Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen

Prince Karl Emich of Leiningen (; ; born 12 June 1952), also known by his Orthodox Russian name Nikolai Kirillovich Romanov (Николай Кириллович Романов), and recognized with the regnal name Emperor Nicholas III by Monarchist Party supporters of the Imperial Throne, is the eldest son of Emich, 7th Prince of Leiningen, and Duchess Eilika of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, and is an elder brother of Andreas, 8th Prince of Leiningen.

He is a claimant to the defunct throne of the Russian Empire, held until 1917 by the Imperial House of Romanov, as a grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna (1907–1951), eldest child of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, who claimed the Russian crown from exile in 1924. He is a great-great-great-grandson of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and grandnephew of Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia. In 2013, the Monarchist Party of Russia declared him the primary heir to the Russian throne upon his conversion from Lutheranism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and in 2014 announced the formation of the Imperial Throne, wherein Karl Emich had agreed to assume imperial dignity as Emperor Nicholas III. As such, however, he came into competition with the widely recognized pretender to the throne, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna of Russia, who is recognized by the Patriarch of Moscow.

He also claimed the headship of the House of Leiningen in the past.

Marriages and children

He married Princess Margarita of Hohenlohe-Öhringen on 8 June 1984. He had one daughter by this marriage, Princess Cécilia Marie Stephanie Margarita of Leiningen (born 10 June 1988). Princess Margarita died in 1989 in a car accident. On 12 April 2010, they had a son, Prince Emich Albrecht Karl of Leiningen. The family lives at Kunreuth Castle.

Because his marriage to Countess Isabelle would not have been deemed equal according to the Pauline Laws, their son, Prince Emich, though considered a dynast of the House of Leiningen, cannot inherit his claim to the headship of the House of Romanov, which shall pass to his brother, Prince Andreas (b. 1955 ), and the latter's descendants born of equal marriages upon the death of Karl Emich, and on the condition that they should convert to Orthodoxy.

Lawsuit

In 2000, Karl Emich began the final round of a lawsuit to inherit £100 million worth of castles, property, and a Mediterranean island that had been denied him by his family because he chose to marry Gabriele Renate Thyssen. Karl Emich was disinherited shortly after his 1991 wedding, as his mother, father, and brother Andreas withheld approval, contending that the bride did not meet the mediatized family's traditional standard for aristocratic lineage. such permission historically being granted for brides descended from royalty or the titled nobility. Therefore, as the next of kin to Vladimir (in the exclusion of his daughter), the Russian Monarchist Party recognises Karl Emich as the heir to the Russian throne, since he and his wife converted on 1 June 2013, from Lutheranism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, enabling his accession. The couple received Orthodox names of Nikolai Kirillovich and Yekaterina Fyodorovna.

Nicholas III and the Imperial Throne

In early 2014 Russian Monarchist Party leader Anton Bakov announced he views the "Imperial Throne" from the point of international law as a subject of state sovereignty regardless of any other attributes, referring to analogies with the Holy See. He outlined that Karl Emich, upon adhering to the Orthodox denomination, obtained a right to take this see according to pre-Revolution Fundamental Laws of the Russian Empire. Bakov proposed that the Prince accept the throne, thereby forming a new independent state and incorporate it into Bakov's promotional projects such as the Monarchist Party's Imperial Throne micronation and several others. In April 2014 Bakov and Karl Emich appeared in a newspaper textual and photo report declaring that the Prince accepted the proposals as well as the title of "Emperor Nicholas III" (as successor to Nicholas II). In the report Bakov emphasized that Karl Emich has long been an entrepreneur but henceforth he would refrain from all non-royalist related public activities. The report included a "Manifesto Grant of the Constitution to the State", signed by Nicholas III, proclaiming the formation of the sovereign state "Imperial Throne" aimed at consolidating all the people around the world devoted to Christian monarchism. The see in the documents is viewed as a legacy of the first-ever Christian Roman Imperial Throne of Constantine the Great, deemed to have passed through the Byzantine Empire to the Russian Empire and the House of Romanov by religious process.

Later Bakov announced he has purchased a plot of land in Montenegro to form a location for the new state (80 ha, "twice as big as Vatican" ), and is in negotiations with Montenegro authorities for recognition of the state. He also announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to grant such a plot in Yekaterinburg (Bakov's residence and site of the 1918 Romanov assassination) in response to Karl Emich's request, transmitted to Putin by Bakov, a former MP. In early 2015, as a follow-up to the international sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War, Bakov told the press there are talks with Montenegro authorities to establish an offshore zone at this plot, aimed at providing financial intermediation to Russian companies. Also in 2015 Imperial Throne representatives claimed to be in talks with the authorities of the neighbouring Republic of Macedonia and Albania on possible collaboration and future state recognition. In particular, Bakov met with Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Later there was a similar talk with President of Gambia Yahya Jammeh at the 70th UN General Assembly session in New York. Also, talks were held with Macedonian and Montenegro Eastern Orthodox clergy — Bakov discusses creation of churches associated with Imperial Throne and proposes canonization of Russian ancient ruler Ivan III and his wife Sophia Palaiologina. Talks with Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, also took place. In early 2017 it was reported that there was preliminary consent from the government of Kiribati to sell three inhabited Pacific islands to Bakov to set up the state which is expected to be renamed to Romanov Empire. Kiribati rejected the proposal in February 2017.

In December 2017, Bakov announced that the purchase of artificial islands belonging to the Republic of the Gambia had been successfully negotiated and the Romanov Empire had become a partially recognised country. The claim was denied by the Gambian government.

In June 2021 Karl Emich, or Nikolai Kirillovich (Nicholas III) gave his first-ever interview in Russian language where he clarified his civil and political attitude and told some details about history of his family.

Ancestry