by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Andrew Romanoff; Credit – https://www.legacy.com/

Prince Andrew Romanov, known as Andrew Romanoff after he came to the United States in 1949, a great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, was one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family from 2016 – 2021. The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements over whether marriages in the Romanov family were equal marriages – a marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house. Andrew inherited the claim after the death of Prince Dimitri Romanov who had no sons. With his death, the male line of Dmitri’s Nikolavevichi Branch of the Russian Imperial Family descended from Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, became extinct, transferring the claim to the Mikhailovichi Branch, descended from Grand Duke Michael Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Andrew was also the great-grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, through their elder daughter Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia.

Andrew’s great-grandparents Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark; Credit – Wikipedia

Line of Andrew and his sons Alexis and Peter from Nicholas I: Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia → Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia → Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia → Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia → Prince Andrew Andreievich Romanov  → Prince Alexis Andreievich Romanov and Prince Peter Andreievich Romanov

Prince Andrew Romanov was born in London, England on January 21, 1923. He was the youngest of the three children and the second of the two sons of Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia and his first wife Duchess Elisabetta Sasso-Ruffo Di Sant Antimo from the Italian noble House of Ruffo di Calabria. Andrew’s paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia (grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia) and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia (daughter of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and sister of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia). His maternal grandparents were Fabrizio Ruffo, Duke of Sasso-Ruffo and Princess Natalia Alexandrovna Mescherskaya, a descendant of the wealthy, Russian noble House of Stroganov.

Andrew (left), with his sister Xenia and brother Michael; Credit – http://russculture.ru/2021/12/02/ushel-iz-gzizni-poslednii-nastojashii-romanov/

Andrew had two elder siblings. His elder brother had no children and predeceased both Prince Dmitri Romanov and Andrew and so Prince Dmitri’s claim came to Andrew.

• Princess Xenia Romanov (1919 – 2000), married (1) Calhoun Ancrum, divorced, no children (2) Geoffrey Tooth, no children
• Prince Michael Romanov (1920 – 2008), married (1) Jill Murphy, divorced, no children (2) Shirley Cramond, no children (3) Giulia Crespi, no children

Andrew’s half-sister Princess Olga Romanov

Andrew had one half-sister from his father’s 1942 second marriage to Nadine McDougall.

• Princess Olga Romanov (born 1950), married Thomas Mathew, had four children. Olga is the current President of the Romanov Family Association.

Andrew’s father Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia; Credit – Wikipedia

After the Russian Revolution, Andrew’s parents Andrei and Elisabetta spent their first several years in exile in France where Andrew’s siblings were born. In dire financial circumstances, Andrei, Elisabetta, and their family eventually settled permanently in England where Andrei’s mother Grand Duchess Xenia had a grace-and-favour residence provided to her by her first cousin King George V of the United Kingdom. Andrei, Elisabetta, and their family lived in a guest house on the grounds of Windsor Castle, granted to them by King George V.

Andrew’s paternal grandmother Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, an important figure in his life; Credit – Wikipedia

When Andrew was born in 1923, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, served as his godfather. Andrew and his siblings were brought up in the Russian tradition under the strict supervision of their paternal grandmother, the daughter of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and sister of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, who lived until 1960 when Andrew was thirty-seven. Xenia was sure that the Romanovs would again rule in Russia and wanted to ensure that her grandchildren would take their rightful place in Russia. However, Andrew’s parents belonged to a different generation and no longer believed that the Russian monarchy would be restored. They raised their children with a sense of duty to Russia but with the ability to cope with the realities of the modern world. At home, the family always spoke only Russian. Until he was twelve years old, Andrew received a private traditional education at home, characteristic of the House of Romanov. He then attended Haileybury and Imperial Service College, an English independent boarding and day school for 11- to 18-year-olds near Hertford, England. In 1940, during World War II, when Andrew was sixteen years old and away at school, his mother was killed when a Nazi bomb exploded near the family’s home. Already ill with cancer, she was crushed when a ceiling beam fell on her.

Andrew Romanoff while in the Royal Navy; Credit – http://russculture.ru/2021/12/02/ushel-iz-gzizni-poslednii-nastojashii-romanov/

In 1942, during World War II, Andrew joined the Royal Navy. He refused to accept an offer to become an officer, preferring to be a simple British sailor. He served on the light cruiser HMS Sheffield, taking part in Arctic convoys, sailing to the port city of Murmansk, then in the Soviet Union, now in Russia, where he often acted as an interpreter. Andrew also participated in the Battle of the Atlantic, the North African Campaign, the Allied landings at Normandy, and campaigns in the Pacific Ocean.

