Prince Alfonso of Two-Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria

by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was located in today’s southern Italy. It included the island of Sicily and all of the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States. Ferdinando I, the first King of the Two Sicilies, had previously reigned over two kingdoms, as Ferdinando IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinando III of the Kingdom of Sicily. He had been deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon in 1805, before being restored in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon. After the 1816 restoration, the two kingdoms were united into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia became a driving force behind the Italian unification movement along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a politician and journalist. Garibaldi conquered Naples and Sicily, the territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Francesco II, King of the Two Sicilies was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, and its territory was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia. Eventually, the Sardinian troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. With all the newly acquired land, Vittorio Emanuele II was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

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Prince Alfonso of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria was one of the claimants to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and the former throne of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1960 until his death in 1964.

 

source: Wikipedia

Alfonso was born in Madrid on November 30, 1901, the eldest child of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain, and María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias. His mother was heiress-presumptive to her younger brother, King Alfonso XIII of Spain. He had two younger siblings:

Alfonso also had four half-siblings from his father’s second marriage to Princess Louise of Orléans:

Upon his mother’s death in 1904, Alfonso became heir-presumptive to the Spanish throne, although he was not given the traditional title of Prince of Asturias. This ended in 1907 when the King and his wife had their first son, also named Alfonso.

Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma. source: Wikipedia

Alfonso married Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma on April 16, 1936 at the Minoritenkirche in Vienna, Austria. Alicia was the daughter of Elia, Duke of Parma and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. The couple had three children:

  • Princess Teresa, Duchess of Salerno (1937) – married Íñigo Moreno y Arteaga, Marquess of Laserna, had issue
  • Prince Carlos, Infante of Spain, Duke of Calabria (1938) – married Princess Anne of Orléans, had issue
  • Princess Inés, Duchess of Syracuse (1940) – married Luis de Morales y Aguado, had issue

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria died in Madrid on February 3, 1964. As an Infante of Spain, his remains were placed in El Escorial, the traditional burial site of the Spanish royal family. He will eventually be interred in the Pantheon of Princes.

When Prince Ferdinando Pio died in 1960, a dispute began over the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. As he had no surviving sons, it should have passed to the descendants of his younger brother, Prince Carlo, who had died in 1949. Thus, Prince Alfonso claimed to be the rightful head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. This was challenged by another brother of Ferdinando Pio, Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro. The primary issue of the dispute is whether Carlo had renounced his rights of succession when he married the Spanish heiress-presumptive, Maria de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, in 1901. At the time, Carlo became a Spanish subject and was made an Infante of Spain. Prince Ranieri interpreted this as a renunciation of any claims to the throne of Two Sicilies, thus making him the rightful heir. However, Infante Alfonso argued that the renunciation would have only taken effect if Mercedes had ascended to the Spanish throne.

The dispute continues today, with two branches of the family claiming to be the rightful heir and Head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies:

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Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Resources at Unofficial Royalty

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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.

Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen; Credit – Von DerDeutscheFotograf – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=100232161

Andreas, the titular 8th Prince of Leiningen and the Head of the former Princely House of Leiningen is the heir to his brother Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia. 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 Monarchist Party of Russia recognizes Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen as the heir to the Russian throne and the Head of the Russian Imperial House. The claim will pass to Andreas and his descendants born of equal marriages upon the death of Karl Emich, and on the condition that they should convert to Russian Orthodoxy. There is no indication that Andreas or any of his children, who are Lutheran, have any interest in this claim.

The Principality of Leiningen was created in 1803 when properties owned by the Catholic Church were confiscated. The House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg was compensated for their possessions on the left bank of the Rhine in the Palatinate with a land from the former Electorate of Mainz, Electorate of the Palatinate and the Electorate-Bishopric of Würzburg. The combined territory was named the Principality of Leiningen. However, in 1806, the Principality of Leiningen had been mediatized – annexed to another state(s), while allowing certain rights to its former sovereign. The Principality of Leiningen ceased to exist and was divided between the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The family retained Amorbach Abbey in Amorbach, which remains the family seat of the Princes of Leiningen. Therefore, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm was the first and the only actual reigning Prince of Leiningen. Queen Victoria’s mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was first married to Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen and Queen Victoria had two half-siblings from this marriage, Karl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen was born on November 27, 1955, in Frankfurt am Main, then in West Germany, now in the German state of Hesse. He is the third of the four children and the younger of the two sons of Emich Kyrill, 7th Prince of Leiningen and Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg. Karl Emich’s paternal grandparents are Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen and Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia , a grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia. His maternal grandparents are Nikolaus, the last Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his first wife, Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the daughter of Friedrich, the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

Andreas has three siblings:

  • Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (born 1952), married (1) Princess Margarita of Hohenlohe-Öhringen, died in a car accident, had one daughter (2) morganatically Gabriele Renate Thyssen, divorced, had one daughter (3) Countess Isabelle von und zu Egloffstein, had one son
  • Princess Melita of Leiningen (born 1951), married Horst Legrum, no children
  • Princess Stephanie of Leiningen (1958 – 2017), unmarried

Andreas and his wife attending the wedding of her nephew Prince Ernst August (VI) of Hanover in 2017

On October 5, 1981, Andreas married Princess Alexandra of Hanover, the sister of Prince Ernst August (V) of Hanover, and the couple had three children:

  • Hereditary Prince Ferdinand of Leiningen (born 1982), married Princess Victoria Luise of Prussia, had two daughters
  • Princess Olga of Leiningen (born 1984)
  • Prince Hermann of Leiningen (born 1986), married Isabelle Heubach, had one son

On May 24, 1991, Andreas’ elder brother Karl Emich morganatically married Gabriele Renate Thyssen. Their parents, Emich Kyrill, 7th Prince of Leiningen and Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg refused to attend the wedding because Karl Emich broke an 1897 family law stipulating that family members must make an equal marriage. Karl Emich was formally disinherited, and when his father died on October 30, 1991, Karl Emich’s younger brother Andreas succeeded his father as the titular Prince of Leiningen.

The Monarchist Party of Russia recognizes Andreas’ elder brother Prince Karl Emich of Leinigen as the heir to the Russian throne and the Head of the Russian Imperial House. Karl Emich and Andreas are great-grandchildren of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia. Kirill declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia in 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) was declared legally dead.

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich had three children, listed below. His eldest child Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna is the grandmother of Karl Emich and Andreas.

Upon the death of his father 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. When Kirill Vladimirovich died in 1992, his only child Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna declared herself Headship of the Russian Imperial Family.

The claim of Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial Family is disputed by the Romanov Family Association made up of the majority of the male-line descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, male-line descendants of Nicholas I, never joined. In 1992, with the support of the Romanov Family Association, Prince Nicholas Romanov claimed that he was the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia.

Karl Emich and his supporters argue that the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents was in contravention of the Pauline Laws, also an argument of the Romanov Family Association. They maintain that there is a precedent that a marriage between the House of Romanov and the House of Bragation-Mukhrani, the house of Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani, Maria Vladimirovna’s mother, 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.

