Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia

Infobox Russian Royalty|prince
name = Vasili Alexandrovich
title =Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia


imgw = 180px
caption =
imperial house = House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
father =Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
mother =Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
spouse = Princess Natalia Aleksandrovna Galitzine
issue =Princess Marina Vassilievna
date of birth =Birth date|1907|07|07
place of birth = Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russian Empire
date of death =Death date and age|1989|06|23|1907|07|07
place of death = Woodside, California, United States
place of burial=|

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia (July 7, 1907 Gatchina, Russia - 23 June 1989 in California, United States) was a son of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. He was a nephew of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Life

Prince Vasili Alexandrovich Romanov was born in the Palace of Gatchina on July 7, 1907, the sixth son and last of the seven children of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. Although a grandson of Emperor Alexander III 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 in the male line through his father. He spent his early years in Imperial Russia.

During the Russian Revolution Prince Vasili was imprisoned along with his parents, siblings and grandmother the Dowager Empress at Dulber, in the Crimea. He escaped the fate of a number of his Romanov relatives who were murdered by the Bolsheviks when he was freed by German troops in 1918. He escaped from Russia on April 11, 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 sent the British warship HMS Marlborough which brought Vasili's family and other Romanovs from the Crimea over the Black Sea to Malta and then to England. Prince Vasili, who was eleven years old at the time, spent the rest of his life in 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 1980 Prince Vasili was appointed president of the Romanov Family Association in succession to his brother Prince Dmitri Alexandrovich.

Family

Prince Vasili married in New York City on July 31 1931, Princess Natalia Galitzine (Moscow 26 Oct 1907-Woodside 28 Mar 1989). The couple lived in California for many years. They had one daughter :
* Princess Marina Romanov (born in San Francisco 22 May 1940); married in Woodside California on January 8, 1967 (divorced) William Beadleston (born in Long Branch, New Jersey 31 Jul 1938)

Ancestry

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1= 1. Prince Vasili Alexandrovich of Russia
2= 2. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
3= 3. Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia
4= 4. Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich of Russia
5= 5. Princess Cecilie of Baden
6= 6. Alexander III of Russia
7= 7. Princess Dagmar of Denmark
8= 8. Nicholas I of Russia
9= 9. Princess Charlotte of Prussia
10= 10. Leopold I, Grand Duke of Baden
11= 11. Princess Sofia of Sweden
12= 12. Alexander II of Russia
13= 13. Princess Marie of Hesse
14= 14. Christian IX of Denmark
15= 15. Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel)
16= 16. Paul I of Russia
17= 17. Princess Sophia Dorothea of Wuerttemberg
18= 18. Frederick William III of Prussia
19= 19. Princess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
20= 20. Karl Friedrich of Baden
21= 21. Luise Karoline Geyer von Geyersberg
22= 22. Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
23= 23. Princess Frederica of Baden
24= 24. Nicholas I of Russia
25= 25. Princess Charlotte of Prussia
26= 26. Ludwig II, Grand Duke of Hesse
27= 27. Wilhelmina, Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt
28= 28. Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
29= 29. Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse
30= 30. Prince William of Hesse
31= 31. Princess Charlotte of Denmark

References

*Van Der Kiste, John & Hall Coryne . "Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II", Sutton Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0750927496.
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4DC163CF93BA15755C0A96F948260 Vasili Romanov, 81, Nephew of Last Czar] , New York Times