After World War II, Andrew worked as an intern on a farm in Kent, England, studying to become an agronomist, a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. After working in a tree nursery near London, Andrew, his uncle Prince Vasily Alexandrovich and his first cousin Prince Nikita Romanov decided to emigrate to the United States. In 1949, with only $800 in his pocket, Andrew, his uncle, and his cousin traveled to the United States on a cargo ship.

Andrew dropped his royal style and title when he came to the United States, calling himself Andrew Romanoff. He settled in California, where he first worked in a store, and then at the California Packing Company where he grew tomatoes using hydroponics and worked on the introduction of new varieties of vegetables. He studied sociology and criminology at the University of California at Berkeley. Andrew later worked as a broker in a shipping company, a real estate agent, and a furniture designer. In 1954, he became a naturalized American citizen.

Andrew and his first wife Elena Konstantinovna Durnova; Credit – http://russculture.ru/2021/12/02/ushel-iz-gzizni-poslednii-nastojashii-romanov/

Andrew married three times:

• On March 21, 1951, in San Francisco, California, Andrew married Elena Konstantinovna Durnova (1927 – 1992). Andrew and Elena had one son before divorcing in 1959.
  • Prince Alexis Romanoff (born 1953), married Zoetta “Zoe” Leisy, no children – Alexis is the current claimant to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family
• On March 21, 1961, in San Francisco, California, Andrew married Kathleen Norris (1935 – 1967). Andrew and Kathleen had two sons. Kathleen died from pneumonia.
  • Prince Peter Romanoff (born 1961), married Barbara Anne Jurgens, no children, Peter is the heir to his half-brother’s claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family
  • Prince Andrew Romanoff (born 1963), married Elizabeth Flores, had one daughter, Andrew is second in the line of succession to the claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family
• On December 17, 1987, in Reno, Nevada, Andrew married the American artist Inez Storer (born 1933)

Andrew and his third wife artist Inez Storer; Credit – Marin Magazine

After the death of his second wife, Andrew moved to Inverness, Marin County, California, where he worked as a carpenter, building houses with a Russian cousin, and started a company, Brass Menagerie, that made jewelry and other items. Without any formal art education, Andrew began drawing in the primitive art style, creating pictures by intuition and relying on imagination. His work depicted personal memories, impressions of American news, culture, and scenes of domestic life. It was through art that Andrew met his third wife artist Inez Storer in 1973. The couple lived in a 1906 former Inverness hotel with fourteen rooms, big enough to accommodate their blended families, and married in 1987. In 2007, Andrew released an autobiography called The Boy Who Would Be Tsar, illustrated with his small narrative paintings as well as his personal family photos. Some of Andrew’s work can be seen at the link below from the website of Gallery Route One, an art gallery that Andrew helped found.

• Gallery Route One: In Memory of Andrew Romanoff

Andrew was an original member of the Romanov Family Association, formed in 1979 to strengthen the links between the family and protect it from impostors. Today, the Romanov Family Association unites the majority of descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. From 1989 – 2016, Andrew served as an advisor to Prince Nicholas Romanov and Prince Dmitri Romanov during their terms as President of the Romanov Family Association. As of the writing of this article in August 2023, Andrew’s half-sister Princess Olga Romanov is the President of the Romanov Family Association, and his three sons are members.

On July 17, 1998, together with other members of the Romanov family, Andrew attended the reburial of the remains of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, his wife and three daughters, and their servants at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was one of the initiators of the transfer of the remains of his great-grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, from Denmark to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia so she could be buried next to her husband Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia. In September 2006, Andrew attended all the events related to the transfer of the remains of his great-grandmother from Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark to Peter and Paul Cathedral in Russia. After the discovery in July 2007 of the remains of Nicholas II’s children Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Andrew provided his DNA to establish the authenticity of the remains.