Karl Emich and his third wife Isabelle on the day of the conversion to Russian Orthodoxy; Credit – Авторство: Anton Bakov. Anton Bakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37446161

The Monarchist Party of Russia claims that Karl Emich is the heir of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich through his elder daughter Maria Kirillovna and her eldest son Emich Kyrill, 7th Prince of Leiningen, Karl Emich’s father. The Monarchist Party of Russia recognized Karl Emich as the heir to the Russian throne, on June 1, 2013, the day Karl Emich and his third wife Isabelle converted from Lutheranism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Karl Emich and Isabelle received the Orthodox names of Nikolai Kirillovich and Yekaterina Feodorovna.

However, because Karl Emich’s marriage to his third wife Isabelle would not have been deemed equal according to the Pauline Laws, their son Prince Emich, although considered a dynast of the House of Leiningen, cannot inherit his father’s claim to the headship of the House of Romanov. The claim will pass to his brother Andreas, Prince of Leiningen and his descendants born of equal marriages upon the death of Karl Emich, and on the condition that they should convert to Russian Orthodoxy. However, Andreas is Lutheran and Head of the House of Leiningen and there is no indication that he has any interest in this claim.

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

  • A Pauper Prince’s Palatial Quest (2000) The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/22/4 (Accessed: 25 July 2023).
  • Andreas zu Leiningen (2023) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_zu_Leiningen (Accessed: 25 July 2023).
  • Emich Kyrill, Prince of Leiningen (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emich_Kyrill,_Prince_of_Leiningen (Accessed: 25 July 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/prince-karl-emich-of-leiningen/ (Accessed: 25 July 2023).
  • Principality of Leiningen (2020) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Leiningen (Accessed: 25 July 2023).

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen; Credit – By Anton Bakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37446163

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, also known by his Russian Orthodox Russian name Nikolai Kirillovich Romanov, has been one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia since 2013. 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 Monarchist Party of Russia recognizes Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen as the heir to the Russian throne and the Head of the Russian Imperial House. Karl Emich’s claim is interesting and one that is not well known.

  • Line of Karl Emich from Alexander II: Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia → Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia → Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia → Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia → Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen  → Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen

The Principality of Leiningen was created in 1803 when properties owned by the Catholic Church were confiscated. The House of Leiningen-Dagsburg-Hardenburg was compensated for their possessions on the left bank of the Rhine in the Palatinate with a land from the former Electorate of Mainz, Electorate of the Palatinate and the Electorate-Bishopric of Würzburg. The combined territory was named the Principality of Leiningen. However, in 1806, the Principality of Leiningen had been mediatized – annexed to another state(s), while allowing certain rights to its former sovereign. The Principality of Leiningen ceased to exist and was divided between the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Kingdom of Bavaria, and the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The family retained Amorbach Abbey in Amorbach, which remains the family seat of the Princes of Leiningen. Therefore, Carl Friedrich Wilhelm was the first and the only actual reigning Prince of Leiningen. Queen Victoria’s mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was first married to Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen and Queen Victoria had two half-siblings from this marriage, Karl, 3rd Prince of Leiningen and Princess Feodora of Leiningen, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen was born on June 12, 1952, in Amorbach, then in West Germany, now in the German state of Bavaria. He is the second of the four children and the elder of the two sons of Emich Kyrill, 7th Prince of Leiningen and Duchess Eilika of Oldenburg. Karl Emich’s paternal grandparents are Karl, 6th Prince of Leiningen and Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia, the eldest daughter of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia , a grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia, and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia. His maternal grandparents are Nikolaus, the last Hereditary Grand Duke of Oldenburg and his first wife, Princess Helena of Waldeck and Pyrmont, the daughter of Friedrich, the last reigning Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont.

Karl Emich had three siblings:

  • Princess Melita of Leiningen (born 1951), married Horst Legrum, no children
  • Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen (born 1955), married Princess Alexandra of Hanover, had three children
  • Princess Stephanie of Leiningen (1958 – 2017), unmarried

On June 8, 1984, Karl Emich married Princess Margarita of Hohenlohe-Öhringen (1960 – 1989), the daughter of Kraft, 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Oehringe and Katharina von Siemens, from the family who founded Siemens AG, the German multinational technology conglomerate. Princess Margarita died in 1989 in a car accident.

Karl Emich and Margarita had one daughter:

  • Princess Cécilia of Leiningen (born 1988)

Two years after the death of his first wife, on May 24, 1991, Karl Emich morganatically married Gabriele Renate Thyssen. Karl Emich’s parents refused to attend the wedding because their son broke an 1897 family law stipulating that family members must make an equal marriage. Karl Emich was formally disinherited, and when his father died on October 30, 1991, Karl Emich’s younger brother Andreas succeeded his father as the titular Prince of Leiningen. In 1998, Karl Emich and Gabriele divorced, and later that year, Gabriele became the second wife of the second wife of Aga Khan IV, the 49th Imam of the Nizari branch of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims.

Karl Emich and Gabriele had one daughter:

  • Princess Theresa of Leiningen (born 1992)

Schloss Kunreuth; Credit – By Roland Rosenbauer – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16348059

Karl Emich married for a third time to Countess Isabelle von und zu Egloffstein in a civil ceremony on September 8, 2007, in Amorbach, Germany, and in a religious ceremony on June 7, 2008, in Pappenheim, Germany. Karl Emich and his family live in Schloss Kunreuth in Kunreuth, Bavaria, Germany, which is owned by Isabelle’s family.

Karl Emich and Isabelle have one son:

  • Prince Emich Albrecht Karl of Leiningen (born 2010)

In 1998, Karl Emich initiated a lawsuit with the House of Leiningen regarding the deprivation of his inheritance due to his second morganatic marriage. The Leiningen family owns Amorbach Abbey, the family seat, and Waldleiningen Castle(link in German) both in Germany, 37,000 acres of land in Germany, 17,300 acres of forest in Canada, 5,000 acres on a farm in Namibia, an island near Ibiza, and industrial holdings. In 2000, the German Constitutional Court ruled that his father’s will, changed three weeks before his death from cancer, is legal and that Karl Emich’s second marriage violated the Leiningen family decree of 1897, which stipulated that members of the house could only enter into equal marriages.

The Monarchist Party of Russia recognizes Prince Karl Emich of Leinigen as the heir to the Russian throne and the Head of the Russian Imperial House.

Karl Emich is a great-grandchild of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia. Kirill declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia in 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) was declared legally dead.

Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich had three children, listed below. His daughter Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna is the grandmother of Karl Emich.

Upon the death of his father 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. When Kirill Vladimirovich died in 1992, his only child Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna declared herself Head of the Russian Imperial Family.

The claim of Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial Family is disputed by the Romanov Family Association made up of the majority of the male-line descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, male-line descendants of Nicholas I, never joined. In 1992, with the support of the Romanov Family Association, Prince Nicholas Romanov claimed that he was the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia.

Karl Emich and his supporters argue that the marriage of Maria Vladimirovna’s parents was in contravention of the Pauline Laws, also an argument of the Romanov Family Association. They maintain that there is a precedent that a marriage between the House of Romanov and the House of Bragation-Mukhrani, the house of Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani, Maria Vladimirovna’s mother, 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.

