Articles and materials

The dynastic status of the Bagration Prince's clan in the Russian Empire in connection with the issue of the marriage of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhraneli.

Professor, Candidate of Historical Sciences,

Director of the Political and Social Research

Institute of the Black and Caspian Sea basins, V.A.Zakharov

The dynastic status of the Bagration Dukes’ clan in the Russian Empire in connection with the issue of the marriage of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia and Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhraneli.

1. The legal status of descendants of Georgian kings and descendants of the Bagration clan in general in the Russian Empire.

               The most important stage of Russian and Georgian relations in the relationships with the Kings of Kartli and Kakheti is associated with the signing of the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783. It was concluded on 24 July, 1783 in the Georgievsk fortress between the representatives of the Tsar Irakli II of Kartli-Kakheti and the Russian Duchess Catherine the Great[1].
The treaty (or, more correctly, agreement) was initiated by the Georgian party. The text of the imperial decree for the Senate dated 29 September, 1783 specifies that by such agreement “this ruler acknowledged our supreme power and patronage, as well the supreme power and patronage of the heirs and descendants to our House, over the tsars of Kartli and Kakheti”[2]. In other words, the treaty established the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti as a protectorate of Russia. Remarkably, the text of the treaty itself names the monarchs of Kartli and Kakheti as “their serene highnesses (the tsars)”, while Irakli II is called there “His Serene Highness”. The relationship of Russia towards the kingdoms of Irakli II is named as “patronage”. Russia promised to preserve the territorial integrity of the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, and, according to the third article, new monarchs of Kartli-Kakheti were to receive the investiture of the Russian emperor: “As an expression of the sincerity, with which his serene highness the tsar of Kartli and Kakheti accepts the supreme power and patronage of emperors of all the Russias, it is resolved that the said tsars, when acceding to their throne by inheritance, shall immediately notify the Russian imperial court thereof, asking through their messengers the imperial confirmation of their reign with an investiture consisting of a letter of recognition, a banner with the coat of arms of the All-Russian Empire, incorporating the coat of arms of the said kingdoms, a sabre, a commanding rod and an ermine mantle or a cloak. These regalia will be either handed over to the messengers or delivered to the tsar through borderline authorities, and after receiving them, the tsar shall in the presence of a Russian minister solemnly swear fealty and commitment to the Russian Empire, as well as acceptance of the supreme power and patronage of the All-Russian Emperors according to the form attached hereto”. According to the sixth article, Catherine II promised by her name and by the name of her heirs, in particular, “to preserve His Serene Highness Tsar Irakli Teimurazovich and the heirs and descendants to his House, uninterrupted on the Throne of the Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti”. The ninth article was devoted to Dukes’ and noble-born clans of Kartli and Kakheti: “Bestowing Her mercy upon the subjects of His Serene Highness the Tsar, dukes and noblemen, Her Imperial Majesty establishes that they shall enjoy in the All-Russian Empire all the advantages and benefits that are attributed to the Russian noblemen, and His Serene Highness, gratefully accepting such gracious indulgency to His subjects, shall send to the court of her Majesty lists of all noble names, making it possible to know exactly, who may enjoy these great benefits”. Such lists also included the clan of Bagration-Mukhraneli Dukes, who were suspects of Irakli II.
               Therefore, the Treaty of Georgievsk preserved both Irakli II and his heirs on the royal throne of Kartli and Kakheti, however, a new tsar could assume the throne only with the consent of Russia. The Russian Emperor was the supreme protector of tsars of Kartli and Kakheti, and, naturally, his title and status were higher than those of the Georgian tsars.
               The historical circumstances developed in such a way that at the turn of the XVIII–XIX centuries the Kartli-Kakheti kingdom became a direct part of the Russian Empire, which was initiated by the Georgian party again.
