mr. X" also
argues that Grand Duke Kirill was not head of the dynasty because the mother of Nicholas II, who lived in exile until 1928, did not recognize him as such. The flaw in this argument is that succession was determined solely by
the succession laws. The Dowager Empress was enormously respected, but her purported views on the succession were irrelevant from a legal point of view. As her son-in-law wrote in his memoirs, the Dowager Empress was in
the 1920s a broken woman whose two sons and several grandchildren had been brutally murdered. During her remaining reclusive years, she did everything in her power to foster the illusion that her son Nicholas II and grandson
Alexei were somehow still alive in Russia.
In the years following the Revolution, many Russian emigres wrote memoirs and articles in which they attributed blame to various dynasts for events leading to the
collapse of the monarchy and in which they settled scores. Empress Alexandra was a frequent and obvious target. Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich was attacked for his role in persuading Nicholas II to abdicate, thus
precipitating the fall of the dynasty. For example, the third son of the marriage, Grand Duke Andrew, was born in
1879. On 2 May 1879, Emperor Alexander II issued a manifesto announcing the birth of "our grandson named Andrew, … the newborn grand duke" and describing the birth as an "augmentation of our House by the grace
of God." The decree stated: "Our beloved aunt, the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna…by the inclination of her soul has wished to unite herself to us in the faith and in the communion of prayers and
the sacraments. Today, to our great joy, she has received our faith and been anointed. In announcing to all our faithful subjects this much desired event, we ordain that Her Imperial Highness be titled Orthodox Grand
Duchess."
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In his 1874 manifesto, Emperor Alexander II announced as follows: "To all our faithful subjects. By the grace of God and with our blessing and that of our beloved
spouse, our beloved son the Grand Duke Wladimir Alexandrovich has entered into marriage with the Duchess Marie, daughter of the sovereign Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin…In announcing this happy event…and in ordaining that our
beloved daughter-in-law, the spouse of the Grand Duke Wladimir Alexandrovich, be named Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, with the title of Imperial Highness, we are convinced that our faithful subjects will lift their ardent prayers at
the same time as ours to Almighty and Merciful God to accord constant and steadfast happiness to the newly weds dear to our heart."
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich was known in the family by the nickname "Nikolasha". On 2 March 1917, Nicholas II received a telegram from the Grand Duke in which the Grand Duke
said it was necessary for him "to beg…on bended knee" that the Emperor abdicate. ( Mark Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalev, The Fall of the Romanovs [Yale University Press, 1995], pp. 89-90, citing State
Archive of the Russian Federation, Document f. 601, op. 1, d. 2102, l. 1-2). On the afternoon of 2 March, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Voeikov, commandant of the palace, entered the Emperor's railway car to express his grief and
amazement at the Emperor's abdication. In his memoirs, Voeikov described Nicholas II's pointing to the many telegrams on his desk and stating, "What else could I have done when everyone has betrayed me? And
first among them Nikolasha." Mark Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalev, The Fall of the Romanovs (Yale University Press, 1995), p. 63; V.N. Voeikov, S tsarem i bez tsaria (1936), p. 212. In his famous
diary entry of 2 March, Nicholas II finished his description of the day with this sentence: "All around me is
Grand Duke Kirill (and to
a much lesser extent, his uncle, Grand Duke Paul, only surviving son of the Tsar-Liberator, Alexander II) were criticized for their dealings with the Provisional Government in the days prior to the abdication of Nicholas II.
Each attack spawned a rebuttal by the defenders of the person concerned. But "Mr. X" is wrong to suggest that these disputes (which still are debated by some in the present day) had any bearing on the
succession rights of the persons concerned. In the case of the Grand Duke Kirill, his detractors accused him of disloyalty. His supporters asserted that he acted in a levelheaded manner to save the monarchy. Grand
Duke Kirill wrote about these turbulent days in his memoirs, My Life In Russia's Service
(1939). He described the collapse of civil authority in the imperial capital. He explained that the Naval Guards, which he commanded as a rear admiral, were still loyal to him and that, by marching to the seat of the parliament at the head of these troops, he wished to demonstrate that, if the leaders of the Douma would only show some backbone, there were still disciplined military units capable of restoring order and halting the slide into anarchy. In his view,
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treachery, cowardice and deceit." It is noteworthy that Article 222 provided a means by which an
emperor could deprive a dynast of his imperial status on grounds of disobedience or disloyalty. Nicholas II did not avail himself of this procedure at any point during the tumult of the World War and the Revolution.
