NOTES: Widow of Emich Charles, 2nd Prince of Leiningen (1763-1814) and
fourth dau. of Francis Frederick Anthony, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and
Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf.
NOTES: The eldest son of George III, Geroge IV (as the Prince of Wales)
became notorious for his profligacy and extravagance. Despite his father's
strongly anti-Catholic views, he secretly married a Roman Catholic, Mrs. Maria
Anne Fitzherbert (1756-1837) in 1785. Less than two years later, to obtain money
for his debts, he allowed Parliament to declare the marriage illegal, which in
fact it was by the terms of acts governing royal marriages and succession. In
1795, again to liquidate his debts, he agreed to a marriage with his cousin,
Caroline of Brunswick, but he became estranged from her in 1796 after the birth of
their daughter, Princess Charlotte (1796-1817). George became the Prince Regent in
1811, when his father became mentally unable to discharge his duties and succeeded to
the throne in 1820.
NOTES: Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne,
Viscount Lyon and Baron Glamis, Tannadyce, Sidlaw and Strathdichtie, Baron
Bowes of Streatlam Castle, County Durham and Lunedale, County York.
NOTES: Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck, Lady Glamis; Countess of
Strathmore. Christened: Nina Cecilia but known as Cecilia to the family.
Source: Queen Elizabeth, A Portrait of the Queen Mother by Penelope Mortimer.
NOTES: Alexis achieved a great success in the United States when he visited
this country and among other things went hunting in the West with Buffalo Bill,
to the delight of American cartoonists.
NOTES: In 1892, the Grand Duke Serge, a sadist and a homosexual, evicted
thousand of Jewish artisans and petty traders from Moscow. Their quarter was
surrounded by mounted Cossacks in the middle of the night while policeman
ransacked every house. When his brother, Tsar Alexander III was given a report
on this event he wrote on the margin: "We must never forget that it was the Jews
who crucified our Lord and spilled his priceless blood". Serge was the Governor of
Moscow. The Grand Duke was assassinated by a terrorist's bomb. His name is
sometimes shown as, Sergius. Most people he came into contact with found him stupid,
stubborn, supercilious and insufferable with a reputation for tyranny and
disagreeableness.
NOTES: Brother of Nicholas II. The Grand Duke George finally died at 27 of
tuberculosis, in the summer of 1899. According to his sister Olga, George was
found by a peasant woman at the side of a road, lying beside his overturned
motorcycle. He died in the peasant woman's arms bleeding at the mouth and
coughing and gasping for air.
NOTES: Grand Duchess Xenia, sister of Tsar Nicholas II. She escaped Russia
on a British warship and lived her last twenty-five years in a "grace and
favor" mansion provided by the British royal family and named (perhaps
appropriately) Wilderness House. She died at eighty-five.
NOTES: Grand Duchess Olga escaped Russia on board a British warship. Olga,
Nicholas II's youngest sister lived quietly in Denmark until 1948, when she
moved to a small farm outside Toronto, Canada. There, she lived in such
peaceful obscurity that her rural neighbors were much surprised in 1959 when she
was invited to lunch aboard the royal yacht Britannia with Queen Elizabeth and
Prince Philip. In 1960, Olga became too ill to live alone and went to live with a
Russian couple in an apartment over a barbershop in a poor section of East Toronto.
There in November 1960, seven months after her sister Xenia, she died at
seventy-eight. She remained childless from her first marriage. He husband in 1948 was
listed as Colonel Koulikovsky; they retired to a farm in Canada. Some biographical
information from the book, "The Last Grand Duchess" Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess
Olga Alexandrovna, by Ian Vorres.
NOTES: Nicholas II's first cousin. Escaped the Bolsheviks and was the
first Romanov to break his allegiance to Nicholas II. In 1924, Cyril
proclaimed himself "Tsar of all the Russias" and established his "court" in a
village in Brittany. He died at sixty-two in 1938 in the American Hospital in
Paris. His son, Vladimir, (b. 1918) lives in Madrid and is considered head of the
House of Romanov. The Grand Duke Cyril was an officer in the Russian Imperial Navy
and died while in exile.
NOTES: Dmitri was one of the Grand Dukes who plotted against and killed the
religious fanatic monk, Rasputin. After the Revolution of 1918, Dmitri,
sometimes a champagne salesman but more usually a dashing figure in
international social circles, was the last truly, grand duke.
NOTES: Prince Felix Yussoupov murdered Rasputin. Prince Felix and his
wife, Princess Irina, have lived mostly in Paris where the Yussoupov's
generosity to other Russian emigres has become legend. Two famous court cases
have brought the Yussoupov name back into prominence. The first occurred in
1934, when Princess Irina sued Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for libel in London over a
movie titled, "Rasputin the Mad Monk". The Yussoupovs won this case and MGM paid
them $375,000. In 1965, Prince Yussoupov came to New York City to sue the Columbia
Broadcasting System for invasion of privacy over a television play depicting the
murder of Rasputin. This time, the Yussoupovs lost. Prince Yussoupov at seventy-nine
lived in the Paris district of Auteuil in a small house converted from a barn.
NOTES: Sarah was popularly known as "Fergie" in the tabloids. She has a
most charming smile and manner; very outgoing. Much was made at the size of
her hips. She has red hair. She was born at 9:03 a.m., a Thursday. While by no
means rich, the Fergusons were certainly comfortably well-off with the means to
employ a cook, gardener, stable boy and a nanny to care for the children. The
family had a pet Pekingese dog, Solly. Her father gave her the nickname, G.B.-whose
initials he has refused to reveal the meaning. Her engagement was announced on 19
March 1986. She "works" for a graphic arts company.
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