by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia has been one of the disputed pretenders to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia since 1992.

The Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and succession to the former Russian throne has been in dispute, mainly due to disagreements over the validity of marriages. In 1924, after Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (son of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia and brother of Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia) was declared legally dead, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, a male-line grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia and Maria Vladimirovna’s grandfather, declared himself Guardian of the Throne and later assumed the title Emperor of All Russia. Upon the death of his father Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1938, his son (and Maria Vladimirovna’s father) Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich was recognized as the Head of the Russian Imperial House by the Grand Dukes and Princes of Imperial Blood behind him in order of dynastic seniority and by the majority of the reigning houses of Europe. Unlike his father, Vladimir Kirillovich did not proclaim himself Emperor of All Russia. Instead, he used the style and title His Imperial Highness The Sovereign Grand Duke for the rest of his life.

Maria Vladimirovna’s parents visiting Russia in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union

Born on December 23, 1953, in Madrid, Spain, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia is the only child of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani. Her paternal grandparents are Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (a grandson of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia) and Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a granddaughter of both Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Alexander, Emperor II of All Russia). Maria Vladimirovna’s maternal grandparents are Prince George Alexandrovich Bagration-Mukhrani, a Georgian nobleman, and Elena Sigismundovna Zlotnitskaya, the daughter of a Russian nobleman of Polish origin.

Maria Vladinmrovna has a half-sister from her mother’s first marriage to Sumner Moore Kirby, an heir to the F. W. Woolworth Company fortune. The marriage ended in divorce.

• Helen Louise Kirby (born 1935), unmarried

Maria Vladimirovna with her dog in 1971

Maria Vladimirovna attended Runnymede College in Madrid, Spain, a co-ed private school for children from the age of two to eighteen. The school follows the National Curriculum for England. She is fluent in Russian, English, French, and Spanish, and speaks some German, Italian, and Arabic.

On December 23, 1969, upon reaching her dynastic majority, Maria Vladimirovna swore an oath of loyalty to her father, to Russia, and to uphold the Fundamental Laws of Russia which governed succession to the defunct throne. At the same time, her father issued a controversial decree declaring that Maria Vladimirovna was born from an equal marriage and was his heiress presumptive.

Maria Vladimirovna and Franz Wilhelm on their wedding day; Credit – www.russianlegitimist.org

On September 22, 1976, at the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called and the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica in Madrid, Spain, Maria Vladimirovna married third cousin once removed Maria Vladimirovna. Franz Wilhelm is the son of Prince Karl Franz of Prussia (son of Prince Joachim of Prussia who was the son of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and King of Prussia) and Princess Henriette of Schönaich-Carolath. Franz Wilhelm converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and was created a Grand Duke of Russia with the name Mikhail Pavlovich by his father-in-law Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. A year after their son was born, Maria Vladimirovna and her husband separated and were divorced in 1985. After the divorce, Franz Wilhelm reverted to his birth name.

Maria Vladimirovna and Franz Wilhelm had one son:

• Prince George of Prussia also known as Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (born 1981), married Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, has one son

On April 21, 1992, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich died from a heart attack at the age of 74 while addressing a gathering of Spanish-speaking bankers and investors at Northern Trust Bank in Miami, Florida. Vladimir was buried in the Grand Ducal Mausoleum at the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, Russia, the first Romanov to be buried in Russia since the Russian Revolution. At that time, it was noted in the Russian press, that the funeral “was regarded by civic and Russian authorities as an obligation to the Romanov family rather than a step toward restoration of the monarchy.”

Maria Vladimirovna’s claim to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family is based on a claim that all male lines of the Romanov family are either extinct, illegitimate, or morganatic, triggering semi-salic succession, in which the throne could only pass to a female and through the female line upon the extinction of all legitimately-born, male dynasts. Maria Vladimirovna’s claim was disputed by the Romanov Family Association, a private organization of living male-line descendants of Paul I, Emperor of All Russia except Maria Vladimirovna and her son.

Pre-revolutionary Romanov house law allowed only those born of an equal marriage between a Romanov dynast and a member of a royal or sovereign house to be in the line of succession to the Russian throne. The throne could only pass to a female and through the female line upon the extinction of all legitimately-born, male dynasts. Maria Vladimiovna’s mother Princess Leonida of Bagration belonged to a family that had been kings in Georgia from medieval times until the early 19th century. However, no male line ancestor of Leonida has reigned as a king in Georgia since 1505 and her branch of the Bagrations, the House of Mukhrani, had been naturalized as non-ruling nobility of Russia after Georgia was annexed to the Russian empire in 1801. Therefore, after the death of Vladimir Kirillovich in 1992, Prince Nicholas Romanov claimed that he was the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia. Except for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, who said that the marriage of Nicholas’ parents was not in conformity with the house laws, Nicholas was recognized by the rest of the family as head of the Romanov family. However, Maria Vladimirovna seems to be more accepted by European royalty and she is sometimes invited to royal events. She attended the 2023 funeral of former King Constantine II of Greece.

Maria Vladimirovna (in the middle) attending the funeral of her third cousin King Constantine II of Greece

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duke-vladimir-kirillovich-of-russia/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Flantzer, Susan. (2012) Romanovs Who Survived the Russian Revolution, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/former-monarchies/the-romanovs/romanov-survivors/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Vladimirovna_of_Russia (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Vladimir_Kirillovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Leonida Bagration of Mukhrani (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonida_Bagration_of_Mukhrani (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Mehl, Scott. (2015) Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duke-kirill-vladimirovich-of-russia/ (Accessed: 21 July 2023).
• Perry, John Curtis and Pleshakov, Constantine. (2001) The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga. New York: Basic Books.