Paul Ilyinsky
Encyclopedia
Paul R. Ilyinsky was a three-time mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

, and the only child of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia
Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia was a Russian imperial dynast. He is known for being involved in the murder of the mystic peasant faith healer Grigori Rasputin, who he felt held undue sway over Tsar Nicholas II.-Early life:Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich was born at Ilinskoe near Moscow, the...

 and his morganatic wife, Cincinnati heiress
Beneficiary
A beneficiary in the broadest sense is a natural person or other legal entity who receives money or other benefits from a benefactor. For example: The beneficiary of a life insurance policy, is the person who receives the payment of the amount of insurance after the death of the insured...

 Audrey Emery
Audrey Emery
Anna Audrey Emery was an American heiress and socialite who was the wife of one of the last Russian Grand Dukes....

. He was a great-grandson of Tsar Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...

 and a first cousin once removed of Nicholas II.

Life

Prince Paul Romanovsky-Ilyinsky was born in 1928 at the U.S. Embassy in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

As a direct result of his involvement in the murder of Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox Christian and mystic who is perceived as having influenced the latter days of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and their only son Alexei...

 in 1916, Grand Duke Dmitri had been sent to the Persian front, which ultimately saved his life; many of his relatives, including his father and half-brother, were executed by the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s. Dmitri, who was working as a champagne salesman, married in 1926 Audrey Emery.

Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia
Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia
Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia was a member of the Russian Imperial Family. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the deaths of Tsar Nicholas II and his brother Michael, Cyril assumed the Headship of the Imperial Family of Russia and later the title Emperor and Autocrat of all the...

, Dmitri's cousin and the self-proclaimed Emperor in exile, elevated Grand Duke Dmitri's wife and their descendants to Russian knyaz
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....

 (princely) rank (rank of nobility, not dynastical). Any children the couple would have would be known as Romanovsky-Ilyinsky, the latter half of the surname derived from Dmitri's former property in Russia, Ilinskoe.

The marriage ended in divorce in 1937, and Ilyinsky was raised by his mother who mostly lived in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. That same year, she married her second husband, Prince Dimitri Djordjadze
Dimitri Djordjadze
Prince Dimitri Jorjadze was a Georgian nobleman, Ambassador Hotel executive and race car driver. He was a member of the nobility of the province of Tiflis, who became exiled after the overthrow of Tsarist Russia and the subsequent Bolshevik takeover.The 6'3" Prince was probably best known in...

, a member of a princely house of Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

; they also later divorced. Dmitri Pavlovich's health had always been somewhat frail, and in the 1930s, his chronic tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

 became acute, leading to his death in 1942.

Ilyinsky, who was a U.S. citizen, attended Woodberry Forest School
Woodberry Forest School
Woodberry Forest School is a private, all-male boarding school located in Woodberry Forest, Madison County, Virginia, in the United States. Woodberry's current enrollment is 402. Students come from 28 U.S...

 in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...

, England, before joining the U.S. Marine Corps. He served with distinction as a combat photographer in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

 and retired a lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

. He graduated from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...

 in 1953.

Ilyinsky lived in Cincinnati for about 20 years, serving on the board of the company founded by his mother's family, Emery Industries, and working as an author and photographer. In 1980, he returned to Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

, where he had lived before moving to Cincinnati. He served on the Palm Beach Council for 10 years and was mayor for three terms. He resigned for health reasons in 1999. Ilyinsky was named the first Distinguished Citizen of Palm Beach for his outstanding service to the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

 of Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County, Florida
Palm Beach County is the largest county in the state of Florida in total area, and third in population. As of 2010, the county's estimated population was 1,320,134, making it the twenty-eighth most populous in the United States...

. While in Cincinnati, he received the Silver Beaver Award
Silver Beaver Award
The Silver Beaver Award is the council-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. Recipients of this award are registered adult leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council...

 - one of the Boy Scouts of America's honors for distinguished service to youth.

After the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 broke apart in the early 1990s, Leningrad reverted to its original name of Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

, and a private delegation visited Ilyinsky while he served on Palm Beach City Council to ask him to return to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 to claim the throne as tsar. Ilyinsky said, "Gentlemen, I could not be more pleased and flattered at your invitation, but I must tell you that I am entirely satisfied with my present occupation."