The headship of the House of Romanov has been contested since the death of the last undisputed male dynast Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in 1992. Upon his death, competing claims over the headship of the House of Romanov emerged between Prince Nicholas Romanov and Grand Duke Vladimir’s daughter Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. Prince Nicholas’ claim was based on a 1911 Ukase issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia that the equal marriage rule applied only to Grand Dukes (the sons and grandsons of an emperor) and that princes (the great-grandsons onward of an emperor) could marry women of “good standing” for their marriage to be dynastic and therefore transmit succession and dynastic rights to their children, and that women, namely Maria Vladimirovna, could succeed only on the total extinction of the male line. The Romanov Family Association recognized Prince Nicholas Romanov as the senior male dynastic representative and head of the family on December 31, 1992, in Paris, France and this was symbolically re-confirmed on Russian soil after the state burial of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in 1998. The Romanov Family Association further stated that they consider the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents to be unequal. (See Maria Vladimirovna’s article for more information.)

Andrew and his predecessors Prince Nicholas Romanov, and Prince Dmitri Romanov did not act for the restoration of the monarchy or engage in dynastic activities such as the distribution of Russian imperial titles and orders. Maria Vladimirovna claims the status of de jure Empress of All Russia, styles herself as Grand Duchess and her son George Mikhailovich as Grand Duke and Tsesarevich, the title for the heir apparent, and actively distributes Russian imperial orders, all of which have been condemned by the Romanov Family Association.

Prince Dmitri Romanov inherited the claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family upon the death in 2014 of his elder brother Prince Nicholas Romanov who had two daughters but no sons. When Prince Dmitri Romanov died on December 31, 2016, Andrew inherited the claim because Dmitri had no sons. With Dmitri’s death, the male line of Dmitri’s Nikolavevichi Branch of the Russian Imperial Family descended from Grand Duke Nicholas Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, became extinct, transferring the claim to the Mikhailovichi Branch, descended from Grand Duke Michael Nicolaevich of Russia, a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. All descendants of the Russian Imperial Family except for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and her son Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia recognized Andrew as the head of the House of Romanov.

Andrew Romanoff, born Prince Andrew Romanov, died surrounded by his family, on November 28, 2021, two months short of his 99th birthday at an assisted living center in San Anselmo, California after a long illness. A traditional Russian Orthodox funeral service was held at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in San Anselmo, California followed by the burial at Olema Cemetery in Olema, California.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

• Liberatore, P. (2021) Andrew Romanoff, Marin’s Russian prince, dies at 98, Marin Independent Journal. Available at: https://www.marinij.com/2021/12/13/andrew-romanoff-marins-russian-prince-dies-at-98/ (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• Mailonline. (2021) Eldest member of the Romanov family, Prince Andrew Andreievich, dies aged 98, Daily Mail Online. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10258767/Eldest-member-Romanov-family-Prince-Andrew-Andreievich-dies-aged-98.html (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• Massie, Robert K. (1995) The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. New York: Random House
• Orlov, Daniel. ‘The last real Romanov’ passed away (2021) Русская Культура. Available at: http://russculture.ru/2021/12/02/ushel-iz-gzizni-poslednii-nastojashii-romanov/ (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Andrei_Alexandrovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• Prince Andrew Romanoff (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Andrew_Romanoff (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• Романов, Андрей Андреевич (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B9_%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 12 August 2023).
• The Romanov Family Association. Available at: http://www.romanovfamily.org/index.html (Accessed: 12 August 2023)

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Prince Dmitri Romanov being awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in October 2016; Credit – Government.ru. http://government.ru/news/24797/

Prince Dmitri Romanov, a great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, was one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family from 2014 – 2016. The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements over whether marriages in the Romanov family were equal marriages – a marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house. Dmitri inherited the claim upon the death in 2014 of his elder brother Prince Nicholas Romanov who had two daughters but no sons.

The line from Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia to Dmitri and his brother Nicholas:  Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia → Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia → Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia → Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia → brothers Prince Nicholas Romanov and Prince Dimitri Romanov

Born on May 17, 1926, at the villa of his grandfather Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia in  Antibes, France, where his parents were in exile, Nicholas Romanovich Romanov was the elder of the two children and the elder of the two sons of Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia, a great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, and Countess Praskovia Sheremeteva, a member of the House of Sheremeteva, one of the wealthiest and most influential Russian noble families. Nicholas’ paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia and Princess Milica of Montenegro, daughter of King Nikola I of Montenegro. His maternal grandparents were Count Dmitry Sergeevich Sheremetev and Countess Irina Illarionovna Vorontsova-Dashkova.

