Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

It is essential that anybody interested in the present status of the imperial dynasty be aware of the following facts:

    The Russian throne was held by the House of Romanoff from 1613 until 1762, when the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, died. From 1762 until today, the headship of the imperial dynasty has been held by a member of the House of Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp, which took its name from Empress Elizabeth's successor, Emperor Peter III. Peter III, a German grandson in the female line of Peter the Great, was born Peter of Holstein-Gottorp. He was summoned to Russia at age 14 by his aunt, the Empress Elizabeth, who created him a Grand Duke of Russia and heir to the throne. He took the dynastic name of Romanoff.

    Under the succession laws put in place in 1797 by Emperor Paul I and added to by his successors, succession to the throne passed by primogeniture to the senior male dynast. Upon the death of the last male dynast of the House of Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp, the succession would pass to the female line. In order to pass dynastic membership to one's children, a dynast had to contract an equal marriage with a member of another royal or sovereign house.

    Grand Duke Wladimir of Russia, as the senior male dynast, was head of the dynasty from 1938 until his death in 1992. By the late 1980s, there survived only five people who by birth were dynasts of the House of Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp: Grand Duke Wladimir Kirillovich of Russia, Prince Vassily Alexandrovich of Russia and three female dynasts. Upon the deaths of Prince Vassily in 1989 and the Grand Duke Wladimir in 1992, the House of Romanoff-Holstein-Gottorp died out in the male line. The headship of the dynasty then passed, as provided by the succession laws, to the female line: namely, to the Grand Duke Wladimir's only child, Grand Duchess Maria Wladimirovna.

    Grand Duchess Maria's heir is her only son by her equal marriage to His Royal Highness Prince Franz-Wilhelm of Prussia. Following the precedent established by Peter of Holstein-Gottorp, her son bears the title of Grand Duke Georgij Mikhailovich of Russia and has taken the dynastic name of Romanoff.

His Imperial Highness Heir to the throne

Grand Duke Georgij Mihailovich of Russia

together with

Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

Her Imperial Highness with his holiness

Please click here to see the scan of the original document

Please click here to see the translation of the original document

r