part 4
When he had recovered a little, the whole family moved to the fishing village of St. Briac at te north coast of Brittany, where they rented a house near the sea. Kirill kept dreaming that one day he would be the Tsar of Russia and he spent his time making grandious plans for the future. Ducky, for her part, encouraged her husband's imperial dreams. On August 8, 1914, Kirill issued a manifesto decalring himself "Guardian of the Throne". A momnth later he issued another manifesto proclaiming himself "Emperor of all the Russias", and his son as heir to the throne, with the tilte of "Grand Duke Heir and Tsarevitch".
The Russian émigrés in Western Europe had a violent reaction towards Kirill's second manifesto. he was severely critizised by many of them, specially Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, former commander of the Russian army, who was the favourite candidate of most émigrés for assuming the throne. Nevertheless, Kirill did had some supporters and gradually he became more popular since he was closer to the throne in the line of succession and was more liberal and less reactionary than Grand Duke Nicholas.
The most important member of the family, the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna, did not support Kirill's claims; to her, her son was still alive somewhere and he could appear at any moment. Kirill's own sister, Helena, who was married to Prince Nicholas of Greece, did not support her brother's claims either; she considered them foolish. The main fact against Kirill was his pledge of allegiance to the Provisional Government in 1917; it had been considered by many as a treason to the Tsar. Besides the family opposition there was a woman called Anna Anderson who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the Tsar's younger daughter. She denounce Kirirll as "guilty of high treason against the Romanov crown". When she knew about Kirill's manifesto she declared that if Kirill and Ducky occupied the place of her "parents" there was no God. Ducky and Kirill for their part, considered Anna Anderson as a fraud, agreeing with most of the family. In fact, she was proved to be a fraud whe, after her death, a DNA tsate was made on a hair of her confimrming she was not Anastasia.
In late 1924, Kirill and his amily returned to Coburg and he elevated Ducky to her new status of Empress Victoria Feodorovna, Vladimir was Grand Duke and the girls were Grand Duchesses.
Realizing that the United States was becoming the most powerful nation in the world, and that in a future would manage the fate of the Old Continent, Ducky decided to travel to Newy York. If Kirill had the intentions to accompany her, they were frustated by an article which appeared in The New York Times attacking him by saying that the Bolshevik governemnt was pleased with Kirill for having procalimed himself Tsar since this fact split the opiniuons of the Russian monarchists in exile, creating an opposition to Grand Duke Nicholas. A divided Monarchist party would never defeat the Bolsheviks. The article also accused Kirill of having taken an active part in the intrigues that caused the fall of Nicholas II. It was not convenient for Kirill to travel to the United States, so Ducky, alone, left for New York on Saturday November 29, 1924.
For the Americans, the purpose of her trip was unkonwn. As soon as Ducky set a foot on American land a troop of journalists surrounded her, firing their flash bulbs towards her and asking her a tumult of questions. When one of them asked her if she tought that Russian nobility would return to power, she just answered: "I am here simply as a grateful woman to thank the American people for their kindness and I do not wish to talk of political matters at all". She also said that she wished that the newspapaers published a complete denial of the reportas saying that visit was for political purposes to help restore the Russian monarchy. Of course it was not true. The only country in the world that had the money and the power to kick the Bolsheviks out of Russia and put Kirill an Ducky on the throne was the United States and it was Kirill and Ducky's last hope. Although the Americans treated Ducky with great courtesy, they were not interested in her cause. They opposed Comunism but they wanted nothing to do with Monarchy either and soon it became obvious for Ducky, who, with great dissapointment, returned to Europe. She did not tell Kirill how dissapointed her trip had been. On the contrary, she encourage her husband to continue with their cause.
On Wednesday November 25, 1925, Ducky's and Kirill's 18-year-old eldest daughter, Marie, married to Friedrich Karl, Hereditary Prince of Leiningen, son of Emich, 5th Prince of Leiningen and Feodora of Hohenlohe Langenburg. The bridegroom was not exactly what Ducky and Kirill would have liked for their daughter. Although he was undoubtly of royal blood (he was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria's half brother, Karl Prince of Leiningen, by his father's side, and a great-grandosn of Queen Victoria's half sister, Feodora, bu his mother's side), Leiningen was a tiny and modest German principality; it was an unaccepted match for the daughter of who pretend to be Emperor and Empress of Russia. But things had changed so much for Royalty and Ducky and Kirill were not actually Emperor and Empress so they accepted the marriage.
In the spring of 1926, Ducky and Kirill decided to establish a permanent residence in France. Coburg was not anymore a pleasant place to live. The Bavarian comunists did not want Kirill so close to their borders and they began a campaign against him, so the family went to live to their favourite village of St. Briac. They bought a large and modest house a mile away from the village; they gave it the Breton name of Ker Agonid, which meant Villa Victoria. Kirill spent his time playing golf and he and Ducky used to join group excursions to nearby points of interest.
On October 13th, 1928 the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna died at her home Hvidore in Denmark, and on June 5th 1929, Grand Duke Nicholas died at the French Riviera. With these two deaths Kirill became the senior surviving member of the Romanov family, so his hopes of being recognized as Emperor reborn, and each day that passed he felt that the success of his cause was comming closer. But the reality was quite different. Most Russian émigrés only considered him as "just another Russian Grand Duke with absurd inflated ambitions". Nevrtheless he had supporters in different parts of the world, who considered him Emperor and sent him constnat letters asking for his "imperial" guidance in one or other matter. He spent several hours a day answering those letters.
