In the context of European royalty, a morganatic marriage is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which prevents the passage of the husband's titles and privileges to the wife and any children born of the marriage. It is also known as a left-handed marriage because in the wedding ceremony the groom holds his bride's right hand with his left hand instead of his right.^[1]

Generally, this is a marriage between a man of high birth (such as from a royal or reigning house), and a woman of lesser status (such as from a non-royal or non-reigning house, or with a profession that is traditionally considered lower-status).^{[citation needed]} Neither the bride nor any children of the marriage has any claim on the groom's titles, rights, or entailed property. The children are considered legitimate on other counts and the prohibition of bigamy applies. Morganatic marriage was also practised by the polygamous Mongols as to their non-principal wives.

It is also possible for a woman to marry a man of lower rank morganatically.

Etymology[link]

Morganatic, already in use in English by 1727 (according to the Oxford English Dictionary), is derived from the medieval Latin morganaticus from the Late Latin phrase matrimonium ad morganaticam and refers to the gift given by the groom to the bride on the morning after the wedding, morning gift, i.e. dower. The Latin term, applied to a Germanic custom, was adopted from a Germanic term, *morgangeba (compare Early English morgengifu, German Morgengabe, Danish and Norwegian Bokmål Morgengave, Norwegian Nynorsk Morgongåve and Swedish Morgongåva). The literal meaning is explained in a 16th-century passage quoted by Du Cange: a marriage by which the wife and the children that may be born are gift.^[2]

Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1888 gives an etymology of the German term Morganitische Ehe^[3] as a combination of the ancient Gothic morgjan, to limit, to restrict, occasioned by the restricted gifts from the groom in such a marriage and the morning gift. Morgen is the German word for morning, while the Latin word is matutinus.

The morning gift has been a customary property arrangement for marriage present first in early medieval German cultures (such as the Lombards) and also of ancient Germanic tribes, and the church drove its adoption into other countries in order to improve the wife's security by this additional benefit. The bride received a settled property from the bridegroom's clan — it was intended to ensure her livelihood in widowhood, and it was to be kept separate as the wife's discrete possession. However, when a marriage contract is made wherein the bride and the children of the marriage will not receive anything else (than the dower) from the bridegroom or from his inheritance or clan, that sort of marriage was dubbed as "marriage with only the dower and no other inheritance", i.e. matrimonium morganaticum.

German-speaking Europe[link]

The practice of morganatic marriage was most common in the German-speaking parts of Europe, where equality of birth between the spouses was considered an important principle among the reigning houses and high nobility. The German name was Ehe zur linken Hand (marriage by the left hand) and the husband gave his left hand during the wedding ceremony instead of the right.

Morganatic marriage is not, and has not been, possible in jurisdictions that do not permit restrictive encumbrances with regard to the marriage contract, as it is an agreement containing a pre-emptive limitation to the inheritance and property rights of the spouse and the children.

Perhaps the most famous example in modern times was the 1900 marriage of the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, and Bohemian aristocrat Countess Sophie Chotek von Chotkowa. The marriage was initially resisted by Emperor Franz Joseph I, but after pressure from family members and other European rulers, he eventually relented in 1899 (but did not attend the wedding himself). The bride was made Princess (later Duchess) of Hohenberg, their children took their mother's name and rank, and were excluded from the imperial succession. The Sarajevo assassination in 1914, during which the couple was killed, triggered the First World War.

Although the children, or issue, of morganatic marriages were ineligible ever to succeed to their families' respective thrones, some children of morganatic marriages did go on to achieve dynastic success elsewhere in Europe. The 1851 marriage of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and German-Polish noblewoman Countess Julia von Hauke (created Princess of Battenberg), provided a sovereign prince of Bulgaria, and queen-consorts for Spain and Sweden, as well as (through female descent) the consort of the current Queen of the United Kingdom. The present Spanish Royal Family and members of the British Royal Family, including the current Prince of Wales trace descent from her. Likewise, the marriage of Duke Alexander of Württemberg and Claudine Rhédey von Kis-Rhéde (created "Countess of Hohenstein") resulted in the House of Teck. That family's most famous member, Mary of Teck, married George V of the United Kingdom, and the present British Royal Family descends from her.

Occasionally though, children of morganatic marriages would overcome their social origins, and succeed to their family's estates. Leopold, Grand Duke of Baden succeeded to the throne of Baden despite being born of a morganatic marriage. The son of Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden by his second, common-born wife Luise Karoline, Baroness Geyer von Geyersberg, he only became a Prince in 1817 (aged 27), as part of a new law of succession. With Baden's royal family without a male heir, Leopold was enfranchised and married to a Princess of Badenese descent, ascending the throne in 1830. His descendants ruled the Grand Duchy until the abolition of the monarchy in 1918. Following on from Baden other German princely families adopted similar approaches when facing a lack of male heirs. In 1896 the Princely House of Schwarzburg, with the Sondershausen branch numbering two elderly childless princes and Rudolstadt just one childless prince, recognised Prince Sizzo of Leutenberg, morganatic son of Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, a Prince of Schwarzburg and heir to the two principalities.

After 1918 although they were no longer reigning some German princely families continued the practice of granting dynastic titles and rights to morganatic children. In 1919 the morganatic wife and children of Prince Oskar of Prussia, the Counts and Countesses of Ruppin, were recognised as Princes and Princesses of Prussia. In 1928 Georg, Count of Carlow, morganatic son of Duke George Alexander of Mecklenburg and commoner Natalia Vanljarskaya, became Duke of Mecklenburg and heir to his uncle Duke Charles Michael. In 1949, and again in 1999, various morganatic members of the Bavarian Royal House became Princes and Princesses of Bavaria with the current head of the house, Franz, Duke of Bavaria, being one of those to benefit having been born of a morganatic marriage.

