July 6, 1796: Birth of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia.

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Catherine the Great, Decembrist Revolt, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, Empress Catherine II of Russia, Princess Charlotte of Prussia, Russia, Russian Empire

Nicholas I (July 6, 1796 – March 3, 1855) reigned as Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland. He has become best known for having been a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth and massive industrialisation on the one hand, and centralisation of administrative policies and repression of dissent on the other.

Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, and Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna of Russia (née Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg). Five months after his birth, his grandmother, Empress Catherine II the Great, died and his parents became Emperor and Empress of Russia. He was a younger brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801, and of Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia.

Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; all of their seven children survived childhood. On July 13, 1817, Nicholas married Princess Charlotte of Prussia (1798–1860), who thereafter went by the name Alexandra Feodorovna when she converted to Orthodoxy. Charlotte’s parents were Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia and Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Nicholas and Charlotte were third cousins, as they were both great-great-grandchildren of Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia.

His biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky said that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish.

A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, stated Riasanovsky, “Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate.” He was the younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I.

With two older brothers, it initially seemed unlikely Nicholas would ever become tsar. However, as Emperor Alexander I and Grand Duke Constantine both failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained likely to rule one day. In 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to Constantine and accepting the throne for himself.

The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, confirmed his refusal of the Russian Imperial Throne.

Additionally, on December 25, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named December 1, the date of Alexander I’s death, as the beginning of his reign. During this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power. This led to the Decembrist Revolt on December 26, 1825, an uprising Nicholas was successful in quickly suppressing.

Nicholas I was instrumental in helping to create an independent Greek state, and resumed the Russian conquest of the Caucasus by seizing Iğdır Province and the remainder of modern-day Armenia and Azerbaijan from Qajar Persia during the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828. He ended the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War (1853–1856), with disastrous results. Historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. William C. Fuller notes that historians have frequently concluded that “the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy.” On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its geographical zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers (7.7 million square miles), but had a desperate need for reform.

Election of Count Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel to the Swedish Throne, March 24, 1720.

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Abdication, Charles XII of Sweden, Frederick of Sweden, Kingdom of Sweden, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, Russia, Russian Empire, The Great Northern War

On this date in History: Election of Count Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel to the Swedish Throne by the Swedish Estates, March 24, 1720.

King Friedrich of Sweden

Ulrica Eleanor of Sweden (January 23, 1688 – November 24, 1741) was the youngest child of King Carl XI of Sweden and Ulrica Eleanora of Denmark.

In 1702, a marriage to the future King George II of Great Britain was suggested, but was postponed, and in the end nothing came of it. Duke Johann-Wilhelm of Saxe-Gotha was given permission by her brother, King Carl XII of Sweden to court her, but the marriage plans were interrupted after he engaged in a duel with Anders Lagercrona in the presence of the monarch. In 1710, she received a proposal from Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Cassel. The negotiations were handled by her favorite and confidante Emerentia von Düben. The marriage was supported by her grandmother Hedwig Eleonora, as the Queen Dowager thought this would force Ulrica Eleonor to leave Sweden for Hesse, increasing the chances for the son of Ulrica Eleonor’s elder sister, Carl of Holstein-Gottorp, to become heir to the throne. The engagement was announced on January 23, 1714, and the wedding took place March 24, 1715. During the wedding, her brother Carl XII remarked: “Tonight my sister is dancing away the crown.”

Ulrica Eleanor, Queen Regnant and Queen Consort of Sweden.

