House of Romanov
The House of Romanov[b] (also transliterated as Romanoff; Russian: Романовы, romanized: Romanovy, IPA: [rɐˈmanəvɨ]) was the reigning imperial house of Russia from 1613 to 1917. They achieved prominence after Anastasia Romanovna married Ivan the Terrible, the first crowned tsar of all Russia. Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, and his immediate family were executed in 1918, but there are still living descendants of other members of the imperial house.
"Romanov" redirects here. For other uses, see Romanov (disambiguation).
House of Romanov
Романовы
Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (since the mid-18th century)[a]
21 February 1613
- Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (Great-great-granddaughter of Alexander II of Russia)
- Elizabeth I (agnatic line)
- Nicholas II (cognatic line)
- Tsar of all Russia (1613–1721)
- Emperor of all Russia (1721–1917)
- Other titles...
1917 (February Revolution)
The house consisted of boyars in Russia (the highest rank in the Russian nobility at the time) under the reigning Rurik dynasty, which became extinct upon the death of Feodor I in 1598. The Time of Troubles, caused by the resulting succession crisis, saw several pretenders and imposters lay claim to the Russian throne during the Polish occupation. On 21 February 1613, the Zemsky Sobor elected Michael Romanov as tsar, establishing the Romanovs as Russia's second reigning dynasty.
Michael's grandson, Peter I, who took the title of emperor and proclaimed the Russian Empire in 1721, transformed the country into a great power through a series of wars and reforms. The direct male line of the Romanovs ended when Elizabeth died childless in 1762. As a result, her nephew Peter III, an agnatic member of the House of Holstein-Gottorp (a cadet branch of the German House of Oldenburg that reigned in Denmark), ascended to the throne and adopted his Romanov mother’s house name.[1] Officially known as members of the House of Romanov, descendants after Elizabeth are sometimes referred to as Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.[2]
Paul I became the first heir to the throne, having the title “Tsa-tsarevich”, which was subsequently used for all main heirs.[3]
The abdication of Nicholas II on 15 March [O.S. 2 March] 1917 as a result of the February Revolution ended 304 years of Romanov rule and led to the establishment of the Russian Republic under the Russian Provisional Government in the lead-up to the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. In 1918, the Bolsheviks murdered Nicholas II and his family. Of the House of Romanov's 65 members, 47 survivors went into exile abroad.[4] In 1924, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the senior surviving male-line descendant of Alexander II of Russia by primogeniture, claimed the headship of the defunct Imperial House of Russia.
Surname usage[edit]
Legally, it remains unclear whether any ukase ever abolished the surname of Michael Romanov (or of his subsequent male-line descendants) after his accession to the Russian throne in 1613, although by tradition members of reigning dynasties seldom use surnames, being known instead by dynastic titles ("Tsarevich Ivan Alexeevich", "Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich", etc.). From January 1762 [O.S. December 1761], the monarchs of the Russian Empire claimed the throne as relatives of Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia (1708–1728), who had married Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Thus they were no longer Romanovs by patrilineage, belonging instead to the Holstein-Gottorp cadet branch of the German House of Oldenburg that reigned in Denmark. The 1944 edition of the Almanach de Gotha records the name of Russia's ruling dynasty from the time of Peter III (reigned 1761–1762) as "Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov".[5] However, the terms "Romanov" and "House of Romanov" often occurred in official references to the Russian imperial family. The coat-of-arms of the Romanov boyars was included in legislation on the imperial dynasty,[6]
and in a 1913 jubilee, Russia officially celebrated the "300th Anniversary of the Romanovs' rule".[7]
After the February Revolution of 1917, a special decree of the Provisional Government of Russia granted all members of the imperial family the surname "Romanov". The only exceptions, the morganatic descendants of the Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich (1891–1942), took (in exile) the surname Ilyinsky.[5][8]
The Russian Imperial Family was split into four main branches named after the sons of Emperor Nicholas I:
Alexandrovichi[edit]
The Alexandrovichi last male-line members are represented by descendants of Paul Ilyinsky (son Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia) and natural son of Alexander II, Prince George Alexandrovich Yuryevsky. However, both lines are unable to press their claim to the defunct Russian throne because of their morganatic status.
Alexandrovichi line is thus claimed to be represented by Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia with her only child, George Mikhailovich from the House of Hohenzollern. The Grand Duchess claim to the throne is based on a claim that all male lines of Romanov are either extinct, illegitimate, or morganatic. Thus triggering semi-salic succession, as the closest female to the last dynast.
Nikolavevichi[edit]
The legitimate male line of this branch is extinct with the death of Prince Dimitri Romanov in 2016. The male line of this branch, however, is survived by the illegitimate Nikolayev family, descendant of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia (1831–1891) to his mistress Catherine Chislova.
Contemporary Romanovs[edit]
There have been numerous post-Revolution reports of Romanov survivors and unsubstantiated claims by individuals to be members of the deposed Tsar Nicholas II's family, the best known of whom was Anna Anderson. Proven research has, however, confirmed that all of the Romanovs held prisoners inside the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg were killed.[25][14]
Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, a male-line grandson of Tsar Alexander II, claimed the headship of the deposed Imperial House of Russia, and assumed, as pretender, the title "Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias" in 1924 when the evidence appeared conclusive that all Romanovs higher in the line of succession had been killed[26]. Kirill was followed by his only son Vladimir Kirillovich.[1] Vladimir's only child was Maria Vladimirovna (born 1953), who had one child in her marriage with Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia, George Mikhailovich.
The Romanov Family Association (RFA) formed in 1979, a private organization of most living male-line descendants of Emperor Paul I of Russia (other than Maria Vladimirovna and her son), publicly acknowledges that dynastic claims of family members should not be advanced, and is officially committed to support which ever form of government chosen by the Russian people.[27]
Throne of the Tsar, the Empress and the Empress Mother in the Grand Kremlin Palace