However some families with morganatic male relatives opted for a different approach. When the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg found itself without a male heir at the beginning of the 20th century, the morganatic Counts of Merenberg proposed themselves as heirs. Grand Duke William IV, however, chose to alter the laws of succession to allow a female successor (his own daughter Marie-Adélaïde) instead. In the current Royal Family of Saxony the current Margrave of Meissen has adopted and designated as his heir his nephew Alexander de Afif, thus overlooking his cousin’s morganatic son Prince Ruediger of Saxony and his three sons.

Russia[link]

Paul I of Russia promulgated a strict new house law for Russia in 1797. Based on the German Salic Law, the new rules established a clear requirement to marry persons with equal status of nobility at their births (Ger. Ebenbürtigkeit). The issue of an unequal marriage would be excluded from the succession.

An early victim was Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich, grandson of Catherine the Great, and viceroy of Poland. In 1820, his marriage to German Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was annulled to allow him to marry Polish noblewoman Joanna Grudzińska. She was known as "Duchess of Łowicz" during her marriage, which produced no children.

One Tsar, Emperor Alexander II of Russia married morganatically in 1880. Princess Ekaterina Mihailovna Dolgorukova, Alexander's second bride, had previously been his long-term mistress and mother of his illegitimate children (who received the titles Prince Yurievsky and Princess Yurievskaya). One of their daughters married a German descendant of a morganatic marriage, the Count of Merenberg.

Another victim of the new laws was Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia (October 4, 1861 - April 26, 1929), the third child of Grand Duke Michael Nicolaievich of Russia and his wife Olga Fedorovna (born Princess Cecilie of Baden). He attracted the displeasure of the Tsar by marrying another member of the morganatic Merenberg Dynasty. As a result, he was exiled from Russia, which ensured that his family avoided the Russian Revolution. His daughters married into the British Aristocracy. Less fortunate was Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia who went into exile in Paris to marry a commoner, Olga Valerianovna Karnovich. Paul returned to serve in the Russian army during the First World War, and Nicholas II rewarded the family by making Olga and her children Princes and Princesses Paley. Paul's patriotism, however, had sealed his fate, and he died at the hands of Russia's revolutionaries in 1919.

However, Nicholas II permitted his brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, to marry twice-divorced noblewoman Natalya Sergeyevna Wulfert (née Sheremetevskaya), making the bride Countess Brassova. The son of Michael and Natalya, George, took his mother's name and rank. In the throes of the First World War, Nicholas II allowed his sister Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia to end her loveless marriage to her social equal, Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg, to marry commoner Colonel Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky. Both Michael's and Olga's descendants from these marriages were excluded from the succession.

After the murder of Nicholas II and his children, the Royal Family's morganatic marriages restricted the number of possible heirs. Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich, Nicholas's cousin, proclaimed himself as Emperor in exile. Controversy accompanied the marriage of his son Grand Duke Vladimir Cyrillovich to Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhransky, a descendant of the Royal House of Georgia. Leonida's family had sometimes been considered to be nobility in Imperial Russia (which no longer existed), rather than Royalty, leading to claims that the marriage was unequal. As a result, some factions within Russia's monarchist movement do not support the couple's daughter Grand Duchess Maria, as the rightful heir to the Romanov dynasty (see Line of succession to the Russian throne for further details of the controversy).

Denmark[link]

Succession to the Danish throne followed the Salic Law until the Danish Act of Succession of 1953. Prominent morganatic marriages include the 1615 marriage of King Christian IV of Denmark and minor noblewoman Kirsten Munk. Kirsten was styled 'Countess of Schleswig-Holstein' and bore the King 12 children (all styled 'Count/Countess of Schleswig-Holstein'). King Frederick VII of Denmark married the ballet dancer Louise Rasmussen, who was styled 'Countess Danner', in 1850. There were no children of this marriage.

The abolition of the Salic Law allowed members of the Danish Royal Family much greater freedom in their choice of spouses, and none of the children of Denmark's present Queen have married a person of either Royal birth, or from the titled aristocracy. Members of the Royal Family may still lose their place in the line of succession for themselves and their descendants if they marry without the Monarch's permission.

France[link]

Morganatic marriage was not recognized in French law.^[4] Since the law did not distinguish, for marital purposes, between ruler and subjects, historically marriages between royalty and the noble heiresses to great fiefs became the norm, helping to aggrandize the House of Capet while gradually diminishing the number of large domains held in theoretical vassalage by nobles who were, in practice, virtually independent of the French crown. Lands mattered more than title.

Antiquity of nobility in the legitimate male line, not noble quarterings, was the main criterion of rank in the ancien régime.^[5] Unlike the commoner status of a British peer's wife and descendants (yet typical of the nobility of every continental European country), the legitimate children and male-line descendants of any French nobleman (whether titled or not, whether possessing a French peerage or not) were also legally noble ad infinitum.^[5]Rank was not based on hereditary titles, which were often assumed or acquired by purchase of a noble estate rather than granted by the Crown. Rather, the main determinant of relative rank among the French nobility was how far back the nobility of a family's male line could be verifiably traced.^[5] Other factors influencing rank included the family's history of military command, high-ranking offices held at court and marriages into other high-ranking families. A specific exception was made for bearers of the title of duke who, regardless of their origin, outranked all other nobles. But the ducal title in post-medieval France (even when embellished with the still higher status of "peer") ranked its holder and his family among France's nobility and not, as in Germany and Scandinavia (and, occasionally, Italy, viz. Savoy, Medici, Este, della Rovere, Farnese and Cybo-Malaspina) among Europe's reigning dynasties which habitually intermarried with one another.