Friedrich (April 28, 1676 – April 5, 1751) was the son of Carl I, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and Princess Maria Amalia of Courland. On May 30, 1700 he married his first wife, Louise Dorothea, Princess of Prussia (1680–1705), daughter of Friedrich I of Prussia (1657–1713) and Elizabeth Henrietta of Hesse-Kassel(1661–1683). Louise Dorothea died in childbirth in December 1705. After his marriage to Ulrica Eleanor he was then granted the title Prince of Sweden, with the style Royal Highness by the estates, and was prince consort there during Ulrica Eleonor’s rule as queen regnant from 1718 until her abdication in 1720. He is the only Swedish prince consort there has been to date

On December 11, 1718, while inspecting trenches close to the perimeter of the fortress, King Carl XII of Sweden was shot, struck in the head by a projectile and killed. After Ulrica Eleanor received the news of the death of her brother, she immediately declared herself monarch in Uddevalla by stating that she had inherited the throne. The council was taken by surprise and did not contest this. She took control over the affairs of state and had Georg Heinrich von Görtz and his followers removed from power. The “Hesse Party” secured Ulrica Eleonor’s succession to the throne.

King Carl XII of Sweden

Ulrica Eleanor and Friedrich gained the support of the Riksdag who wanted to end the absolute monarchy established in 1680 and reinstate parliamentary rule. On 15 December 1718, she declared that though she had inherited the throne, she did not intend to keep the Carolinian absolutism but agreed to reinstate the older system. The war council was determined to abolish absolutism and the right to inherit the throne, but was willing to acknowledge her as an elected monarch. Their opinion was supported by the majority of the Assembly of the Estates. Ulrica Eleanor was forced into agreeing to abolish absolute monarchy and the right to inherit the throne, both for her and for her contestant, her nephew Carl-Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp.

After having agreed to sign the new constitution as monarch, she was elected queen on January 23, 1719. On February 19 she signed the Instrument of Governm, thereby securing the support of the Estates to not give the throne to her nephew and competitor. She was crowned in Uppsala Cathedral March 17, 1719 and made her formal entrance into Stockholm as monarch on April 11, that same year.

Ulrica Eleonor supported the political ambitions of her consort, and from the beginning, she wished for him to become her co-monarch, in the fashion of William III and Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland. However, this was not permitted by the Riksdag. One reason being that co-reigning had been forbidden in Sweden since the 15th century. There was also opposition in the Riksdag to the influence of Emerentia von Düben and her siblings over the affairs of state.

Her difficulty in respecting the constitution and trouble in getting along with the Riksdag, as well as her way of continuously discussing state affairs with her husband, did however make the Riksdag willing to replace her with Frederick as sole monarch if she abdicated, an idea that had the support of Frederick. On February 29, 1720, after having again been denied a co-monarchy, Ulrica Eleonor abdicated in favour of her husband on the condition that she should succeed him if he should die before her. This condition of her abdication in fact granted her place as the heir to the Swedish throne until her death.

King Friedrich of Sweden, Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel.

Queen Ulrica Eleanor often spoke of the abdication as the great sacrifice of her life. Her husband Friedrich succeeded her on March 24, 1720, and this succession was confirmed by the Riksdag. It was the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary.

The defeats suffered by Carl XII in the Great Northern War ended Sweden’s position as a first-rank European power. Under Friedrich this had to be accepted. Sweden also had to cede Estonia, Ingria and Livonia to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad, in 1721.

Friedrich was a very active and dynamic king at the beginning of his 31-year reign. But after the aristocracy had regained power during the wars with Russia, he became not so much powerless as uninterested in affairs of state. In 1723, he tried to strengthen royal authority, but after he failed, he never had much to do with politics. He did not even sign official documents; instead a stamp of his signature was used. He devoted most of his time to hunting and love affairs. His marriage to Queen Ulrika Eleonora was childless, but he had several children by his mistress, Hedvig Taube.

Friedrich became Landgrave of Hesse only in 1730, ten years after becoming King of Sweden. He immediately appointed his younger brother Wilhelm governor of Hesse.

As Landgrave, Friedrich is generally not seen as a success. Indeed, he did concentrate more on Sweden, and due to his negotiated, compromise-like ascension to the throne there, he and his court had a very low income. The money for that very expensive court, then, since the 1730s came from wealthy Hesse, and this means that Friedrich essentially behaved like an absentee landlord and drained Hessian resources to finance life in Sweden.

