Sorry Douglas,
My second paragraph should have read as follows:
“Why did I write “at least for a while!”: because when Grand Duke Paul Petrovich (future Paul I) was born the rumor at Catherine II’s Court was that he really was the son of one of Catherine II’s lover, with whom young Paul apparently had an uncanny resemblance (Saltykov if I’m not mistaken) and that 9 months before hs birth, Peter III still hadn’t had sex with his wife. If true, the biological connection with the Romanov would have ceased with Peter III. I guess only DNA tests could tell. Why not dig Peter the Great out of his tomb to compare with the one from Nicholas II? I’m not sure the Russians would be amused though…”
And I should have written “Elizabeth Petrovna’s Court” not Catherine II’s, as she wasn’t yet empress when she had a son…
I don’t mean any disrespect to anyone either. But rumors and gossip are also part of History – especially when they end up in Diplomatic reports as it was the case in Peter & Catherine’s time. I could add that some historians wrote that, because Grand Duke Peter was apparently unable to have children, Empress Elizabeth herself might have let it known to Catherine that an Heir was needed at all cost, including the one of taking a lover to father a child. What really happened, we’ll never know. But around the same time Peter was persuaded to have a minor operation so he could at last have sex with his wife (and Saltykov was sent far away from the Capital). Of course there are some who say this operation was hastily arranged after Catherine discovered she was pregnant from someone else…
But does it really matter? And even if Paul Ist was really the son of Peter III (he sure showed the same mental imbalance as Peter did) and then was a “biological” Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov, it didn’t make his successors less Russian for having a German family name. Alexander III and Nicholas II certainly viewed themselves and acted as true Russians, even if they had some Foreign blood (mostly German). The present British dynasty’s name was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until George V changed its name to "Windsor" during World War I because the name sounded too much German. Today no one would think of him as being German, even less of his grand-daughter Elizabeth II. So, what’s in a name really? Not much, except that for dynasties, it sometimes explain their history, well…at least their official one.
A note about the present Romanovs: some say that, in accordance to genealogical rules, if Maria Vladimirovna’s son George ever becomes Emperor of Russia the name of the dynasty should be Hohenzollern-Romanov…Will history repeats itself?