Once the Bourbons inherited the throne of France from the House of Valois in 1589, their dynasts married daughters of even the oldest ducal families of France — let alone noblewomen of lower rank — quite rarely (viz., Anne de Montafié in 1601, Charlotte Marguerite de Montmorency in 1609 and, in exile from revolutionary France, Maria Caterina Brignole in 1798). Exceptions were made for equal royal intermarriage with the princes étrangers and, by royal command, with the so-called princes légitimés (i.e. out-of-wedlock but legitimised descendants of Henry IV and Louis XIV), as well as with the nieces of Cardinal-prime ministers (i.e. Richelieu, Mazarin). Just as the French king could authorize a royal marriage that would otherwise have been deemed unsuitable, by 1635 it had been established by Louis XIII that the king could also legally void the canonically valid, equal marriage of a French dynast to which he had not given consent (e.g. Marguerite of Lorraine, Duchess of Orléans).^[6][7]

Moreover, there was a French practice, legally distinct from morganatic marriage but used in similar situations of inequality in status between a member of the royal family and a spouse of lower rank: an "openly secret" marriage. French kings authorized such marriages only when the bride was past child-bearing or the marrying prince already had dynastic heirs by a previous royal spouse. The marriage ceremony took place without banns, in private (with only a priest, the bride and groom, and a few legal witnesses present), and the marriage was never officially acknowledged (although sometimes widely known). Thus, the wife never publicly shared in her husband's titles, rank, or coat of arms.^[8] The lower-ranked spouse, male or female, could only receive from the royal spouse what property the king allowed.

In secret marriage, Louis XIV wed his second wife, Madame de Maintenon, in 1683; Louis the Grand Dauphin wed Marie Émilie de Joly de Choin in 1695; Anne Marie d'Orléans (La Grande Mademoiselle) wed Antoine, Duke of Lauzun in 1682; and Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans wed the Marquise de Montesson in 1773. The mechanism of the "secret marriage" rendered it unnecessary for France to legislate the morganatic marriage per se.^[9] Within post-monarchical dynasties, until the end of the 20th century the heads of the Spanish and Italian Bourbon branches, the Orleans of both France and Brazil, and the Imperial Bonapartes have, in exile, exercised claimed authority to exclude from their dynasty descendants born of unapproved marriages — albeit without calling these marriages "morganatic".

United Kingdom[link]

The concept of morganatic marriage has never clearly existed in any part of the United Kingdom. As in nearly all European monarchies extant in the 21st century, most approved marriages in the British Royal Family are with untitled commoners.^[10] Wives of British princes are entitled to use the feminine form of their husbands' peerage and hereditary titles, unless the Sovereign formally objects.^[11]

For example, Prince William and his wife Catherine Middleton, a commoner, became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge upon their marriage on 29 April 2011.^[12] Camilla, second wife of The Prince of Wales, legally holds the title "Princess of Wales", but at the time that the engagement was announced, it was declared that she would be known by the title "Duchess of Cornwall" (derived from one of the other titles her husband held as heir apparent) in deference, it has been reported, to public feelings about the title's previous holder, the Prince's first wife Diana. It was simultaneously stated that at such time, if any, that her husband accedes to the throne, she will be known as "Princess Consort" rather than 'Queen', although as the King's wife she would legally be Queen.^[13][14][15]

On 16 November 1936 Edward VIII informed Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin that he intended to marry the American divorcée Mrs. Wallis Simpson, proposing that he be allowed to do so morganatically and remain king."^[16] Baldwin expressed his belief that Mrs. Simpson would be unacceptable to the British people as queen, but agreed to take further soundings. The prospect of the marriage was rejected by the British Cabinet.^[17] The other Dominion governments were consulted^[18] pursuant to the Statute of Westminster 1931, which provided in part that "any alteration in the law touching the Succession to the Throne or the Royal Style and Titles shall hereafter require the assent as well of the Parliaments of all the Dominions as of the Parliament of the United Kingdom."^[19][20] Baldwin suggested three options to the prime ministers of the five Dominions of which Edward was also king: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Irish Free State. The options were:

1. Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry and she become queen (a royal marriage);
2. Edward and Mrs. Simpson marry, but she not become queen, instead receiving some courtesy title (a morganatic marriage); or
3. Abdication for Edward and any potential heirs he might father, allowing him to make any marital decisions without further constitutional implications.

The second option had European precedents, including Edward's own maternal great-grandfather, Duke Alexander of Württemberg, but no unambiguous parallel in British constitutional history. William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister of Canada), Joseph Lyons (Prime Minister of Australia) and J. B. M. Hertzog (Prime Minister of South Africa) opposed options 1 and 2. Michael Joseph Savage (Prime Minister of New Zealand) rejected option 1 but thought that option 2 "might be possible ... if some solution along these lines were found to be practicable" but "would be guided by the decision of the Home government".^[21] Thus the majority of the Commonwealth's prime ministers agreed that there was "no alternative to course (3)".^[22] On 24 November, Baldwin consulted the three leading opposition politicians in Britain: Leader of the Opposition Clement Attlee, Liberal leader Sir Archibald Sinclair and Winston Churchill. Sinclair and Attlee agreed that options 1 and 2 were unacceptable and Churchill pledged to support the government.^[23]

The letters and diaries of working-class people and ex-servicemen generally demonstrate support for the King, while those from the middle and upper classes tend to express indignation and distaste.^[24] The Times, The Morning Post, the Daily Herald, and newspapers owned by Lord Kemsley, such as The Daily Telegraph, opposed the marriage. On the other hand, the Express and Mail newspapers, owned by Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere, respectively, appeared to support a morganatic marriage.^[25] The King estimated that the newspapers in favour had a circulation of 12.5 million, and those against had 8.5 million.^[26]

Backed by Churchill and Beaverbrook, Edward proposed to broadcast a speech indicating his desire to remain on the throne or to be recalled to it if forced to abdicate, while marrying Mrs Simpson morganatically. In one section, Edward proposed to say:

Neither Mrs. Simpson nor I have ever sought to insist that she should be queen. All we desired was that our married happiness should carry with it a proper title and dignity for her, befitting my wife. Now that I have at last been able to take you into my confidence, I feel it is best to go away for a while, so that you may reflect calmly and quietly, but without undue delay, on what I have said.^[27]

Baldwin and the British Cabinet blocked the speech, saying that it would shock many people and would be a grave breach of constitutional principles.^[28]