Prince Roman Petrovich, his wife Praskovia, holding Dmitri, and Nicholas; Credit – Time Note

Dmitri had one older brother:

• Prince Nicholas Romanov (1922 – 2014), married Countess Sveva della Gherardesca had two daughters

Dmitri spent the early years of his life in Antibes, France, where his family employed a Russian staff and a Russian nanny for Dmitri and his brother. The family used the Julian calendar and spoke Russian and French. Dmitri received a traditional Russian education, following the old Russian school curriculum. In 1936, his family moved to Italy, where Dmitri continued his education, and the family lived at the Quirinal Palace in Rome with Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, who was the sister of Nicholas’ paternal grandmother Princess Milica of Montenegro. After the Italian monarchy was abolished in 1946, Dmitri’s family left for Egypt.

Dmitri worked as a mechanic at the Ford plant in Alexandria, Egypt. After three months of training, he received a mechanic’s certificate and could assemble the engine of the car and the fuel and cooling systems. Dimitri worked at the plant for three years and then got a job as a car sales manager. In 1952, after the overthrow of King Farouk I of Egypt, Dimitri returned to Italy, where he worked in a travel agency and then in the shipping company Fratelli d Amico.

In 1958, Dimitri and his friends went on a trip to Scandinavia by car. In Helsingør, Denmark, he met Johanna von Kauffman (1936 – 1989). Dmitri and Johanna were married in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 21, 1959, and settled in a suburb of Copenhagen. After his marriage, Dmitri learned Danish, got a job at Danske Bank, and became vice president of the bank in 1975. He remained at Danske Bank until his retirement in 1993. At the suggestion of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Dmitri, who had been stateless, became a Danish citizen in 1979. Dmitri and Johanna had no children, and Johanna died from cancer in 1989.

At a reception in 1991, Dmitri met Dorrit Reventlow, born in 1942 in Brazil to Danish parents. Dorrit’s father was from a noble Danish-German family, Reventlow. Dorrit had her own translation company, known as Translator Dorrit Romanoff & Associates after her marriage to Dmitri. On July 28, 1993, Dmitri and Dorrit were married in Kostroma, Russia, the first time a Romanov had been married in Russia since the fall of the dynasty in 1918. Before the wedding, Dorrit converted to Russian Orthodoxy taking the name Feodora Alekseevna.

President Vladimir Putin with Prince Dmitri Romanovich and his wife Dorrit at a state reception in 2006; Credit – By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7386249

Prince Vsevolod Ioannovich, Dmitri’s father Prince Roman Petrovich, and Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, the heads of the Konstantinovichi, Nikolaevichi, and Mihailovichi branches of the Russian Imperial Family came up with the idea of a family association of the Romanovs. The purpose of the association would be to strengthen the links between the family and protect it from impostors. Some preliminary work had been done but the association had not yet been created when Prince Roman Petrovich died in 1978. After looking through his father’s papers, Dmitri’s brother Nicholas found that everything was in place for the creation of the Romanov Family Association. In 1979, the Romanov Family Association was officially formed with Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich (a grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and the son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, the sister of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) as president and Dmitri’s brother Prince Nicholas Romanov as vice-president. When Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich died in 1980, his younger brother Prince Vasili Alexandrovich became president and Nicholas remained vice president. In 1989, after the death of Vasili Alexandrovich, Dmitri’s brother Nicholas was elected the president of the Romanov Family Association. The majority of male-line descendants of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia are members of the Romanov Family Association.

In 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) whose body has never been found, was declared legally dead, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia. Upon the death of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1938, his son Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was recognized as the Head of the Russian Imperial House by the Grand Dukes and Princes of Imperial Blood behind him in order of dynastic seniority and by the majority of the reigning houses of Europe.

The official position of the Romanov Family Association is that the rights of the family to the Russian throne were suspended when Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia abdicated for himself and for his son Tsarevich Alexei in favor of his brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. Michael declined to accept the throne unless the people were allowed to vote for the continuation of the monarchy or for a republic. Of course, that vote never happened. Emperor Michael II, as he was legally pronounced by Nicholas II, did not abdicate but empowered the Provisional Government to rule. Michael’s “reign” did not end until his execution in 1918.

After the Russian Revolution, surviving members of the House of Romanov were in exile and settled in Europe with close or distant relatives. Because of their situation, many male Romanovs were unable to choose a spouse from European sovereign houses, and married women from noble and famous Russian families – Kurakins, Orlovs, Chavchavadze, Sheremetevs, Vorontsov-Dashkovs, Kutuzovs, Golitsyns. Regarding unequal marriages, Prince Nicholas Romanov said, “Our parents married commoners. So what? We have married commoners. Again, so what? There was nobody to ask us to renounce our rights, so we married without renouncing them, and we and our children still have rights to the throne of Russia.”