His powerless reign in Sweden saw his family’s elimination from the line of Succession after the parliamentary government dominated by pro-revanchist Hat Party politicians ventured into a war with Russia, which ended in defeat and the Russian tsarina Elizabeth demanding Adolph-Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp to be instated following the death of the This occurred when Friedrich of Sweden died on April 5 1751. Friedrich was succeeded as Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel by his younger brother as Wilhelm VIII.

European Royal History and the Weather: Part I

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1812, Alexander I of Russia, Cold Frint, Emperor of France, Emperors of Russia, France, Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleonic Wars, Robert FirzRoy, Russia, Weather and History, Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, Winter

Another passion of mine besides European Royalty and it’s history has been the study of the weather. Today I begin a new series where I combine two of my passions: European Royal History and Meteorology. Weather has helped shaped historical events and the course of history itself. In this series I will look at how weather impacted significant events in European History.

Accurate and detailed weather forecasts can save lives. The lack of an accurate and detailed forecast, and it’s resulting loss of life, is evident in one of the most well known historical events in which weather was a significant player; Napoleon’s war on Russia in 1812.

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Napoleon of France

In 1812, Emperor Napoleon of France gathered the largest army Europe had ever seen at the point, more than 600,000 strong. His plan was to march boldly into Moscow to attack the forces of Emperor Alexander I of Russia. Napoleon was not at all concerned that winter was approaching. Napoleons’s non concern about the coming winter was not due to having foreknowledge that Russia would be experiencing a mild winter, his overconfidence was primarily due to his obstinance and hubris.

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Alexander I of Russia

In truth, in 1812 Napoleon would not have had a long term forecast about the winter. Today we have many tools to predict the weather as we can scientifically measure the temperature, air pressure and windspeed etc. We also have many computer models, known as Numerical Weather Prediction Models which uses mathematical computations of the atmospheric and oceanic conditions to predict weather patterns based on current weather conditions. However, before these tools and technologies, the weather was predicted by the appearance of clouds or the behaviour of animals. There were also primitive thermometers and barometers that aided in forecasting the weather.

Admiral Robert FitzRoy

The term forecast wasn’t even part of the weather vernacular in 1812. The word ‘forecast’ was invented by Admiral Robert FitzRoy in the mid 1800s. FitzRoy was a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate daily weather predictions, which he called by a new name of his own invention: “forecasts” and he defined it as such: “the term forecast is strictly applicable to such an opinion as is the result of scientific combination and calculation.” Incidentally, Admiral Robert FitRoy had royal connections. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, Robert was a fourth great-grandson of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland through his mistress, Barbara Palmer-Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland. Born on the wrong side of the sheets as they say.

Back to Napoleon. Napoleon could not foresee his campaign lasting into the winter, believing his war would be swift and decisive. Without a long term forecast for the coming winter, coupled with Napoleon’s overconfidence, this left him unprepared for the difficulties that were ahead.

It was not just winter weather that made an impact on Napoleon’s troops. On June 24th Napoleon entered and attacked Vilnius, Lithuanian. That same afternoon severe thunderstorms and accompanying torrential downpours had a devastating impact on the siege. Since there were no discernible roads in this area of Lithuania, the ruts of the wagons on the soft and saturated ground were turned into bottomless mires. Wagon sank up to their hubs; horses dropped from exhaustion; men lost their boots.

After the storms, the sun reemerged bringing along with it oppressive heat and humidity which would bake the deep ruts into canyons of concrete, where horses would break their legs and wagons their wheels. With the numerous dead horses blocking any forward movements, the troops were left with living in swamp-like conditions with dysentery and influenza raging though the ranks with hundreds laying sick in a field hospital. The Crown Prince of Wurttemberg (future King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg) reported 21 men dead in bivouacs from sunstroke and a further 345 soldiers were sick.

There are four types of weather fronts that cause thunderstorms: cold front, warm front, stationary front and occluded front. Thunderstorms can become extremely severe and can appear seemingly out of nowhere along any of these front lines. Cold fronts tend to move faster than the other types of fronts and are associated with the most violent types of weather such as severe and super cell thunderstorms, although any type of front can produce these same storms. Since the historical records indicate that severe thunderstorms were followed by oppressive heat and humidity on June 28th 1812 in Vilnius, Lithuanian, it is safe to conclude that these storms were part of a warm front that moved through the region.