Ilyinsky died at his home in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

, in February 2004.

Titles and heritage

Paul is regarded by some to have become a prince and duke of Schleswig and Holstein-Gottorp
Holstein-Gottorp
Holstein-Gottorp or Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp is the historiographical name, as well as contemporary shorthand name, for the parts of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein that were ruled by the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. Other parts of the duchies were ruled by the kings of Denmark. The...

 as his birthright (source: Theroff). As such, his style was Serene Highness
Serene Highness
His/Her Serene Highness is a style used today by the reigning families of Liechtenstein and Monaco. It also preceded the princely titles of members of some German ruling and mediatised dynasties as well as some non-ruling but princely German noble families until 1918...

, and his titles, which he never used, included Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig
Schleswig
Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...

, Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

, Stormarn
Stormarn
Stormarn is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Segeberg and Ostholstein, the city of Lübeck, the district of Lauenburg, and the city-state of Hamburg.-History:...

 and Dithmarschen
Dithmarschen
Dithmarschen is a district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Flensburg, Rendsburg-Eckernförde, and Steinburg, by the state of Lower Saxony , and by the North Sea.-Geography:The district is located on the North Sea...

 as well as duke and count of Oldenburg
Oldenburg
Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

 and Delmenhorst
Delmenhorst
Delmenhorst is an urban district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of 74,500 and is located 10 km/6 miles west of downtown Bremen with which it forms a contiguous urban area, whereas the city of Oldenburg is 25 km/15 miles to the northwest. The city has a total area of 62.36 km²...

 (source: Guy Stair Sainty
Guy Stair Sainty
Guy Stair Sainty, KC*SG is an art dealer and author on royal genealogy and heraldry.-Life and education:Guy Stair Sainty was born on 7 December 1950, the eldest son of Christopher Lawrence Sainty and his second wife Virginia Cade Stair. His father was Chief Engineer and Director of Carrier...

, the Russian imperial succession). However, as to Holstein, some German dynastic jurists agreed that German princely law (Privatfürstenrecht) continued to apply to marriages in formerly immediate families. Where a dynasty's house law
House law
House law or House laws are rules that govern a royal family or dynasty in matters of eligibility for succession to a throne, membership in a dynasty, exercise of a regency, or entitlement to dynastic rank, titles and styles...

 or customs were silent on the equality requirement, German princely law was deemed to apply, and by the 19th century marriages to commoners were held to be non-dynastic for all formerly immediate German dynasties of the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

. There is no custom among German dynasties that morganatic agnates
Agnatic seniority
Agnatic seniority is a patrilineal principle of inheritance where the order of succession to the throne prefers the monarch's younger brother over the monarch's own sons. A monarch's children succeed only after the males of the elder generation have all been exhausted...

 used or were allowed to use dynastic
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...

 titles, save by express grant. No such grant is known to have been conferred on the Ilyinsky branch, nor did Ilyinsky assert any public claim to dynastic titles. As for the Schleswig ducal title, it was originally granted by Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, which did not acknowledge the Gottorp branch's right to this title after 1721 when the Treaty of Frederiksborg
Treaty of Frederiksborg
The Treaty of Frederiksborg refers to the treaty signed at Frederiksborg Palace on 3 July 1720 that ended the Great Northern War between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. Sweden paid 600,000 Riksdaler in damages, broke the alliance with Holstein and forfeited its right to duty free passage of Öresund...

, where the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp was not a signatory, ratified Denmark's conquest of that duchy. Nor did Ilyinsky ever publicly claim or use the title "Duke of Schleswig", although his predecessor Nicholas II certainly did .

He held British and U.S. citizenship.

At the death of Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia in 1992, Paul Ilyinsky succeeded as the Head of the House of Holstein-Gottorp
House of Holstein-Gottorp
The House of Holstein-Gottorp, a cadet branch of the Oldenburg dynasty, ruled Sweden from 1751 until 1818, and Norway from 1814 to 1818.In 1743 Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp was elected crown prince of Sweden as a Swedish concession to Russia, a strategy for achieving an acceptable peace...