In 1933 Ducky made a terrible discovery that caused her a great sorrow. It is unkown what exactly was it; she only revealed it to her sister Missy, who kept her sister's secret. It is assumed that the matter involved an infidelity of Kirill. It must not have been a simple infidelity because Ducky reacted violently and refused to have any further physical contact with her husband for the rest of her life. According to Michael John Sullivan's book, there has been speculation that Kirill was involved in a "more sensational and unorthodox relation than a simple and casual affair with another woman".
Ducky fell into a deep depression and in a permanent sate of sadness. She went with Missy to Tenya-Yuvah for more than a month. When she returned to St. Briac she continued her life with Kirill as usual. It is unknown what happened between them or what arranged she made with him, but not even their children noticed any change in their parents' relations. Even Kirill, in his final memoirs, described their marriage as perfectly harmonious. But Ducky's sorrow was slowly destroying her and only her sister Missy knew it.
On August 30th 1934 Ducky and Kirill celebrated their son Vladimir's majority with a great party at Ker Argonid and in the autumn they traveled to London to attend the wedding of Kirill's niece, Princess Marina of Greece (daughter of his sister Helena) to King George V's youngest son, the Duke of Kent. The kindness of her British cousin and the sight of her homeland distracted Ducky a bit form her sorrow and she felt alive for the first time since th dreadful discovery, but when she returned to St. Briac she returned to her deppression.
In the spring of 1935 Duckty visited Missy at her daughter Ileana's home in Viena. Missy wrote her friend Waldor Astor about her sister's visit: "...Her misery, both physical, menthal and financial is so great that it has sapped her will power...Her strenght has ran out. A sort of grey despair sets in; a feeling that only death could liberate her from the intolerable, crushing, overwhelming burden ... Through the horror of what happened to her in her married life, she has learnt to doubt of all men..."
Ducky went alone to Germany to spent Christmas with her daughter Marie who was expecting her fifth child. When she arrived at Würzburg she found Marie confined in bed and she devoted herself to care her, with a considerable damage of her own health. Marie had her baby on January 2nd.; it was a baby who she called Mathilde. By mid January Ducky with her daughter and granddaughter returned to Schloss Amorbach, Marie's home. While being there, Ducky recieve the news that her cousin King George V had passed away. "I am sorry for the dearr King", she said saddly. Her health had deteriorated even more and she got weaker everyday. Although the doctor warned her that her health state was seriorus, Ducky joined the festivity of Mathilde's christening. With such effort she became even worse and the following day she suffered a stroke. She was paralysed of one side of her body and could hardly speak. Messages were sent to her family. On february 5th Kira arrived to Amorbach. As it seemed that Ducky had little improvement Kirill and Vladimir remained in St. Briac but by the 18th they received an urgen message; they left for Amorbach on the 19th. When they arrived Ducky was semincouncious an she practicly couldn't speak, but anyway she showed signs of recognizing them. Her son Vladimir later rembered: "The days that followed were one long nightmare for all of us. Mother was getting weaker and weaker; the doctors could do nothing and we were expecting the end at any moment". Her sister's were called. Sandra arrived first, then Beatrice and Missy's daughter Ileana. Missy was the last one to arrive. She was now Dowager Queen of Romania and her son, King Carol II, hold her like a prissoner in Bucharest, but fortunately she got permission to go to Amorbach. When Ducky learned that Missy had arrived ahe murmured something about lillies; she connected her sister with flowers because they both loved gardens. Ducky was asked if she was pleased of having Missy near her. With great difficulty she answered : "It makes all the difference". Missy spent day and night by her sister's side, holding her hand ans speaking to her of past times. At last, in the evening of March 1st. 1936, fifteen minutes after midnight, Ducky exhaled her last breath.
Ducky was buried on March 5th in the family masuoleum of the Dukes of Saxe Coburg Gotha in Coburg, besides her mother, her father and her brother Alfred. Her death was a severe shock for Kirill, who never reconciled with the fact that she was no longer with him. He spent the days reading her letters and looking at her photographs. He was sick: he had developed artherioseclerosis and he had problems with his circulation and eyesight. He was now alone; his son Vladimir had gone to London for University and Kira married on April 1938 to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, the Kaiser's grandson and heir (he was the second son of Crown Prince Wilhelm, but as his elder brother had resigned to his rights of succession to marry a commoner, he was now heir).
Kirill showed some enthusiasm in dictating his memoirs, but it was obvious that he had lost his will to live. By September 1938 he developed gangrene and he had to be put into the American Hospital in Paris. The gangrene had extended so much that a surgery was impossible added to Kirill's weakness. After a month of intense suffering he died on October 12, 1938, two and a half years after Ducky.
Vladimir inherited his father's claims to the Imperial throne of Russia, but he avoided to call himself Emperor. He studied at the London School of Economics and in 1948 he married Princess Leonida Bagration Noukhransky, a descendant of the Royal family of Georgia. She was the widow of an American Jew killed by the Nazis. They had only one child, Grnad Duchess Marie, and established their residence in Madrid spending the summers at Ker Argonid. For 74 yeras Vladimir did not set a foot in Russia, but in November 1991, when the Soviet government changed, he was invited to St. petersburg for the 74th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. Just when he was beginning to get involved with Russian affairs he died of a heart attack on April 21 1992. He was buried like a Romanov at the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. Today his daughter Marie, Ducky and Kirill's granddaughter, holds the title of Heiress to the Russian Throne.
Sullivan, Michael John: A Fatal Passion
Eilers, Marlene: Queen Victoria's Descendants
Pakula, Hannah: María de Rumanía
VICTORIA MELITA