Karl Emich and his third wife Isabelle on the day of the conversion to Russian Orthodoxy; Credit – Авторство: Anton Bakov. Anton Bakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37446161

The Monarchist Party of Russia claims that Karl Emich is the heir of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich through his elder daughter Maria Kirillovna and her eldest son Emich Kyrill, 7th Prince of Leiningen, Karl Emich’s father. The Monarchist Party of Russia recognized Karl Emich as the heir to the Russian throne, on June 1, 2013, the day Karl Emich and his third wife Isabelle converted from Lutheranism to Russian Orthodoxy. Karl Emich and Isabelle received the Orthodox names of Nikolai Kirillovich and Yekaterina Feodorovna.

However, because Karl Emich’s marriage to his third wife Isabelle would not have been deemed equal according to the Pauline Laws, their son Prince Emich, although considered a dynast of the House of Leiningen, cannot inherit his father’s claim to the headship of the House of Romanov. The claim will pass to his brother Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen and his descendants born of equal marriages upon the death of Karl Emich, and on the condition that they should convert to Russian Orthodoxy. However, there is no indication that Andreas is interested in this claim.

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

  • A Pauper Prince’s Palatial Quest (2000) The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jun/22/4 (Accessed: 24 July 2023).
  • Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Karl_Emich_of_Leiningen (Accessed: 24 July 2023).
  • Emich Kyrill, Prince of Leiningen (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emich_Kyrill,_Prince_of_Leiningen (Accessed: 24 July 2023).
  • Principality of Leiningen (2020) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Leiningen (Accessed: 24 July 2023).
  • Николай Кириллович Лейнинген-Романов (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B9_%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BB%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B5%D0%BD-%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2 (Accessed: 24 July 2023).

Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress; Credit – Wikipedia

The Holy Roman Empire was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, and Free Imperial Cities in central Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was not really holy since, after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the pope or a bishop. It was not Roman but rather German because it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was an empire in name only – the territories it covered were mostly independent each with its own rulers. The Holy Roman Emperor directly ruled over only his family territories, and could not issue decrees and rule autonomously over the Holy Roman Empire. A Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him, and his power was severely restricted by the many sovereigns of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century, prince-electors, or electors for short, elected the Holy Roman Emperor from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Frequently but not always, it was common practice to elect the deceased Holy Roman Emperor’s heir. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Holy Roman Emperor. However, the Holy Roman Emperor could and often did, while still alive, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death. This elected heir apparent used the title King of the Romans.

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Anna of Tyrol was the wife and first cousin of Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, Archduke of Further Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia. Anna and Matthias are the founders of the Capuchin Church (German: Kapuzinerkirche) in Vienna, Austria, where the Imperial Crypt (German: Kaisergruft), the traditional burial site of the Habsburgs, is located. Born on October 4, 1585, in Innsbruck, County of Tyrol, now in Austria, Anna was the third of the three children, all daughters, of Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria, Count of Tyrol, and his second wife and niece Anna Juliana Gonzaga. Her paternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Anna’s maternal grandparents were Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Eleonora of Austria, (daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary).

Anna Juliana Gonzaga with her daughters Anna and Maria; Credit – Wikipedia

Anna had two older sisters but only one survived infancy:

Anna had four half-siblings from her father’s morganatic first marriage to Philippine Welser. Because the marriage was morganatic, the children had no succession or inheritance rights.

Anna and her sister were raised in their father’s court in Innsbruck. In 1595, when she was ten years old, Anna’s father died. Her widowed mother ensured that her daughters received a good education. Anna had an exceptional musical talent and became an expert clavichord player. Her love of music remained with her throughout her life.

Anna’s mother, Anna Juliana Gonzaga, as a Servite nun; Credit – Wikipedia

Anna was raised in a very strict Catholic environment. As a child, her mother Anna Juliana Gonzaga became severely ill and nearly died. Her parents appealed to the Virgin Mary through prayer, to save their daughter, promising to raise Anna Juliana as a child of Mary if she lived, and soon Anna Juliana became healthy again. Her parents told her of the Virgin Mary’s intervention on her behalf and the promise they had made. Throughout the rest of her life, Anna Juliana displayed consistent and deep piety. She was reported to have visions of the Virgin Mary which influenced her long-standing desire to become a nun. Her religious piety influenced both of her daughters. Through her mother’s influence, when Anna believed that she had sinned, she engaged in self-flagellation to torment the flesh. This continued for the rest of her life. In 1606, Anna’s mother founded a convent in Innsbruck for the Servants of Mary, Religious Sisters of the Servite Third Order, of which she was to be a member, founded by St. Juliana Falconieri in the 14th century. After Anna married, her mother Anna Juliana took vows as a nun, as did Anna’s sister Maria.

Anna’s husband, Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor; Credit – Wikipedia

Upon becoming a marriageable age, Anna began to receive offers of marriage. The first proposal was made in 1603 by Sigismund III Vasa, King of Sweden (deposed), King of Poland, a widower, but her first cousin Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II would not give his consent. Rudolf, who had never married and was much older, decided to marry Anna but soon retracted the proposal. Meanwhile, there was displeasure in the Habsburg family with Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. His brother Archduke Matthias played a significant role in the family’s opposition against Rudolf. Matthias forced Rudolf to cede the crowns of Hungary, Austria, Moravia, and Bohemia to him. Rudolf lost what was left of his power and lived in isolation at Prague Castle in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic. Matthias decided to marry his first cousin Anna. On December 4, 1611, at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, Austria, the couple was married. Although Matthias was 54 years old, he hoped to have children with his 26-year-old wife but their marriage was childless.

Anna as Holy Roman Empress; Credit – Wikipedia

When Matthias’ unmarried brother Rudolf died on January 20, 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power, Matthias was elected to succeed him as Holy Roman Emperor and also succeeded to all Rudolf’s hereditary titles. Anna was crowned Holy Roman Empress on June 15, 1612, two days after Matthias’ coronation. Anna was also crowned Queen of Hungary on March 25, 1613, and Queen of Bohemia on January 10, 1616. Anna had a great influence on her husband. Upon her request, Matthias moved the Imperial court from Prague to Vienna, and soon, through their joint efforts, the new court was one of the centers of European culture.

Anna’s fervent Catholic practices continued. As a devout Catholic, she refused to interact with Protestants. Like her mother, Anna collected relics, especially from the holy ascetics. She patronized the Capuchin order and played an important role in the Austrian Counter-Reformation, the period of Catholic resurgence that began in response to the Protestant Reformation. For her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Paul V awarded Anna with the Golden Rose, a symbol of papal recognition of outstanding service to the Catholic Church.

Interior of the Capuchin Church; Credit – Wikipedia

Although Anna and her husband Matthias did not leave any children, they left the future Habsburgs a burial site. Anna and Matthias founded the Capuchin Church (German: Kapuzinerkirche) in Vienna, Austria, where the Imperial Crypt (German: Kaisergruft), the traditional burial site of the Habsburgs, is located. Anna had come up with the idea of a Capuchin monastery and burial place for her and her husband and wanted to build it near Hofburg Palace in Vienna. In her will, Anna left funds to provide for the church’s construction. Construction began on November 10, 1618.