In his memoirs, Grand Duke Kirill described the disorder in the cities, the food shortages in the capital, the increase in crime and violence, the mutinies in military units, and the passivity of the
government. "One could not help feeling that the whole edifice of the exhausted Empire had begun to totter badly and that the collapse was imminent. If energetic measures had been taken to check the growing storm
at that time all might yet have been saved…In the end, during the latter part of February, the mob got out of hand and a mass murder of the police began. In the barracks reserve contingents of soldiers either arrested or
massacred their officers…Those who were in command of the troops in the capital had lost their heads completely. Next the report of the mutiny of the Baltic Fleet at Helsingfors was received…One or two regiments from the
front would have sufficed to re-establish order within a few hours…No one knew at the time what had become of the Emperor, or where he was. The absence of stability, of someone at the helm, of at least some semblance of
direction was felt by all...It was a time of extravagant rumours and there was a complete lack of reliable news. During the last days of February the anarchy in the metropolis had become such that the Government issued an
appeal to all troops and their commanders to show their allegiance to the Government by marching to the Douma and declaring their loyalty. This measure had been decreed to re-establish some kind of order amid this intolerable
chaos. The Government hoped that if the troops could be got to carry out its emergency measures in the capital, normal conditions might yet be established and the rule of gangsterdom checked for good and all. Meanwhile,
there was no news from Mogilev, only wild rumours. No one knew the actual whereabouts of the Emperor beyond that he was trying to come to Tsarskoe backed by loyal troops which would help the Imperial train to break through
the cordons of disloyal revolutionary contingents. I was put in a very awkward position by the decree of the Government. I was the Commander of the Naval Guards, which constituted one of the military contingents of the
capital. The order of the Government, which was the last vestige, even though a sorry one, of authority in St. Petersburg, applied to my men as it did to all other troops, and, further, it applied to me as their commander. I
had to decide, therefore, whether I should obey that order and take my men to the Douma, or else whether to leave my men leaderless in this dangerous situation by resigning, and thus to let them drift on to the rocks of
revolution with the rest. Hitherto I had succeeded in preserving loyalty and good discipline among them. They were the only loyal and reliable troops left in the capital…My main concern was to do my utmost to
re-establish order in the capital by every means available, even with the sacrifice of my personal pride, so that the Emperor might safely return…[I]f the Emperor only returned backed by loyal troops and order could be
re-established then all might yet be saved…The trouble and disorder, because it had not been checked in time, had spread meanwhile to Moscow and other towns. Russia was collapsing and sinking before our eyes." On 3
March 1917, however, Grand Duke Kirill learned of the Emperor's abdication and concluded that all had been lost. "When the troops at the front heard of the disaster [the abdication], they at first refused to
believe it…They suspected treason. Many hardened fighters wept. They bore no ill will to the Emperor. They knew that he had been betrayed and Female Succession
the monarchy could have been saved only if order was restored and further deterioration prevented. Neither "Mr. X" nor the present writer will resolve these debates.
Finally, "Mr. X" claims that "no female member of the house of Romanoff may take the throne." This is also patently incorrect.
The Russian dynasty had promulgated succession laws which were very Germanic in their insistence upon equal marriages but "un-Germanic" in their modification of Salic law. The laws state that the succession will
pass solely to male dynasts until the death of the last male dynast, in which event it will pass to the female dynast most closely related to the last emperor. The last male dynasts were Prince Vassily of Russia (who died in
1989) and the Grand Duke Wladimir of Russia (who died in 1992). Upon the latter's death, the only remaining individuals born as members of the Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp dynasty were three women: Grand Duchess Maria of
Russia (born 1953), Princess Vera of Russia (born 1906), and Princess Katherine of Russia (born 1915). Whether one considers the last emperor to have been Nicholas II or (as do the monarchists) the Grand Duke Wladimir, the
dynast most closely related to him is the Grand Duchess Maria, who is the Grand Duke Wladimir's only child and is descended from Nicholas II's senior uncle. Princesses Vera and Katherine are more distantly related to Nicholas
II and the Grand Duke Wladimir. Under the laws, the Grand Duchess Maria succeeded her father in 1992 as head of the house.
Article 27 specifies that both sexes have the right of succession to the throne, with preference to male dynasts by order of primogeniture but with the succession of female dynasts by substitution upon extinction of the male
dynasts. Article 6 provides that, when the throne passes to a female dynast as empress, she has the same supreme and autocratic power that an emperor would have. Grand Duke Wladimir was head of the house
for more than 53 years, from 1938 to 1992, the longest tenure in the history of the dynasty. Following the death on 23 June 1989 of his dynastic heir (and second cousin once removed) Prince Vassily of Russia, Grand Duke
Wladimir clarified in several pronouncements that he was the last living male dynast, and that under the succession laws the position of head of the dynasty would pass upon his death directly to his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria. In fact, several other individuals, such as the Leiningen and Prussian dynasts descended from the marriages of the two sisters of Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich, would be senior by right of substitution to
Princesses Vera and Katherine.
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abandoned. The regiments awaited the order to march on the capital to make short work of the traitors. The order never came. As soon as I heard what had happened I
handed in my resignation, and with a heavy heart went to address my men. I told them that in my position I could not continue to lead them. I exhorted them to remain loyal to their country, to keep good discipline, and
to obey their superiors; that for twenty years I had been with them and that this was the hardest day of my life." Grand Duke Kirill, My Life In Russia's Service (1939), pp. 204-213.
