Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (7 July O.S._24_June.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 24 June">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 24 June1907 – 24 June 1989) was the sixth son and youngest child of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Born in Imperial Russia during the reign of his paternal second cousin and maternal uncle Nicholas II, he was on vacation in

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

at the fall of the Russian monarchy. He was joined there by his immediate family. They escaped the fate of many of his relatives killed by the Bolsheviks. He left Russia in April 1919, at age 11. In the late 1920s, he emigrated to the United States where he met Princess Natalia Golitsyna. They married in 1931. The couple had one daughter and lived for decades in

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

Early life

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov was born at

Gatchina Palace The Great Gatchina Palace (russian: Большой Гатчинский дворец) is a palace in Gatchina, Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It was built from 1766 to 1781 by Antonio Rinaldi (architect), Antonio Rinaldi for Count Grigori Grigoryevi ...

on 7 July 1907, the sixth son and last of the seven children of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and

Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia (russian: Ксения Александровна Романова; – 20 April 1960) was the elder daughter and fourth child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia ...

.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 67 Although a grandson of

Emperor Alexander III Alexander III ( rus, Алекса́ндр III Алекса́ндрович, r=Aleksandr III Aleksandrovich; 10 March 18451 November 1894) was Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 13 March 1881 until his death in 1894. ...

through his mother, he was not entitled to the title Grand Duke of Russia because he was only a great-grandson of

Emperor Nicholas I , house = Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp , father = Paul I of Russia , mother = Maria Feodorovna (Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg) , birth_date = , birth_place = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire , death_date = ...

in the male line through his father.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 48 He was a sickly child and after his birth there was some doubts that he would survive so he was baptized in the nursery. Shortly after his birth his parents started to live separate lives.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 68 Prince Vasili spent his early years in Imperial Russia during the reign of his maternal uncle Tsar

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

. At the fall of Russian monarchy in February 1917 Vasili, aged ten, was on vacation in Ai-Todor, his father's estate in

.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 98 By the end of March both of his parents, all his siblings and their grandmother Empress Maria Feodorovna were also in Crimea.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 105 After the Russian Revolution, when the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, Prince Vasili along with his parents, siblings and grandmother the Dowager Empress were placed under house arrest at Ai-Todor.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 123 On 11 March 1918 they were transferred with other Romanovs relatives to Dulber, the estate of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich in

.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 126 He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov relatives imprisoned who were murdered by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

when he was freed with the Romanovs in his group by German troops in May 1918.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 129 He escaped from Russia on 11 April 1919 with the help of his great aunt Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (née Princess Alexandra of Denmark), Dowager Empress Maria's sister.

King George V of the United Kingdom George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

sent the British warship

HMS Marlborough Six warships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Marlborough'' after the Duke of Marlborough: * , a second rate, renamed ''Marlborough'' 1706; fought in the Seven Years' War; present in Sir George Pocock's fleet at the taking of Havana from t ...

which brought Vasili's family and other Romanovs from the Crimea over the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and then to England.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 146 Prince Vasili, who was eleven years old at the time, spent the rest of his life in exile.

Exile

During his first years in exile, Prince Vasili lived in England with his mother. In the late 1920s, he emigrated to the United States where he spent the rest of his life. Vasili earned a living by finding work as a cabin boy, shipyard worker, stockbroker, winemaker and a chicken farmer in northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.Willis, ''The Romanovs in the 21st Century'', p. 109 Prince Vasili married in New York City on 31 July 1931, Princess Natalia Golitsyna (Moscow 26 October 1907 – Woodside 28 March 1989), a fellow Russian exile – they met in the United States. Natalia was a distant cousin of Prince Rostislav's wife.Van der Kiste & Hall, ''Once a Grand Duchess'', p. 190 Her sister, Princess Olga Golitsyna, married Geoffrey Tooth, who would become the second husband of Vasili's niece,

Princess Xenia Andreevna Princess Xenia Andreevna Romanoff (10 March 1919 – 22 October 2000) was a direct descendant of the Tsars of Russia. She was a great niece of Nicholas II, the last reigning Russian Emperor. Biography Princess Xenia was born in Paris, on 10 March ...

. Princess Natalia came from one of Russia's most aristocratic families, the noble Golitsyns. Her father, Prince Alexander Golitsyn, the son of the governor of Moscow, was a country doctor. Her mother belonged to the Lyubov family. Princess Natalia escaped revolutionary Russia with her family in 1920 through Siberia to China. In 1927, they moved to

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. For a time, she pursued a career as an actress playing small parts in the theater and in silent films. Prince Vasili met Princess Natalia Golitsyna in 1931, marrying her a few months later. The couple moved to Northern California in 1934. They lived for the rest of their lives in a house, 30 km. south of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Prince Vasili and his wife had one daughter: * Princess Marina Romanov (born in San Francisco 22 May 1940); married in Woodside, California on 8 January 1967 (divorced) William Beadleston (born in Long Branch, New Jersey 31 July 1938) an art dealer. They had four children: Tatiana (b. 1968) Alexandra (b. 1970) Nicholas (b. 1971) Natalie (b. 1976). Princess Marina Romanov is now married to Daniel Stanberry and lives in Aspen, Colorado. They have one daughter.Willis, ''The Romanovs in the 21st Century'', p. 110 In 1980, Prince Vasili was appointed president of the

Romanov Family Association The Romanov Family Association (russian: Объединение Членов Рода Романовых, Obyedineniye Chlenov Roda Romanovykh) is an organization for descendants of the former Russian Imperial House. It was created in 1979 and of ...

in succession to his brother Prince Dmitry Alexandrovich. He remained president until his death in

aged 81. He was buried at the Serbian Cemetery in San Francisco.

Arms

It is often alleged that Vasili's marriage with Princess Golitsyna would have been

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

. However, Romanov biographer Pieter Broek holds that it was as acceptable dynastically as the Bagrationi marriage of Vasili's cousin,

Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia (russian: Владимир Кириллович Романов; 21 April 1992) was the Head of the Imperial Family of Russia, a position which he claimed from 1938 to his death. Early life Vladimir was bo ...

. Since the extinction of the

Korecki family The House of Korecki (Polish: ród Koreckich (Korecki clan), Koreccy) was a princely family of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania origin. The name is derived from the original seat of the family at the Korets Castle, which was part of the Grand Duch ...

in the 17th century, the Golitsyns have claimed dynastic seniority in the

House of Gediminas The family of Gediminas is a group of family members of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania (ca. 1275–1341), who interacted in the 14th century. The family included the siblings, children, and grandchildren of the Grand Duke and played the pivot ...

. The Gediminids were a dynasty of monarchs of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

that reigned from the 14th to the 16th century and Emperor Peter I had permitted the Golitsyns to incorporate the emblem of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into their coat of arms.

Early life

Exile

Arms

Ancestry

References

Further reading