Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia

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This article is about the most recent male claimant to the Russian imperial throne. For his namesake grandfather, see Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, and for the first baptized ruler of Russians, see St Vladimir, Grand Duke of Rus.

Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia, Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov (Влад́имир Кир́иллович Ром́анов; August 30 (N.S.), 1917 - April 21, 1992) claimed to be the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias from 1938 to his death.

Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich.
He wore the Imperial Orders of St. Andrew and St. John of Jerusalem in this photograph.

He was born in 1917, at Porvoo, Finland (then part of the Russian Empire), the only son of Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich and Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna née Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

His paternal grandparents were Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna (née Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin). His maternal grandparents were Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Vladimir's family fled to Finland, later to Coburg, Germany. Eventually the exiled family moved to France where they lived for the rest of their lives. In 1930s Vladimir lived in England. Afterwards, he lived mostly in France and in Spain.

In 1924, when his father was proclaimed Emperor, he also granted Vladimir the title of Tsarevitch and Grand Duke with the style of Imperial Highness.

In 1938, his father died, making him the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia.

He married HIH Princess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhransky on August 13, 1948. Romanov house law dictates that only those children who are the product of an "equal marriage"—between a Romanov prince and a princess from another royal, not just noble, house—are eligible to be included in the Imperial line of succession; children of morganatic marriages are excluded from the succession. Though Leonida's dynasty, the Bagrationi, had been kings in Georgia since the early mediaeval period, they had lost their kingdom in the early nineteenth century and had been simply Russian nobility since then. Some controversy therefore arises as to whether Vladimir's marriage to Leonida was equal or morganatic, and therefore whether his claim to the Imperial throne passed to his daughter Maria or out of his branch of the family upon his death. The position of both Vladimir and Maria is that the marriage was equal, and Vladimir's claim passed to Maria.

For the first seventy-four years of his life, he never set foot in Russia. He visited the Soviet Union in 1991 to mark the seventy-fourth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Grand Duke Vladimir died of an apparent heart attack while addressing a gathering of Spanish-speaking bankers and investors in Miami, Florida in the United States on April 21, 1992. He was buried with full pomp and splendor in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, the first Romanov to be honored so much since the revolution. However, the press was careful to state that the honorable funeral "was regarded by civic and Russian authorities as an obligation to the Romanov family rather than a step toward restoration of the monarchy." According to a government spokesman, it was a way of "cleansing our guilt". Regardless of these statements, it was a huge morale booster for the "Vladimirs", the only branch of the family who is truly pushing for the recognition of the monarchy.

After his death, his daughter Maria was declared as Head of the Imperial Family of Russia. "The position of the Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Imperial House is acknowledged by most serious Russian Monarchist organizations and by most of those Heads of Royal Houses which continue to maintain relations with the Imperial House." according to scholar Guy Stair Sainty. ^[1] (The Romanov Family Association, which supports the claim of Maria's cousin Nicholas to be head of the House of Romanov, believes that the marriage was morganatic.)

The Grand Duke was also the titular Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, a title held by the Tsars since 1773. As Holstein-Gottorp required a male heir, there is some debate as to who succeeded Vladimir. The title is usually said to been inherited by his cousin Prince Paul Dimitrievich Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (an American who preferred to use the name Paul Ilyinski) but, as he was the product of a morganatic marriage, this is disputed. Grand Duke Vladamir appears to be the last person to have actually used the title.

[edit] Titles from birth to death

Here is a list of Grand Duke Vladimir's titles from birth to death in chronological order:

• His Highness Prince Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia
• His Imperial Highness Tsarevitch Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia
• His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia

Other titles include:

• Protector of the Union des Descendants des Commandeurs Hereditaires et Chevaliers du Grand Prieure Russe de l'Ordre de St. Jean de Jerusalem
• Wladimir Kyrillovich Romanov, his civil title in Soviet Russia during his lifetime.

[edit] Notes