Her heir is her son George, born in March 1981 of her equal marriage to H.R.H. Prince Francis-William of Prussia. The latter converted to Orthodoxy before his marriage and remains Orthodox. Grand Duke George's eventual succession as head of the dynasty will mark the first time that the Romanoff succession has passed through the female line since the promulgation of the present succession laws in 1797, but it will not be the first time in the history of the Romanoff dynasty. In 1762, the Romanoff dynasty technically became extinct in the male line upon the death of the Empress Elisabeth. The throne then passed to her German nephew, Emperor Peter III, whose mother was a Romanoff grand duchess but whose father was a German prince, the reigning Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. (In 1742, Peter of Holstein-Gottorp had been summoned to Russia at age 14 by his aunt, the Empress, who created him a Grand Duke of Russia and named him heir to the throne.) Although after 1762 the dynasty still was known as the House of Romanoff, it had technically become the House of Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp. Peter III's son, Emperor Paul I, was
Morganatic Marriages "Mr. X" also appears not to realize that the so-called title of "Prince
Romanoff" is without legal foundation. Under the succession laws, as amended in 1886, dynasts who were sons and grandsons of an emperor had the title of Grand Duke, and dynasts of more distant descent (that is, great-grandsons
and their descendants) had the title of Prince of Russia. The title of "Prince Romanoff" never existed before 1917. It came into being as a self-assumed title used in exile by the morganatic descendants of
Russian dynasts. As stated before, the succession laws required dynasts to contract marriages with spouses of royal birth in order to transmit dynastic membership to their children. These laws were never changed.
Article 188 states as follows: "A person of the Imperial Family who has contracted marriage with a person of a status unequal to his, that is, not belonging to a royal or sovereign house, cannot pass on to that
person or to the posterity that might issue from such a marriage the rights that belong to members of the Imperial Family." On 11 August 1911, Nicholas II added the following addendum to Article 188:
"Henceforth no grand duke or grand duchess may contract a marriage with a person of unequal birth, that is, not belonging to a royal or sovereign house."
Following the death of the Grand Duke Wladimir
in 1992, Prince Nicholas Romanoff, the morganatic son of the late Prince Roman of Russia, claimed to be the new head of the imperial house. His adherents have sought to support this claim by means of a rather bizarre
interpretation of the 11 August 1911 addendum. They suggest that Nicholas II's 1911 language changed the succession laws so that the children of grand dukes who married morganatically would not
be dynasts while the children of Princes of Russia who married morganatically would
be dynasts. Obviously, Nicholas II did nothing of the kind. The suggestion defies common sense, because it would mean that junior dynasts would receive special rights which senior dynasts did not enjoy. It is no
These rules are set forth in Articles 144 to 148. Aside from the title of emperor, there were only four titles allowed to
dynasts, as set forth in Article 144: (1) Grand Duke-Tsesarevich, with the predicate of Imperial Highness; (2) Grand Duke or Grand Duchess, with the predicate of Imperial Highness; (3) Prince or
Princess of the Imperial Blood (that is, Prince or Princess of Russia), with the predicate of Highness; and (4) Prince or Princess of the Imperial Blood (Prince or Princess of Russia), with the predicate of Serene Highness. Prince Nicholas Romanoff fully accepts that the successive heads of the dynasty from 1918 to 1992 were the Grand Dukes Kirill and Wladimir. [See, for example, his published letter to a French magazine in
which he wrote that Grand Duke Kirill's position as dynastic head was "incontestable" (indisputable). Point de Vue-Images du Monde, 12 May 1992, p. 17.] Nicholas Romanoff's dispute concerns the 1992
succession. He argues that he, and not Grand Duchess Maria, is the lawful successor of Grand Duke Wladimir.
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the promulgator of the present succession laws. Assuming the eventual succession of her son, the
present Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna thus will be the last Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp to head the dynasty. Nonetheless, upon the succession of her son Grand Duke George (so titled by his grandfather in 1981), the dynasty,
as it did in 1762, will continue to be called the House of Romanoff.
The 1911 addendum quite simply meant that grand dukes, as the senior members of the dynasty, could not contract
morganatic marriages under any circumstances. Nicholas II, who disliked confrontation, dreaded the tense personal interviews in which grand ducal relatives (such as his brother Michael and his uncle Paul) pleaded for
permission to marry morganatically and had to be refused. This addendum was to make clear that the grand dukes should not even think about asking Nicholas II for permission to contract a morganatic marriage, because an absolute
prohibition of such marriages had been made as of 1911 a matter of law. In August 1911, Nicholas II was trying to prevent at all costs the marriage of his only brother Michael to the latter's morganatic mistress and to send a
strong message to several other grand dukes whose domestic situations had become problematic. In 1911, there were so many grand dukes that the male succession seemed assured. Therefore, Nicholas II was not unduly
concerned about the marriages of the junior category of dynasts, the Princes and Princesses of Russia. As to these, there was no express bar to their seeking his permission to contract morganatic marriages. But this
emphatically did not mean that the children of a Prince of Russia and a morganatic wife would be dynasts. Article 188 made clear that such children would not be dynasts. The adherents of the recent morganatic claim also
conveniently ignore Articles 36 and 126, which were never amended. Article 126 specifies that "all persons of imperial blood who are born of a marriage between a person of imperial blood and a person of corresponding
birth which marriage was authorized by the reigning emperor are recognized as members of the Imperial House." Article 36 states clearly as follows: "Children born of a marriage between a member of the
Imperial Family and a person not of corresponding birth, that is, not belonging to a royal or sovereign house, have no right of succession to the Throne."
secret that in every
dynasty it is seniority, not junior status, that entitles one to special recognition and privileges.
