Grand Duchess Victoria Fyodorovna

Princess Victoria Melita of Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha was the third child and second daughter of Prince Alfred of Great Britain and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna. Known in the family as “Ducky,” she married her cousin, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the eldest son of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich.

This marriage was considered a mésalliance. In order to marry Kirill, Victoria Melita had four years earlier divorced Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse-Darmstadt, the only brother of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Kirill and Victoria married without the consent of Tsar Nicholas II in Germany in 1905.

For two years, the couple were not allowed to enter Russia. They were eventually forgiven in 1907, when they settled in St Petersburg. Victoria Melita converted to Orthodoxy as Grand Duchess Victoria Fyodorovna.

Victoria and Kirill fled Russia during the revolution and took up residence in France. In 1924, to the horror of the other members of the Romanov dynasty, Kirill declared himself the emperor of Russia. Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna sent him a telegram, making it quite clear that she did not recognise his right to the title: “I am convinced that my two beloved sons are alive and so cannot consider your act a fait accompli.”

Victoria and Kirill’s son, Vladimir, regarded himself as the head of the House of Romanov and titular tsar. When Vladimir died in 1992, he was buried in the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral in St Petersburg. In 1995, his parents’ remains were reinterred alongside him.