The headship of the House of Romanov has been contested since the death of the last undisputed male dynast Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in 1992. Upon his death, competing claims over the headship of the House of Romanov emerged between Prince Nicholas Romanov and Grand Duke Vladimir’s daughter Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. Prince Nicholas’ claim was based on a 1911 Ukase issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia that the equal marriage rule applied only to Grand Dukes (the sons and grandsons of an emperor) and that princes (the great-grandsons onward of an emperor) could marry women of “good standing” for their marriage to be dynastic and therefore transmit succession and dynastic rights to their children, and that women, namely Maria Vladimirovna, could succeed only on the total extinction of the male line. The Romanov Family Association recognized Prince Nicholas Romanov as the senior male dynastic representative and head of the family on December 31, 1992, in Paris, France and this was symbolically re-confirmed on Russian soil after the state burial of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in 1998. The Romanov Family Association further stated that they consider the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents to be unequal.

Pre-revolutionary Romanov house law allowed only those born of an equal marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house to be in the line of succession to the Russian throne. The throne could only pass to a female and through the female line upon the extinction of all legitimately-born, male dynasts. Maria Vladimiovna’s mother Princess Leonida of Bagration belonged to a family that had been kings in Georgia from medieval times until the early 19th century. However, no male line ancestor of Leonida had reigned as a king in Georgia since 1505 and her branch of the Bagrations, the House of Mukhrani, had been naturalized as non-ruling nobility of Russia after Georgia was annexed to the Russian empire in 1801. There is a precedent that a marriage between the House of Romanov and the House of Bragation-Mukhrani was unequal. The House of Bragation-Mukhrani did not possess sovereign status and was not recognized as an equal marriage by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia for the purpose of dynastic marriages at the time of the marriage of Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna of Russia and Prince Konstantine Bragation-Mukhrani in 1911, thirty-seven years before the marriage of Princess Leonida of Bragation-Mukhrani and Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. The couple married but Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna was required to renounce her rights to the Russian throne and she was no longer a member of the House of Romanov because the marriage was unequal.

Neither Prince Dmitri nor his elder brother Prince Nicholas acted for the restoration of the monarchy or engage in dynastic activities such as the distribution of Russian imperial titles and orders. Maria Vladimirovna claims the status of de jure Empress of All Russia, styles herself as Grand Duchess and her son George Mikhailovich as Grand Duke and Tsesarevich, the title for the heir apparent, and actively distributes Russian imperial orders, all of which have been condemned by the Romanov Family Association.

The Romanov Family Association does not recognize Maria Vladimirovna as either the head of the family or the head of the House of Romanov because they consider the marriage of her parents to be unequal. With the exception of Maria Vladimirovna, Prince Nicholas was recognized by the rest of the family as head of the Romanov family. See The Romanov Family Association’s article Succession of the Imperial House of Russia for more information.

After Dmitri retired from Danske Bank in 1993, he became very active in charitable causes. Along with seven other Romanov princes, under the auspices of the Romanov Family Association, Dmitri met in Paris, France in June 1992, where it was decided to create the Romanov Fund for Russia. Dmitri visited Russia in July 1993 on a fact-finding mission to decide on which areas the charity should focus. Dimitri served as chairman of the Romanov Fund for Russia. He was also chairman of the Prince Dimitri Romanov Charity Fund, which he founded in 2006.

Prince Dmitri Romanov (left) and Prince Nicholas Romanov (second left) stand at the tomb of Empress Maria Feodorovna during a burial ceremony in the royal crypt at the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg on September 28, 2006

Because of the connections he had, Dmitri lobbied Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and President Vladimir Putin of Russia to allow the transfer of the remains of Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, from Denmark to Russia so she could be buried alongside her husband Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia. Dmitri and his brother Nicholas were among the Romanovs present on September 28, 2006, at a service for Empress Maria Feodorovna at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral and then at the Peter and Paul Cathedral, both in St. Petersburg, where she was interred next to her husband Emperor Alexander III.

Prince Dmitri Romanov attends a press conference on July 16, 2008 in St. Petersburg on the eve of the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the murders of Nicholas II and his family

Upon the death of his elder brother Prince Nicholas Romanov in 2014, Dmitri inherited the claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family because his elder brother had no sons. Dmitri also became president of the Romanov Family Association. However, his claim to the headship and his term as president lasted only two years. In December 2016, Dmitri’s health suddenly and sharply declined, requiring hospitalization. On December 31, 2016, Prince Dmitri Romanov, aged 90, died in a hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark. With his death, the male line of the Nikolaevichi branch of the Russian Imperial Family, descendants of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia, son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, became extinct.