It is therefore clear that a Prince of Russia,
unlike a grand duke, could with the Emperor's permission marry a morganatic spouse, but it is equally clear that the children of any morganatic union (whether contracted by a grand duke or a Prince of Russia) would be
morganatic. The morganatic descendants of Russian dynasts were never allowed to use the name Romanoff during the monarchy. They used other names, such as Yurievsky, Paley, Brassov, Iskander, and Torby. Some
morganatic descendants have scrupulously respected this old tradition even in exile. For example, the senior living morganatic descendant of the dynasty is Colonel Paul R. Ilynsky, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, born in 1928 as
the only child of the morganatic marriage of Grand Duke Dmitry, a grandson of Emperor Alexander II, to Miss Audrey Emery. Paul Ilynsky and
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Both in the end married their morganatic mistresses. Grand Duke Paul's wife, born Miss Karnovitch, and the children born to them were given morganatic princely rank (as
Prince/Princess Paley) by Nicholas II in 1915. Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich's wife, born Miss Cheremetevsky, and the son born to them were given morganatic princely rank (as Prince/Princess Brassov) by Grand Duke Kirill,
as head of the dynasty, in 1925.
After 1917, almost all dynasts who escaped the Revolution contracted morganatic marriages and had children. Confusion ensued because these descendants were born in
France, Britain, America and other countries where children took the surname of their fathers. Thus, these children had the surname of Romanoff entered on their birth certificates in those countries. The confusion was
compounded when the Grand Duke Kirill, as head of the dynasty, accorded to many (but not all) of these children morganatic princely titles and morganatic surnames which included the word "Romanovsky", denoting kinship to
(rather than membership in) the dynasty. In 1935, for example, he accorded to the morganatic son of Grand Duke Andrew the name and morganatic title of Prince Romanovsky-Krassinsky. Prince Romanovsky-Krassinsky later
dropped the "-sky" and the "Krassinsky" and called himself Prince Romanoff. Many other morganatic descendants acted similarly, thus beginning the use socially of a title, that of "Prince
Romanoff", that has no basis in law.
his descendants have never called themselves Romanoff, but instead have used the name Ilynsky, in
recognition that they do not have dynastic status.
The erroneous view that morganatic sons of Princes of Russia are dynasts is a very recent one based upon a highly creative twisting of the succession laws. This
view is not only unsupported in law but also contradicts the clear pronouncements of the three
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On 28 July 1935, Grand Duke Kirill, as head of the imperial house, accorded the title of Prince Romanovsky-Ilynsky to Paul Ilynsky and his descendants.
His rank was the morganatic rank of a prince of the nobility of the Russian Empire, not that of a Prince of Russia (Prince of the Imperial Blood), which latter designation belonged exclusively to dynasts. Following the fall
of the monarchy, the Grand Duke Kirill and later his successor, the Grand Duke Wladimir, as heads of the dynasty, granted a number of such titles. This exercise in exile of the royal prerogative was based upon three centuries
of precedent in other dynasties, beginning with the English dynasty during its exile in the mid-17th century. From 1649 (when his father, Charles I, was beheaded) until 1660 (when the monarchy was restored), the Prince of
Wales, in exile on the continent and using the style "King Charles II", created 19 peerages. The head of the Royal House of Stuart, King James II of England, deposed at the behest of Parliament by usurping junior
dynasts and living in exile in France from 1688 to 1701, similarly created a number of peerages (known to history as Jacobite peerages), as did his son and successor, the titular King James III, from 1701 to 1766. In the 20th
century, the heads of many other deposed European dynasties have also distributed or created titles, including the Archduke Otto (head of the Habsburg dynasty of Austria-Hungary), the Comte de Paris (head of the Orleans
dynasty of France), King Umberto II (deposed head of the Savoy dynasty of Italy), and the Conde de Barcelona (head of the Bourbon dynasty of Spain prior to the formal restoration of the monarchy in 1975 in the person of his
son, King Juan Carlos). Many of these titles then were duly included in various reference books, such as the Almanach de Gotha, which, for example, listed the titles (such as Prince Romanovsky-Ilynsky and Princess
Romanovsky-Pavlovsky created by Grand Dukes Kirill and Wladimir for the morganatic sons and wives of Russian dynasts as well as the titles (such as Count von Altenburg) created by Archduke Otto of Austria for the morganatic
children of Habsburg archdukes. The exercise of the royal prerogative by the heads of deposed dynasties is discussed in a number of scholarly articles, including "The Royal Prerogative and its Use by the Heirs to Former
Thrones" by Guy Stair Sainty and "The Social Recognition of Titles of Honours" by the late Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk, 11th
Bart., Ph.D., LL.B, Albany Herald, an article published in Royalty, Peerage and Nobility of the World (London, 1976), pp. 663-670. See also The Jacobite Peerage by the Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval (Edinburgh, 1904), which examines peerages created in exile from 1688 to 1788 by the deposed senior line of the English Royal House, as legitimist claimants to the throne. The basis for these many precedents of titles conceded by the heads of formerly sovereign houses is the juridical notion that de facto loss of sovereignty does not deprive a dynastic head of his rights as a fons honorum.