               On 18 January, 1801, Tsar Paul I signed a manifesto “On the Annexing to Russia of the Georgian Kingdom”[3]. According to that document, “the Georgian Kingdom” (as the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was called by the manifesto) was annexed “in perpetuity” to our Empire, and its citizens became direct subjects of the All-Russian Imperial throne”. The Imperial title form attached to the manifesto called the Georgian territories of the Russian monarch as: “the Tsar’s Iveron, Kartli, Gruzinsky and Kabardian lands…”. On 12 September 1801, Alexander I signed a manifesto to the Georgian people[4]. In particular, it declared: “When assuming the All-Russian throne, we acquired the Georgian Kingdom annexed to Russia, which is conformed by the manifesto issued on 18 January, 1801 for general knowledge”, however, “not for accumulation of powers, profit, or expansion of territories of the already largest Empire in the world, do We assume the burden of management of the Georgian Kingdom. The single dignity, the single honour, and humanity make it Our sacred duty to hear the prayers of the suffering to save them from their grief and to establish in Georgia the Government that could promote justice and personal and property safety and give everyone the protection of the law”. In other words, direct Russian government was established in Kartli and Kakheti, although the text specified that “everyone shall preserve the benefits of his status… inviolably”, and “tsarevitches shall preserve their domains, except for those absent”. According to the “Order of the Internal Government in Georgia”, Georgia was divided by five divisions (“uyezdy”) (three divisions in Kartli and two divisions in Kakheti), and the Russian administration system was introduced. Later, members of the tsar family of Kartli and Kakheti were sent away to Russia.
               As was already demonstrated above, gradually, all the other Georgian states joined the Russian Empire. In the versions of the Imperial title dated 6 June, 1815, 23 December, 1825, and 25 March, 1828, the Georgian territorial component remained unchanged[5]. However, according to the Imperially confirmed descriptions of the state coat of arms, the state seal and coats of arms of the members of the Imperial House dated 11 April, 1857, the Russian state coat of arms includes the coat of arms of the Georgian state[6], while the version of the imperial title dated 3 November, 1882 includes the “Tsar of Georgia” title after the “Tsar of the Tauric Chersonese” title concluding the list of the “kingdoms” reigned by the Russian monarch[7].
It clearly follows from all the above that until 1917 the tsar of Georgia was deemed to be (and was) the All-Russian Emperor. The descendants of the Bagration dynasty, who found themselves in Russia, became Russian noblemen. Their legal status may be demonstrated by the example of the Regulation of the Committee of Ministers dated 1 April, 1833, which received Imperial confirmation and was declared by the Senate on 25 April, 1833 “On the Titles of Gruzinsky and Imeritian Tsarevitches and their Children”[8]. That Imperial Regulation established the following: “....1) to make the above regulations about the titling of Gruzinsky and Imeritian Tsarevitches and their Children Gruzinsky and Imeritian Tsarevitches and their children known everywhere through the Governing Senate, and 2) to order to all Government Agencies not to accept from members of former Royal Homes any papers containing titles they were not assigned and not to approve any deals and other acts signed by them in violation of the regulation or deals and other acts naming their titles in violation of the regulation”.
It clearly follows from that legislative act that the descendants of Kartli-Kakheti and Imeritian tsars preserved their title of tsarevitches only in the first generation even if they were titled only dukes. The Kartli-Kakheti and Imeritian Royal Homes were deemed to be “former” in the Russian Empire!
Apparently, the head of the Cabinet Office of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, the General A.A. Mosolov, was referring to that regulation when he described an interesting case from his past: “Her Highness Duchess Gruzinskaya, nee Bezobrazova, was a wife of a cornet in His Majesty’s convoy. Placing a higher emphasis on the clan of her husband than it was justified by the reality of the time, she started besieging the ministerial court, bothering the ceremonial division with her opinions regarding where she was to stand during the ceremonies of emergence of the Emperor from the palace. The duchess was convinced that, being a spouse of a descendant of Georgian tsars, she had to be between members of the Imperial family. Constant disputes in this connection bothered me so much that I took the trouble of finding the order issued back in the reign of Nikolay Pavlovich and establishing that all third-generation descendants of reigning Caucasian families shall rank according to the status in the Russian service. Her husband was a cornet…”[9].