Funeral of Prince Dmitri Romanov; Credit – https://sivertimes.com/funeral-of-russian-prince-dimitri-romanovich-his-widow-and-his-relatives-in-mourning/14579

The funeral was held on January 10, 2017, at the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox Church in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dmitri’s coffin was covered with the Romanov flag – black, yellow, and white with a double-headed eagle. Among the wreaths were ones from Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation. Dmitri was buried at Vedbæk Cemetery in Rudersdal, Denmark next to his first wife Johanna.

Grave of Prince Dmitri Romanov; Credit – https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175277133/dimitri-romanovich-romanov

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

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• Massie, Robert K. (1995) The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. New York: Random House
• Prince Dimitri Romanov (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Dimitri_Romanov (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
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• Романов, Димитрий Романович (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%94%D0%B8%D0%BC%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Романов, Роман Петрович (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• The Romanov Family Association. Available at: http://www.romanovfamily.org/index.html (Accessed: 10 August 2023).

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Prince Nicholas Romanov; Credit – www.nashagazeta.ch

Prince Nicholas Romanov, a great-great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, was one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family from 1992 – 2014. The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements over whether marriages in the Romanov family were equal marriages – a marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house.

The line from Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia to Nicholas and his brother Dimitri who succeeded Nicholas in his claim: Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia → Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia → Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia → Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia → brothers Prince Nicholas Romanov and Prince Dimitri Romanov

Born on September 26, 1922, at the villa of his grandfather Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia in Cap d’Antibes, France, where his parents were in exile, Nicholas Romanovich Romanov was the elder of the two children and the elder of the two sons of Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia, a great-grandson of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, and Countess Praskovia Sheremeteva, a member of the House of Sheremeteva, one of the wealthiest and most influential Russian noble families. Nicholas’ paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia and Princess Milica of Montenegro, daughter of King Nikola I of Montenegro. His maternal grandparents were Count Dmitry Sergeevich Sheremetev and Countess Irina Illarionovna Vorontsova-Dashkova.

Prince Roman Petrovich, his wife Praskovia holding Dmitri, and Nicholas; Credit – Time Note

Nicholas had one younger brother:

• Prince Dmitri Romanovich of Russia (1926 – 2016), married (1) Jeanne von Kauffmann, no children (2) Dorrit Reventlow, no children

Nicholas spent the early years of his life in Antibes, France, where his family employed a Russian staff and a Russian nanny for Nicholas and his brother. The family used the Julian calendar and spoke Russian and French. Nicholas received a traditional Russian education, following the old Russian school curriculum. He later said that as a child, everything around him was so Russian that he did not realize he was living in France and not Russia until he was six years old. In 1936, his family moved to Italy, where Nicholas attended the Humanitarian Academy in Rome, and the family lived at the Quirinal Palace in Rome with Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy and his wife Elena of Montenegro, Queen of Italy, who was the sister of Nicholas’ paternal grandmother Princess Milica of Montenegro. After the Italian monarchy was abolished in 1946, Nicholas’ family left for Egypt, where Nicholas was involved in the purchasing and sale of Turkish tobacco. In 1950, Nicholas returned to Italy and worked in Rome for the Austin Motor Company until 1954.

Prince Nicholas Romanov and his wife Sveva; Credit – https://tsarnicholas.org/

In 1950, Nicholas became acquainted with Countess Sveva della Gherardesca, the daughter of Count Walfred della Gherardesca and Nicoletta de Piccolellis, from the noble Tuscan family, the House della Gherardesca. Nicholas and Sveva were married in a civil ceremony in Florence, Italy on December 31, 1951, and in a Russian Orthodox ceremony at the Church of the St. Michael the Archangel in Cannes, France on January 21, 1952.