Ultimately, Edward decided to give up the throne for "the woman I love,"^[29] whereupon he and his descendants were deprived of all right to the Crown by Parliament's passage of His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936. He was created Duke of Windsor on 8 March 1937 by his brother, the new George VI. He would marry Wallis Simpson in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final. In the meantime, however, letters patent dated 27 May 1937, which re-conferred upon the Duke of Windsor the "title, style, or attribute of Royal Highness", specifically stated that "his wife and descendants, if any, shall not hold said title or attribute". This decree was issued by the new king and unanimously supported by the Dominion governments,^[30] The king's authority to withhold from the lawful wife of a prince the attribute thitherto accorded to the wives of other modern British princes was addressed by the Crown's legal authorities: On 14 April 1937, Attorney General Sir Donald Somervell submitted to Home Secretary Sir John Simon a memorandum summarising the views of Lord Advocate T. M. Cooper, Parliamentary Counsel Sir Granville Ram, and himself:

1. We incline to the view that on his abdication the Duke of Windsor could not have claimed the right to be described as a Royal Highness. In other words, no reasonable objection could have been taken if the King had decided that his exclusion from the lineal succession excluded him from the right to this title as conferred by the existing Letters Patent.
2. The question however has to be considered on the basis of the fact that, for reasons which are readily understandable, he with the express approval of His Majesty enjoys this title and has been referred to as a Royal Highness on a formal occasion and in formal documents. In the light of precedent it seems clear that the wife of a Royal Highness enjoys the same title unless some appropriate express step can be and is taken to deprive her of it.
3. We came to the conclusion that the wife could not claim this right on any legal basis. The right to use this style or title, in our view, is within the prerogative of His Majesty and he has the power to regulate it by Letters Patent generally or in particular circumstances.^[31]

The new King's firm view, that the Duchess should not be given a royal title, was shared by Queen Mary and George's wife, Queen Elizabeth.^[32] The Duchess bitterly resented the denial of the royal title and the refusal of the Duke's relatives to accept her as part of the family.^[33][34] In the early days of George VI's reign the Duke telephoned daily, importuning for money and urging that the Duchess be granted the style of Royal Highness, until the harassed King ordered that the calls not be put through.^[35] However, within the household of the Duke and Duchess, the style "Her Royal Highness" was used by those who were close to the couple.^[36]

It has been suggested that William, Prince of Orange, expected to have a strong claim to the throne of England after the Duke of York during the reign of Charles II.^[37] In fact, the Duke's two daughters from his first marriage, Princess Mary and Princess Anne, were considered to have the stronger claim by the English establishment. William's expectation was based on the continental practice of morganatic marriage, since the mother of both princesses, Anne Hyde, was a commoner and a lady-in-waiting to William's mother, Princess Mary. It was by his mother, a sister of Charles II and the Duke of York, that William claimed the throne, because, to his mind, the son of a princess had a stronger claim than the daughter of a commoner. It was to shore up his own claim to the throne that he agreed to marry his first cousin, Princess Mary. When James II fled at the Glorious Revolution, William refused to accept the title of king consort (which Philip II of Spain had been granted under Queen Mary I in the 1550s) and insisted on being named King in his own right. The compromise solution involved naming both to the crown as had rarely happened in the past (see for example King Henry II and his son Young King Henry, who both ruled England simultaneously).

Another marriage which might arguably be regarded as morganatic was between John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. When they married after co-habiting for several years all children born previously were subsequently legitimated by Act of Parliament. King Henry IV later declared that they could not inherit the crown, but it is not clear that he had the right to do this. This marriage was important, as King Henry VII was descended from it, but Parliament declared that he was king by "right of conquest", so some issues remained unresolved.

The Royal Marriages Act of 1772 made it illegal for all persons born into the British royal family to marry without the permission of the Sovereign, and any marriage contracted without the Sovereign’s consent was considered illegal and invalid. This led to several prominent cases of British princes who had gone through marriage ceremonies, and who cohabited with their partners as if married, but whose relationships were not legally recognised. As a result, their partners and children (the latter considered illegitimate) held no titles, and had no succession rights. This differs from morganatic marriages, which are considered legally valid.

Travancore[link]

In the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, in India, the male members of the Travancore Royal Family belonging to the Samanthan Nair caste were, under the existing matrilineal Marumakkathayam system of inheritance and family, permitted to contract marriages with women of the relatively inferior Illathu Nair caste only.^[38] These were morganatic marriages called Sambandhams wherein the children gained their mother's caste and family name, due to Marumakkathayam. While due to reasons of caste and the nature of the marriage they could not inherit the throne, they did indeed receive the royal title of Thampi and were members of the Ammaveedus which ensured a comfortable living and all royal luxuries for them.^[39]

Transkei[link]

Standards of both social classification and marital rules resembling the traditions of dynastic Europe can also be found in places as far afield as Africa. Here, a number of its constituent sovereign nations have legalized traditional authority as manifested in the recognized hereditary transmission of chieftaincy in historically relevant regions of the continent (e.g. the Asantehene of Ghana). For an example of the form that morganatic unions tend to take amongst African royalty, we have only to look at the biography of the continent's favourite son: President Nelson Mandela, the former leader of South Africa.

Mandela, a nobleman by birth of the Xhosa Thembus that reside in the Transkei region of the Cape coast, is nevertheless unable to ascend the throne of the Inkosi Enkhulu (or king) of the entire Thembu clan, even though he descends in the legitimate, male line from the holders of this title. Nearly two centuries ago, Ngubengcuka (d. 1832), who ruled as the Inkosi Enkhulu of the Thembu people, married and subsequently left a son named Mandela, who became Nelson's grandfather and the source of his surname. However, due to the fact that Mandela was only the Inkosi's child by a wife of the Ixhiba lineage, a so-called "Left-Hand House", the descendants of his cadet branch of the Thembu royal family remain ineligible to succeed to the Thembu throne,^[40] which is itself one of the several traditional seats that are still officially recognized by South Africa's government. Instead, the Mandelas were given the chiefdom of Mvezo and made hereditary counsellors to the Inkosi (i.e., privy counsellors) in deference to their royal ancestry. Following the loss of this chiefdom (which has since been restored to the family) in the Apartheid era, the Mandelas retained their positions as nobles of the Transkei. This status entailed, however, a degree of subjugation to the head of the dynasty, in particular in the matter of marital selection, which proved so onerous an issue to Nelson Mandela that it prompted the departure to Johannesburg that eventually led to his political career. Like the House of Battenberg in Europe, Mandela's family has since rehabilitated its dynastic status to some extent, inter-marrying with reigning royalty even during his imprisonment.