Sadly, a month later, on December 15, 1618, Anna died in Vienna at the age of thirty-three. Matthias died three months later, on March 20, 1619, aged 62, in Vienna. Because the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church had not yet been completed, Matthias and Anna were temporarily buried at the Poor Clares Convent of St. Maria, Queen of the Angels in Vienna.

Tombs of Holy Roman Emperor Matthias and Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress; Credit – Von Welleschik Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6619836

The Capuchin Church was not completed and dedicated until 1632 because of the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648). On Easter 1633, the two sarcophagi containing the remains of Matthias and Anna were transferred to the Capuchin Church and placed in what is now called the Founders Vault. Located under the Imperial Chapel, a side chapel in the main church, the Founders Crypt is the oldest part of the Imperial Crypt, dating from the original construction of the Capuchin Church. Visitors cannot enter the Founders Crypt which is visible through a gate from the Leopold Crypt. Through the years, other vaults have been added and Capuchin friars still look after the tombs.

Capuchin Church in Vienna (Cloister on left, Church in middle, Imperial Crypt on right); Credit – © Susan Flantzer

This writer has visited the Capuchin Church. The burial place of the Habsburgs is so unlike the soaring cathedrals containing the other royal burial sites I have visited and certainly not as grandiose. The Capuchin Church is small and is on a street with traffic, shops, stores, restaurants, and cafes. One cafe is directly across from it. Walking past the church, one would never think the burial place of emperors is there.

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.

  • Anna Juliana Gonzaga (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Juliana_Gonzaga (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Anna of Tyrol (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_Tyrol (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_II,_Archduke_of_Austria (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2022) Capuchin Church in Vienna, Austria, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/capuchin-church-in-vienna-austria/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, Archduke of Further Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/matthias-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-bohemia-archduke-of-austria-archduke-of-further-austria-king-of-hungary-and-croatia/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/rudolf-ii-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-bohemia-king-of-hungary-and-croatia-archduke-of-austria-margrave-of-moravia/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Wheatcroft, Andrew. (1995) The Habsburgs. London: Viking.
  • Wilson, Peter H. (2016) Heart of Europe – A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and his wife Princess Victoria Romanova; Credit – Russian Imperial House

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, also known as Prince George of Prussia through his father, is the heir to his mother Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, a disputed pretender to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia since 1992. 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.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia was March 13, 1981, in Madrid, Spain. He is the only child of Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia. His paternal grandparents are Prince Karl Franz of Prussia (son of Prince Joachim of Prussia who was the son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia) and Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath. George’s maternal grandparents are Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani. His maternal grandfather was the son of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (a grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia) and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Alexander, Emperor II of All Russia).

George was baptized in a Russian Orthodox ceremony with former King Constantine II of Greece serving as his godfather. When it was announced that George would have the title Grand Duke of Russia, Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia, then president of the Romanov Family Association, remarked: “The Romanov Family Association hereby declares that the joyful event in the Prussian Royal House does not concern the Romanov Family Association since the newborn prince is not a member of either the Russian Imperial House or of the Romanov family.”

The claim of George’s mother Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial Family is disputed by the Romanov Family Association made up of the majority of the male-line descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, male-line descendants of Nicholas I, never joined. 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. 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.

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 has 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.

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, another pretender, and his supporters, the Monarchist Party of Russia, argue that there is a precedent for a marriage with the House of Bagration-Mukhrani being an unequal marriage. They argue that the House of Bragation-Mukhrani, the house of Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani, Maria Vladimirovna’s mother, 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. 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.

A year after George was born, his parents separated and were divorced in 1985. George spent the first years of his life in France before moving to Spain. In Spain, George and his mother lived with his maternal grandmother Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani at the home of Helen Kirby, Leonida’s daughter from her first marriage to Sumner Moore Kirby, an heir to the F. W. Woolworth Company fortune. Leonida’s marriage ended in divorce but her daughter Helen, who never married, received a substantial fortune from her father.

George was educated at Runnymede College in Madrid, Spain, which his mother also attended, d’Overbroeck’s College in Oxford, England, and finally at Saint Benet’s Hall, Oxford University in Oxford, England. He worked in the European Parliament, where he was an aide to Spanish politician Loyola de Palacio, a former European Commissioner for Transport and Energy. He was then employed at the Directorate General of the European Commission for Atomic Energy and Security in Luxembourg. From 2008 – 2014, George worked at Norilsk Nickel, a Russian nickel mining company, first as Assistant to the General Director and then as chief executive of Metal Trade Overseas, Norilsk Nickel’s main sales center in Switzerland. In 2014, George started his own company Romanoff & Partners, a Brussels-based company that advocates and provides consulting services for countries and businesses outside the European Union.

Wedding of Grand Duke George; Credit – Russian Imperial House

George married Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, Director of the Russian Imperial Foundation, born in Rome, Italy in 1982, the daughter of Italian diplomat Roberto Bettarini and Carla Virginia Cacciatore. George’s mother Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna decreed that her future daughter-in-law would have the right to use the surname Romanova after her marriage and have the title of Princess, with the style Her Serene Highness, not Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess, the corresponding female title of her husband. This style and title imply that the marriage is morganatic, and therefore an unequal marriage. George’s bride converted from Catholicism to Russian Orthodoxy before the wedding, adopting the name Victoria Romanova. The couple was married in a civil ceremony in Moscow, Russia, on September 24, 2021, followed by a religious wedding on October 1, 2021, at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, attended by around 1500 guests. It was the first Romanov wedding held in Russia since the Russian Revolution.

George with his wife and son on his son’s christening day; Credit – Russian Imperial House

George and his wife, who live in Moscow, Russia, have one son, Alexander Georgievich Romanov, born in Moscow, Russia on October 21, 2022. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna announced that her first grandchild will be styled His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Georgievich Romanov – not His Imperial Highness Grand Duke.

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

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duchess-maria-vladimirovna-of-russia/ (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
  • Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_George_Mikhailovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
  • Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Vladimirovna_of_Russia (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
  • Романов, Георгий Михайлович (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%93%D0%B5%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
  • Russian Imperial House (2023) Российский Императорский Дом. Available at: http://imperialhouse.ru/en/ (Accessed: 23 July 2023).

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia; Credit – By orthodoxspain – https://www.flickr.com/photos/20692220@N05/4725526648/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=126868066

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia has been one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia since 1992. The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements about whether marriages in the Romanov family were equal marriages – a marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house.

In 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) was declared legally dead, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia and Maria Vladimirovna’s grandfather, declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia. Upon the death of his father Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1938, his son (and Maria Vladimirovna’s father) 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. Unlike his father, Vladimir Kirillovich did not proclaim himself Emperor of All Russia. Instead, he used the style and title His Imperial Highness The Sovereign Grand Duke for the rest of his life.

Maria Vladimirovna’s parents visiting Russia in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union

Born on December 23, 1953, in Madrid, Spain, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia is the only child of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani. Her paternal grandparents are Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (a grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia) and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Alexander, Emperor II of All Russia). Maria Vladimirovna’s maternal grandparents are Prince George Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhrani, a Georgian nobleman, and Elena Sigismundovna Zlotnitskaya, the daughter of a Russian nobleman of Polish origin.

