The life of Grand Duchess Catherine (Ekaterina) Pavlovna of Russia

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Cathereine the Great, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, George of Oldenburg, Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, Napoleon I, Queen Ekaterina of Württemberg, William I Württemberg

As mentioned yesterday in the post about Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna, was denied marriage to Emperor Napoleon I of France, but was twice allowed to wed first cousins; her descendants became the Russian branch of the Dukes of Oldenburg. This post will fill in that information.

Grand Duchess Catherine (Ekaterinburg) Pavlovna of Russia (May 21, 1788 – January 9, 1819) was the fourth daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, a daughter of Friedrich II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg and his wife, Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt. She belonged to a junior branch of the House of Württemberg.

Ekaterina was born in St. Petersburg and named after her grandmother, Empress Catherine II (Ekaterina ) the Great of Russia. Described as beautiful and vivacious, she had a happy childhood and her education was carefully supervised by her mother. Ekaterina received the best education and constantly furthered her education through reading new literary publications and personal contacts with various outstanding persons. Known as Katya in the family, she was very close to her siblings, particularly her eldest brother Emperor Alexander I. Throughout her life she would maintain a close relationship with him.

First marriage

While the Napoleonic Wars were still in progress, the childless Napoléon I arranged his divorce from his beloved but aged wife Empress Joséphine, in order to marry a princess of high birth, get connected to royalty and beget the much desired heir. While the divorce itself did not happen until 1810, Napoleon was on the lookout for a new wife for some years previous to that, and seriously considered Ekaterina as a candidate – in addition to everything else, such a marriage would also provide strategic advantage by drawing the Russians to his side.

The matter was broached or hinted at by the French delegation, at the behest of Talleyrand, at a meeting between them and the Russians at Erfurt in 1808. Ekaterina’s family was utterly horrified, and the Dowager Empress immediately arranged a marriage for her daughter to her nephew, Duke Georg of Oldenburg (1784-1812). Thus, Ekaterina was married to her first cousin Duke Georg of Oldenburg on August 3, 1809. Georg was the second son of Peter, Duke of Oldenburg and his wife, Duchess Frederica of Württemberg.

Georg, Duke of Oldenburg

The couple were quickly blessed with two sons: Peter Georg (b. 1810) and Constantine Friedrich Peter (b. 1812). Although the match had been arranged by their families, Ekaterina was devoted to her husband, and the marriage was harmonious. It was said that he was not handsome but Ekaterina cared for him deeply, and his death in 1812, due to typhoid fever, was a very severe shock to her. They had been married barely three years, and Ekaterina, now the mother of two infant sons, was only 24 years old.

In 1812, some conspirators who planned to depose Emperor Alexander I had the ambitions to put her on the throne as Empress Catherine III. In 1812, she supported the suggestion to summon a national militia, and formed a special regiment of chasseurs which took part in many of the great battles of the era.

Following the death of her husband, Ekaterina spent much of the next few years with her siblings, especially her brother the Tsar with whom she had a very close relationship. During 1813-1815, she travelled to England with her brother Emperor Alexander I to meet the Prince Regent (future King George IV of the United Kingdom). She was again with her brother during the Congress of Vienna in 1815. She was not without influence upon his political acts during these trips. She also promoted the marriage between her youngest sister Anna and Willem II of the Netherlands during this time.

In England, Ekaterina met the Crown Prince Wilhelm of Württemberg (1781-1864). It was love at first sight for the couple. However, Wilhelm was married to princess Caroline Augusta of Bavaria; (daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria and Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt). Crown Prince Wilhelm took the drastic step of divorcing her.

The background to this turn of events is that Wilhelm and Caroline Augusta had hastily married each other in order to avoid a political marriage devised by Napoleon. They had never got on with each other, and both of them claimed, at the time of seeking an annulment, that their marriage had never been consummated. The annulment was duly granted by Pope Pius VII on grounds of non-consummation. Shortly afterwards (in 1816), Caroline Augusta married Emperor Franz of Austria and became Empress Consort.

King Wilhelm I of Württemberg.

