HOW DOES THE DYNASTY’S 1938 DECLARATION AFFECT ANDREW, OLGA, AND ROSTISLAV ROMANOFF?
Last week, a social media site described Andrew Romanoff (born in 1923) as Head of the Russian Imperial House and also referred to his half-sister Olga Romanoff (born in 1950) and his cousin Rostislav Romanoff (born in 1985) as members of the Imperial House.
These three individuals do indeed descend in the direct male line from members of the Imperial House, but they are not themselves members of the imperial dynasty.
Perhaps the simplest way to explain why this is so is to cite the declaration issued in 1938 with the permission of Grand Duke Vladimir, who had just succeeded as Head of the Imperial House. It was signed by the five dynasts who came directly after Grand Duke Vladimir in the line of succession: Grand Duke Boris (first in the line of succession after Grand Duke Vladimir), Grand Duke Andrew (second in line), Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (third in line), Prince of the Imperial Blood Vsevelod Ioannovich (fourth in line), and Prince of the Imperial Blood Gavriel Constantinovich (fifth in line).
The 1938 declaration had two purposes.
The first purpose was to announce to the world that, following the death of Grand Duke Kirill, his only son Grand Duke Vladimir had succeeded as Head of the Imperial House.
The second purpose was to clarify tactfully to the world that the many morganatic children born in the 20th century to various Grand Dukes and Princes of the Imperial Blood were not members of the Imperial House and were not in the line of succession. How did the declaration accomplish this? It did so by listing in their order of succession all the living males who were members of the Imperial House. By omitting from this list the name of every single morganatic male child, the declaration made its point clearly.[1]
The reason these morganatic children were all excluded from membership of the Imperial House was because the laws of the dynasty required a dynast to marry a member of a sovereign or formerly sovereign dynasty in order to transmit membership of the Imperial House to the children. The marriage of a dynast to a member of a sovereign dynasty was called an equal marriage or a dynastic marriage. An example is the first marriage of Grand Duke Paul, brother of Emperor Alexander III, to Princess Alexandra of Greece. Their son, Dmitri, became at birth a Grand Duke of Russia and a member of the Imperial House. The marriage of a dynast to a spouse who was not a member of a sovereign house was called a non-dynastic, unequal or morganatic marriage. An example is the second marriage of the same Grand Duke Paul to a non-royal spouse. Their son, Vladimir Pavlovich, was not a member of the Imperial House - he received the surname of Paley and the noble, non-royal title of Prince Paley.
Because morganatic spouses and children were not members of the Imperial House and inherited none of the titles of the Imperial House, some dynasts in exile asked the Head of the Imperial House to create morganatic titles for these wives and children. For example, His Highness Prince of the Imperial Blood Dmitri Alexandrovich of Russia, son of Grand Duke Alexander and Grand Duchess Xenia of Russia, married in 1931 Countess Marina Golenitschev-Kutuzov. The groom requested a morganatic title for his wife from the Head of the Imperial House, Grand Duke Kirill, who created her Princess Romanovsky-Kutuzov. This was a noble, non-royal title. Grand Duke Kirill chose the name “Romanovsky” to indicate a kinship to the Romanoff dynasty.
The only members of the Imperial House who contracted equal marriages after the Revolution were the three children of Grand Duke Kirill, Head of the Imperial House from 1918 to 1938, and his granddaughter, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna. The children of Grand Duke Kirill were Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna, who married Prince Karl of Leiningen, Head of the House of Leiningen; Grand Duchess Kira, who married Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, later Head of the Royal House of Prussia; and Grand Duke Vladimir, Head of the Russian Imperial House from 1938 to 1992, who married Princess Leonida Bagration, daughter of the Head of the Georgian Royal House of Bagration. Kirill’s granddaughter Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna married Prince Franz-Wilhelm of Prussia.
Here is the text of the 11/24 October 1938 declaration:
“We, members of the Imperial House of Russia, having assembled after the death of the Head of our House, the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, consider it our most sacred duty solemnly to declare that the rights of each of the members of the Imperial House of Russia are exactly determined by the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial Family, that they are known perfectly to all, and that we must observe them religiously, by virtue of a special oath, which is why the question of the order of succession to the throne has never caused the slightest doubt among us and still less a disagreement of any kind. We reject any departure from the order provided by the law, because that would be an offense against the intangibility of our laws and of our family traditions.
By virtue of the laws indicated above, we recognize that the succession to the throne belongs by right, in order of primogeniture, to the senior member of the Imperial House of Russia, the Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, which he assumed by inheritance after the death of his father on 29 September/12 October 1938, with a profound awareness of the sacred duty which devolves upon him according to law as Head of the Imperial House of Russia, bestowing upon him all the rights and duties belonging to him by virtue of the Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire and the Statute of the Imperial Family.
The members of the Imperial House of Russia appear as follows by primogeniture in the order of succession: Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich, Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovich, Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, Prince Vsevolod Ioannovich, Prince Gavriel Constantinovich, Prince George Constantinovich, Prince Roman Petrovich, Prince Andrew Alexandrovich, Prince Feodor Alexandrovich, Prince Nikita Alexandrovich, Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich, Prince Rostislav Alexandrovich, and Prince Vassily Alexandrovich.
(signed) Boris Vsevolod
Andrew
Dmitry
Gavriel”
In the 1980s, the morganatic Nicholas Romanovich Romanoff made the strange claim that morganatic descendants should now consider themselves members of the Imperial House, because the equal marriage rule was old-fashioned. But, as is well known, only the head of a dynasty has the power to change the dynastic laws. A morganatic son of a member of a dynasty has no authority to promote himself unilaterally to dynastic status!
Nicholas R. Romanoff’s father, Prince of the Imperial Blood Roman (1896-1978), was a member of the dynasty and was also, from 1973 until his death in 1978, the dynast next in the line of succession to Grand Duke Vladimir, Head of the House. It is believed that if Roman had outlived Vladimir and become dynastic head, he would have abolished the equal marriage rule and elevated his sons to membership of the dynasty. But Vladimir outlived Roman by many years.
The Russian Legitimist should note that, although some have referred to the morganatic Andrew Andreievich Romanoff, now 98, as Head of the Imperial House, it has not seen any statement issued by Andrew Romanoff himself which makes any such claim.[2]
[1] The many morganatic children alive at the time of the 1938 declaration included the following: Vladimir Andreievich Romanoff (1902-1974 - son of Grand Duke Andrew who signed the 1938 declaration); Paul Dmitrievich Romanoff-Ilyinsky (1928-2004 - son of Grand Duke Dmitri who signed the 1938 declaration); Nicholas Romanovich Romanoff (1922-2014) and Dmitri Romanovich Romanoff (1926-2016), sons of Prince of the Imperial Blood Roman; Michael Andreievich Romanoff (1920-2008) and Andrew Andreievich Romanoff (born in 1923), sons of Prince of the Imperial Blood Andrew; and Nikita Nikitich Romanoff (1923-2007) and Alexander Nikitich Romanoff (1929-2002), sons of Prince of the Imperial Blood Nikita. The morganatic Rostislav Rostislavovich Romanoff (1938-1999), son of Prince of the Imperial Blood Rostislav and father of the young Rostislav Romanoff (born in 1985), was born in December 1938, shortly after the 1938 declaration was issued. The morganatic Olga Romanoff, daughter of Prince of the Imperial Blood Andrew, was born in 1950.
[2] The Russian Legitimist acknowledges that this article is based in part on information contained in the essay The Russian Succession in 2013 - Simplified, which appears on this website.