Maria Vladinmrovna has a half-sister from her mother’s first marriage to Sumner Moore Kirby, an heir to the F. W. Woolworth Company fortune. The marriage ended in divorce.

  • Helen Louise Kirby (born 1935), unmarried

Maria Vladimirovna with her dog in 1971

Maria Vladimirovna attended Runnymede College in Madrid, Spain, a co-ed private school for children from the age of two to eighteen. The school follows the National Curriculum for England. She is fluent in Russian, English, French, and Spanish, and speaks some German, Italian, and Arabic.

On December 23, 1969, upon reaching her dynastic majority, Maria Vladimirovna swore an oath of loyalty to her father, to Russia, and to uphold the Fundamental Laws of Russia which governed succession to the defunct throne. At the same time, her father issued a controversial decree declaring that Maria Vladimirovna was born from an equal marriage and was his heiress presumptive.

Maria Vladimirovna and Franz Wilhelm on their wedding day; Credit – www.russianlegitimist.org

On September 22, 1976, at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica in Madrid, Spain, Maria Vladimirovna married third cousin once removed Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia. Franz Wilhelm is the son of Prince Karl Franz of Prussia (the son of Prince Joachim of Prussia who was the son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia) and Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath. Franz Wilhelm converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and was created a Grand Duke of Russia with the name Mikhail Pavlovich by his father-in-law Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. A year after their son was born, Maria Vladimirovna and her husband separated and were divorced in 1985. After the divorce, Franz Wilhelm reverted to his birth name.

Maria Vladimirovna and Franz Wilhelm had one son, also known as Prince George of Prussia through his father:

On April 21, 1992, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich died from a heart attack at the age of 74 while addressing a gathering of Spanish-speaking bankers and investors at Northern Trust Bank in Miami, Florida. Vladimir was buried in the Grand Ducal Mausoleum at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, the first Romanov to be buried in Russia since the Russian Revolution. At that time, it was noted in the Russian press, that the funeral “was regarded by civic and Russian authorities as an obligation to the Romanov family rather than a step toward restoration of the monarchy.”

Maria Vladimirovna’s claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family is based on a claim that all male lines of the Romanov family are either extinct, illegitimate, or morganatic, triggering semi-salic succession, in which the throne could only pass to a female and through  the female line upon the extinction of all legitimately-born, male dynasts. The claim of Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial Family is disputed by the Romanov Family Association made up of the majority of the male-line descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, male-line descendants of Nicholas I, never joined. 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.

Upon the death of the last undisputed male dynast Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, 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 has 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.

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen, another pretender, and his supporters, the Monarchist Party of Russia, argue that there is a precedent for a marriage with the House of Bagration-Mukhrani being an unequal marriage. They argue that the House of Bragation-Mukhrani, the house of Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani, Maria Vladimirovna’s mother, 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. 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.

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 where they had been murdered. 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.”

Because, at the time, the Russian Orthodox Church did not officially recognize the authenticity of the remains, Maria Vladimirovna did not attend 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. Botkin and their three loyal servants on July 17, 1998, the 80th anniversary of their deaths, in St. Catherine Chapel at the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. However, the Russian government’s refusal to recognize her status as the official Head of the Romanov House is also given as a reason. Maria Vladimirovna was 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 Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia.

Maria Vladimirovna seems to be more accepted by European royalty and she is sometimes invited to royal events. She attended the 2023 funeral of former King Constantine II of Greece, who was her third cousin and the godfather of her son.

Maria Vladimirovna (in the middle) attending the funeral of her third cousin King Constantine II of Greece

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

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duke-vladimir-kirillovich-of-russia/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2012) Romanovs Who Survived the Russian Revolution, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/former-monarchies/the-romanovs/romanov-survivors/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Gilbert, Paul. (2022) Maria Vladimirovna takes the ‘which ever way the wind blows’ approach to the Ekaterinburg remains, Nicholas II. Available at: https://tsarnicholas.org/2022/01/26/maria-vladimirovna-takes-the-which-ever-way-the-wind-blows-approach-to-the-ekaterinburg-remains/ (Accessed: 28 July 2023).
  • Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Vladimirovna_of_Russia (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Vladimir_Kirillovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Leonard, Seth. (2019) In profile: The Swiss-born American Heiress (and Romanov step-daughter) who forged her own path, Eurohistory. Available at: https://eurohistoryjournal.blogspot.com/2019/09/in-profile-swiss-born-american-heiress.html (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonida_Bagration_of_Mukhrani (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Mehl, Scott. (2015) Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duke-kirill-vladimirovich-of-russia/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
  • Perry, John Curtis and Pleshakov, Constantine. (2001) The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga. New York: Basic Books.

Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Duchess of Burgundy, wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petite Dauphin

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Marie Adélaïde of Savoy, Duchess of Burgundy; Credit – Wikipedia

Marie Adélaïde of Savoy was the wife of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petite Dauphin and the mother of Louis XV, King of France. Born on December 6, 1685, at the Royal Palace of Turin, in the Duchy of Savoy, now in Italy, Marie Adélaïde was the eldest of the six children and the eldest of the three daughters of Vittorio Amadeo II, Duke of Savoy (later King of Sardinia) and Anne Marie of Orléans, a niece of King Louis XIV of France. Her paternal grandparents were Carlo Emanuele II, Duke of Savoy and Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours. Marie Adélaïde’s maternal grandparents were Philippe, Duke of Orléans (only sibling of King Louis XIV of France) and his first wife Henrietta of England, (the daughter of King Charles I of England and Henrietta Maria of France, daughter of King Henri IV of France).

Marie Adélaïde had five siblings but only two survived childhood:

Marie Adélaïde during her early years in France; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1696, when Marie Adélaïde was eleven-year-old, she was betrothed to fourteen-year-old Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin, the eldest of the three sons of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin of France and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria. At the time of his birth, Louis’ grandfather Louis XIV was King of France and his father was the heir apparent to the French throne. After Louis’ birth, his father was called Le Grand Dauphin and his son Louis, who was second in the line of succession, was called Le Petit Dauphin. However, King Louis XIV outlived both his son and his grandson and was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson King Louis XV when he died in 1715.

Marie Adélaïde’s husband Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin, 1700; Credit – Wikipedia

The betrothal was the result of the Treaty of Turin in which Marie Adélaïde’s father agreed to support France in the Nine Years’ War. The treaty also stipulated that eleven-year-old Marie Adélaïde be sent to France to prepare her for her future role. She arrived in France on November 4, 1696, and was welcomed by King Louis XIV who had traveled to Montargis, France to greet her. Because of her young age, the marriage was delayed and Marie Adélaïde attended the Maison royale de Saint-Louis in Saint-Cyr, just west of Versailles, France,  the girls’ school Françoise d’Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon, the former mistress and morganatic second wife of Louis XIV, had founded in 1684 in Saint-Cyr, in the vicinity of Versailles.

Wedding of Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin and Marie-Adélaïde; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 6, 1697, on her twelfth birthday, Marie Adelaïde was formally married to Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petite Dauphin at the Chapel Royal of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. She wore a silver dress strewn with rubies and had an eight-meter-long train. The consummation of the marriage was delayed because of the age of the bride. It would be seven years before Marie Adélaïde and her husband had their first child, a short-lived son.

