by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia, also known as Prince George of Prussia through his father, has been one of the disputed heirs to the Headship of the Russian Imperial Family and the throne of Russia since his birth in 1981.

Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia was March 13, 1981, in Madrid, Spain. He is the only child of Prince Franz Wilhelm of Prussia and Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia. His paternal grandparents are 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. George’s maternal grandparents are Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani. His maternal grandfather was the son of 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).

George was baptized in a Russian Orthodox ceremony with former King Constantine II of Greece serving as his godfather. When it was announced that George would have the title Grand Duke of Russia, Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia, a grandson of Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia, then president of the Romanov Family Association, remarked: “The Romanov Family Association hereby declares that the joyful event in the Prussian Royal House does not concern the Romanov Family Association since the newborn prince is not a member of either the Russian Imperial House or of the Romanov family.”

The claim of George’s mother Maria Vladimirovna as Head of the Russian Imperial Family is disputed by the Romanov Family Association made up of the majority of the male-line descendants of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna and father Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, male-line descendants of Nicholas I, never joined. 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.

A year after George was born, his parents separated and were divorced in 1985. George spent the first years of his life in France before moving to Spain. In Spain, George and his mother lived with his maternal grandmother Princess Leonida Bagration-Mukhrani at the home of Helen Kirby, Leonida’s daughter from her first marriage to Sumner Moore Kirby, an heir to the F. W. Woolworth Company fortune. Leonida’s marriage ended in divorce but her daughter Helen, who never married, received a substantial fortune from her father.

George was educated at Runnymede College in Madrid, Spain, which his mother also attended, d’Overbroeck’s College in Oxford, England, and finally at Saint Benet’s Hall, Oxford University in Oxford, England. He worked in the European Parliament, where he was an aide to Spanish politician Loyola de Palacio, a former European Commissioner for Transport and Energy. He was then employed at the Directorate General of the European Commission for Atomic Energy and Security in Luxembourg. From 2008 – 2014, George worked at Norilsk Nickel, a Russian nickel mining company, first as Assistant to the General Director and then as chief executive of Metal Trade Overseas, Norilsk Nickel’s main sales center in Switzerland. In 2014, George started his own company Romanoff & Partners, a Brussels-based company that advocates and provides consulting services for countries and businesses outside the European Union.

Wedding of Grand Duke George; Credit – Russian Imperial House

George married Rebecca Virginia Bettarini, Director of the Russian Imperial Foundation, born in Rome, Italy in 1982, the daughter of Italian diplomat Roberto Bettarini and Carla Virginia Cacciatore. George’s mother Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna decreed that her future daughter-in-law would have the right to use the surname Romanova after her marriage and have the title of Princess, with the style Her Serene Highness, not Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess, the corresponding female title of her husband. This style and title imply that the marriage is morganatic, and therefore an unequal marriage. George’s bride converted from Catholicism to Russian Orthodoxy before the wedding, adopting the name Victoria Romanova. The couple was married in a civil ceremony in Moscow, Russia, on September 24, 2021, followed by a religious wedding on October 1, 2021, at Saint Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia, attended by around 1500 guests. It was the first Romanov wedding held in Russia since the Russian Revolution.

George with his wife and son on his son’s christening day; Credit – Russian Imperial House

George and his wife, who live in Moscow, Russia, have one son, Alexander Georgievich Romanov, born in Moscow, Russia on October 21, 2022. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna announced that her first grandchild will be styled His Serene Highness Prince Alexander Georgievich Romanov – not His Imperial Highness Grand Duke.

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/grand-duchess-maria-vladimirovna-of-russia/ (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
• Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_George_Mikhailovich_of_Russia (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
• Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duchess_Maria_Vladimirovna_of_Russia (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
• Романов, Георгий Михайлович (2023) Wikipedia (Russian). Available at: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2,_%D0%93%D0%B5%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 (Accessed: 23 July 2023).
• Russian Imperial House (2023) Российский Императорский Дом. Available at: http://imperialhouse.ru/en/ (Accessed: 23 July 2023).