Examples[link]

Royal men who married morganatically:

• King Erik XIV of Sweden married the servant Karin Månsdotter morganatically in 1567, and later secondly, but this time not morganatically, in 1568.
• Ludwig Wilhelm, Duke in Bavaria and (actress) Henriette Mendel. She was created Freifrau von Wallersee, and their daughter, Marie Louise, Countess Larisch von Moennich, was a confidante of Empress Elisabeth ("Sissi") of Austria.
• Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, ruler of the Tirol married firstly Philippine Welser, a bourgeois girl though very wealthy; their children were given a separate title and the issue of Ferdinand's second (and equal) marriage were preferred.
• Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in 1869 married morganatically his principal mistress Rosa Teresa Vercellana Guerrieri (3 June 1833–26 December 1885). Popularly known in Piedmontese as "Bela Rosin" (Little Rosa the Beautiful), she was born a commoner but made Countess of Mirafiori and Fontanafredda in 1858.
• Late in his life, the widowed ex-king Fernando II of Portugal married the opera singer Elise Hensler, who was created countess of Edla.
• A list of Morganatic branches of the Russian Imperial Family
• Genghis Khan followed the contemporary tradition by taking several morganatic wives in addition to his principal wife, whose property passed to their youngest son, also following tradition.

Royal women who married morganatically:

• Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma (by birth an Archduchess of the Imperial House of Habsburg, and by her first marriage an Empress of France) contracted a morganatic second marriage with a count after the death of her first husband Napoleon I.
• Queen Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, regent of Spain after her husband's (Ferdinand VII) death while their daughter, the future Isabella II was a minor. She married one of her guards in a secret marriage.
• Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, the widow of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, married Count Elemér Lónyay de Nagy-Lónya et Vásáros-Namény after the death of her first husband, to the disgust of her family. In 1917, Emperor Charles I of Austria, conferred upon Lónyay the non-dynastic title of prince.

See also[link]

• Agnatic seniority
• Lex Canuleia

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Morganatic Marriage.

• Crawford, Donald. Michael and Natasha, Scribner (1997). ISBN 0-684-83430-8

Princess Natalia Pavlovna Paley (Наталья Павловна Палей), Countess de Hohenfelsen (December 5, 1905 – December 27, 1981) was a member of the Romanov family. A daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, she was a first cousin of the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II. After the Russian revolution she emigrated first to France and later to the United States. She became a fashion model, socialite, vendeuse, and briefly pursued a career as a film actress.

Early life[link]

Princess Natalia Paley was born, as Countess Natalia Pavlovna von Hohenfelsen, at her parents' estate, 2 avenue Victor Hugo (now 4 avenue Robert Schuman), in Boulogne-sur-Seine, close to Paris, France, on December 5, 1905. She was the youngest child of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and his morganatic marriage second wife, Olga Valeriovna Karnovich, who was of Hungarian descent.

Her parents had met in St. Petersburg in 1895, when Olga Karnovich was married to an officer, by whom she had three children. Grand Duke Paul already was the father of two; his first wife, Princess Alexandra of Greece, had died in childbirth. The couple's relationship did not remain secret for long. On January 9, 1897, Olga gave birth to a son, Vladimir, by Grand Duke Paul. Olga was granted a divorce from her husband and soon left Russia to marry Paul in Livorno, Italy, on October 10, 1902. Their daughter Irene was born on December 21, 1903. Not long after, the King of Bavaria gave Olga the hereditary title of Countess de Hohenfelsen. They were still vacationing in Rome when the couple was forbidden to return to Russia by Paul's nephew, the reigning Tsar Nicholas II.

They settled in Paris and bought a house in Boulogne-sur-Seine that previously belonged to Princess Zenaide Ivanovna Youssoupoff. It was there that Natalia was born in 1905, completing their family. Paul and Olga employed a household staff of sixteen maids, gardeners, cooks, and tutors. Vladimir, Irene and Natalia had a happy and privileged upbringing, and for a time, utterly protected from the outside world. Though their parents had a busy social life, the children were very close to them and they ate their meals together, an unusual custom for children of their time and station. On Sundays, the whole family would enter the Russian church on rue Daru, but would only attend private mass with the priest who had christened Natalia.

Imperial Russia[link]

In January 1912 Tsar Nicholas II forgave his only living uncle for marrying morganatically, and Grand Duke Paul returned to Russia on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Romanov family. He was followed later by his wife and their three children. The family settled in Tsarskoe Selo in a luxurious palace filled with antiques and object of arts. In Russia Natalia became her maternal grandmother, her half-sisters and half-brothers. Three months after they had settled into their new life, World War I began.

Later life[link]

In December 1918 Natalia and her sister Irina Pavlovna escaped from Russia; her father and her brother Vladimir Paley were murdered by the Bolsheviks. With her mother and Irina, she went via Finland to exile in France.

After working for a while as a saleswoman and fashion model in Vogue, she became a movie actress, taking parts in several European movies, including Sir Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) and Marcel L'Herbier's L'epervier (1933). She eventually moved to the United States, where she had a small role in George Cukor's Sylvia Scarlett (1935).

For many years, Paley worked in public relations for the fashion designer Mainbocher.

Marriages[link]

Natalie Paley married twice. Her husbands were:

(1) Lucien-Camille Lelong, the French fashion designer and war hero; married in October 1927, they were divorced in 1936. They had no children.