Marie Adelaïde with her youngest son, the future King Louis XV of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Louis and Marie Adélaïde had three sons but only one survived childhood:

Marie Adélaïde, described as “a breath of fresh air”, became the favorite of King Louis XIV and his morganatic second wife Madame de Maintenon. Because Madame de Maintenon’s marriage to the king was morganatic and Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, the wife of Louis of France, Le Grand Dauphin had died in 1690, the young Maria Adélaïde held the highest female position at court and was given the queen’s apartments at the Palace of Versailles. She attended numerous balls, hunts, games, and banquets, charming the court. Marie Adélaïde often took part in political deliberations and was privy to many important state secrets and decisions. After her death, when King Louis XIV looked through her letters, it became apparent Marie Adélaïde misused this information by telling her father any information that would be of interest to him. Louis XIV is said to have told Madame de Maintenon that the “little woman” had deceived him.

In the spring of 1711, King Louis XIV’s only surviving legitimate child Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, Marie Adélaïde’s father-in-law, caught smallpox, apparently from a priest who was distributing Holy Communion after he had visited a smallpox victim, and died on April 14, 1711, at the age of 49. His son Louis, Marie Adélaïde’s husband, who had been styled Le Petit Dauphin, became the heir to the French throne but in less than a year, he and Marie Adélaïde would be dead.

Basilica of St. Denis; By Thomas Clouet – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42109690

On February 12, 1712, at the Palace of Versailles, 26-year-old wife Marie Adélaïde died from measles. Her husband Louis dearly loved his wife and stayed by her side throughout her illness. He caught the disease and died six days after her death, on February 18, 1712, aged 29, at the Château de Marly in France. The couple was buried together at the Basilica of St. Denis, the traditional burial site of the Kings of France and the French royal family.

Marie Adélaïde and Louis’ five-year-old elder son, the Duke of Brittany, succeeded as Dauphin but he also developed measles. He died three weeks later on March 8, 1712, apparently from being bled to death by the doctors. His younger brother, the future King Louis XV, also developed measles but he survived because of his governess Charlotte de La Motte Houdancourt, Duchess of Ventadour. Deciding that she would not allow her younger charge to be bled by the doctors, Madame de Ventadour locked herself up with three nursery maids and refused to allow the doctors near the boy. The two-year-old survived and became King of France upon the death of his great-grandfather, King Louis XIV, three years later.

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

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Louis of France, Le Grand Dauphin, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/louis-le-grand-dauphin/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Le Petit Dauphin, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/louis-duke-of-burgundy-le-petit-dauphin/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2021) Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/vittorio-amedeo-ii-king-of-sardinia/ (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Fraser, Antonia. (2006). Love and Louis XIV. New York: Nan A. Talese Doubleday
  • Marie-Adélaïde de Savoie (2023) Wikipedia (French). Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Ad%C3%A9la%C3%AFde_de_Savoie (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Marie Adélaïde of Savoy (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Ad%C3%A9la%C3%AFde_of_Savoy (Accessed: 12 June 2023).

Prince Ferdinando Pio of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria

by Scott Mehl
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was located in today’s southern Italy. It included the island of Sicily and all of the Italian peninsula south of the Papal States. Ferdinando I, the first King of the Two Sicilies, had previously reigned over two kingdoms, as Ferdinando IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinando III of the Kingdom of Sicily. He had been deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon in 1805, before being restored in 1816 after the defeat of Napoleon. After the 1816 restoration, the two kingdoms were united into the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia became a driving force behind the Italian unification movement along with Giuseppe Garibaldi, a general and nationalist, and Giuseppe Mazzini, a politician and journalist. Garibaldi conquered Naples and Sicily, the territories of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. Francesco II, King of the Two Sicilies was deposed, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, and its territory was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sardinia. Eventually, the Sardinian troops occupied the central territories of the Italian peninsula, except Rome and part of Papal States. With all the newly acquired land, Vittorio Emanuele II was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

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Prince Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Calabria was Head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and pretender to the former throne from 1934 until he died in 1960. His death brought about a dispute between two branches of his extended family, both claiming to be the rightful heir and thus head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Prince Ferdinando Pio of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria source: Wikipedia

Prince Ferdinando Pio Maria, was born in Rome on July 25, 1869, the eldest child of Prince Alfonso of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta and Princess Maria Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He had 11 younger siblings:

Princess Maria Ludwiga of Bavaria. source: Wikipedia

On May 31, 1897 in Munich, Ferdinando Pio married Princess Maria Ludwiga Theresia of Bavaria. She was a daughter of King Ludwig III of Bavaria and Maria Theresia of Austria-Este. The couple settled in Munich, and had six children:

  • Princess Maria Antonietta (1898) – unmarried
  • Princess Maria Christina (1899) – married Dr. Don Manuel Sotomayor y Luna, no issue
  • Prince Ruggero, Duke of Noto (1901) – died in childhood
  • Princess Barbara (1902) – married Count Franz Xavier of Stolberg-Wernigerode, had issue
  • Princess Lucia (1908) – married Eugenio di Savoia-Genova, Duke of Genova, had issue
  • Princess Urraca (1913) – unmarried

After the Bavarian Monarchy was abolished in 1918, Ferdinando Pio and his family settled at Villa Amsee in Lindau, where he would live the remainder of his life.  Upon his father’s death in May 1934, Ferdinando Pio became pretender to the former throne and Head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. At this time, he took the title Duke of Calabria, the traditional title of the Head of the House.

grave of Ferdinando Pio and his wife. photo: By Flo Sorg – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26567819

The Duke of Calabria died at Villa Amsee on January 7, 1960. He was buried at the Filialkirche St. Peter und Paul in Rieden, Swabia, Germany.

His death brought about the current dispute over the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. As he had no surviving sons, it should have passed to the descendants of his younger brother, Prince Carlo, who had died in 1949. Carlo’s son, Infante Alfonso of Spain, claimed to be the rightful heir. The second claimant was Ferdinando Pio’s younger brother, Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro. The primary issue of the dispute is whether Carlo had renounced his rights of succession when he married the Spanish heiress-presumptive, Maria de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, in 1901. At the time, Carlo became a Spanish and was made an Infante of Spain. Prince Ranieri interpreted this as a renunciation of any claims to the throne of Two Sicilies, thus making him the rightful heir. However, Infante Alfonso argued that the renunciation would have only taken effect if Mercedes had ascended to the Spanish throne.

The dispute continues today, with two branches of the family claiming to be the rightful heir and Head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies:

  • The Senior Line (Calabrian) – descended from Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria
  • The Junior Line (Castrian) – descended from Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro

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Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Resources at Unofficial Royalty

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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.

Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, Archduke of Further Austria, King of Hungary and Croatia

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Holy Roman Emperor Matthias; Credit – Wikipedia

The Holy Roman Empire was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, and Free Imperial Cities in central Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was not really holy since, after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the pope or a bishop. It was not Roman but rather German because it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was an empire in name only – the territories it covered were mostly independent each with its own rulers. The Holy Roman Emperor directly ruled over only his family territories, and could not issue decrees and rule autonomously over the Holy Roman Empire. A Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him, and his power was severely restricted by the many sovereigns of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century, prince-electors, or electors for short, elected the Holy Roman Emperor from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Frequently but not always, it was common practice to elect the deceased Holy Roman Emperor’s heir. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Holy Roman Emperor. However, the Holy Roman Emperor could and often did, while still alive, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death. This elected heir apparent used the title King of the Romans.

