Tsarevich (russian: Царевич, ) is a
Slav
Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
ic title given to
tsar
Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...
s' sons. Under the 1797
Pauline house law, the title was discontinued and replaced with ''
Tsesarevich
Tsesarevich (russian: Цесаревич, ) was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the given name and patronymic.
Usage
It is often confused with " tsarevich", which is a di ...
'' for the
heir apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
alone. His younger brothers were called ''
Velikiy Knjaz'', meaning ''
Grand Prince
Grand prince or great prince (feminine: grand princess or great princess) ( la, magnus princeps; Greek: ''megas archon''; russian: великий князь, velikiy knyaz) is a title of nobility ranked in honour below emperor, equal of king ...
'', although it was commonly translated to English as ''Grand Duke''. English sources often confused the terms ''Tsarevich'' and ''Tsesarevich''.
Alexei Nikolaevich, the only son of
Nicholas II, was the last member of Russian royalty to be called ''Tsarevich'' even though he was the Tsesarevich.
Historically, the term was also applied to descendants of the
khans
Khan may refer to:
*Khan (inn), from Persian, a caravanserai or resting-place for a travelling caravan
*Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by ...
(tsars) of
Kazan
Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering an ...
,
Kasimov
Kasimov (russian: Каси́мов; tt-Cyrl, Касыйм;, Ханкирмән,Ханкирмән, Хан-Кермень, means "Khan's fortress" historically Gorodets Meshchyorsky, Novy Nizovoy) is a town in Ryazan Oblast, Russia, located on the ...
, and
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
after these
khanates had been conquered by
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. See: ''
Tsareviches of Siberia'', for example. The descendants of the deposed royal families of Georgia or the
Batonishvili
''Batonishvili'' ( ka, ბატონიშვილი) (literally "a child of batoni (lord or sovereign)" in Georgian) is a title for royal princes and princesses who descend from the kings of Georgia from the Bagrationi dynasty and is suffixe ...
were given the titles of Tsarevich until 1833 when they were demoted to
Knyaz after a
failed coup to restore the Georgian monarchies.
See also
*
Tsarevna
Tsarevna (russian: Царевна) was the daughter of a Tsar of Russia before the 18th century. The name is meant as a daughter of a Tsar, or as a wife of a Tsarevich.
All of them were unmarried, and grew old in convents or in the Terem Palace, ...
*
Tsesarevich
Tsesarevich (russian: Цесаревич, ) was the title of the heir apparent or presumptive in the Russian Empire. It either preceded or replaced the given name and patronymic.
Usage
It is often confused with " tsarevich", which is a di ...
Notes
References
Noble titles of Russia
Russian royalty
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