Before discussing the next heir to the Russian Throne after the fall of the monarchy I’d like to address the Pauline Laws that governed, or still govern, the succession to the Imperial Throne.
The Pauline Laws are the house laws of the Romanov rulers of the Russian Empire. The name comes from the fact that they were initially established by Emperor Paul I of Russia in 1797.
Emperor Paul I abolished Emperor Peter I the Great’s law that allowed each reigning Emperor or Empress to designate his or her successor and substituted a strict order of succession by proclaiming that the eldest son of the monarch would inherit the throne, followed by other dynasts according to primogeniture in the male line.
Paul thus implemented a semi-Salic line of succession to the Russian throne, which would pass to a female and through the female (cognatic) line of the dynasty only upon the extinction of all legitimately-born male dynasts (in this case, only the descendants of Paul I himself, not the Holstein-Gottorp line which were 3rd cousins).
The House of Holstein-Gottorp or Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp is the historiographical name, as well as contemporary shorthand name, for the parts of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, also known as Ducal Holstein, that were ruled by the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, a side branch of the elder Danish line of the House of Oldenburg. Other parts of the duchies were ruled by the kings of Denmark.
In the Great Northern War, the duchy sided with Sweden and was defeated after Danish troops occupied the northern portions of Holstein-Gottorp. Following the peace settlement of 1721, Duke Charles Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp fled to the court of Emperor Peter the Great of Russia, and for some time, the Russians intrigued to restore Charles Friedrich to his lands in Schleswig.
Charles Friedrich himself was married to Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia, Peter’s daughter. From his marriage was born Charles Peter Ulrich, who succeeded to Holstein-Gottorp in 1739, and became an heir to the Russian throne according to the will of Empress Catherine I and especially upon the accession of his childless aunt Empress Elizabeth in 1741. As such, Charles Friedrich is the progenitor of the Russian imperial House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov and the patrilineal ancestor of all Russian emperors starting with Peter III, except for Catherine II the Great.
Charles Peter Ulrich, acceded to the Russian throne as Emperor Peter III in 1762, his wife was Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. Her mother was Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, belonged to the ruling German family of Anhalt. In a coup orchestrated by Peter III’s by his wife, he was overthrown in 1762 and his wife acceded to the throne as Empress Catherine II. Peter III’s son, Paul, the new Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, was a minor under the regency of his mother, the Empress.
Officially, Paul he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine II the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her lover Sergei Saltykov.
All subsequent Russian Emperors were also Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp until the end of the Russian Monarchy.
The next two claimants were:
1918–1938: Cyril Vladimirovich, Grand Duke of Russia (After the murder of the Emperor and the Tsarevitch in 1918, the title passed to the surviving senior male branch of the Romanov family).
1938–1992: Vladimir Kirillovich, Grand Duke of Russia (Grand Duke Vladimir died with only female issue, and so the title should pass to the senior male member of the House of Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp. To whom is a contested issue)
One view is that the heir to the Duchy of Holstein-Gottorp is the non-dynastic son of Grand Duke Dimitri, only son of Grand Duke Paul, himself the youngest brother of Alexander III. This heir is non-dynastic in the Russian sense, of the Pauline Laws but the Danish branch of the House of Oldenburg had no declared ban against unequal marriages (but against non authorized marriages in Denmark), as Schleswig, where the (once sovereign) Schloss Gottorf is located, was never part of Holy Roman Empire or under its jurisdiction. These heirs live in USA and have not staked a public claim to titles.
That brings me to the next aspect of the Pauline Laws, namely to be a dynast and eligible to be in line for the Imperial Throne one had to be the offspring of an equal marriage.
A “dynastic marriage” is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, so that the descendants are eligible to inherit the throne or other royal privileges.
To be considered the offspring of an equal marriage both parents need to be from an aristocratic family that is of equal social status, or rank, meaning from a princely or royal family or a mediatized family.
The type of marriage or a union that is not considered of equal social status, is called a Morganatic Marriage which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal’s position or privileges being passed to the spouse, or any children born of the marriage. The concept is most prevalent in German-speaking territories and countries most influenced by the customs of the German-speaking realms.
With Emperor Paul coming from German royalty the concept of a Morganatic Marriage and its effect on dynastic marriages became part of the rules controlling the succession to the Imperial Throne with the implementation of the Pauline Laws. However, even Morganatic Marriages were eventually eliminated from the Pauline Laws.
Over time, the house laws were amended, and in the late Russian Empire, the laws governing membership in the imperial house, succession to the throne and other dynastic subjects were divided, with some being included in the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and others in the Statute of the Imperial Family (codification of 1906, as amended to 1911).
In 1820 a new law also stipulated that only children of Romanovs born of marriages with persons of equal status, i.e., members of a “royal or sovereign family”, could transmit succession rights and titles to descendants.
Emperor Alexander III forbade Romanov morganatic marriages altogether by issuance of ukase #5868 on March 24, 1889 amending article #63 of the Statute on the Imperial Family in the Pauline Laws.
By ukase #35731, dated August 11, 1911, Emperor Nicholas II amended the amendment, reducing application of this restriction from all members of the Imperial Family to Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses only.
This decree allowed marriages of the princes and princesses of the Blood Imperial with non-royal spouses, on the conditions that the emperor’s consent be obtained, that the dynast renounce his or her personal succession rights, and that the Pauline Laws aws restricting succession rights to those born of equal marriages continue in force.
An early victim of the Pauline laws was Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, grandson of Catherine the Great, and viceroy of Poland. On 20 March 1820 his marriage to Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was annulled to allow him to morganatically wed his longtime mistress, Countess Joanna Grudna-Grudzińska, in Warsaw on May 24, 1820, who was elevated to the title “Princess Łowicza” upon marriage, which produced no children.
The problem with the Pauline Laws today is the fact that since the monarchy was abolished at the end of the Russian Revolution they have been unable to be legally amended or replaced. This has caused a considerable amount of confusion and controversy in deciding who is or is not a dynast or the legal heir to the vacant Imperial throne.