(2) John Chapman Wilson, a theatrical producer and director, who had previously been the lover of Cole Porter. They married on 8 September 1937 in Fairfield, Connecticut.^[1] He died in 1961. They had no children.

She had a brief affair with the writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, which resulted in an aborted pregnancy.^[2] In the 1940s and early 1950s, Paley had a lengthy romantic relationship with writer Erich Maria Remarque, who fictionalized her as "Natascha" in his posthumous novel, Shadows in Paradise.^[3][4]

Citizenship[link]

Natalie Paley became a naturalized American citizen on 5 February 1941.^[5]

Death[link]

Natalie Paley died in New York City and is buried in the churchyard of the First Presbyterian Church in Ewing, New Jersey.

Ancestors[link]

Filmography[link]

• L'Épervier (1933)
• Le Prince Jean (1934)
• The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935) (uncredited)
• Les Hommes nouveaux (1936)
• Folies Bergère (1936)

References[link]

1. ^ "Princess Paley Wed in Fairfield", The New York Times, 9 September 1937
2. ^ Jean-Noël Liaut, "Natalie Paley: La princesse dechirée", Paris: Filipacchi, 1996 (ISBN 2-85018-295-8).
3. ^ Hilton Tims, Erich Maria Remarque: The Last Romantic (Da Capo Press, 2004), pages 125+
4. ^ Julie Goldsmith Gilbert, Opposite Attraction: The Lives of Erich Maria Remarque and Paulette Goddard (Pantheon Books, 1995)
5. ^ "Ex-Princess Becomes Citizen", The New York Times, 9 February 1941

External links[link]

• Natalie Paley at the Internet Movie Database
• Natalia Pavlovna Paley at Find A Grave

St. Vladimir the Great
Grand Prince of Kiev
Reign	11 June 980 – 15 July 1015
Coronation	11 June 980
Predecessor	Yaropolk I of Kiev
Successor	Sviatopolk I of Kiev
Prince of Novgorod
Reign	969 – c.  977
Predecessor	Sviatoslav I of Kiev
Successor	Yaropolk I of Kiev
Spouse	Allogia Rogneda of Polotsk Adela Malfrida Anna Porphyrogenita a granddaughter of Otto the Great
among others Issue
Izyaslav of Polotsk Yaroslav the Wise Mstislav of Chernigov Saint Boris Saint Gleb Maria Dobroniega of Kiev Agatha (possibly)
Full name
Vladimir Sviatoslavich
Dynasty	Rurik
Father	Sviatoslav I of Kiev
Mother	Malusha (probably of Northern origin)[1]
Born	c.  958 near Pskov
Died	15 July 1015(1015-07-15) (aged c.  57) Berestova (today a part of Kiev)
Burial	Church of the Tithes, Kiev
Religion	Christian

Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great (Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, Russian: Влади́мир, Vladimir, Ukrainian: Володимир, Volodymyr,^[2]; c. 958 near Pskov (perhaps near Volodymyr-Volynskyi) – 15 July 1015, Berestovo) was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in (980–1015).^[3][4]

Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty.^[5] After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976 after his brother Yaropolk had murdered his other brother Oleg and conquered Rus. In Sweden with the help from his relative Ladejarl Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk.^[6] By 980 Vladimir had consolidated the Kievan realm from modern day Ukraine to the Baltic Sea and had solidified the frontiers against incursions of Bulgarian, Baltic, and Eastern nomads. Originally a pagan, Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988,^[7][8][9] and proceeded to baptise all of Kievan Rus'.^[10]

Way to the throne[link]

Vladimir, born in 958, was the natural son and youngest son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev by his housekeeper Malusha. Malusha is described in the Norse sagas as a prophetess who lived to the age of 100 and was brought from her cave to the palace to predict the future. Malusha's brother Dobrynya was Vladimir's tutor and most trusted advisor. Hagiographic tradition of dubious authenticity also connects his childhood with the name of his grandmother, Olga Prekrasa, who was Christian and governed the capital during Sviatoslav's frequent military campaigns.

Transferring his capital to Pereyaslavets in 969, Sviatoslav designated Vladimir ruler of Novgorod the Great but gave Kiev to his legitimate son Yaropolk. After Sviatoslav's death (972), a fratricidal war erupted (976) between Yaropolk and his younger brother Oleg, ruler of the Drevlians. In 977 Vladimir fled to his kinsman Haakon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, collecting as many of the Norse warriors as he could to assist him to recover Novgorod, and on his return the next year marched against Yaropolk.

On his way to Kiev he sent ambassadors to Rogvolod (Norse: Ragnvald), prince of Polotsk, to sue for the hand of his daughter Rogneda (Norse: Ragnhild). The high-born princess refused to affiance herself to the son of a bondswoman, but Vladimir attacked Polotsk, slew Rogvolod, and took Ragnhild by force. Polotsk was a key fortress on the way to Kiev, and the capture of Polotsk and Smolensk facilitated the taking of Kiev (978), where he slew Yaropolk by treachery, and was proclaimed knyaz of all Kievan Rus.^[11]

Years of pagan rule[link]

Vladimir continued to expand his territories beyond his father's extensive domain. In 981, he conquered the Cherven cities (known later as Galicia) shifting his borders toward Poland; in 983, he subdued the Yatvingians, whose territories lay between Lithuania and Poland; in 985, he led a fleet along the central rivers of Kievan Rus' to conquer the Bulgars of the Kama, planting numerous fortresses and colonies on his way.