Napoleon reached Moscow in mid September. By mid October with the French having set fire to large portions of Moscow, the French were holding onto a tenuous victory. An official French Imperial Delegation was sent to negotiate an armistice and a permanent peace with the Russian Emperor. The French were received with all civility, and we’re encouraged that the Russian soldiers wanted peace. On October 19th, after 35 days in the city, the French began to leave Moscow.

The Retreat from Moscow

Napoleon left Moscow at the head of 95,000 men, with 500 cannons and an uncertain number of wagons (estimates range from 4,000 up to 40,000, with around 20,000 perhaps most likely). The wagon train included the Imperial HQ, the pontoon train, thousands of wagons filled with food and just as many filled with the loot of Moscow. Although Napoleon was victorious in his siege of Moscow, it was with his retreat from Moscow that the Russians delivered the French Army its crushing blow…with help from the weather.

Although the Russian campaign was over by mid-October, the encroaching winter weather was heavy on the minds of Napoleon’s closest advisers. The return to France would take several months. Early on November 5th Napoleon reached Smorgoni. That evening he held a conference with his marshals – Murat, Prince Eugene of Savoy, Berthier, Lefebvre, Bessières, Ney and Davout all attended. At this meeting Napoleon announced that he was going to leave the remnants of the army and return to Paris.

At 10pm Napoleon left with a small party and a small escort of Polish cavalry. Napoleon’s decision to leave the army was probably correct, although his enemies did portray it as a cowardly betrayal of his army. Napoleon had left Marshal Murat in charge of the army. He proved to be a poor choice. Around 20,000 men (mainly stragglers) were lost between Smorgoni and Vilna due to the harsh weather conditions. This was the period of severe frosts, with the temperature dropping to -20c (-4F) on December 5th and -26c (-32.2F) December 9th.

The army was equipped with summer clothing only, and they did not have the means to protect themselves from the cold. In addition, the army lacked the ability to forge caulkined shoes for the horses to enable them to walk over roads that had become iced over. As Napoleon’s army marched further from Vilna temperatures fell further to -40 degrees C. (-40F) The soldiers fell to frostbite and starvation. In one 24-hour period, 50,000 horses died from the cold.

In his memoir, Napoleon’s close adviser, Armand de Caulaincourt, recounted scenes of massive loss, and offered a vivid description of mass death through hypothermia.

“The cold was so intense that bivouacking was no longer supportable. If the soldiers resisted the craving for sleep it would prolong their agony for a short while, but not saving them, for in this condition the drowsiness engendered by cold was irresistibly strong. Sleep comes inevitably, and to sleep is to die. This kind of death by freezing happened to thousands of individuals. The road was covered with their corpses.”

Of the 600,000 men who marched into Russia, only 150,000 would limp home. It was the beginning of the end for Napoleon’s empire, and heralded the emergence of Russia as a power in Europe.

Following the Russian campaign a saying arose that the Generals, along with Janvier and Février (January and February) defeated Napoleon. This demonstrates that without knowledge of the weather Napoleon’s troops were ill prepared to safely navigate the land and keeping their troops and animals safe.

On this date in History. July 17, 1918. Murder of the Czar and his family.

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Assassination, Czarevich Alexei of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, Princess Alix of Hesse by Rhine, Russia, Russian Revolution

Today is the 100th Anniversary of the Murder of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and his entire family. My apologies for being a day late.