Very early in the year 1816, Ekaterina was married to the newly divorced William. The wedding was held in Saint Petersburg. The couple was immediately blessed with a daughter, Marie Frederikke Charlotte, who was born on October 30, 1816, perchance the very day on which Ekaterina’s father-in-law, Friedrich I of Wurttemberg, died.

The day therefore marked her husband’s accession as king, and Ekaterina, now Queen Katharina of Württemberg, became active in charity works in her adopted homeland. She established numerous institutions for the benefit of the public. She supported elementary education and organized a charity foundation during the hunger of 1816. In 1818, she gave birth to another daughter, Sophie Frederike Mathilde, who would marry Ekaterina’s nephew Willem III of Orange and become Queen of the Netherlands.

Queen Ekaterina of Württemberg

Death

In January 1819, six months after the birth of her youngest child, Ekaterina died at Stuttgart of erysipelas complicated by pneumonia. She was barely thirty years old, and left behind four children, dispersed across two different families, the eldest of whom was barely eight years old. After her death, her surviving husband built Württemberg Mausoleum in Rotenberg, Stuttgart, dedicated to her memory. King Wilhelm later married again; his next wife was his first cousin, Princess Pauline of Württemberg.

This date in History: November 24, 1764, Coronation of Stanislaw II Augustus, the last King of Poland.

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Augustus III of Poland, Cathereine the Great, Catherine II of Russia, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland, Partition of Poland, Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth, Russian Empire, Stanislaw August, Stanislaw II Augustus of Poland, Stanisław Poniatowski

Stanisław II Augustus (also Stanisław August Poniatowski, January 17, 1732 – February 12, 1798), who reigned as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, was the last monarch of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He remains a controversial figure in Polish history. Recognized as a great patron of the arts and sciences and an initiator and firm supporter of progressive reforms, he is also remembered as the King of the Commonwealth whose election was marred by Russian intervention. He is criticized primarily for his failure to stand against the partitions, and thus to prevent the destruction of the Polish state.

He was one of eight surviving children and fourth son of Princess Konstancja Czartoryska and of Count Stanisław Poniatowski, Ciołek coat of arms, Castellanof Kraków. He was a great-grandson of the poet, courtier and alleged traitor, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn and through his great-grandmother, Catherine Gordon, lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga, he was related to the House of Stuart and thereby connected to the leading families of Scotland, Spain and France. The Poniatowski family had achieved high status among the Polish nobility (szlachta) of the time.

In 1750, he travelled to Berlin where he met a British diplomat, Charles Hanbury Williams, who became his mentor and friend. In 1751, Poniatowski was elected to the Treasury Tribunal in Radom, where he served as a commissioner. He spent most of January 1752 at the Austrian court in Vienna. Later that year, after serving at the Radom Tribunal and meeting King Augustus III of Poland, he was elected deputy of the Sejm (Polish parliament).

Young Catherine the Great

In Saint Petersburg, Williams introduced Poniatowski to the 26-year-old Grand Duchess Catherine Alexeievna, the future Empress Catherine II the Great. The two became lovers. Whatever his feelings for Catherine, it is likely Poniatowski also saw an opportunity to use the relationship for his own benefit, using her influence to bolster his career. Poniatowski had to leave St. Petersburg in July 1756 due to court intrigue. Through the combined influence of Catherine, that of Russian Empress Elizabeth and of chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin, Poniatowski was able to rejoin the Russian court now as ambassador of Saxony the following January. Still in St. Petersburg, he appears to have been a source of intrigue between various European governments, some supporting his appointment, others demanding his withdrawal He eventually left the Russian capital on August 14, 1758.

In 1762, when Catherine ascended the Russian throne, she sent him several letters professing her support for his own ascension to the Polish throne, but asking him to stay away from St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Poniatowski hoped that Catherine would consider his offer of marriage, an idea seen as plausible by some international observers. He participated in the failed plot by the Familia to stage a coup d’état against King Augustus III. In August 1763, however, Catherine advised him and the Familia that she would not support a coup as long as King Augustus III was alive.

