page_title: Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia
section_title: The prince and Lady Mary
hierarchical_section_title: Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia / The prince and Lady Mary
caption_attribution_description: English: William Ranken (1881-1941). HH Prince Vesevolode of Russia, 1939
context_page_description: Prince Vsevolod Ivanovich of Russia was a male line 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. He was a distant cousin and godson of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, as well as second cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
  During the revolution his father and two uncles were imprisoned and later murdered along with other Romanov relatives in July 1918. In October 1918 his grandmother fled with the four-year-old Prince Vsevolod to Sweden where he was able be reunited with his mother, Princess Helen of Serbia. After a time in France and Belgrade they eventually settled in England. Prince Vsevolod was educated at Eton and Oxford. He spent the rest of his life in exile in Great Britain. In 1939 he married Lady Mary Lygon of Madresfield Court. They were divorced in 1956. Prince Vsevolod married twice more, but had no children from any of his marriages. At his death, the male line of the Constantinovich branch of the Romanov family died out.
context_section_description: Prince Vsevolod's engagement to Lady Mary Lygon was announced on 1 February 1939.  The civil marriage took place on 31 May 1939, in Chelsea register office in the presence of two of the bride's sisters, two witnesses and a Russian priest. The religious service was the following day in the Russian orthodox Church, Buckingham Palace Road. Grand Duke Vladimimir Kirilovich, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich and Prince Dmitri of Russia were among the groomsmen. Lady Mary became Princess Romanovsky-Pavlovsky, the title granted by Grand Duke Vladimir Kirilovich at Vsevolod's request.
  The couple set up home in a large house in Lenox Gardens. Prince Vsevolod worked at Saccone & Speed Wine Merchants in Sackville Street, London. At the outbreak of World War II in September, the Prince volunteered to serve at night as an Air raid precaution Warden. His duties included ensuring that the blackout was observed, sounding air raid sirens, evacuating areas around unexploded bombs, helping casualties from bomb damage and finding accommodation for people whose homes were destroyed. His wife ran the Princess Pavlovsky's Unit, a Red Cross Unit with one ambulance. In 1940 the couple moved to a small house in Montpelier Walk, South Kensington. They lived in style, in spite of the war time restrictions, giving cocktail and dinner parties often for Serbian diplomats. Prince Vsevolod was made a major in the Serbian army around this time. In August 1942, Evelyn Waugh moved in with the couple, staying in their small cottage between army duties. Waugh was a close friend of Lady Mary and her siblings since 1930. It has been said that Madresfield Court, the ancestral home of the Lygon family was the inspiration for Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead and that the Flytes were based on them. Waugh spent Christmas 1943 with Prince Vsevolod and his wife. The famous author didn't have much love for the Prince, resenting having been forced to share his friend with him. Waugh confided in his diary: "I find my dislike of Vsevolod so overwhelming that I cannot sit in the room with him. Mamie [Mary] is lost to me". He thought the prince's existence, with no wine left to sell, was pointless.
  After the war Prince Vsevolod and his wife moved to a Palladian style house in North Terrace, Kensington: Alexander house was situated at the end of a cul de sac off the Brompton Road. With no children of their own, they were devoted to their Pekingese dogs. Vsevolod also stood as godfather to George, son of Prince and Princess George Galitzine in May 1947; and to Victoria, daughter of Prince and Princess Frederick of Prussia, in May 1952. In the following years their marriage began to unravel. Both were heavy drinkers and Lady Mary descended into a depressive alcoholic haze. Soon the couple were hurling pots of hot tea at each other. Mary's friends claimed that the prince had spent all her money. By 1952 the couple were broke, living in the same apartments but not speaking. The following year they moved to a flat in Hove, Sussex. Mary resorted to pawning her jewelry. Her eldest brother (now Lord Beauchamp) and sister Lady Lettice suggested that the couple moved alternatively between them, an offer they declined. Soon after Christmas 1953, Vsevolod left the marital home. During 1954, Mary's mental health declined. The couple was granted a divorce in February 1956 on the grounds of Prince Vsevolod's adultery.
caption: William Ranken (1881–1941). HH Prince Vesevolode of Russia, 1939
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