Late on the night of July 16, Nicholas, Alexandra, their five childre, Olga, Tatiana, Marie, Anastasia and Alexei and four servants, personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife’s maid Anna Demidova, and the family’s chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp, were ordered to dress quickly and go down to the cellar of the house in which they were being held. There, the family and servants were arranged in two rows for a photograph they were told was being taken to quell rumors that they had escaped. Suddenly, a dozen armed men burst into the room and gunned down the imperial family in a hail of gunfire. Those who were still breathing when the smoked cleared were stabbed to death.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter

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Emperor Franz Joseph, Empress Elizabeth of Austria, England, France, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Louis-Philippe of France, Louise Marie of Orleans, Ludwig I Grand Duke of Baden, Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov, Mexico and Belgium, Portugal, Prince Albert, Queen of the Belgians, Queen Victoria, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Russia, Spain

Back in the late 70s when I began my interest in royalty I soon found myself attracted to the 19th century. Despite my love for modern technology there are times I think I was born in the wrong century. I love looking at old photos from the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Even though the art of photography was growing in the 19th century all types of painting, including portraits, still thrived. For anyone examining royalty in the 19th century sooner or later you will run into the works of Franz Xaver Winterhalter (20 April 1805 – 8 July 1873). He was a German painter from the Grand Duchy of Baden who became one of the most sought after painters at the courts of Europe.

The portrait of Queen Victoria above was not for the public but was commissioned for Prince Albert. I think this portrait is exemplary of his style.

He is by far my favorite painter, besides Bob Ross of course. Winterhalter devoted his life to the study of art. He first attended a school at a Benedictine monastery in St.Blasien. At the age of thirteen he began to study drawing and engraving. In 1825, he was supported by Ludwig I, Grand Duke of Baden (1763–1830) and began a course of study at the Academy of Arts. In 1828 he became drawing master to Sophie, Margravine of Baden and it was here than his association with royal courts began. In 1836 he was able to move to Paris, France and in 1838 his painting of Louise Marie of Orleans, Queen of the Belgians, and her son, Duc de Brabant brought him great notoriety and within a short time he was the court painter for King Louis-Philippe of France.

One of the sad things about Winterhalter’s career is that in artistic circles popularity breeds contempt. His style was uniquely his own although he was influenced by Romanticism which crossed both art and literature. He was not taken seriously in artistic circles and fellow artists and critics dismissed his work as being superficial and an expression of affectation. Since he was painting many royals at court he did flatter them in portrait and was at their mercy to portray them in images which would enhance them in the eyes of their subjects. He was loved in royal circles as he painted The royal families of England, France, Spain, Russia, Portugal, Mexico and Belgium. His style does idealize his subject and there is an air of elegant romanticism to his work. His best work was with the ladies at court. His most famous paintings being those of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Joseph. His paintings of the royal men were not as popular.

Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov

He died of typhus in 1873 at the age of 68. He had a brother, Hermann, who was also a painter who lived until 1891. Another favorite of mine appears above. The lady is not royal, she is Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov. She was a wife of Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian aristocrat, and she and her husband are mentioned in the novel “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy. She sat for Winterhalter in 1845 and this portrait now sits in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. After his death his work fell into obscurity and it wasn’t until the mid to late 20th century when his work became acknowledged and celebrated.

Princess Victoria, The Princess Royal

I only posted a couple of portraits so I suggest to my readers to do a google image search to enjoy more of his work.

Russian Connections: Part II.

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Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Emperors of Russia, Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Queen Victoria, Russia, Victoria Melita of Edinburgh

In this post of examining the connections depicted in the book The Camera and the Tsars by Charlotte Zeepvat, I will look at how the Romanovs and the British Royal Family are connected. As I stated last week the only survivng daughter of Tsar Alexander II, Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, married HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Britain’s Queen Victoria.

HRH The Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha & Duke of Edinburg

Grand Duchess Marie at the time of her wedding, 1874.

The marriage between the two was not a happy one. I think you had two very strong personalities involved. The new Duchess of Edinburgh was not popular in Britain. She was seen as rather arrogant. The squabble with her mother-in-law on how she should be address may be evidence of that haughtiness. From her birth she was an Imperial Highness as the daughter of an Emperor. However, once she married her husband she was only entitled to the style Her Royal Highness. Her father was not helpful in this instance for he also supported that his daughter should be continued to be styled as an Imperial Highness and that she should have precedence over the Princess of Wales. This attitude outraged Queen Victoria. Marie, Duchess of Edinburgh had a difficult time accepting the fact that Princess of Wales had precedence over her, even though the Princess of Wales was the daughter of a mere King (Christian IX of Denmark) while she was the daughter of an Emperor of Russia. Marie seems to have been most content when in 1893 her husband succeeded his uncle, Ernst II, as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Marie was eager to be out of England and as the daughter of a sovereign duke she would now outrank her sister-in-law.