2. The marriage of the Duchess of Imperial Blood Tatiana Konstantinovna and Duke Konstantin Aleksandrovich Bagration-Mukhraneli.

It clearly follows from all the above that even Their Highnesses Gruzinsky and Imeritian Dukes and Their Highnesses Imeritian Dukes, let alone Bagration-Mukhraneli or Bagration-Davydovy dukes, had a status of ruling houses in the Russian Empire, which could be similar to those of German monarchial and ruling families. And, therefore, in no case could they be equals in the social and matrimonial status to the Russian Imperial Family – the House of Romanovs.
A marriage of a member of the Imperial Family to any descendant of the Bagration was deemed to be morganatic, as, for example, the morganatic marriage of the Duchess of Imperial Blood Irina Aleksandrovna and duke Feliks Feliksovich Yusupov, count Sumarokov-Elston.
According to the Code of Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire as in force in 1906, namely, the article 188 of the Regulation on the Imperial Family, “A person from the Imperial Family, who married a person without an adequate status, i.e. not belonging to any of the reigning or ruling house, may not vest any rights belonging to the Members of the Imperial Family in such person without such status or in the offspring of such marriage”. There is also a Note to this article: “Henceforth, none of the Grand Dukes and grand Duchesses may marry a person without such status, i.e. not belonging to any of the reigning or ruling house”[10]. The Note is associated with the Imperial Edict dated 11 August, 1911, which permitted the members of the Imperial Family bearing the titles of Dukes and Duchesses of Imperial Blood (i.e., great-grandchildren of Emperors and their male descendants) to have morganatic marriages, but did not assign the status of members of the Imperial Family to the offspring of such marriages. That Edict was signed in anticipation of the marriage of the Duchess of Imperial Blood Tatiana Konstantinovna (1890–1979), a daughter of the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, and Duke Konstantin Aleksandrovich Bagration-Mukhraneli (1889–1915), solemnized in Pavlovsk on 24 August, 1911.
The article 188 of the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire clearly established that a member of the Imperial Family, who entered into a morganatic marriage shall not be deprived of his or her own rights to belong to the Imperial House (and, therefore, of the personal throne succession right), but shall not vest such rights in his or her spouse or the offspring of such marriage.
The fact that the marriage of the Duchess Tatiana Konstantinovna and Duke Bagration-Mukhraneli was expressly viewed as morganic is also confirmed by the members of the Imperial Family. A brother of the Duchess Tatiana, Duke Gabriel Konstantinovich, writes the following in his “In the Marble Palace” memories: “During that time, we often spoke about a cornet of the Chevalier Guards, Duke Bagration-Mukhraneli, at the house. He came to Pavlovsk to visit us and went boating with sister Tatiana. Everyone was delighted by him. Tatiana and Bagration fell in love with each other and decided to get married. However, father and mother were strongly opposed to such marriage, as Bagration was deemed not to be equal to Tatiana by his origin. Father demanded Bagration to leave Peterburg”. And, later, he wrote: “Father told Tatiana she had to know that marriage was not permitted by the law. The family started speaking about the desirability of changing of that law, and His Majesty told mother: "For three months, I was distressed and could not work up the nerve to ask mother, and I did not want to do anything without her approval. Finally, I told her about Tatiana and Bagration and the proposed family advises for the resolution of that issue and possible changing of the law. I was afraid of what she would say to me, but she answered (and His Majesty spoke in a low voice, imitating Maria Feodorovna): "It should have been changed a long time ago". There was no need for me to fret around for three months”[11]. That conversation and the events following it resulted in the resolution to make morganatic marriages permissible for lower members of the Dynasty (Dukes and Duchesses of Imperial Blood), however, without vesting the spouses of the Dynasty members and the offspring of such marriages with dynastic rights. Gabriel called the marriage of Tatiana Konstantinovna “half-royal”. The morganatic nature of that marriage was clearly evident to everyone at that time.

