Who is Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna?

Question

Who is Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna?

Answer 1

Some interesting questions raised here, I think. I have always wondered if she can actually be a claimant to the throne because both Michael and Nicholas abdicated and Nicholas abdicated for Alexis. Does that mean there is no Russian royal family now because they gave it up ?

Answer 2

Google it lazy!

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Vladi...

She's alive and essentially the highest ranking person with a claim to Russian Royalty.

Answer 4

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (born December 23, 1953) is regarded by some genealogists and Russian monarchists as the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias since 1992. Throughout her life she has used as her title and style of pretention Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Vladi...

Maria Vladimirovna's father, Vladimir Cyrillovich, was considered by some to be the last male dynast of the Romanov Family. The arguments over whether she is the valid head of the Imperial Family of Russia are detailed in the article on the line of succession to the Russian throne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_suc...

Following the discovery of the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and most of his family in 1991 Maria Vladimirovna did not recognize the authenticity of the remains and refused to attend the reburial ceremony in 1998.

Maria Vladimirovna is in the line of succession to the British Throne.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_suc...

Answer 5

She is NOT the daughter of Nicholas II, last Emperor of Russia.

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna is the daughter of the late Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich of Russia (the son of Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, who was the son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, the third son of Tsar Alexander II of Russia).

Grand Duke Vladimir was largely considered the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia and Titular Emperor of Russia, however that claim had always been disputed (because his marriage to Princess Leonida Bagration-Moukhransky was considered morgantic).

Grand Duchess Maria was married to Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia. He was granted the title and style of "His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich of Russia" by Maria's father. The couple separated in 1982 and divorced in 1985

Maria has one child, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich.

Maria's grandfather, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, was first in the line of the succession (though disputed) after the execution of Alexei Nikolaevich and Michael Alexandrovich.

However, a number of Cyril's opponents grouped around a young grand duke, Dmitri Pavlovich, who was next in the line of succession if Cyril and his brothers, the Vladimirovichi, were ineligible.

Several grouped around the old Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich. Neither Nicholas, nor Dmitri never actually proclaimed themselves pretenders.

Grand Duke Cyril proclaimed himslef Cyril I, Emperor-in-exile, and his children Grand Duke and Grand Duchesses of Russia, though not being grandchildren of a reigning Emperor, they were not eligible for the title.

After Cyril's death, he was succeeded as pretender, and holder of the machinery in place, by his only son Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich, who did not publicly assume the imperial title, and was known as Grand Duke.

Vladimir elevated his father's second cousin and their loyal supporter Prince Gavriil Konstantinovich to Grand Duke of Russia in 1939. Gavriil was the only Romanov prince to be granted a grand ducal title ad personam after Empress Elizabeth awarded the title to her nephew, the future Peter III in the 18th century. The legality of this title is questionable, since only an Emperor can grant such titles (and even that is questionable).

Most members of the dynasty and an increasing portion of the Russian monarchists supported Cyril and Vladimir but in 1948 Vladimir married a divorcée, Leonida Georgievna Kirby, née Princess Leonida Bagration-Moukhransky, declaring his marriage dynastic. Whether or not this marriage was dynastically valid according to the laws of imperial succession is a subject of great contention between the different branches of the Romanov family and between the different camps of the monarchist movement.

Several other dynasts had had their marriages with ladies approximately of the same level of nobility as Leonida Georgievna or higher regarded as morganatic. After his marriage, Vladimir lost some support, and several dynasts left his camp.

In 1969 Vladimir, foreseeing in his opinion an almost inevitable extinction of the male dynastic line he recognized, proclaimed his daughter Maria Vladimirovna the future curatrix of the throne, implying that she would ultimately succeed. That act angered yet more those already rebellious other dynasts and groups in monarchist circles.

In 1989, when the penultimate male recognized dynast, Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (who also was the President of the Romanov Family Association), died, leaving Vladimir as the only surviving generally recognized male dynast, Vladimir proclaimed his daughter immediately as the dynasty's heiress.

When Vladimir died, Maria Vladimirovna had herself proclaimed the new Head of the Imperial House, assuming the position of curatrix and proclaiming her son George Mikhailovich the heir-apparent.

Maria styles herself "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia," and her son styles himself "His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Georgi Mikhailovich of Russia".

In 1979, seven male and female dynasts founded the Romanov Family Association, which by the end of the same year had admitted more than half of the surviving dynasts into its membership, as well as a fair number of those male-line descendants Vladimir did not recognize as dynasts because of morganatic birth. Vladimir and his daughter were seemingly offered a regular membership, but they never joined the association (the Romanov Family Association claims Maria as a member under the name "Princess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia" but she rejects that name and the membership).