Marie and Alfred had five children, one boy and four daughters (there was a still born son in 1879). I will briefly discuss the three eldest.

Hereditary Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The eldest son, Alfred (1874-1899), became the Hereditary Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha upon his father’s accession to the Ducal throne. He does not seem to have had a happy life. In 1995 his engagement to HRH Princess Elsa Matilda Marie of Württemberg, elder twin daughter of the late Duke Wilhelm Eugene of Württemberg and his wife Grand Duchess Vera Constantinovna of Russia. Vera was a first cousin to Marie and the grand daughter of Tsar Nicolas I of Russia. The marriage between young Alfred (called Affie) and Princess Elsa never happened and in 1899 suffering from syphilis and sever depression Alfred shot himself on his parents silver wedding anniversary. He survived the initial gun shot but died three days later at the Martinnsbrunn Sanatorium in Gratsch near Meran in the South Tyrol. He was only 24 years old.

HRH Princess Marie of Edinburgh, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

The next child was Marie (1875-1938) who at one point was thought of being a suitable candidate to marry the future King George V of Great Britain. The fathers of the prospective couple favored the match, Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh and Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales, while the mothers, Alexandra, Princess of Wales and Marie, the Duchess of Edinburgh did not. Marie did not care for the British Royal Family and Alexandra hated Germans because of how they defeated Denmark in an unjust war in 1864. Marie eventually married Ferdinand, King of Romania a member of the Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen line.

HRH Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine with her daughter, Elizabeth

The next daughter, Victoria-Melita, called Ducky within the family, was first married to her paternal first cousin, Ernst-Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. They had one daughter Elizabeth, who died in 1903 from typhoid after drinking from a contaminated stream two years after her parents divorce. They were only able to divorce after the death of Queen Victoria who did not support their divorce. Ducky had known her second husband, her maternal first cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, for a long time but Kirill’s mother did not support the match. After a close call where Grand Duke Cyril almost lost his life in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 decided to marry Ducky. The couple were married on 8 October 1905 in Tegernsee with few family members in attendance. The marriage outraged Tsar Nicolas II and Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. The primary issues with the marriage was that Cyril and Ducky were first cousins and the Russian Orthodox Church forbade marriages between first cousins.

However the real reason the marriage was controversial and angered the Tsar and Tsarina was that Ducky’s first husband was the brother of Tsarina Alexandra of Russia. The Tsarina did not like her former sister-in-law and first cousin and she greatly disapproved of the marriage. For his behavior Nicholas II had his cousin Cyril stripped of his title of Grand Duke and his style His Imperial Highness and all other royal orders and his position in the Russian Navy and was banished from Russia. In 1908 when his Cyril’s uncle, Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia died he became third in line to the Russian throne behind the Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, eldest son of Nicholas II, and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, the Tsar’s brother. Cyril was restored to all his former titles and styles and welcomed back to Russia. His wife was given the title Grand Duchess of Russia and was styled as Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. 

HRH Dowager Grand Duchess Maire of Saxe-Coburgh-Gotha & Dowager Duchess of Edinburgh shortly before her death. 

Now back to Marie. Her husband died July 30, 1900 from throat cancer. Since their younger son Affie had died the previous year this left a vacancy for the throne of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Duke’s older brother was the Prince of Wales and he had already renounced his place in the succession in order for Alfred to succeed. After Alfred came his next brother, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and his son, also called Prince Arthur, and both of these individuals renounced their claims. The succession finally went to Charles Edward, Duke of Albany the son of Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold who died from hemophilia in 1884.