3. Recognition by the Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of the royal excellency of Dukes Bagration-Mukhraneli and the status of his marriage to Leonida Georgievna, born Duchess Bagration-Mukhraneli.            

So, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, no descendants of the Bagration dynasty were deemed to possess the status of the reigning or ruling house. However, on 22 November/5 December, 1946, the Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, as the Head of the Imperial House, signed an Act of Recognition of the Royal Excellency of Dukes Bagration-Mukhraneli. According thereto[12], the royal excellency of Dukes Bagration-Mukhraneli as the oldest branch of “the Bagration Family” and the “right of its members to be called Gruzinsky Dukes and titled Royal Highnesses” were recognized. “The head of this family is the now living Duke Georgy Aleksandrovich, the daughter of whom, born Duchess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhraneli, in 1948 became the wife of Vladimir Kirillovich himself.
It is not clear from the text of that document, whether Vladimir Kirillovich recognized the royal excellency of the whole Bagration-Mukhraneli Dukes’ clan or only that of the family of the Duke Georgy Aleksandrovich. In any case, it is that Act that is the legal ground for recognition of the marriage of Vladimir Kirillovich to be equal in the status of birth.
What are the reasons for the recognition of the royal excellency of the family of the Duke Georgy Aleksandrovich Bagration-Mukhraneli? According to the text of the Act, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich considered two factual circumstances: the first one is the “fact of independence of Georgia during the period from 1918 to 1921”, which fact alone is completely and utterly irrelevant, as, on the one hand, from the point of view of the laws of the Russian Empire, such independence was pure separatism and therefore had no lawful status, and, on the other hand, Georgia was a republic at that time. The second fact is the genealogical seniority of Dukes Bagration-Mukhraneli in relation to the other branches of the Bagration clan. It should also be mentioned that there were no similar Acts issued in Europe by any royal House deprived of international legal personality! Neither the House of Habsburg — Austro-Hungarian Emperors, nor the Royal House of Prussia (House of Hohenzollern) issued any legal Acts changing the social or legal status of any given aristocratic Clan in the countries where their ancestors once reigned. Therefore, the 1946 Act of the Head of the House of Romanovs was not based on any historical grounds and, moreover, exceeded his prerogatives as a person who was not a subject of international law and who was not entitled to introduce any amendments in the sphere of the social and political position of any aristocratic clans of the Russian Empire.
Admittedly, in 1946, after the extinction of the clans of Dukes Gruzinsky and Dukes Bagration, it was the Bagration-Mukhraneli Dukes’ clan that was the genealogically oldest branch of the whole Bagration clan. Duke Georgy Aleksandrovich Bagration-Mukhraneli (1884–1957), who before the revolution was just a Dusaheti district marshal of nobility (and there were several hunreds of district marshals of nobility at the same time in the Russian Empire) and who was married to a daughter of a roving inspector of the Vladikavkaz railroad E.S. Zolotnitskaya (1886–1979), after the death of his father in 1918 indeed became the genealogically oldest representative of the Bagration-Mukhraneli Dukes’ clan. But was that fact alone sufficient to recognize his royal (!) excellence?
As for the origin of Duke Georgy Aleksandrovich Bagration-Mukhraneli from the Royal Bagration Dynasty, it alone did not mean he had any special rights – otherwise, the same rights to be equal in the status of birth with the Romanovs had to be enjoyed by all the many descendants of the princely Rurik dynasty, many of whom did not even possess a princely title in the Russian Empire and held a quite modest duty position.
By his 1946 Act, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich basically violated the territorial integrity of the Russian Empire, the Throne of which he claimed. After all, the title of the Tsar of Georgia inseparably belonged to a Russian Emperor. Therefore, when claiming the Throne of the Russian Empire, Vladimir Kirillovich had to abandon his rights to the Throne of the Georgian Kingdom before recognizing the royal rights of any Bagration branch (however, in that case, his opinion could not be of any fundamental importance anymore). In other words, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich recognized the dynastic rights of his subjects, having supported thereby regional separatism and crossed out the inclusion of Georgia to the Russian Empire according to the Imperial Proclamations of the Emperors Pavel I and Alexander I. Moreover, the very Act of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich is characterized by extraordinary self-contradictoriness. The Head of the Russian Imperial House proclaims to have executed the Act for the purposes of “preservation of the future integrity of the Russian Empire” (!), and with the “revival of Our great Empire” he does not admit so much as a thought of existence of Georgia as an independent state. However, the subjects of the All-Russian Emperor – Dukes of the Russian Empire – acquire “royal excellence” granted to them not by the laws of their country or dynasty, but by the will of the very “Georgian Tsar” – the All-Russian Emperor (or, to be more exact, a claimant to the Throne). Nothing could be more absurd from the point of view of law.
               However, according to the Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire, the throne of which was absolutely lawfully claimed by Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich, his marriage to the born Duchess Leonida Georgievna Bagration-Mukhraneli was undoubtedly an unequal (morganatic) marriage, and, therefore, the offspring of that marriage has no right of succession to the Russian Imperial Throne according to the articles 36 and 188 of the Code of Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire.

