On 11 July 1613, a sixteen-year-old youth was crowned Grand Prince, Tsar and Sovereign Autocrat of All Russia in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Four hundred and ten years later, on 6 May 2023, the Archbishop of Canterbury placed the historic St Edward’s Crown on the head of a seventy-four-year-old British man in Westminster Abbey. Eleven generations in a direct line separate these monarchs.
The Romanov Descent of King Charles III
Romanov dynasty family tree showing the rulers from 1613 to 1917 - Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
Most people realise that King Charles III descends from Queen Victoria; some also know that he descends from King Christian IX of Denmark - but how many people realise that when Charles III ascended the throne on 8 September 2022, he became the first British sovereign to be directly descended from the Romanov emperors who ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917?
By the time of the Russian revolution, they ruled one-sixth of the surface of the Earth. Their story encompasses great wealth and unlimited power, palace coups and murders, as well as at least one heir allegedly killed by his own father, the Tsar.
Although Charles inherited the crown from his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, it is his father, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who provides the direct line of descent from the Romanovs. Born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, his paternal link goes through the royal family that ruled Greece from 1863 and whose later members spent their lives in and out of exile, back to Catherine the Great and beyond.
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Top Image: King Charles III being crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023 - Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
By Coryne Hall