Upon the death of Poland’s King Augustus III October 5, 1763, lobbying began for the election of the new king. Catherine threw her support behind Poniatowski. The Russians spent about 2.5m rubles in aid of his election. Poniatowski’s supporters and opponents engaged in some military posturing and even minor clashes. In the end, the Russian army was deployed only a few miles from the election sejm, which met at Wola near Warsaw. In the event, there were no other serious contenders, and during the convocation sejm on September 7, 1764, 32-year-old Poniatowski was elected king, with 5,584 votes. He swore the pacta conventa on November 13, and a formal coronation took place in Warsaw on November 25. The new King’s “uncles” in the Familiawould have preferred another nephew on the throne, Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski, characterized by one of his contemporaries as débauché, sinon dévoyé (in French: debauched if not depraved), but Czartoryski had declined to seek office.

“Stanisław II Augustus”, as he now styled himself combining the names of his two immediate royal predecessors, began his rule with only mixed support within the nation. It was mainly the small nobility who favoured his election. In his first years on the throne he attempted to introduce a number of reforms. He founded the Knights School, and began to form a diplomatic service, with semi-permanent diplomatic representatives throughout Europe, Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

In the War of the Bar Confederation (1768–1772), Poniatowski supported the Russian army’s repression of the Bar Confederation. In 1770, the Council of the Bar Confederation proclaimed him dethroned. The following year, he was kidnapped by Bar Confederates and was briefly held prisoner outside of Warsaw, but he managed to escape. In view of the continuing weakness of the Polish-Lithuanian state, Austria, Russia, and Prussia collaborated to threaten military intervention in exchange for substantial territorial concessions from the Commonwealth – a decision they made without consulting Poniatowski or any other Polish parties.

Although Poniatowski protested against the First Partition of the Commonwealth (1772), he was powerless to do anything about it. He considered abdication, but decided against it. During the Partition Sejm of 1773–1775, in which Russia was represented by ambassador Otto von Stackelberg, with no allied assistance forthcoming from abroad and with the armies of the partitioning powers occupying Warsaw to compel the Sejm by force of arms, no alternative was available save submission to their will. Eventually Poniatowski and the Sejm acceded to the “partition treaty”.

In July 1792, when Warsaw was threatened with siege by the Russians, the king came to believe that surrender was the only alternative to total defeat. Having received assurances from Russian ambassador Yakov Bulgakov that no territorial changes would occur, a cabinet of ministers called the Guard of Laws (or Guardians of Law, Polish: Straż Praw) voted eight to four in favor of surrender. On July 24, 1792, Poniatowski joined the Targowica Confederation.

The Polish Army disintegrated. Many reform leaders, believing their cause lost, went into self-exile, although they hoped that Poniatowski would be able to negotiate an acceptable compromise with the Russians, as he had done in the past. Poniatowski had not saved the Commonwealth, however. He and the reformers had lost much of their influence, both within the country and with Catherine. Neither were the Targowica Confederates victorious. To their surprise, there ensued the Second Partition of Poland. With the new deputies bribed or intimidated by the Russian troops, the Grodno Sejm took place. On 23 November 1793, it annulled all acts of the Great Sejm, including the Constitution. Faced with his powerlessness, Poniatowski once again considered abdication; in the meantime he tried to salvage whatever reforms he could.

Poniatowski’s plans had been ruined by the Kościuszko Uprising. The King had not encouraged it, but once it began he supported it, seeing no other honourable option. Its defeat marked the end of the Commonwealth. Poniatowski tried to govern the country in the brief period after the fall of the Uprising, but on December 2, 1794, Catherine demanded he leave Warsaw, a request to which he acceded on January 7, 1795, leaving the capital under Russian military escort and settling briefly in Grodno.

On 24 October 1795, the Act of the final, Third Partition of Poland was signed. One month and one day later, on 25 November, Poniatowski signed his abdication. Reportedly, his sister, Ludwika Maria Zamoyska and her daughter also his favourite niece, Urszula Zamoyska, who had been threatened with confiscation of their property, had contributed to persuading him to sign the abdication: they feared that his refusal would lead to a Russian confiscation of their properties and their ruin.

Catherine died on November 17, 1796, succeeded by her son, Paul I of Russia. On February 15, 1797, Poniatowski left for Saint Petersburg. He had hoped to be allowed to travel abroad, but was unable to secure permission to do so. A virtual prisoner in St. Petersburg’s Marble Palace, he subsisted on a pension granted to him by Catherine. Despite financial troubles, he still supported some of his former allies, and continued to try to represent the Polish cause at the Russian court. He also worked on his memoirs.