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Matthias and his wife Anna of Tyrol are the founders of the Capuchin Church (German: Kapuzinerkirche) in Vienna, Austria, where the Imperial Crypt (German: Kaisergruft), the traditional burial site of the Habsburgs, is located. Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (reigned 1612 – 1619) was also King of Bohemia (reigned 1611 – 1617), Archduke of Austria (reigned 1608 – 1619), Archduke of Further Austria, (1608 – 1619), King of Hungary and Croatia (reigned 1608 – 1618). Born on February 24, 1557, in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Matthias was the seventh of the sixteen children and the fourth but the third surviving son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia, Archduke of Austria and his first cousin Maria, Infanta of Spain, Archduchess of Austria. Rudolf’s paternal grandparents were Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. His maternal grandparents were Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (also Carlos I, King of Spain; Karl I, Archduke of Austria; Charles II, Lord of the Netherlands, Duke of Burgundy, among many other titles) and Isabella of Portugal.

Matthias’ parents with his three eldest surviving siblings Anna, Rudolf, and Ernst; Credit – Wikipedia

Matthias had fourteen siblings:

Matthias, age 22, as Archduke in armor holding a general’s staff; Credit – Wikipedia

Very little is known about Matthias’ childhood. One of his teachers was Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq, a Flemish writer, herbalist, and diplomat in the employ of three generations of Holy Roman Emperors. In 1572, Matthias’ father Maximilian II passed the crown of Hungary to his eldest son Rudolf, and in 1575, Rudolf was also granted the crown of Bohemia and the Habsburg hereditary territories. Rudolf was elected King of the Romans in 1575, ensuring that he would succeed his father as Holy Roman Emperor. Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor died, aged forty-nine, in the Imperial City of Regensburg, now in the German state of Bavaria, on October 12, 1576. Matthias’ brother Rudolf was considered an ineffective ruler. Rudolf’s conflict with the Islamic Ottoman Empire was his undoing. He was unwilling to compromise with the Ottomans and was determined to unify all of Christendom with a new crusade, so he started a long and indecisive war against the Ottomans, the Long Turkish War (1593 – 1606).

Rudolf’s Hungarian subjects were tired of the Long Turkish War and revolted in 1604. In 1605, Habsburg family members forced Rudolf to give control of Hungary to his brother Archduke Matthias. By 1606, Matthias had negotiated peace with the Hungarian rebels (1606 Treaty of Vienna) and the Ottomans (1606 Peace of Zsitvatorok). However, Rudolf was angry with Matthias’s concessions and his hold on power and he prepared to start a new war against the Ottoman Empire. With support from the Hungarians, Matthias forced Rudolf to cede the crowns of Hungary, Austria, and Moravia to him. Meanwhile, the Bohemian Protestants demanded greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. However, when the Bohemian Protestants asked for further freedom, Rudolf used his army against them. The Bohemian Protestants then appealed to Matthias for help. Matthias’ army held Rudolf prisoner at his usual residence, Prague Castle in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, until 1611 when Rudolf ceded the crown of Bohemia to Matthias. Rudolf lost what was left of his power and lived in isolation at Prague Castle in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic.

Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 4, 1611, at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, Austria, Matthias married his first cousin Anna of Tyrol, daughter of his paternal uncle Ferdinand II, Archduke of Further Austria and his second wife and niece Anna Caterina Gonzaga. Although Matthias was 54 years old, he hoped to have children with his 26-year-old wife but their marriage was childless.

Matthias as Holy Roman Emperor; Credit – Wikipedia

When Matthias’ unmarried brother Rudolf died on January 20, 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, Matthias was elected to succeed him as Holy Roman Emperor and also succeeded to all Rudolf’s hereditary titles. During Matthias’ reign, the court and the government offices moved from Prague to Vienna. Matthias had allegedly found a spring in the area of today’s magnificent Schönbrunn Palace, outside of Vienna, which became the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers. It is said that the name of the area and the palace came from Matthias’ remark: “Look, what a beautiful spring!” (beautiful: schön, spring: Brunn[en]).

During his seven-year reign, Matthias was seriously ill with gout and preferred the distractions of court life to the boring affairs of state. Cardinal Melchior Klesl, Matthias’ chief minister and favorite determined the policies. Klesl wanted to arrange a compromise between Catholic and Protestant states within the Holy Roman Empire to strengthen the empire. These policies were opposed by the more conservative Catholic Habsburgs, especially Matthias’s brother Archduke Maximilian, who hoped to secure the succession for their ardent Catholic cousin Archduke Ferdinand, who later became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II.

Concerned with their religious freedom, the Protestant Bohemians opposed all Catholic officials appointed by Matthias. This led to the 1618 Defenestration of Prague, a Bohemian Protestant revolt, and one of the three incidents in the history of Bohemia in which people were defenestrated – thrown out of a window. The 1618 Defenestration of Prague led to the Thirty Years’ War (1618 – 1648), one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, with an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians dying as a result of battle, famine, and disease.

Matthias was old, ill, and unable to prevent the faction of his brother Archduke Maximilian from gaining power. He died on March 20, 1619, aged 62, in Vienna, Austria. His wife Anna had died just three months before, on December 15, 1618, aged 33. Archduke Ferdinand had already been crowned King of Bohemia in 1617 and King of Hungary in 1618. He was elected Holy Roman Emperor on August 28, 1619.

Interior of the Capuchin Church; Credit – Wikipedia

Although Matthias and his wife Anna did not leave any children, they left the future Habsburgs a burial site. Matthias and Anna founded the Capuchin Church (German: Kapuzinerkirche) in Vienna, Austria, where the Imperial Crypt (German: Kaisergruft), the traditional burial site of the Habsburgs, is located. Anna had come up with the idea of a Capuchin monastery and burial place for her and her husband and wanted to build it near Hofburg Palace in Vienna. In her will, Anna left funds to provide for the church’s construction. Construction began on November 10, 1618, but sadly, Anna died a month later and Matthias died three months after Anna. Because the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church had not yet been completed, Matthias and Anna were temporarily buried at the Poor Clares Convent of St. Maria, Queen of the Angels in Vienna.

Tombs of Holy Roman Emperor Matthias and Anna of Tyrol, Holy Roman Empress; Credit – Von Welleschik Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6619836

The Capuchin Church was not completed and dedicated until 1632 because of the Thirty Years’ War. On Easter 1633, the two sarcophagi containing the remains of Matthias and Anna were transferred to the Capuchin Church and placed in what is now called the Founders Vault. Located under the Imperial Chapel, a side chapel in the main church, the Founders Crypt is the oldest part of the Imperial Crypt, dating from the original construction of the Capuchin Church. The Founders Crypt cannot be entered by visitors and is visible through a gate from the Leopold Crypt. Through the years, other vaults have been added and Capuchin friars still look after the tombs.