The Dynasty in 1938
successive heads of the house from 1918 to the present. When a French writer first advocated this creative interpretation of the succession laws in the 1980s, the Grand Duke
Wladimir had to clarify formally that such morganatic descendants were indeed related to the dynasty but were not in any way members of the dynasty. The attitude of the older generation of the dynasty is typified by the late
Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia (sister of Nicholas II and wife of Grand Duke Alexander), who died in 1960: she did not consider any of her many grandsons to be Russian dynasts, because they were all morganatic.
In October 1938, the Grand Duke Kirill died and was succeeded as head of the dynasty by his only son, the Grand Duke Wladimir. On 11/24 October 1938, with the approval of the
Grand Duke Wladimir, the five Russian dynasts next in line of succession to him issued a document of considerable legal significance, because it shows the clear view of the six most senior members of the dynasty. The document
was signed by the three surviving grand dukes and the two most senior Princes of Russia: these were Grand Nor, as a purist, did she approve of the self-assumed title of "Prince Romanoff" used by morganatic descendants of dynasts. She apparently thought the
correct usage for them should be plain old "Mr. Romanoff". Technically, though, her daughters-in-law and grandchildren had been given morganatic princely titles (such as Romanovsky-Kutuzov) by Grand Duke
Kirill or Grand Duke Wladimir as successive heads of the dynasty.
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Nicolas Enache, La Descendance de Pierre le Grand, Tsar de Russie (Paris, 1983), pp. 337ff. Mr. Enache's talents seem to be genealogical rather than legal or historical. The two reference books perhaps most
respected internationally for combining expertise on royal genealogy and dynastic law are the Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels and the old and now defunct Almanach de Gotha. Both texts, following the Russian succession
law, correctly describe as morganatic or non-dynastic ('"marriage non conforme aux lois de la maison" was the phrase used by the Almanach de Gotha and "in nicht hausgesetzmaessiger Ehe" was the term employed by the Genealogisches
Handbuch des Adels) all unequal marriages contracted by Russian dynasts. For example, the 1939 Almanach de Gotha, which describes Grand Duke Wladimir as "Vladimir Kyrillovich, Grand Duke of Russia…, head of the House of
Romanoff and curator of the throne, grand master of the Order of St. Andrew", records the union of Nicholas Romanoff's parents as a "marriage not in compliance with the house laws." Similarly, the 1951 Genealogisches
Handbuch des Adels, in Part I (sovereign houses) describes the 1921 union of Nicholas Romanoff's parents as "not in compliance with the house laws"; Part III (non-royal and morganatic princes) states that Nicholas Romanoff's
mother received a morganatic title in 1951 "by ukase of Grand Duke Wladimir as Head of the House of Romanoff" and lists her son under the morganatic name of "Nicholas Romanovsky", rather than "Romanoff". When pressed,
those advocating dynastic status for morganatic descendants have been unable to defend their position in a reasonable manner. Prince Nicholas Romanoff himself, in a published statement in October 1995, cites as support for
this theory the public renunciations of succession rights by two princesses of the imperial blood immediately prior to their marriages: by Princess Tatiana of Russia in 1911 prior to her marriage to Prince Bagration of
Moukhrani and by Princess Irina of Russia in 1914 prior to her morganatic marriage to Prince Yusupov. Nicholas Romanoff then argues: "These Ukases [publishing the renunciations] prove without doubt that had the
princesses not renounced their rights, their issue would have been in possession of full rights to the inheritance of the throne of Russia." But the Ukases prove nothing of the kind. The princesses renounced for
themselves, without mention of any subsequent offspring. (The announcement of the renunciation of Princess Tatiana is contained in a previous footnote.) The impetus behind such renunciations was to avoid the throne
passing to a female dynast who had married into another dynasty or who had contracted a morganatic union. If the princesses had not renounced, the succession rights of any eventual children would depend on whether or not the
princesses had contracted equal marriages.
It is useful to read the 11/24 October 1938 declaration in its entirety: "We, members of the Imperial House of Russia, having assembled after the death of the Head of our House, the Grand Duke
Kirill Wladimirovich, consider it our most sacred duty solemnly to declare that the rights of each of the members of the Imperial House of Russia are exactly determined by the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute
of the Imperial Family, that they are known perfectly to all, and that we must observe them religiously, by virtue of a special oath, which is why the question of the order of succession to the throne has never caused the slightest
doubt among us and still less a disagreement of any kind. We reject any departure from the order provided by the law, because that would be an offense against the intangibility of our laws and of our family traditions. "By virtue of the laws indicated above, we recognize that the succession to the throne belongs by right, in order of primogeniture, to the senior member of the Imperial House of Russia, the Grand Duke
Wladimir Kirillovich, which he assumed by inheritance after the death of his father on 29 September/12 October 1938, with a profound awareness of the sacred duty which devolves upon him according to law as Head of the
Imperial House of Russia, bestowing upon him all the rights and duties belonging to him by virtue of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial Family.
Duke Boris (lst in line of succession after the Grand Duke
Wladimir), Grand Duke Andrew (2nd in line), Grand Duke Dmitry (3rd in line), Prince Vsevelod (4th in line), and Prince Gavriel (5th in line). In the statement, the five signatories announced the succession of the Grand Duke
Wladimir as head of the dynasty and then listed all the living male dynasts in their order of succession. Although, by October 1938, 9 morganatic sons (including the present Prince Nicholas Romanoff) had been born to
male dynasts since the fall of the monarchy, not a single one of the 9 was included among the 13 names on the succession list, for the obvious reason that not a single one qualified as a dynast.
