Paul Ilyinsky

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Paul R. Ilyinsky (27 January 1928-10 February 2004) was a mayor of Palm Beach, Florida, and the only child of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia and his morganatic wife, Cincinnati heiress Audrey Emery. He was a great-grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia and a first cousin once removed of Nicholas II.

[edit] Life

Ilyinsky was born in 1928 at the U.S. Embassy in London.

As a direct result of his involvement in the murder of Grigory Rasputin in 1916, Grand Duke Dmitri had been sent to the Persian front, which ultimately saved his life; most of his relatives were executed by the Bolsheviks. Dmitri, who was working as Champagne salesman, married in 1926 Audrey Emery.

Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia, Dmitri's cousin and the titular Emperor in exile, elevated Grand Duke Dmitri's wife and their descendants to Russian knyaz (princely) rank (rank of nobility, not dynastical). Any children the couple would have would be known as Romanovsky-Ilyinsky, the latter half of the surname derived from Dmitri's former property in Russia, Ilinskoe.

The marriage ended in divorce in 1937, and Ilyinsky was raised by his mother who mostly lived in France. That same year, she married her second husband, Prince Dimitri Djordjadze, a member of a princely house of Georgia; they also later divorced. Dmitri Pavlovich's health had always been somewhat frail, and in the 1930s, his chronic tuberculosis became acute, leading to his death in 1942.

Ilyinsky, who was a U.S. citizen, attended Woodberry Forest School in Virginia and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, England, before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. He served with distinction as a combat photographer in the Korean war and retired a lieutenant colonel. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1953.

Ilyinsky lived in Cincinnati for about 20 years, serving on the board of the company founded by his mother's family, Emery Industries, and working as an author and photographer. In 1980, he returned to Palm Beach, Florida, where he had lived before moving to Cincinnati. He served on the Palm Beach Council for 10 years and was mayor for three terms. He resigned for health reasons in 1999. Ilyinsky was named the first Distinguished Citizen of Palm Beach for his outstanding service to the Boy Scouts of America of Palm Beach County. While in Cincinnati, he received the Silver Beaver Award - one of the Boy Scouts of America's honors for distinguished service to youth. [1]

After the Soviet Union broke apart in the early 1990s, Leningrad reverted to its original name of St. Petersburg, and a private delegation visited Ilyinsky while he served on Palm Beach City Council to ask him to return to Russia to claim the throne as tsar. Ilyinsky said, "Gentlemen, I could not be more pleased and flattered at your invitation, but I must tell you that I am entirely satisfied with my present occupation."

Ilyinsky died at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, in February 2004.[2]

[edit] Titles and heritage

Paul is regarded by some to have become a prince and duke of Schleswig and Holstein-Gottorp as his birthright (source: Theroff). As such, his style was Serene Highness, and his titles, which he never used, included Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn and Dithmarschen as well as duke and count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (source: Guy Stair Sainty, the Russian imperial succession). However, as to Holstein, German dynastic jurists agreed that German princely law (Privatfürstenrecht) continued to apply to marriages in formerly immediate families. Where a dynasty's house law or customs were silent on the equality requirement, German Princely Law was deemed to apply, and by the 19th century marriages to commoners were held to be non-dynastic for all formerly immediate German dynasties of the Holy Roman Empire.^[1][2] There is no custom among German dynasties that morganatic agnates used or were allowed to use dynastic titles, save by express grant. No such grant is known to have been conferred on the Ilyinsky branch, nor did Ilyinsky assert any public claim to dynastic titles. As for the Schleswig ducal title, it was originally granted by Denmark, which did not acknowledge the Gottorp branch's right to this title after 1721 when the Treaty of Frederiksborg, where the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp was not a signator, ratified Denmark's conquest of that duchy. Nor did Ilyinsky ever publicly claim or use the title "Duke of Schleswig", although his predecessor Nicholas II certainly did.

He held British and U.S. citizenship.

At the death of Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia in 1992, Paul Ilyinsky arguably succeeded as the Head of the House of Holstein-Gottorp (de jure Duke of Holstein-Gottorp [source: Theroff]), which in accordance with the 1604 Norrköping Succession Pact holds its rights to the Swedish throne as well as to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Finland (there reiterated for example in the 1772 Constitution and the 1809 Oaths of Fealty), inherited through his ancestress Hedvig Sophia of Sweden, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, the eldest sister of the childless Charles XII of Sweden.

Sources: Paul Theroff, Online Gotha

• Guy Stair sainty, the Russian imperial succession
• 1772 constitution (Instrument of Government of the Grand Duchy of Finland)

[edit] Issue

Paul Ilyinsky was married first, in Honolulu, Hawaii, on 29 July 1949, to Mary Evelyn Prince (born 1925); the marriage was annulled in 1951. They had no children.

From his second marriage with Angelica Philippa Kauffmann (born Paris 21 June 1932 or 23 March 1932), whom Paul married in Palm Beach, Florida on 1 October 1952, he had four children. His issue is as follows:

• Dimitri Ilyinsky, de jure Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (born Palm Beach 1 May 1954) who married New Haven, Connecticut 22 September 1979 Martha Murray McDowell (born New Haven, Connecticut 15 Jun 1952) and has three daughters:^[3]
  • Catherine Adair Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 4 August 1981)
  • Victoria Bayard Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 23 November 1984)
  • Lela McDowell Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 26 August 1986)

• Paula Maria Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach, Florida 18 May 1956), married Cincinnati, Ohio 31 May 1980 Mark Comisar (born Cincinnati, Ohio 17 June 1953), and had two children, the elder of whom survives:
  • Alexander Lee Comisar (born Cincinnati 6 April 1983)
  • Makena Anna Comisar (Cincinnati 20 Nov 1984-Clermont County, Ohio 1 August 2002)

• Anna Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach 4 September 1959); married firstly Henniker, New Hampshire 9 May 1980 (divorced 1990) Robin de Young (born Cambridge, Massachusetts 25 December 1952); married secondly Cincinnati, Ohio 18 December 1992 David Wise Glossinger (born Dayton, Ohio 11 July 1953). Has four children, two of each marriage:
  • Audrey Emery de Young (born Cincinnati 1 April 1983)
  • Heather Morrison de Young (born Cincinnati 25 October 1985)
  • Sophia Wise Glossinger (born Cincinnati 5 May 1993)
  • Paul Glossinger (born Cincinnati 19 Sep 1995)

• Michael Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach 4 Jan 1961); married firstly Cincinnati 7 November 1989 (divorced 1996) Paula Maier (born Cincinnati 1 September 1965); married secondly 21 May 1999 (divorced 2001) Lisa Marie Schiesler (born 17 May 1973). Has one daughter, born of first marriage:
  • Alexis Taylor Ilyinsky (born 1 March 1994)

[edit] References

1. ^ Heraldica.org. Misalliances. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
2. ^ Heraldica.org. Zoepfl. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
3. ^ "Martha McDowell Bride of Dmitri Ilyinsky", The New York Times, 23 September 1979, page 62