Nicholas and Sveva had three daughters:

• Princess Natalia Nikolaevna Romanova (1952), married Giuseppe Consolo (link in Italian), an Italian politician, had one son and one daughter Nicoletta Romanoff, an Italian actress
• Princess Elisaveta Nikolaevna Romanova (born 1956), married Mauro Bonacini, had one son and one daughter
• Princess Tatiana Nikolaevna Romanova (born 1961), married (1) Giambattista Alessandri, no children, divorced (2) Giancarlo Tirotti, had one daughter

Following the death of his wife’s brother, Nicholas managed his wife’s property and business in Tuscany, Italy, a large farm that bred cattle and produced wine. The farm was sold in 1982 and Nicholas and Sveva moved to Rougemont, Switzerland where they lived for part of the year and lived in Italy with their daughters for the other part of the year. Nicholas was a stateless person, a refugee from birth, and traveled on a letter issued by the King of Greece. He finally became a citizen of Italy in 1988. Nicholas visited Russia for the first time in June 1992 when he acted as a tour guide for a group of businessmen.

Prince Vsevolod Ioannovich, Nicholas’ father Prince Roman Petrovich, and Prince Andrei Alexandrovich, the heads of the Konstantinovichi, Nikolaevichi, and Mihailovichi branches of the Russian Imperial Family came up with the idea of a family association of the Romanovs. The association’s purpose would be to strengthen the links between the family and protect it from impostors. Some preliminary work had been done but the association had not yet been created when Prince Roman Petrovich died in 1978. After looking through his father’s papers, Nicholas found that everything was in place to create the Romanov Family Association. In 1979, the Romanov Family Association was officially formed with Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich (a grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and the son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia, the sister of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) as president and Prince Nicholas Romanov as vice-president. When Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich died in 1980, his younger brother Prince Vasili Alexandrovich became president and Nicholas remained vice president. In 1989, after the death of Vasili Alexandrovich, Nicholas was elected the president of the Romanov Family Association. The majority of male-line descendants of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia are members of the Romanov Family Association.

In 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) whose body has never been found, was declared legally dead, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia. Upon the death of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1938, his son Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was recognized as the Head of the Russian Imperial House by the Grand Dukes and Princes of Imperial Blood behind him in order of dynastic seniority and by the majority of the reigning houses of Europe.

The Romanov Family Association’s official position is that the rights of the family to the Russian throne were suspended when Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia abdicated for himself and for his son Tsarevich Alexei in favor of his brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich. Michael declined to accept the throne unless the people were allowed to vote for the continuation of the monarchy or the creation of a republic. Of course, that vote never happened. Emperor Michael II, as he was legally pronounced by Nicholas II, did not abdicate but empowered the Provisional Government to rule. Michael’s “reign” did not end until his execution in 1918.

After the Russian Revolution, surviving members of the House of Romanov were in exile and settled in Europe with close or distant relatives. Because of their situation, many male Romanovs were unable to choose a spouse from European sovereign houses, and married women from noble and famous Russian families – Kurakins, Orlovs, Chavchavadze, Sheremetevs, Vorontsov-Dashkovs, Kutuzovs, Golitsyns. Regarding unequal marriages, Prince Nicholas Romanov said, “Our parents married commoners. So what? We have married commoners. Again, so what? There was nobody to ask us to renounce our rights, so we married without renouncing them, and we and our children still have rights to the throne of Russia.”

The headship of the House of Romanov has been contested since the death of the last undisputed male dynast Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia in 1992. Upon his death, competing claims over the headship of the House of Romanov emerged between Prince Nicholas Romanov and Grand Duke Vladimir’s daughter Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. Prince Nicholas’ claim was based on a 1911 Ukase issued by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia that the equal marriage rule applied only to Grand Dukes (the sons and grandsons of an emperor) and that princes (the great-grandsons onward of an emperor) could marry women of “good standing” for their marriage to be dynastic and therefore transmit succession and dynastic rights to their children, and that women, namely Maria Vladimirovna, could succeed only on the total extinction of the male line. The Romanov Family Association recognized Prince Nicholas Romanov as the senior male dynastic representative and head of the family on December 31, 1992, in Paris, France and this was symbolically re-confirmed on Russian soil after the state burial of Emperor Nicholas II and his family in 1998. The Romanov Family Association further stated that they consider the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents unequal.

