Disappeared monarchies: Which heirs lost their thrones and today seek to recover them?

A monarchy is a political regime whose head of state is a monarch., a position that is accessed by blood lineage. In the past it was believed that Monarchs were God’s representatives on Earth and that they had divine power to rule.

Currently, 43 sovereign states in the world have monarchs. However, the attributions and powers of each one vary. Monarchies are basically divided into constitutionalwhen the monarch rules in accordance with a constitution, as in the United Kingdom or Spain; and absolutistswhen the monarch has absolute power, such as Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Brunei.

Throughout history, many monarchical countries have been transformed into republics. The abolition of the monarchy has been carried out in various waysincluding abdication leading to the extinction of the monarchy, law reform, revolution, coup and decolonization.

For example, currently there are a dozen European monarchical countries, but at the beginning of the 20th century they were more than double.

European countries that went from monarchy to republic:

• Greece, 1973
• Ireland, 1949
• Romania, 1947
• Italy, 1946
• Albania, 1946
• Bulgarian, 1946
• Yugoslavia, 1945
• Iceland, 1944
• Austria and Hungary, 1918
• Germany, 1918
• Finland, 1918
• Czech Republic and Slovakia, 1918
• Estonia and Latvia, 1918
• Russia, 1917
• Poland, 1917
• Portugal, 1910
• France, 1789

On some occasions, there are members of aristocratic families who seek to have their dynastic rights to reign officially recognized.

It is very rare for a country that became a republic to become a monarchy again.. There is the case of Spain, which since 1947 had been a regency with a vacant throne, but which was restored in 1975; or that of the United Kingdom, which several centuries ago was a republic, for a period of ten years.

Here are some of the best-known cases, about pretenders to the throne who live abroad or did, and who despite their family history, today live lives far removed from royal protocol, and have developed in different professional areas.

France

This birth ended its monarchy twice: the first time in 1793, when the French Revolution sent King Louis XVI to the guillotine; and the second, in 1870, when Napoleon III was exiled. However, there are three claimants to the throne:

• John of Orleans, Count of Paris, descendant of King Louis XVI’s brother. He is 57 years old and is the current head of the House of Orleans and is therefore the Orléanist claimant to the throne of France as John IV, King of the French. In addition, he is the president of the Fondation Saint-Louis, which collects, manages and preserves the assets of the royal family of the House of Orleans. He is married to Filomena de Tornos y Steinhart, and has five children, who in turn are godchildren of royal figures. In any case, in 2019 the specialized press reported that this family was bankrupt and its members lived on the help of family and friends.
• Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, descendant of King Louis XIV. A 48-year-old Spanish aristocrat and businessman, he is the great-grandson of Francisco Franco, works in finance and lives in Madrid; he is married to the Venezuelan businesswoman María Margarita Vargas Santaella, with whom he has four children. He is a legitimist pretender to the throne of France, considered by his followers as Louis XX.

• Jean-Christophe Napoléon, great-great-grandson of Emperor Napoleon I. She is 36 years old and is the current head of the family of the House of Bonaparte. She studied at the prestigious HEC business school in Paris and at Harvard University. He works in finance in London and is married to Olympia of Arco-Zinneberg, countess and great-granddaughter of the last Emperor of Austria and a descendant of Maria Luisa of Austria, with whom he has a son.

Brazil

• Pedro Carlos of Orleans-Braganza. He is head of the Petrópolis branch of the House of Orleans-Braganza and Titular Prince of Orleans-Braganza. Brazilian monarchists refer to him as Pedro V, and he is the eldest of the children born to Prince Pedro and his wife, Esperanza de Borbón y Orleans. On his father’s side, he was born the great-grandson of Princess Isabel, heiress to the throne of Brazil, and great-great-grandson of Pedro II, the last emperor of Brazil. Hence, he is the pretender to the disappeared Brazilian imperial throne. He is 77 years old and is a forester by profession; he has two children and is currently married to Patricia Alvim Rodrigues.

Greece

Constantine II was the last king this nation had, who was deposed from the throne in 1974 with the restoration of the Republic, after the dark period of the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974). In any case, his son his Pablo is his heir to the throne, and if the monarchy is restored, he would reign.

• Paul from Greece and Denmark. He is the current head of the Greek royal house. He is 55 years old and studied at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, in England, where he obtained the rank of lieutenant. He has a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He works in finance in New York, but constantly participates in European royal social events and maintains constant communication with the Danish and Spanish royal families. He is married to Marie-Chantal Claire Miller and has five children.

Germany

• George Frederick of Prussia. This prince, great-great-grandson of the last German Emperor Wilhelm II, is head of the former ruling house of Hohenzollern. For the loyalist royalists he is George Frederick I of Germany. He is 46 years old and studied business studies at the University of Freiberg. He is married to Princess Sofia of Isenburg, with whom he has four children.

Italy

• Manuel Philibert of Savoy. This pretender to the Italian crown is a prince and member of the House of Savoy, grandson of the last King of Italy, Umberto II, and Queen Maria José. He has worked as a culinary entrepreneur, designer, patron, jury and participant in television contests, singer or presenter. He lives between the Principality of Monaco and the USA; In addition, he seeks to be named after him as the Royal Highness of the Prince of Piedmont and Venice. He is 49 years old and is married to the actress Clotilde Coureau; he has two daughters, princesses Luisa and Victoria.

Russia

When the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917, after the triumph of the Russian Revolution, Tsar Nicholas II was stripped of his palaces and titles and confined with his family in the countryside. Finally, the members of the imperial family were assassinated in Yekaterinburg, in 1918. However, there are several descendants of the Romanovs in the world.

• Maria Vladimirovna Romanova. She is the daughter of Vladimir Kirilovich of Russia and Leodina of Georgia, and a great-great-granddaughter of Alexander II of Russia, the third to last Russian emperor. In 1992, on the occasion of the death of her father and 75 years after the execution of the main branch of the imperial family, she proclaimed herself tsarina and heir to the non-existent Russian throne; for the legitimist royalists she is Maria I of Russia. She is 69 years old, she studied at Oxford University and currently lives in Madrid. She was married to Francisco Guillermo de Prusia, between 1976 and 1985, from whose union Jorge Mijáilovich Románov (41 years old) was born, who uses the title of Tsarevich (heir to the Russian throne). (YO)