His Imperial Majesty's Edict No. 1588 on the Abandonment by Her Highness Duchess Tatiana Konstantinovna of her Rights of Succession to the Imperial All-Russian Throne.

To the Directing Senate.

Her Highness Duchess Tatiana Konstantinovna submitted to Us an abandonment of her right of Succession to the Imperial All-Russian Throne, belonging to Her as a Member of the Imperial House, which abandonment was signed by Her Highness's own hand.
The Directing Senate will complete all the formalities and procedures required for the execution thereof.
Inscribed on the original by His Imperial Majesty’s Own hand:

His Imperial Majesty's Edict No. 1589 on the Marriage of Her Highness Duchess Tatiana Konstantinovna to Duke Konstantin Bagration-Mukhraneli. Dated 11 August, 1911.

To the Directing Senate.

[1]    The text of the treaty is published in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire (CCLRE) (First Collection). Vol. 21. P. 1013–1017 (No. 15835), and it can also be found on the web-site of the historical faculty of the Moscow State University: http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/georgia.htm

[2]    CCLRE. Vol. 21. P. 1013.

[3]    Published in: CCLRE (First Collection). Vol. 26. P. 502–503 (No. 19721).

[4]    Published in: CCLRE (First Collection). Vol. 26. P. 782–784 (No. 20007).

[5]    CCLRE (First Collection). Vol. 33. P. 195 (No. 25875); CCLRE (Second Collection). Vol. 1. P. 22 (No. 13), Vol. 3. P. 331 (No. 1897).

[6]    CCLRE (Second Collection). Vol. 32. Part 1. P. 299 (No. 31720).

[7]    CCLRE (Third Collection). Vol. 2. P. 433 (No. 1159).

[8]    CCLRE (Second Collection). Vol. 8. Part 1. P. 199 (No. 6091).

[9]    For example, http://e-libra.ru/books/216327-pri-dvore-poslednego-imperatora.html

[10]   Succession to the Russian Imperial Throne. Moscow, 1999. P. 80–81. The full text of the Code of Fundamental State Laws of the Russian Empire with all the required links is available on Wikisource.

[11]   The memories of Gabriel Konstantinovich were published repeatedly, including online: see, for example, http://www.tinlib.ru/istorija/v_mramornom_dvorce/p1.php

[12]   Please refer to: Succession to the Russian Imperial Throne. P. 152–153.