Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1260

 904 RUSSIA

Grand-uncle of the Emperor.

The Graiul-iluke Michael, brother of the Emperor Alexander II., born October 13 (October 25), 1832, General Field-Marshal, President of the State's Council and Chief of Artillery ; married to Princess Cecilia of Baden, who died April 1 (April 13), 1891. His children:—!. Nicholas, born April 14 (April 26), 1859. 2. Anastasia, born July 16 (July 28), 1860, and married January 12 (January 24), 1879, to Prince Friedricli Franz of ]\Iecklenburg- Schwerin ; widow April 10, 1897. 3. Michael, born October 4 (October 16), 1861, and married April 6, 1891, to Sophie, Countess of Merenberg, which marriage led to his exclusion from the army, a trust being nominated on his estates. 4. George, born August 11 (August 23), 1863. 5. Alexander, born April 1 (Af)ril 13), 1866 ; married to the Grand-duchess Xenia, sister of the reigning Emperor; oftspring: a daughter, Irene, born July 3 (July 15), 1895, and a son, Andreas, born January 13 (January 25), 1897. 6. Sergius, born September 25 (October 7), 1869.

Cousins of the late Emperor.

The children of the late Grand-duke Constantine, brother of the Emperor Alexander II., and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe- Altenburg, of which union there are issue : — 1. Nicholas, born February 2 (February 14), 1850. 2. Olga, born August 22 (September 3), 1851, and married October 27, 1867, to Georgios I., King of the Hellenes. 3. Vera, born February 4 (February 16), 1854, and married May 8, 1874, to Prince Eugene of Wllrtteinberg ; widow January 15, 1877. 4. Constantine, born August 10 (August 22),"l858 ; married April 15 (April 27), 1884, to Princess Elizabeth of Saxe-Altenburg, Duchess of Saxony ; offspring : — John, born July 6, 1886 ; Gabriel, born July 15, 1887 ; Tatiana, born January 23, 1890 ; Constantine, born January 1, 1891 ; Oleg, born November 15, (November 27), 1892 ; and Igor, born May 29 (June 10), 1894. 5. Dimitri, born June 1 (June 13), 1860.

The children of the late Grand-duke Nicholas, died April 13 (April 25), 1891, and his wife, the Princess Alexandra of Oldenburg : — 1. Nicholas, born November 6 (November 18), 1856. 2. Peter, born January 10 (January 22), 1864; married July 26 (August 7), 1889, to the Princess Militsa of Montenegro ; issue, Marina, born Feb. 28 (March 11), 1892 ; Roman, born October 5 (October 17), 1896 ; Nadeshda, born March 3 (15), 1898.

The reigning family of Russia descend, in the female line, from IMichael Romanof, elected Tsar in 1613, after the extinction of the House of Rurik ; and in the male line from the Duke Karl Fricdrich of Holstein-Gottorp, born in 1701, scion of a younger branch of the princely family of Oldenburg. The union of his daughter Anne with Duke Karl Friedricli of Holstein-Gottorp formed part of the great reform projects of Peter I., intended to bring Russia into closer contact with the Western States of Eurojie. Peter I. was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine, the daughter of a Livonian i)easant, and she by Peter II., the grandson of Peter, with whom the male line of the Romanofs terminated, in the year 1730. The reign of the next three sovereigns of Russia, Anne, Ivan VI., and Elizabeth, of the female line of Romanof, formed a transition })eriod, which came to an end with the accession of Peter III., of the house of Holstein-Gottorp. All the subsequent emperors, without excei>tion, connected themselves by marriage with German iamilies. The wife and successor of Peter III., Catherine II., daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, general in the Prussian army, left the croAvn to her only son, Paul, who became the father of two emperors, Alexander I. and Nicholas, and the grandfather of a third, Alexander II. All tlie.se sovereigns married German princesses, creating intimate family alliances, anioug others, with the reigning 1) mi SOS of "\Viirt;temberg, Baden, and Prussia,