Poniatowski died of a stroke on February 12, 1798. Emperor Paul I sponsored a royal state funeral, and on 3 March he was buried at the Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. In 1938, when the Soviet Union planned to demolish the Church, his remains were transferred to the Second Polish Republic, and interred in a church at Wołczyn, his birthplace. This was done in secret, and caused controversy in Poland when the issue became known. In 1990, due to the poor state of the Wołoczyn Church (then in the Byelorussian SSR), his body was once more exhumed and brought to Poland, to St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw, where, on May 3, 1791, he had celebrated the adoption of the Constitution that he had co-authored. A final funeral ceremony was held on February 14, 1995.

This date in History, August 19, 1772: Coup of Gustav III of Sweden.

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Cathereine the Great, Denmark, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Frederik Adolf of Sweden, Gustav III of Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden, Parliament, Riksdag, Sophie Magdalena of Denmark, Sweden

The Revolution of 1772, also known as the Coup of Gustav III was a Swedish coup d’état performed by king Gustav III of Sweden on August 19, 1772 to introduce absolute monarchy against the Riksdag of the Estates, resulting in the end of the Age of libertyand the introduction of the Swedish Constitution of 1772.

First, a little personal information on the King of Sweden.

Gustav III (January 24, 1746 – March 29 1792) was King of Sweden from February 12, 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederik, King of Sweden and Queen Louise Ulrika (a sister of King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia), and a first cousin of Empress Catherine II the Great of Russia by reason of their common descent from Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin, and his wife Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach.

Gustav married Princess Sophia Magdalena, by proxy in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on October 1, 1766 and in person in Stockholm on November 4, 1766. Princess Sophia Magdalena was the daughter of King Frederik V of Denmar-Norway and his first wife Princess Louise of Great Britain the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach.

Gustav was first impressed by Sophia Magdalena’s beauty, but her silent nature made her a disappointment in court life. The match was not a happy one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament, but still more to the interference of Gustav’s jealous mother, Queen Louisa Ulrika. The marriage produced two children: Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (1778–1837), (future King Gustav IV Adolf) and Prince Carl Gustav, Duke of Småland(1782–1783).

Gustav III was known in Sweden and abroad by his Royal Titles, or styles:

Gustav III, by the Grace of God, of the Swedes, the Goths and the Vends King, Grand Prince of Finland, Duke of Pomerania, Prince of Rügen and Lord of Wismar, Heir to Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhors.

Revolution of 1772

Gustav III was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Carl XII. At the time of his accession, the Swedish Riksdag held more power than the monarchy, but the Riksdag was bitterly divided between rival parties, the Hats and Caps. On his return to Sweden, Gustav III tried unsuccessfully to mediate between the bitterly divided parties. On June 21, 1771, he opened his first Riksdag with a speech that aroused powerful emotions. It was the first time in more than a century that a Swedish king had addressed a Swedish Riksdag in its native tongue. He stressed the need for all parties to sacrifice their animosities for the common good, and volunteered, as “the first citizen of a free people,” to be the mediator between the contending factions.

A composition committee was actually formed, but it proved illusory from the first: the patriotism of neither faction was sufficient for the smallest act of self-denial. The subsequent attempts of the dominant Caps to reduce him to being a powerless king encouraged him to consider a coup d’état. Under the sway of the Cap faction, Sweden seemed in danger of falling prey to the political ambitions of Russia. It appeared on the point of being absorbed into the Northern Accord sought by the Russian vice-chancellor, Count Nikita Panin. It seemed to many that only a swift and sudden coup d’état could preserve Sweden’s independence.

(King Gustav III of Sweden and his Brothers; Gustav III (left) and his two brothers, Prince Frederik Adolf and Prince Carl, later Carl XIII of Sweden. Painting by Alexander Roslin.)