"The members of the
Imperial House of Russia appear as follows by primogeniture in the order of succession: Grand Duke Boris Wladimirovich, Grand Duke Andrew Wladimirovich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Prince Vsevelod Ioannovich, Prince Gavriel
Constantinovich, Prince George Constantinovich, Prince Roman Petrovich, Prince Andrew Alexandrovich, Prince Feodor Alexandrovich, His morganatic son (and only child) Paul (born 1928) was not
included in the succession list, because he was the child of an unequal marriage and thus was not a member of the dynasty. The Grand Duke Kirill gave him the morganatic title of Prince Romanovsky-Ilynsky.
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His morganatic son (and only child) Wladimir Andreivich (born 1902) was not included in the succession list, because he was the child of a (subsequent) unequal marriage and thus
was not a member of the dynasty. His uncle, the Grand Duke Kirill, gave him the morganatic title of Prince Romanovsky-Krassinsky on 28 July 1935.
His two morganatic sons (and only children), Nicholas (born 1922) and Dmitry (born 1926), were not included in the succession list, because they were children of an unequal marriage and thus were not members of the
dynasty. Their father apparently did not seek for them a morganatic title from the Grand It is instructive to examine the attitudes of the 14 individuals listed in the 11/24 October 1938 declaration as the
only living male dynasts:
Prince Nikita Alexandrovich, Prince Dmitry
Alexandrovich, Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich, and Prince Vassily Alexandrovich.
(signed) Boris Vsevelod" Andrew Dmitry Gavriel
Therefore, it is a highly original leap for a writer in
1997 to suggest, as "Mr. X" has done, that neither the Grand Duke Kirill nor the Grand Duke Wladimir may have been eligible to succeed as head of the dynasty, when they both clearly held that position by automatic
operation of law and as a result were both recognized as successive heads of the dynasty by the vast majority of members of the dynasty. The Grand Duke Kirill, for example, was accepted by 5 of the 8 grand dukes who survived
the Revolution. In 1938, all the living grand dukes accepted the succession of Grand Duke Wladimir.
Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich (Head of the House). [On attaining his dynastic majority in
1933, he swore an oath of allegiance to his father, Grand Duke Kirill, as emperor.] His two morganatic sons, Michael
(born 1920) and Andrew (born 1923), were not included in the succession list because they were children of an unequal marriage and thus were not members of the dynasty. His morganatic son Michael (born 1924) was
not included in the succession list because he was the child of an unequal marriage and thus was not a member of the dynasty. His morganatic sons (and only children) Nikita (born 1923) and Alexander (born 1929)
were not included in the succession list because they were children of a morganatic marriage and thus were not members of the dynasty. His grand ducal supporters were himself and Grand Dukes Boris, Andrew, Dmitry
Pavlovich, and Alexander, the latter being the brother-in-law of Nicholas II. Two grand dukes, the brothers Peter (died 1931) and Nicholas (died 1929) Nikolayevich, were unfriendly. A third grand duke, Michael
Mikhailovich, was not consulted or involved, having exiled himself from Russia in 1891 due to his morganatic marriage and having ceased from that time to participate in the councils of the family. At the fall of the monarchy,
the Romanoff dynasty had four principal lines, stemming from each of the four sons of Emperor Nicholas I (died 1855). Grand Dukes Kirill and Wladimir (successive representatives of the first and senior of the four lines,
stemming from Nicholas I's eldest son Alexander II) were supported in the early decades of exile by the leading members of the first, second and fourth lines of the dynasty. It was only the leaders of the third line, stemming
from the third son of Nicholas I and thus in the 1920s very junior in the line of succession, who maintained a hostile attitude toward the dynastic heads: the third line of the dynasty produced a total of three male dynasts,
all of whom were hostile to the senior line: these were the Grand Dukes Peter and Nicholas mentioned above, and Peter's son Prince Roman. At the time of writing in 1997, the first line has one living dynast (Grand
Duchess Maria), and the second line has two (Princesses Vera and Katherine). The third line died out with the deaths of Prince Roman in 1978 and of his sister Princess Nadezhda in 1988. The fourth line died out with the
death of Prince Vassily in 1989. (At the time of writing, all four lines also have living morganatic descendants who are not dynasts.)
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Duke Kirill. Under the name of Prince Nicholas Romanoff, Nicholas today has put forth a claim to be head of the dynasty.
Grand Duke Boris Wladimirovich (lst in line). [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head.]
Grand Duke Andrew Wladimirovich (2nd in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head.]
Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich (3rd in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head.]
Prince Vsevelod Ioannovich (4th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head.]
Prince Gavriel Constantinovich (5th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Wladimir as dynastic head.]
Prince George Constantinovich (6th in line) [He emigrated to the United States. The present writer has been unable to determine whether George expressed a view on the succession of Grand Duke Kirill. At the time of the 11/24 October 1938 declaration, Prince George's brother, Prince Gavriel, was unable to involve George with the declaration recognizing the succession of Grand Duke Wladimir, because Prince George was very ill in America. He died in New York at age 32 on 8 November 1938, three weeks after the death of Grand Duke Kirill.]
