Who Would Be Tsar of Russia Today? | Romanov Family Tree

today i'm going to explore the question who would be czar or emperor of russia today if russia decided to restore the romanov monarchy interestingly this is not an easy question to answer so i'll actually be presenting you with six different possible candidates and then at the end just for fun i'll give you my opinion on who i think has the best claim [Music] so the last tsar of russia was nicholas ii from the house of romanov he reigned from 1894 to 1917 when he was forced to abdicate during the russian revolution technically his brother michael was tsar for about a day at this point before he then declined to formally accept the title and speaking of titles i should point out that the russian czars were actually emperors although really the two terms were of equivalent rank and are often used interchangeably the word tsar after all being derived from the word caesar but the main thing you need to know is that in the year 1917 russia ceased to be a monarchy and then in the year 1918 nicholas ii his wife his four daughters his 14 year old son alexi his brother michael and several other members of the extended romanov family were all executed by that point russia had become a socialist republic and by 1922 it was the main part of the ussr also known as the soviet union that state lasted until 1991 when russia became known as the russian federation which is what it is called today but let's say russia wanted to restore the romanovs to the imperial throne and become a monarchy again who would they choose to wear the crown well first of all you need to know two important things about russia's laws of succession first only children born from a non-morganatic marriage are eligible generally speaking a non-morganatic marriage is a marriage between two nobles whereas a morganatic marriage is a marriage between a noble and someone of a lower rank kind of like the duke and duchess of cambridge in the uk secondly following the reign of catherine the great it was decided that only male line members of the dynasty are eligible now technically the house of holstein goetorp romanov would be eligible the only exception to this would be if there were absolutely no eligible males left so with these two rules in mind called the pauline rules named after emperor paul the first of russia let's now look at the family tree first of all there are no living descendants of nicholas ii or his brother michael although there have been several imposters over the years who have famously claimed to be either alexi anastasia or some other descendant however as it stands now the remains of the entire family of nicholas ii have been found and dna tested so the myth that one of them perhaps escaped can be put to rest michael did have a son named george but he died childless at age 20 and was born from a morganatic marriage anyway therefore if we want to find a male line heir we have to look further back in the tree at the time of the romanov family's execution the next person in the line of succession was grand duke k real son of tsar alexander iii's younger brother vladimir during the revolution he and his wife who was a german princess escaped to finland and then later lived in both germany and france in 1924 he declared himself to be the guardian of the russian throne and then later he declared himself to be the emperor in exile initially there was some dispute over this amongst the other surviving romanovs but eventually he was universally recognized as being the legitimate head of the house kariel died in 1938 and therefore at that point the role of pretender to the russian throne passed to his only son grand duke vladimir who then went on to hold that role for the next 54 years until his death in 1992 and it's at that point that things got complicated first of all vladimir did not have any sons his only child was a daughter named maria and secondly there was some debate over whether or not vladimir's marriage had been non-morganatic he married princess leonida from the house of bagrationi a very old house that had ruled in georgia for over a thousand years but by that point was no longer raining as their lands had been annexed by russia for these reasons russian monarchists ended up splitting their support after the death of grand duke vladimir some supported his daughter maria but others supported a man named nicholas romanov instead at that point nicholas was the most senior mail line member of the house from a non-morganatic marriage and also he was the president of the romanov family association when he died without sons in 2014 his claim was picked up by his brother dmitry who then died childless just two years later at that point in 2016 there was only one person left who could claim to be from both a non-morganatic line and from a male only line that person was and is andrew romanov who interestingly is also the grandson of nicholas ii's sister xenia andrew now 97 years old currently lives in california his sister olga is the current president of the romanov family association but the problem with andrew is that he did not marry a noble and therefore his children are not eligible to continue his claim after his death under the original pauline rules nor is anyone else once andrew dies there will be no person who can claim to be from both a non-morganatic line and from a male only line so at that point we'll be left with a choice do we go with a female line