Prince Ioann Konstantinovich of Russia
Encyclopedia
Prince John Constantinovich of Russia (5 July 1886 – 18 July 1918), sometimes also known as Prince Ioann, Prince Ivan or Prince Johan, was the eldest son of Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia was a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and a poet and playwright of some renown...

 by his wife Elisaveta Mavrikievna, née Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg. He was described by contemporaries as a gentle, religious person, nicknamed Ioannchik by his relatives.

Early life

John Constantinovich was born as a Grand Duke of Russia with the style Imperial Highness
Imperial Highness
His/Her Imperial Highness is a style used by members of an imperial family to denote imperial - as opposed to royal - status to show that the holder in question is descended from an Emperor rather than a King .Today the style has mainly fallen from use with the exception of the Imperial Family of...

, but at the age of 9 days, a Ukaz of his cousin Emperor Alexander III of Russia
Alexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...

 stripped him of that title, as the Ukaz amended the House Law by limiting the grand-ducal title to grandsons of a reigning emperor. As a result he received the title Prince of the Imperial Blood (Prince of Russia) with the style Highness
Highness
Highness, often used with a possessive adjective , is an attribute referring to the rank of the dynasty in an address...

.

He once entertained the possibility of becoming an Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...

 monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

, but eventually fell in love with Princess Helen of Serbia
Princess Helen of Serbia
Jelena Karađorđević or Princess Helen of Serbia was the daughter of King Peter I of Yugoslavia and his wife Princess Zorka of Montenegro. She was the elder sister of George, Crown Prince of Serbia and Alexander I of Yugoslavia...

. They married on 2 September 1911, and Helen took the name Princess Helen Petrovna of Russia. They had a son, Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich
Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia
Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia was a great-great-grandson of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and a nephew of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. He was the last male member of the Romanov family born in Imperial Russia...

 (20 January 1914 – 18 June 1973), and a daughter, Princess Catherine Ioannovna (12 July 1915 – 13 March 2007), who was the last member of the Imperial Family to be born before the fall of the dynasty, and was ultimately to become the last surviving uncontested dynast of the Imperial House of Russia.

Revolution and death

Prince John fought in the First World War, was decorated as a war hero, and was at the front when the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 started. In April 1918 he was exiled to the Urals by the Bolsheviks, and later murdered in July the same year in a mineshaft near Alapaevsk, along with his brothers Prince Constantine Constantinovich and Prince Igor Constantinovich, his cousin Prince Vladimir Pavlovich Paley, and other relatives and friends.

His body was eventually buried in Beijing, in the cemetery of the Russian Orthodox Mission, which was destroyed years later to build a park. His sister Princess Vera Konstantinovna, mother Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mavrikievna and wife Princess Helen Petrovna left Russia in April 1919 with help from the King of Norway. His daughter Princess Catherine Ioannovna]], married Ruggero, Marquis Farace di Villaforesta (a descendant of the Medici family of Florence). Catherine lived in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 and later in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

, Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 where she died in 2007. His sister Princess Vera Konstantinovna, the youngest daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, died in New York in 2001, almost 100 years old.

Titles and styles

  • 5 July 1886 14 July 1886: His Imperial Highness Grand Duke John Constantinovich of Russia
  • 14 July 1886 18 July 1918: His Highness Prince John Constantinovich of Russia

Ancestors


See also

  • Romanov sainthood
    Romanov sainthood
    Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei are saints of the Orthodox Church...

  • Karađorđević family tree
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