Prince Roman Petrovich (7th in line) [Prince Roman, who was the father of the present Prince Nicholas Romanoff, maintained the hostile attitude of his father, the late Grand Duke Peter, to the senior line.]
Prince Andrew Alexandrovich (8th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head in 1924. Prince Andrew was the eldest of the 6 sons of Grand Duke Alexander and his wife Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of Nicholas II. The other 5 sons, Princes Feodor, Nikita, Dmitry, Rostislav and Vassily, are listed below.]
Prince Feodor Alexandrovich (9th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head in 1924.]
Prince Nikita Alexandrovich (10th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head in 1924.]
Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich (11th in line) [He was in
America in 1924 and did not sign the letter of allegiance to the Grand Duke Kirill which was sent in 1924 by his father, Grand Duke Alexander, and his brothers, Princes Andrew, Feodor, Nikita and Rostislav. Prince Dmitry,
however, did separately
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The letter of Grand Duke Alexander and his sons to the Grand Duke Kirill read in part as follows: "We pray to God that he gives you the strength to accomplish the heavy burden that you have taken up in submitting
yourself to the Fundamental Laws. We submit ourselves to you and are ready to serve our beloved country as our fathers served it… P.S. Dmitry is not with us, he works in New York and we have communicated this letter to
him." The 1924 letter was prompted by Grand Duke Kirill's accession manifesto. Several months earlier, in November 1923, Grand Duke Alexander (who, as brother-in-law of Nicholas II and son-in-law of the grieving Dowager
Empress, had a unique status among the surviving grand dukes) had issued a statement to the press, including the New York Herald, explaining that, in the event Nicholas II and the son and brother of Nicholas II had died, there was
no disagreement within the dynasty that the right to the throne belonged to Grand Duke Kirill as senior dynast.
recognize Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head. Following his morganatic marriage, Prince Dmitry sought and obtained from Grand Duke Kirill a morganatic title (Princess Romanovsky-Kutuzov) for his wife.]
Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich (12th in line) [He recognized Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head in 1924.]
Prince Vassily Alexandrovich (13th in line). [He was the only one of the six sons of Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duchess Xenia who did not formally recognize Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head. When Grand Duke Alexander and his sons signed their joint recognition in 1924, the youngest son Prince Vassily was not asked to sign because he was still a minor. The other sons had all attained their dynastic majority.]
When one adds up the numbers as of late 1938, one sees that of the 14 male dynasts alive at Grand Duke Kirill's death in October 1938, all but 3 had recognized Grand Duke Kirill and/or Grand Duke Wladimir as dynastic head, and only one had manifested actual hostility. Recognition of Grand Duke Kirill necessarily carried with it recognition that his officially designated heir was Grand Duke Wladimir, so there is no need to mention in any detail that some dynasts, such as Grand Dukes Boris, Andrew and Dmitry and Prince Vsevelod, recognized Grand Duke Kirill and then on his death prepared a separate recognition of Grand Duke Wladimir.
Therefore, if one takes the
trouble to examine the matter closely, it is clear that in 1938 there was no doubt as to the identity of the head of the dynasty and there was no doubt that the children of unequal marriages were not members of the dynasty. For example, Prince Andrew Alexandrovich of Russia, son of
Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duchess Xenia, was correct in stating that his recognition of the Grand Duke Kirill as dynastic head in 1924 obviated the need for a subsequent formal recognition of the latter's son, Grand Duke
Wladimir. In a letter dated 1 November 1938, Prince Andrew wrote as follows to Grand Duke Andrew, younger brother of Grand Duke Kirill: "Dear Andrew, Mama has sent me the contents of your letter and of the
declaration that you prepared for the press; I am not signing it because I did not attend the family meetings and don't know what you have decided, and, secondly, I don't see why the family must sign this declaration because
it is self-evident that after the death of Kirill as Head of the Imperial House, his son inherits by right of seniority: personally, I considered Kirill as such and now I recognize his son as such. Wladimir, by his
declaration, will himself confirm his position as Head of the House. Affectionately, Andrew." Prince Nicholas Romanoff and his late father, Prince Roman of Russia, were principal organizers of
the so-called "Romanoff Family Association", a purely private entity without any official dynastic status under the Pauline law. The former is now the president of this organization. This organization came
into being as the result of a disagreement in the early 1970s between the head of the dynasty, Grand Duke Wladimir, and several of the then surviving male dynasts. In 1970, there were, in addition to Grand Duke Wladimir, 7
living male dynasts, ranging in age from 73 to 56. Six of them had morganatic wives, and the morganatic wife of the seventh had just died. In December 1969, Grand Duke Wladimir issued a statement setting forth that his
daughter , then age 16, would eventually succeed as head of the dynasty following his own death and that of the 7 male dynasts. He explained that eventual succession through the female line as provided for in the Pauline law
was inevitable, given the ages and morganatic marriages of the 7 male dynasts and consequently the unlikelihood that any of them would so late in life contract an equal marriage and produce from it new dynasts. The statement
did not say that Grand Duchess Maria would succeed ahead of any of the seven; it simply said that she would succeed upon their deaths and that of her father. This greatly upset several of the 7 male dynasts (all of whom
except Princes Roman and Vassily had
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Article 54 provided that a manifesto of accession to the throne would specify the names both of the new
emperor and of his heir. The 1924 accession manifesto specified Grand Duke Kirill as emperor and Grand Duke Wladimir as grand duke-tsesarevich.