Marie remained in Coburg even during the first World War in which she became increasingly pro-German. She did not live long past the war. Even though she was pro-German and the wife of a German sovereign she was still treated with contempt. At one point on her way home from a meeting with the Red Cross her car, containing her and her two young daughters, was stopped when a mob recognized her and despised her for her Russian heritage. It took the police over an hour to extricate her safely from the situation. After that incident she went to live in exile in Switzerland where she died on October 24 at the age of 67.

I do feel bad for Marie despite her poor reputation. I have read that was not all of who she could be. It is said that she truly had a kind heart and George V was said to have been fond of her. She lost her German titles at the end of the war and with the revolution in Russia she lost her Imperial titles as well. The only titles she held was that of HRH The Dowager Duchess of Edinburgh from a country that she never considered home.

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.

Pretenders ~ Russia

Tags

Alexander Kerensky, Czar Nicholas II, Czar Paul, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Morganatic Marriage, Provisional Government, Romanov, Russia, Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin

The succession to the extinct Russian Imperial throne is another one hotly contested and is dependent on the interpretation of House Laws established by Czar Paul (1796-1801). These house laws dealt with the provisions and the legalities of the marriages for the members of the imperial family in order to retain their succession rights. All members had to receive the approval of the emperor and enter equal marriages. A morganatic marriage is a legal marriage between two people of unequal social rank. In this type of union the spouse would not share in her husbands titles or succession rights and children, although legitimate, would also not share in their father’s inheritance of titles and succession rights and were often not included as members of a dynasty.

The Russian monarchy came to an end in 1917 with the abdication of Czar Nicholas II after the February Revolution. The Czar was replaced by a Provisional Government under Georgy Lvov. The former Czar wanted to seek asylum in Great Britain at the court of his first cousin, King George V, but this offer was turned down fearing the Czar’s presence would cause an uprising during unstable times. In August of 1917, Alexander Kerensky, second Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, relocated the Czar and his family to Tobolsk in the Urals, in order to protect them from the rising tide of revolution. However, within months the Provisional Government also fell in the October Revolution which placed Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevicks at the head of the early forming of the Soviet state.

On July 17, 1918 in the early morning hours as the anti-Bolshevick forces were nearing Yekaterinburg where the Czar and his family were imprisoned, the Czar and Czarina, along with their five children and three servants were brutally massacred in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

In 1917 when Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne his first choice to succeed him was his son, Alexei, who was suffering from hemophilia. When told by doctors that young Alexei would not survive long without his parents should they go into exile, the Czar instead abdicated the throne in favor of his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia. Grand Duke Michael said he would not accept the throne unless his succession was approved by a national assembly. This was rejected and Michael was never confirmed as Czar. Grand Duke Michael was also assassinated by the Bolshevicks in June of 1918.

The closest heir to the throne after the Czar and his brother was their first cousin, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, and it was with Cyril some of the controversy begins over who had the legal right to the defunct throne of Russia and to act as the head of the Imperial house.

Come back tomorrow for part II.

Pretenders to the Throne.

Tags

Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, France (Royal & Imperial), Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

As my love for European Royalty quickly expanded beyond and interest in the British Royal Family and into other European royal houses I began to wonder about the royal families of countries where the monarchy had been abolished. I wondered what became of them, who would be king/queen/emperor had the monarchy not been abolished? Is there any chance that any of these former countries would return to a monarchical form of government? How does these former royal families live and how are they treated in their former territories?

Tomorrow I will begin looking at all the pretenders to vacant or non existent thrones in Europe. I have learned that the pretenders to these thrones live various lifestyles. Some are more public while others live more private lives. There is also various levels of wealth these people live with. Some families still hold onto the traditions and rules that the family held when they were in power. Another thing I learned that almost all of these former thrones are hotly contested among these families and there are more than one member claiming the throne of their ancestors.

So in the days to come I will examine the claims and the claimants to the thrones of France (Royal & Imperial), Russia, Italy, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and other minor royal houses of Germany.

HRH Prince Henri VII, Count of Paris and Duke of France. Pretender to the throne of France.

HRH Prince Louis XX, Duke of Anjou and Maria, Duchess of Anjou. Pretender to the French throne.