 (de jure Duke of Holstein-Gottorp [source: Theroff]), which in accordance with the 1604 Norrköping
Norrköping
Norrköping is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County. The city has a population of 87,247 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden's tenth largest city and eighth largest...

 Succession Pact holds its rights to the Swedish throne as well as to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Finland
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed 1809–1917 as part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian czar as Grand Prince.- History :...

 (there reiterated for example in the 1772 Constitution and the 1809 Oaths of Fealty), inherited through his ancestress Hedvig Sophia of Sweden
Hedvig Sophia of Sweden
Princess Hedvig Sophia Augusta of Sweden was a Swedish princess and a Duchess Consort of Holstein-Gottorp, the eldest child of King Charles XI of Sweden, and his spouse Queen Ulrica Eleanor. She was heir presumptive to the Swedish throne until her death and the Regent of the duchy of...

, duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, the eldest sister of the childless Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...

.

Sources: Paul Theroff, Online Gotha
  • Guy Stair sainty, the Russian imperial succession
  • 1772 constitution (Instrument of Government of the Grand Duchy of Finland)

Issue

Paul Ilyinsky was married first, in Honolulu, Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

, on 29 July 1949, to Mary Evelyn Prince (born 1925); the marriage was annulled in 1951. They had no children.

From his second marriage with Angelica Philippa Kauffmann (born Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 21 June 1932 or 23 March 1932), whom Paul married in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

 on 1 October 1952, he had four children. His issue is as follows:
  • Prince Dimitri Romanovsky-Ilyinsky, titular Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (born Palm Beach 1 May 1954) who married in New Haven, Connecticut
    New Haven, Connecticut
    New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

    , 22 September 1979, Martha Murray McDowell (born New Haven, Connecticut 15 Jun 1952) and has three daughters:
    • Princess Catherine Adair Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 4 August 1981)
    • Princess Victoria Bayard Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 23 November 1984)
    • Princess Lela McDowell Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Cincinnati, Ohio 26 August 1986)

  • Princess Paula Maria Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach, Florida 18 May 1956), married in Cincinnati, Ohio, 31 May 1980, Mark Comisar (born Cincinnati, Ohio 17 June 1953), and had two children, the elder of whom survives:
    • Alexander Lee Comisar (born Cincinnati 6 April 1983)
    • Makena Anna Comisar (Cincinnati 20 Nov 1984-killed in a car accident
      Car accident
      A traffic collision, also known as a traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic Collision or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction,...

       in which she was the driver, Clermont County, Ohio
      Clermont County, Ohio
      Clermont County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States, just east of Cincinnati. As of 2010, the population was 197,363. Its county seat is Batavia...

       1 August 2002)

  • Princess Anna Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach 4 September 1959); married firstly in Henniker, New Hampshire
    Henniker, New Hampshire
    Henniker is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a total population of 4,836. Henniker is home to New England College, Ames State Forest and Craney Hill State Forest....

    , 9 May 1980, (divorced 1990) Robin de Young (born Cambridge, Massachusetts
    Cambridge, Massachusetts
    Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

    , 25 December 1952); married secondly in Cincinnati, Ohio, 18 December 1992, David Wise Glossinger (born Dayton, Ohio
    Dayton, Ohio
    Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

     11 July 1953). Has four children, two of each marriage:
    • Audrey Emery de Young (born Cincinnati 1 April 1983)
    • Heather Morrison de Young (born Cincinnati 25 October 1985)
    • Sophia Wise Glossinger (born Cincinnati 5 May 1993)
    • Paul Glossinger (born Cincinnati 19 Sep 1994)

  • Prince Michael Romanovsky-Ilyinsky (born Palm Beach 3 Nov 1960); married firstly in Cincinnati, 7 May 1985, (divorced 1986) Marcia Marie Lowe; married secondly 2 Nov 1989 (divorced 1995) Paula Gay Maier; thirdly 1999 (divorced 2000) Lisa Marie Schiesler (born 17 May 1973). Has one daughter, born of second marriage:
    • Princess Alexis Taylor Romanoff-Ilyinsky (born 21 March 1994)

Ancestry

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