that has kept all their marriages strictly within the nobility or do we go with a male-only line even though some non-nobles have now entered the family tree of course there's also a third possibility we could forget about both the original rules and simply go with some other system such as absolute primogeniture or the person with the most current ties to russia let's look at the two non-morganatic female line candidates first because according to the original rules they will in fact be eligible at the point when andrew dies i've already mentioned maria she has the distinction of being the child of the last undisputed head of the house as well as being a candidate that many already support so long as we consider her mother to have been of noble blood she does in fact have a very strong claim but if we don't consider her mother to have been noble we would then have to look elsewhere to the next most senior line descended from emperor in exile karel karel had a daughter who married a german prince and then their son emek went on to marry a duchess and have a son named carl carl claims that he is the rightful heir to the throne and in fact has supported the creation of a micro nation called the romanov empire of which he would be the emperor reigning as nicholas iii he and a russian businessman named anton bakhov have attempted to secure several locations on which to build their new nation so far they've tried and failed in the balkans the caribbean the pacific ocean and off the coast of west africa currently they are looking at building an artificial island in neutral mediterranean waters but have stated that they are waiting for the covet 19 pandemic to pass before they pursue it any further okay let's now look at the most senior non-morganatic male line if we throw out the requirement for all marriages to be with a woman of noble rank the most senior mail line member of the house of romanov is currently dmitry ilinsky son of the former mayor of palm beach florida paul elinsky dimitri is an american citizen and a successful businessman but there are two more possibilities what if we threw out both the male only rule as well as the non-morganatic rule and simply went with absolute primogeniture which is the system that most european monarchies use today using this method the line would pass through nicholas ii's sister xenia and then through her firstborn child arena irina married a russian count who happened to have been involved in the murder of the famous russian mystic grigori rasputin irina had a daughter also named arena who then had a daughter named xenia who is currently 78 and living in greece along with a daughter and two granddaughters so arena is a fifth possibility finally what about choosing the member of the family with the most current ties to russia that person would be ratzislav romanov he's a male line descendant as well as a descendant from nicholas ii's sister xenia his father was andrew romanov's first cousin he's an artist and is the only member of the house of romanov to have lived in russia since the fall of the empire he currently splits his time between the uk and russia and serves as the vice president of the romanov family association and is the main representative within russia itself so there you have it six candidates each with a claim to the former imperial throne personally i think the person with the strongest claim is the grand duchess maria vladimirovna she fits the original rules so long as her mother is considered to have been noble and being that her mother was from the very ancient royal house of bagrio tioni i would say that she was if we disqualify her simply because the house of bagriot tony is no longer ruling then we'd have to disqualify the entire romanov family as well she also has the distinction of being the only child of the last undisputed head of the house grand duke vladimir and she is the individual recognized by the russian orthodox church as being the rightful heir but what do you think let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with my choice and why but before i go i want to share with you something interesting i myself through my wife actually have somewhat of a connection to the romanov family so here's me and here's my wife charlotte charlotte had a great grandfather named isaac who was one of the many eastern european jews who migrated to ellis island in the early 20th century isaac had three first cousins who were photographers and not only that they were the official photographers to the czar's family many of the photos you can find online of empress alexandra and her children were actually taken by them so that's kind of cool if you're interested in learning more about the russian tsars we've got another video which covers every czar from ivan the terrible to nicholas ii you can find a link to that on screen now or in the description thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: UsefulCharts

Views: 523,879

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Id: nMj08bfbi-g

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 01 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/DonGatoCOL]

It's Maria, that's pretty straight forward, as her mother is from a non reigning Bulgarian noble family, as she is from a Russian one.

[u/ThatsGaySyopThat]

Long Live Tsarina Maria

[u/cfvh]

No one would be tsar of Russia because Russian lastly had an emperor. Maria Vladimirovna is the legitimate titular empress.