Though Christianity had won many converts since Olga's rule, Vladimir had remained a thoroughgoing pagan, taking eight hundred concubines (besides numerous wives) and erecting pagan statues and shrines to gods. He may have attempted to reform Slavic paganism by establishing the thunder-god, Perun, as a supreme deity. "Although Christianity in Kiev existed before Vladimir’s time, he had remained a pagan, accumulated about seven wives, established temples, and, it is said, taken part in idolatrous rites involving human sacrifice."^[10]

“In 983, after another of his military successes, Prince Vladimir and his army thought it necessary to sacrifice human lives to the gods. A lot was cast and it fell on a youth, Ioann by name, the son of a Christian, Fyodor. His father stood firmly against his son being sacrificed to the idols. More than that, he tried to show the pagans the futility of their faith: ‘Your gods are just plain wood: it is here now but it may rot into oblivion tomorrow; your gods neither eat, nor drink, nor talk and are made by human hand from wood; whereas there is only one God — He is worshiped by Greeks and He created heaven and earth; and your gods? They have created nothing, for they have been created themselves; never will I give my son to the devils!’”

An open abuse of the deities, to which most people in Rus' bowed in reverence in those times, triggered widespread indignation. A mob killed the Christian Fyodor and his son Ioann (later, after the overall christening of Kievan Rus, people came to regard these two as the first Christian martyrs in Rus and the Orthodox Church set a day to commemorate them, July 25).

Immediately after the murder of Fyodor and Ioann, early medieval Rus saw persecutions against Christians, many of whom escaped or concealed their belief.

However, Prince Vladimir mused over the incident long after, and not least for political considerations. According to the early Slavic chronicle called Tale of Bygone Years, which describes life in Kyivan Rus' up to the year 1110, he sent his envoys throughout the civilized world to judge at first hand the major religions of the time—Islam, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, and Byzantine Orthodoxy. They were most impressed with their visit to Constantinople, saying, "We knew not whether we were in Heaven or on Earth… We only know that God dwells there among the people, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations."

Baptism of Rus'[link]

The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, by Viktor Vasnetsov (1890)

The Primary Chronicle reports that in the year 987, as the result of a consultation with his boyars, Vladimir sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is amusingly described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the Muslim Bulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them; only sorrow and a great stench. He also said that the Bulgars' religion of Islam was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages and pork;^[12] Vladimir said on that occasion: "Drinking is the joy of all Rus'. We cannot exist without that pleasure."^[13] Ukrainian and Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys (who may or may not have been Khazars), and questioning them about their religion but ultimately rejecting it, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence of their having been abandoned by God. Roman Catholic missionaries came too and so did Orthodox.^{[citation needed]}. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Orthodox Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was yet more so by political gains of the Byzantine alliance.^{[citation needed]}

Vladimir the Great on the Millennium of Russia monument in Novgorod

In 988, having taken the town of Chersonesos in Crimea, he boldly negotiated for the hand of the emperor Basil II's sister, Anna. Never before had a Byzantine imperial princess, and one "born-in-the-purple" at that, married a barbarian, as matrimonial offers of French kings and German emperors had been peremptorily rejected. In short, to marry the 27-year-old princess off to a pagan Slav seemed impossible. Vladimir, however, was baptized at Cherson, taking the Christian name of Basil out of compliment to his imperial brother-in-law; the sacrament was followed by his wedding with Anna. Returning to Kiev in triumph, he destroyed pagan monuments and established many churches, starting with the splendid Church of the Tithes (989) and monasteries on Mt. Athos.

Arab sources, both Muslim and Christian, present a different story of Vladimir's conversion. Yahya of Antioch, al-Rudhrawari, al-Makin, Al-Dimashqi, and ibn al-Athir^[14] all give essentially the same account. In 987, Bardas Sclerus and Bardas Phocas revolted against the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Both rebels briefly joined forces, but then Bardas Phocas proclaimed himself emperor on 14 September 987. Basil II turned to the Kievan Rus' for assistance, even though they were considered enemies at that time. Vladimir agreed, in exchange for a marital tie; he also agreed to accept Christianity as his religion and bring his people to the new faith. When the wedding arrangements were settled, Vladimir dispatched 6,000 troops to the Byzantine Empire and they helped to put down the revolt.^[15]

Christian reign[link]

Modern statue of Vladimir in London with an inscription "Ruler of Ukraine"

He then formed a great council out of his boyars, and set his twelve sons over his subject principalities.

It is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle that Vladimir founded the city of Belgorod in 991.

In 992 he went on a campaign against the Croats, most likely the White Croats (an East Slavic group unrelated to the Croats of Dalmatia) that lived on the border of modern Ukraine. This campaign was cut short by the attacks of the Pechenegs on and around Kiev.

In his later years he lived in a relative peace with his other neighbors: Boleslav I of Poland, Stephen I of Hungary, Andrikh the Czech (questionable character mentioned in A Tale of the Bygone Years).

After Anna's death, he married again, likely to a granddaughter of Otto the Great.

In 1014 his son Yaroslav the Wise stopped paying tribute. Vladimir decided to chastise the insolence of his son, and began gathering troops against Yaroslav. However, Vladimir fell ill, most likely of old age and died at Berestovo, near Kiev.

The various parts of his dismembered body were distributed among his numerous sacred foundations and were venerated as relics.

Family[link]

Vladimir and Rogneda (1770).

Gold coin of Vladimir

The fate of all Vladimir's daughters, whose number is around nine, is uncertain.