Gustav III was approached by Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten, a Finnish nobleman, who had incurred the enmity of the Caps, with the prospect of a revolution. He undertook to seize the fortress of Sveaborg in Finland by a coup de main. Once Finlandwas secured, he intended to embark for Sweden, join up with the king and his friends near Stockholm, and force the estatesto accept a new constitution dictated by the king.
At this juncture, the plotters were reinforced by Johan Christopher Toll another victim of Cap oppression.

Toll proposed to raise a second revolt in the province of Scania, and to secure the southern fortress of Kristianstad. After some debate, it was agreed that Kristianstad should openly declare against the government a few days after the Finnish revolt had begun. Duke Carl, the eldest of the king’s brothers, would thereupon be forced to mobilize the garrisons of all the southern fortresses hastily, ostensibly to crush the revolt at Kristianstad, but on arriving in front of the fortress, he was to make common cause with the rebels and march upon the capital from the south while Sprengtporten attacked it simultaneously from the east.

On August 6, 1772, Toll succeeded in winning the fortress of Kristianstad by sheer bluff, and on August 16, Sprengtporten succeeded in surprising Sveaborg, but contrary winds prevented him from crossing to Stockholm. Events soon occurred there that made his presence unnecessary in any case.

On August 16, the Cap leader, Ture Rudbeck, arrived at Stockholm with news of the insurrection in the south, and Gustav found himself isolated in the midst of enemies. Sprengtporten lay weather-bound in Finland, Toll was 500 miles away, the Hat leaders were in hiding. Gustav thereupon resolved to strike the decisive blow without waiting for Sprengtporten’s arrival.

He acted promptly. On the evening of August 18, all the officers whom he thought he could trust received secret instructions to assemble in the great square facing the arsenal on the following morning. At ten o’clock on August 19, Gustav III mounted his horse and rode to the arsenal. On the way, his adherents joined him in little groups, as if by accident, so that by the time he reached his destination he had about 200 officers in his suite.

After parade he reconducted them to the guard-room in the north western wing of the palace where the Guard of Honour had its headquarters and unfolded his plans to them. He told the assembled officers,

“If you follow me, just like your ancestors followed Gustav Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus, then I will risk my life and blood for you and the salvation of the fatherland!”
A young ensign then spoke up:

“We are willing to sacrifice both blood and life in Your Majesty’s service!”

Gustav then dictated a new oath of allegiance, and everyone signed it without hesitation. It absolved them from their allegiance to the estates, and bound them solely to obey “their lawful king, Gustav III”.

Meanwhile, the Privy Council and its president, Rudbeck, had been arrested and the fleet secured. Then Gustav made a tour of the city and was everywhere received by enthusiastic crowds, who hailed him as a deliverer. A song was composed by Carl Michael Bellman called the “Toast to King Gustav!”

Now in full control of the government the king initiated a campaign to restore a measure of Royal autocracy, which was completed by the Union and Security Act of 1789, which swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) but at the same time it opened up the government for all citizens. This reinforced monarchical authority significantly, although the estates retained the power of the purse, it did hereby broke the privileges of the nobility.

The next day, August 20, 1772 a new constitution was imposed upon the Riksdag of the Estates by Gustav III which converted a weak and disunited republic into a strong but limited monarchy. The estates could assemble only when summoned by him; he could dismiss them whenever he thought fit; and their deliberations were to be confined exclusively to the propositions which he laid before them. But these extensive powers were subjected to important checks. Thus, without the previous consent of the estates, no new law could be imposed, no old law abolished, no offensive war undertaken, no extraordinary war subsidy levied. The estates alone could tax themselves; they had the absolute control of the Riksbank – the Bank of Sweden, and the right of controlling the national expenditure.

In 1789 the king further strengthened his power. The Union and Security Act, alternatively Act of Union and Security, was proposed by king Gustav III of Sweden to the assembled Estates of the Realm during the Riksdag of 1789. It was a document, adding to the Swedish Constitution of 1772 new provisions. The King strengthened his grip on power while at the same time riding on a popular wave that also meant a decrease in aristocratic power. It has been described as “fundamentally conservative”.

The Act of Union and Security gave the king the sole power to declare war and make peace instead of sharing the power with the estates and the Privy Council. The estates would lose the ability to initiate legislation, but they would keep the ability to vote on new taxes.

