To the editor:
Why did the Instagram account Royalty and Protocol describe the late Andrew Romanoff (who died on November 28, 2021 at age 98) as “Head of the Russian Imperial House and de jure Tsar of Russia?” I thought that his father’s morganatic marriage prevented him from being a member of the dynasty?
RESPONSE FROM RL:
You are correct. The Russian monarchy had an “equal marriage” law. A Russian dynast had to marry a wife from another royal family in order to transmit membership in the dynasty to his children. The morganatic marriage of Andrew Romanoff’s father to a non-royal spouse meant that Andrew was not a member of the Imperial House and therefore could never be the Head of the Imperial House.
Some monarchies, like that of Britain, do not have equal marriage rules. If the Russian dynasty did not have a strict equal marriage rule, then Andrew Romanoff would indeed have been a member of the dynasty. But even then, according to male primogeniture, he would not have been the senior male dynast and thus could not be the head of the dynasty. Ahead of him by male primogeniture would be Prince Dmitri Romanovsky-Ilyinsky and his brother Michael. Thus, under this scenario, Andrew would only have been third in line. This was also true of the morganatic Nicholas Romanovich Romanoff, who wrongly proclaimed himself head of the Romanoff family in 1992, following the death of the Grand Duke Vladimir. If there had been no equal marriage law, Nicholas would have been fourth in line by male primogeniture, after Prince Paul Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (only son of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich) and his two sons, Dmitri and Michael.
We looked at the Instagram account to which you refer. Its focus seems to be on the correct way to curtsey and bow. Please understand that Instagram does not lend itself to complexity, and one cannot expect the people behind such an account to understand the intricacies of the Russian dynasty’s Pauline law.