Capuchin Church in Vienna (Cloister on left, Church in middle, Imperial Crypt on right); Credit – © Susan Flantzer

This writer has visited the Capuchin Church. The burial place of the Habsburgs is so unlike the soaring cathedrals containing the other royal burial sites I have visited and certainly not as grandiose. The Capuchin Church is small and is on a street with traffic, shops, stores, restaurants, and cafes. One cafe is directly across from it. Walking past the church, one would never think the burial place of emperors is there.

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

  • Anna of Tyrol (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_of_Tyrol (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2022) Capuchin Church in Vienna, Austria, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/capuchin-church-in-vienna-austria/ (Accessed: 02 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and Croatia, Archduke of Austria, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/maximilian-ii-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-bohemia-king-of-hungary-and-croatia-archduke-of-austria/ (Accessed: 02 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/rudolf-ii-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-bohemia-king-of-hungary-and-croatia-archduke-of-austria-margrave-of-moravia/ (Accessed: 02 June 2023).
  • Matthias (HRR) (2023) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_(HRR) (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias,_Holy_Roman_Emperor (Accessed: 12 June 2023).
  • Wheatcroft, Andrew. (1995) The Habsburgs. London: Viking.
  • Wilson, Peter H. (2016) Heart of Europe – A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria, Dauphine of France

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Maria Anna Victoria, Dauphine of France; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria was the wife of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin, the son of King Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, Louis was styled Dauphin of France and was called Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his son Louis who was called Le Petit Dauphin. Maria Anna Victoria was known as La Grande Dauphine. However, King Louis XIV outlived both his son and his grandson and when he died in 1715, Louis XIV was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson King Louis XV of France.

Maria Anna Victoria’s parents Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Christine Victoria was born on November 28, 1660, in Munich, Electorate of Bavaria, later the Kingdom of Bavaria, now in the German state of Bavaria. She was the eldest of the seven children and the eldest of the three daughters of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria and Henriette Adelaide of Savoy. Maria Anna Victoria’s paternal grandparents were Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria and his second wife Maria Anna of Austria. Her maternal grandparents were Vittorio Amedeo I, Duke of Savoy and Christine Marie of France.

Maria Anna Victoria with her brother Maximilian Emanuel; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Victoria had six siblings but only three survived childhood:

In 1668, eight-year-old Maria Anna Victoria was betrothed to her second cousin seven-year-old Louis, Dauphin of France, the only child of King Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain to survive childhood. There was a family connection. Christine Marie of France, Maria Anna Victoria’s maternal grandmother was the sister of King Louis XIII of France, the paternal grandfather of Louis, Dauphin of France. That made Maria Anna Victoria’s mother Henriette Adelaide of Savoy and Louis’s father King Louis XIV of France first cousins.

Maria Anna Victoria in 1679 being handed the crown of the Dauphine of France by an angel signifying her coming marriage to the heir to the French throne the next year; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Victoria was carefully educated for her future role and looked forward to being the Dauphine of France. Besides her native language of German, she was taught to speak French, Italian, and Latin. Maria Anna Victoria’s mother oversaw her daughter’s artistic and musical education, and Maria Anna Victoria wrote poetry, painted, sang, and played the harpsichord.

Maria Anna Victoria meeting her father-in-law King Louis XIV for the first time in March 1680, presumably, the groom is standing on the right; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Victoria and Louis, Dauphin of France were married in a proxy ceremony in Munich in the Electorate of Bavaria on January 28, 1680. The couple first met on March 7, 1680, the day of their religious wedding at Saint Etienne Cathedral in Châlons-sur-Marne, France. Maria Anna Victoria was the first Dauphine of France since Mary, Queen of Scots married the future King François II of France in 1558.

Louis and Maria Anna Victoria with their three sons: Louis on the right, Philippe in front, and Charles on his mother’s lap; Credit – Wikipedia

Maria Anna Victoria and Louis had three sons:

After her marriage, Maria Anna Victoria took on the rank of her husband as a Fille de France (Daughter of France) and was entitled to the style Royal Highness and the title Madame la Dauphine. As the wife of the heir to the throne, she was the second most important woman at the French court after her mother-in-law Maria Theresa of Spain. Three years later, Maria Theresa died and Maria Anna Victoria then held the highest female position at court and was given the late queen’s apartments at the Palace of Versailles. King Louis XIV expected her to perform the duties of his late wife but Maria Anna Victoria’s ill health made it very difficult for her to perform these duties. King Louis XIV was completely unsympathetic to his daughter-in-law’s situation and, as it would turn out, falsely accused her of hypochondria.

The French court prized beauty and Maria Anna Victoria suffered from depression because she considered herself ugly, as did others at the French court, which contributed to her depression. Her husband had mistresses and illegitimate children, and so she began to lead a secluded life, spending time in her apartments. There Maria Anna Victoria spoke German, which her husband could not understand, with her friend, confidant, and Première femme de Chambre (First Chamber Maid, an office at the French court) Barbara Bessola. Maria Anna Victoria was friendly with Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, Duchess of Orléans, known as Liselotte, the second wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, King Louis XIV’s only sibling. German was also Liselotte’s first language, and she also never felt comfortable at the French court which was governed by rigorous etiquette and where all sorts of intrigues flourished.

The catafalque of Maria Anna Victoria for her funeral at the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris; Credit – Wikipedia

The births of her three sons and at least six miscarriages had caused Maria Anna Victoria’s health to deteriorate. Her third son’s birth was particularly difficult, and on her deathbed, Maria Anna Victoria was convinced that her last childbirth had killed her. Maria Anna Victoria, aged twenty-nine, died on April 20, 1690, at the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. She was buried at the traditional burial site of the French royal family, the Basilica of St. Denis in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, France. An autopsy revealed several internal disorders that completely vindicated her complaints of chronic and severe illness. It is also probable that Maria Anna Victoria had tuberculosis.

In 1694, Maria Anna Victoria’s widower Louis, Le Grand Dauphin secretly married his mistress Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin, a lady-in-waiting at the French court. The marriage was not officially recognized and Marie Émilie did not participate in court life. On April 14, 1711, Louis, Le Grand Dauphin of France died from smallpox at the age of forty-nine. His eldest son Louis, Le Petit Dauphin, became the heir to the French throne but in less than a year, he too was dead from measles at the age of twenty-nine. Three years later, the five-year-old son of Louis, Le Petit Dauphin became King Louis XV of France upon the death of his great-grandfather King Louis XIV three years later.

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

  • Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Maria,_Elector_of_Bavaria (Accessed: 04 June 2023).
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2019) Louis of France, Le Grand Dauphin, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/louis-le-grand-dauphin/ (Accessed: 04 June 2023).
  • Fraser, Antonia. (2006). Love and Louis XIV. New York: Nan A. Talese Doubleday.
  • Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Victoria_of_Bavaria (Accessed: 04 June 2023).
  • Maria Anna Victoria von Bayern (2023) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Victoria_von_Bayern (Accessed: 04 June 2023).
  • Marie-Anne de Bavière (1660-1690) (2023) Wikipedia (French). Available at: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Anne_de_Bavi%C3%A8re_(1660-1690) (Accessed: 04 June 2023).