Another provision was that the King was enabled to determine the number of Privy Councillors and so he could abolish the Council altogether by determining their number to be zero. The judicial branch of the Privy Council (in Swedish: Justitierevisionen) was then transferred to a new Supreme Court.

Most noble privileges were abolished with the Act, with most offices now available to all regardless of rank. Noble lands could now be bought by anyone instead of only by nobles.

Pretenders Russia ~ Part III

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Bagration-Mukhrani, Cathereine the Great, Czar Paul, Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, Grand Duchess Maria, Grand Duke George, Kingdom of Georgia, Peter the Great, Prince Nicholas Romanov, Romanov Family Association, Russia, Wilhelm II of Germany

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia was born in Finland as his parents had fled there during the Revolution. Upon the death of his father Grand Duke Vladimir assumed the headship of the Imperial Russian House. Although a minor faction of monarchists did not recognize his claim, due to their beliefs that his parents marriage was illegal, the majority of Russian monarchists did support his claim. Gand Duke Vladimir’s claim to the throne was questioned when he married Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhransky in August of 1948. The question arose for some members of the Romanov family was the Bagration-Moukhransky family of equal status for this to be considered an equal marriage.

The Bagrationi Dynasty, which Leonida was a member of, originated in the country of Georgia and this family ruled as kings of Georgia from 1505 until 1800 when Czar Paul, supposedly at the request of King George XII of George, annexed the country into the Russian Empire. Grand Duke Vladimir insisted that the union was equal based of the fact that Leonida was the daughter of HRH Prince George Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhrani the Head of the Georgian Royal House,. Also, Grand Duke Vladimir pointed to the fact that the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783 recognized the permanent royal status of the House of Bagration.

The main member of the Romanov family to contend Grand Duke Vladimir’s claim is Prince Nicholas Romanov the son of Grand Duke Peter Nicolaievich and Grand Duchess Militsa Nikolaievna, born a Princess of Montenegro. Prince Nicholas is a great-great grandson in the male line of Czar Nicholas I of Russia and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna ( born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, sister to German Emperor Wilhelm I). Prince Nicholas is the Head of the Romanov Family Association which consists of members of the Romanov Family descended from Czar Nicholas I of Russia. It is their contention that the marriage between Grand Duke Vladimir and Princess Leonida was morgantatic.

Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia died in 1992 while giving a speech to Spanish-speaking bankers and investors in Miami, Florida. His only child, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, has claimed the headship of the House of Romanov since this point. Prince Nicholas feels her right to the succession is also in violation of the Pauline Laws which barred women from succeeding to the Imperial Throne.

One of the motives for the Pauline Laws was due to the animosity Czar Paul felt toward his mother, Czarina Catherine II the Great of Russia (1762-1796). At that time the Czar had all the power to appoint their successor. Peter I the Great of Russia (1682-1725) named his wife, Catherine I of Russia, as his successor despite the fact that she had no royal blood and was born a Russian Peasant. Catherine II was born a Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst but obtained the throne in a coup by having her husband, Czar Peter III, murdered shortly after his accession. To prevent this from happening again Czar Paul outlawed women on the Russian throne. The only stipulation which a woman could mount the throne of Russia is when all the male members of the Romanov have died out or contracted unequal marriages. There are those that believe Prince Nicholas himself contracted such a marriage in 1950 when he married Countess Sveva della Gherardesca who is a member of the Italian della Gherardesca noble family from Tuscany. Prince Nicholas is accepted by many within the Romanov clan as Head of the Imperial House, while many monarchists associations recognize the claim of Grand Duchess Maria.

Grand Duchess Maria has made an equal marriage. In 1976 Maria married HRH Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia a great grandson of Germany’s last emperor, Wilhelm II. Franz Wilhelm did convert to the Russian Orthodox faith and they had one son, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, Prince of Prussia born in 1981. Franz Wilhelm and Maria divorced in 1985. Prince Nicholas and the Romanov Family Association do not recognize Grand Duke George as a member of the House of Romanov and instead view him as a German prince of the Prussian royal family. Unmarried Grand Duke George is under pressure to contract an equal marriage if he is to retain his claim to the Russian throne in the future.