Pre-revolutionary Romanov house law allowed only those born of an equal marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house to be in the line of succession to the Russian throne. The throne could only pass to a female and through the female line upon the extinction of all legitimately-born, male dynasts. Maria Vladimiovna’s mother Princess Leonida of Bagration belonged to a family that had been kings in Georgia from medieval times until the early 19th century. However, no male line ancestor of Leonida had reigned as a king in Georgia since 1505 and her branch of the Bagrations, the House of Mukhrani, had been naturalized as non-ruling nobility of Russia after Georgia was annexed to the Russian empire in 1801. There is a precedent that a marriage between the House of Romanov and the House of Bragation-Mukhrani was unequal. The House of Bragation-Mukhrani did not possess sovereign status and was not recognized as equal by Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia for the purpose of dynastic marriages at the time of the marriage of Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna of Russia and Prince Konstantine Bragation-Mukhrani in 1911, thirty-seven years before the marriage of Princess Leonida of Bragation-Mukhrani and Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. The couple married but Princess Tatiana Konstantinovna was required to renounce her rights to the Russian throne and was no longer a member of the House of Romanov because the marriage was unequal.

Prince Nicholas Romanov did not act for the restoration of the monarchy or engage in dynastic activities such as the distribution of Russian imperial titles and orders. Maria Vladimirovna claims the status of de jure Empress of All Russia, styles herself as Grand Duchess and her son George Mikhailovich as Grand Duke and Tsesarevich, the title for the heir apparent, and actively distributes Russian imperial orders, all of which have been condemned by the Romanov Family Association.

After the discovery and identification of the remains of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, his family, and the servants who were killed with the family, Maria Vladimirovna proposed the remains be divided into three groups – Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna be interred at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, the traditional Romanov burial site, the three daughters who were identified be interred at the Grand Ducal Mausoleum located on the left side of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and the servants be interred in Ekaterinburg, Russia where the murders occurred. (Note: The remains of Tsesarevich Alexei and his sister Grand Duchess Maria were discovered in 2007, and were positively identified in 2009. However, the remains of Alexei and Maria have not yet been buried. The Russian Orthodox Church has questioned whether the remains are authentic and blocked the burial.

This proposal shocked Prince Nicholas Romanov and the other members of the Romanov Family Association. Their original position was to bury all the remains together in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Prince Nicholas stated the Romanov Family Association’s position: “We Romanovs want everybody, every victim of that massacre, to be buried together, in the same place, in the same cathedral, and, I’d say, in the same tomb. You want to bury the tsar in the Peter and Paul Fortress cathedral? Good! Then bury the doctor, the maid, and the cook with them, in the tsar’s mausoleum. They have been lying together for seventy-three years. They are the only ones who never betrayed the family. They deserve to be honored at the same time, in the same place.”

Prince Nicholas Romanov led the Romanov family at the formal burial of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia, his wife Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, their daughters Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, and Anastasia, their physician Dr. Eugene Botkin, their cook Ivan Mikhailovich Kharitonov, their footman Alexei Yegorovich Trupp, and their maid Anna Stepanovna Demidova on July 17, 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths, in St. Catherine Chapel at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Because, at the time, the Russian Orthodox Church did not recognize the authenticity of the remains, Maria Vladimirovna did not attend the formal burial. However, the Russian government’s refusal to recognize her status as the official Head of the Romanov House is also given as a reason.

Prince Dmitri Romanov (left) and Prince Nicholas Romanov (second left) stand at the tomb of Empress Maria Feodorovna during a burial ceremony in the royal crypt at the Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg on September 28, 2006

Prince Nicholas and his brother Prince Dmitri lobbied Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and President Vladimir Putin of Russia to allow the transfer of the remains of Empress Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, from Denmark to Russia so she could be buried alongside her husband Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia. Nicholas and Dmitri were both present on September 28, 2006, at a service for Empress Maria Feodorovna at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral and then at the Peter and Paul Cathedral, both in St. Petersburg, where she was interred next to her husband Emperor Alexander III.

Prince Nicholas Romanov died on September 15, 2014, eleven days before his 92nd birthday, in Bolgheri, Tuscany, Italy. His funeral was held on September 17, 2014, at the Church of Saints Jacob and Christopher in Bolgheri, Tuscany, Italy. He was interred in the crypt of the Counts della Gherardesoc, the burial site of his wife’s family, at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.

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Works Cited

• Massie, Robert K. (1995) The Romanovs: The Final Chapter. New York: Random House
• Nicholas Romanov, Prince of Russia (2021) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Romanov,_Prince_of_Russia (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Prince Nicholas Romanov – Obituary (2014) The Telegraph. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11121560/Prince-Nicholas-Romanov-obituary.html (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Prince Roman Petrovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Roman_Petrovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Романов, Николай Романович (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• Романов, Роман Петрович (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9F%D0%B5%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 10 August 2023).
• The Romanov Family Association. Available at: http://www.romanovfamily.org/index.html (Accessed: 10 August 2023).