Line of Succession To The Former Russian Throne - Succession Controversy - Arguments - Did Cyril Vladimirovich's Marriage Violate House Laws?

Did Cyril Vladimirovich's Marriage Violate House Laws?

• Cyril Vladimirovich's 1905 marriage to HRH Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was not approved by the Emperor. However, supporters of Maria argue that the marriage was later approved by Emperor Nicholas II in 1907, and Nicholas II accorded Victoria the title and style of "Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna of Russia."

• Princess Victoria had previously been married to HRH Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse. Supporters of Maria respond that the laws governing the Russian succession do not forbid marriage to divorcées.

• Cyril and Victoria were first cousins, and the Russian Orthodox Church prohibited first cousins marrying. Maria's supporters point out that all other potential claimants are descended from the marriage of Tsar Nicholas I with his second cousin, similarly forbidden by Russian Orthodox canon– and if children of a marriage prohibited by reason of consanguinity were ineligible to succeed, Tsars Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II could not have validly succeeded to the throne. Moreover, the Emperor gave his approval to Cyril and Victoria's marriage, and the Emperor of Russia was then the supreme Head of the Russian Orthodox church. Opponents counter that the Emperor could not change Church Law by his own decision; instead, an act in ecclesiastical synods or councils would have been needed. However, the Orthodox Church does not condemn children of uncanonical marriages nor their rights to inheritance, so this objection is weak.

• At the time of Cyril and Victoria's marriage, Victoria was Protestant, not Orthodox. Maria and her supporters counter that this objection, too, is overcome by the Emperor's approval of the marriage. According to them, under dynastic law, the Emperor designated which of the dynasts had to marry Orthodox women; usually this was required only of persons who were high in the line of succession, which Cyril was not at the time of his marriage. The Orthodox church does not prohibit its members from marrying Protestants. And Victoria later embraced the Orthodox faith, receiving a published accolade from Tsar Nicholas II. At the time of Vladimir Cyrillovich's birth, his mother already had long been Orthodox.