In 1997, Dr. Stanislav V. Dumin, chairman of the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow,
unearthed from the Moscow state archives a fascinating document that fully confirms these conclusions. This document is a letter dated 14 June 1911, sent on behalf of Nicholas II by Baron Vladimir Frederiks, Nicholas II's
Minister of the Imperial Court, to Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, who had presided at a meeting of grand dukes convened to advise the emperor on the question of permitting dynasts to contract unequal marriages. The letter
informs Grand Duke Nicholas of the following decisions made by the emperor: 1) Grand Dukes of Russia may not contract unequal marriages; 2) Princes of Russia (technically, "Princes of the Blood Imperial"), if they
receive the emperor's specific permission and if they renounce their succession rights beforehand, may contract unequal marriages; and 3) "surnames and coats of arms of the spouses and descendants of Princes of the
Blood Imperial who have contracted marriages with persons not possessing corresponding rank will be granted in each specific case by the Lord Emperor." The latter ruling is yet further confirmation that children of an unequal
marriage, in addition to being excluded from dynastic membership, had no right even to the Romanoff surname, but had to await a grant from the emperor of a new surname and coat of arms. The letter also states that Nicholas II
was completely unwilling to countenance recognition of any middle category between that of "equal marriage" and of "unequal marriage'. State Archives of the Russian Federation, Series 601 ("The Emperor Nicholas II"), Inventory (register) 1, File 2143, pages 58-59. The letter begins as follows: "Your
Imperial Highness – After I presented [to the Lord Emperor] my loyal report on the project undertaken at the meeting of the Grand Dukes, at which Your Imperial Highness presided, regarding amendments and additions to the Statute of
the Imperial Family, together with a determination by the Minister of Justice, the Lord Emperor has seen fit to set the following conditions under which His Imperial Majesty might permit marriages of Princes and Princesses of the
Blood Imperial to persons not possessing corresponding rank…" The exact language of this portion of the letter is: "In relation to the categorization of marriages of Princes and Princesses of the Blood
Imperial, the Lord Emperor has seen fit to recognize only two categories of marriages: (a) equal marriages, that is, those contracted with persons belonging to a royal or ruling house, and (b) unequal marriages, that is,
those contracted with persons not belonging to a royal or ruling house, and He will not recognize any other categories."
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formally recognized either Grand Duke Wladimir or his father as dynastic head decades before). Several dynasts thereupon protested the wording of the statement and its mention
of a curatrix of the throne, because they felt that the statement sought to prejudice their rights, including perhaps the right of each, should he succeed as dynastic head, to amend the Pauline law. In the event, Grand
Duchess Maria in 1992 directly succeeded her father, who had outlived all 7 dynasts, the last of whom, Prince Vassily, died in 1989. But it was on account of this disagreement that Prince Roman and others decided to form the
"Romanoff Family Association" and then lump together as its "members" both dynasts and morganatic descendants of dynasts, thus causing further confusion in the minds of journalists and others unversed in the
history of the dynasty. Despite the current claim of Prince Nicholas Romanoff to be a dynast, however, it is significant that even Prince Vassily of Russia, his predecessor as "President of the Romanoff Family
Association", issued a "declaration" of the "association" on 25 March 1981 making a clear and correct distinction between two separate categories: that of being "a member of the Imperial
House of Russia" (that is, a dynast born of an equal marriage) and that of being "a member of the Romanoff Family" (that is, a person who, while not a dynast, descends morganatically in the male
line from a dynast and uses the Romanoff surname.) With the extinction of the older generation of male dynasts over the last decade, various morganatic sons of the older generation have permitted themselves to ignore this
distinction.
Before closing, it is useful to discuss the status of the Bagration dynasty. Prince Nicholas Romanoff, while acknowledging that he is the child of an unequal marriage, has
expressed the view that Grand Duchess Maria is also the child of an unequal marriage. In other words, he has contended that a marriage between a Russian dynast and a Bagration cannot be considered an equal marriage for
purposes of the Russian succession laws. On this point, the present writer wishes to cite at some length excerpts from a recent essay by Daniel Sargis, a writer of Georgian descent and of a somewhat anti-Russian
sentiment, which sets forth aptly the legal and historical bases supporting the conclusion that the marriage of the late Grand Duke Wladimir of Russia to Princess Leonida Bagration, a member of the former royal house of Georgia,
was an equal marriage. One should note at the outset that not all royal houses required their members to contract equal marriages in order to transmit dynastic status to descendants of the marriages. In fact, the
requirement of equal birth, or Ebenbuertigkeit, was basically a German concept which generally applied to the German ruling dynasties, including the Habsburgs (and the other houses that ruled the numerous co-states of the
Holy Roman Empire before its dissolution in 1806) and the Hohenzollerns (and the other houses that reigned in the constituent kingdoms and sovereign principalities, grand duchies and duchies of the German Empire).
From the time of the accession of the Holstein-Gottorps to the Russian throne in 1762, Russia followed this strict German custom of equal marriages. The promulgator of the Pauline law, Emperor Paul I of Russia,
was almost entire
The Royal House of Bagration of Georgia