The RFA, which yet numbered two elderly female recognized dynasts among its membership, chose Prince Nicholas Romanov, as its president in 1989 following the death of Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia. The RFA's official position is that the Russian nation should determine which sort of government it desires, and if the choice is monarchy, who should be monarch. However, some assert that Nicholas, born H.S.H Prince Nicholas Romanovsky-Cheremetev, who has taken "H.H. Prince of Russia" as his title of pretension, is, in addition, the head of the Imperial House of Romanov, a position Prince Nicholas has himself claimed since the death of Vladimir Cyrillovich in April, 1992.

Several individuals may claim dynastic headship, depending on application of Romanov House Law.

First, one must determine who was the last surviving male dynast. This may have been Vladimir Cyrillovich, or, depending on one's view of the validity of his father's or grandfather's marriage, Nicholas Romanovich. If there is a surviving male dynast, he is the legitimate claimant under Romanov House Law. If not, semi-salic succession takes over, and the title passes to the last surviving male dynast's closest female relative. This may be Maria Vladimirovna, or, depending on one's view of her father's marriage, Nicholas Romanovich; semi-salic succession may instead pivots from, for instance, Nicholas II or Vladimir Cyrillovich's cousin Prince Rostislav.

Line of Cyril Vladimirovich

If one accepts Vladimir Cyrillovich's marriage to Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Moukhranskaya as non-morganatic, then the line of succession is:

1) Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

2) George Mihailovich

After George, the male line of Grand Duchess Maria is extinct. If both died without further male heirs, the throne would then follow semi-salic succession and will presumably pass either to Hereditary Prince Karl Emich of Leiningenn, as nearest male relation to Maria and her son, or to nearest male Orthodox relative, be it Prince Karl Wladimir of Yugoslavia (the son of the late Princess Kira Melita of Leiningen), or Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia.

The line of succession to Prince Nicholas Romanov based on descent from Emperor Nicholas I of Russia is:

1) Prince Dmitri Romanovich Romanov

2) Prince Michael Andreyevich Romanov

3) Prince Andrew Andrejevitch Romanov

4) Prince Alexis Andrejevitch Romanov

5) Prince Peter Andrejevitch Romanov

6) Prince Andrew Andrejevitch Romanov

7) Prince Michael Feodorovich Romanov

8) Prince Rostislav Rostislavich Romanov

9) Prince Nikita Rostislavich Romanov

10) Prince Nicolas Nicolaievich Romanov

11) Prince Daniel Nicolaievich Romanov

If we assume that the marriage of Grand Duke Cyril was inalid/morgantic, then under the semi-Salic succession, the succession would pass to his closest female relative with valid succession rights. Vladimir Cyrillovich contended that he was the last male Romanov dynast because all other males descended from Emperor Nicholas I of Russia married morganatically, in violation of the House law, with the result that their offspring did not possess any inheritance rights to the Russian throne. Accordingly, he declared that his daughter Maria Vladimirovna would succeed as his closest female relative. When he died in 1992, Maria thus claimed to have succeeded as the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia.

The greatest objection to this argument is that Maria's mother, Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhransky, was not a member of a royal or ruling house, and that Maria's parents' marriage was therefore morganatic.

The Bagration-Mukhranskys were a minor branch of the Bagrationi dynasty which ruled the nation of Georgia until 1810. Since Georgia's incorporation into the Russian Empire, they had been regarded as nobility, rather than royalty, in Russia. This branch of the family had not been regnant in the male line in Georgia since 1505.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the Bagration-Moukhranskys claimed to be the sole surviving branch of the Bagrationi. This claim was found to be false in the 1990s when members of the senior royal branches were found alive and living in Georgia.

Even before this new information, many deemed Vladimir and Leonida's marriage to be contrary to the Pauline Law, which required that, for a marriage to be dynastic, a spouse must belong to "a royal or ruling house".

Maria and her defenders argue that the Bagration-Mukhranskys were indeed royal, and that the marriage was thus between equals.

Moreover, the Head of the Imperial House approved the marriage, consistent with tradition, by which the Emperor was the only person who could decide whether a marriage was in accordance with Russian succession laws.

Vladimir, who was de jure Emperor, had decided two years before his own marriage that the Bagrations were of "corresponding rank," in a letter to Infante Ferdinand of Spain regarding the latter's daughter's marriage to Prince Irakly Bagration.

Maria's opponents counter that approval by the Head of the Imperial House cannot make a marriage valid if it violates a provision of the Imperial Russian Law, such as the prohibition against marriages with ra

Answer 6

the last Tzar of Russia's daughter.