• Olava or Allogia (Varangian or Czech), speculative she might have been mother of Vysheslav while others claim that it is a confusion with Helena Lekapena^{[citation needed]}
  • Vysheslav (~977-~1010), Prince of Novgorod (988–1010)
• a widow of Yaropolk I, a Greek nun
  • Sviatopolk the Accursed (~979), possibly the surviving son of Yaropolk
• Rogneda (the daughter of Rogvolod), later upon divorce she entered a convent taking the Christian name of Anastasia
  • Izyaslav of Polotsk(~979, Kiev), Prince of Polotsk (989–1001)
  • Yaroslav the Wise (no earlier than 983), Prince of Rostov (987–1010), Prince of Novgorod (1010–1034), Grand Prince of Kiev (1016–1018, 1019–1054). Possibly he was a son of Anna rather than Rogneda. Another interesting fact that he was younger than Sviatopolk according to the words of Boris in the Tale of Bygone Years and not as it was officially known. Also the fact of him being the Prince of Rostov is highly doubtful although not discarded.
  • Vsevolod (~984–1013), possibly the Swedish Prince Wissawald of Volyn (~1000)
  • Mstislav, other Mstislav that possibly died as an infant if he was ever born
  • Mstislav of Chernigov (~983), Prince of Tmutarakan (990–1036), Prince of Chernigov (1024–1036), other sources claim him to be son of other mothers (Adela, Malfrida, or some other Bulgarian wife)
  • Predslava, a concubine of Bolesław I Chrobry according to Gesta principum Polonorum
  • Premislava, (? – 1015), some source state that she was a wife of the Duke Laszlo (Vladislav) "the Bald" of Arpadians
  • Mstislava, in 1018 was taken by Bolesław I Chrobry among the other daughters
• Bulgarian Adela, some sources claim that Adela is not necessarily Bulgarian as Boris and Gleb were born from some other wife
  • Boris (~986), Prince of Rostov (~1010–1015), remarkable is the fact that Rostov Principality as well as the Principality of Murom used to border the territory of Volga Bolgars
  • Gleb (~987), Prince of Murom (1013–1015), as Boris, Gleb is being also claimed the son of Anna Porphyrogenita
  • Stanislav (~985–1015), Prince of Smolensk (988–1015), possible of another wife and a fate of whom is not certain
  • Sudislav (?-1063), Prince of Pskov (1014–1036), possible of another wife, but he is mentioned in Nikon's Chronicles. He spent 35 years in prison and later before dying turned into a monk.
• Malfrida
  • Sviatoslav (~982–1015), Prince of Drevlians (990–1015)
• Anna Porphyrogenita
  • Theofana, a wife of Novgorod posadnik Ostromir, a grandson of semi-legendary Dobrynya (highly doubtful is the fact of her being Anna's offspring)
• a granddaughter of Otto the Great (possibly Rechlinda Otona [Regelindis])
  • Maria Dobroniega of Kiev (~1012), the Duchess of Poland (1040–1087), married around 1040 to Casimir I the Restorer, Duke of Poland
  • Agatha, a theoretical daughter according to Jette
• other possible family
  • an out-of-marriage daughter (?-1044), a wife of the Nordmark Margrave Bernard
  • Pozvizd (prior to 988-?), a son of Vladimir according to Hustyn Chronicles. He, possibly, was the Prince Khrisokhir mentioned by Niketas Choniates.

Vladimir I. Engraving of 1889

Significance and legacy[link]

One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him. The University of Kiev was named after the man who Christianized Kievan Rus. There is the Russian Order of St. Vladimir and Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in the United States. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the feast day of St. Vladimir on 15 July.

His memory was also kept alive by innumerable Ukrainian and Russian folk ballads and legends, which refer to him as Krasno Solnyshko, that is, the Fair Sun. With him the Varangian period of Eastern Slavic history ceases and the Christian period begins.

See also[link]

Saints portal

• List of Ukrainian rulers
• List of Russian rulers
• Belarus
• Family life and children of Vladimir I
• List of people known as The Great

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Golden, P. B. (2006) "Rus." Encyclopaedia of Islam (Brill Online). Eds.: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• Some historical analysis and political insights on the state affairs of Vladimir the Great (Russian)
• Moss, Walter G. (2002) "A History of Russia Volume I: To 1917" (London: Anthem Press).

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley
Born	(1897-01-09)January 9, 1897 Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died	July 18, 1918(1918-07-18) (aged 21) Alapaevsk, Russia
Parents	Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia and Olga Valerianovna Paley

HSH Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley (Владимир Павлович Палей) (January 9, 1897 – July 18, 1918) was a Russian poet.

Prince Vladimir was born Vladimir von Pistohlkors in Saint Petersburg, Russia. His parents were Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia, the youngest child of Emperor Alexander II, and his father's mistress, Olga Valerianovna Paley, who was then still married to her first husband. In 1902, Grand Duke Paul—who had previously been married to Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark and had two children by her—wed Olga morganatically. In 1904, she was created Countess von Hohenfelsen by Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, making Vladimir Count Vladimir von Hohenfelsen. In 1915 Olga was created Princess Paley by Nicholas II, making Vladimir a prince.

Prince Vladimir had two elder half-siblings of his father's marriage to Alexandra Georgievna of Greece, née Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark: Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia. He had two full sisters, both of whom eventually were styled Her Serene Highness Princess Paley, Irina Pavlovna and Natalia Pavlovna. He also had three half siblings from his mother's first marriage: Alexander Erikovich von Pistohlkors, Olga Erikovna von Pistohlkors, and Marianna Erikovna (or Marianne) von Pistohlkors.

He spent his childhood in Paris and later graduated from the Corps de Pages, an aristocratic military school in Saint Petersburg. He fought with the Russian army in the First World War and was decorated as a war hero with the Order of Saint Anne.

Even as a teenager Vladimir Paley showed remarkable talent as a poet. He published two volumes of poetry (1916 and 1918) and wrote several plays and essays, as well as a magnificent French translation of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovitch's play The King of the Jews.

In the summer of 1917 he and his family were placed for a short while under house arrest by the Provisional Government, because of a poem he wrote about Aleksandr Kerensky. In March 1918 he was arrested by the Bolsheviks and sent to exile in Vyatka and later Ekaterinburg and Alapaevsk. He was brutally murdered in a mineshaft near Alapaevsk, together with his cousins Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia, Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia, Prince Igor Konstantinovich of Russia, and other relatives. Their bodies were recovered and buried months later in an Orthodox cemetery in Beijing, China, which was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

A biography of Prince Vladimir Paley by Andrey Baranovsky was published in 1997 in Russian, and another (A Poet Among The Romanovs) by Jorge F. Saenz in 2004, in both Russian and English.

Sources

Saenz, Jorge F., A poet among the Romanovs, Eurohistory, 2004.

Ancestors[link]

See also[link]

• Romanov sainthood