Von Vladimiroff

The founder of the house, Neo-Aleksandr I von Valdimiroff, was the child of Yevdokiya Yusupova and Peter von Biron and is only mentioned by the Dukes third wife Dorothea von Medem in her private letters. The Duchess wrote about the child on very few occasions and expressed her loathing for him. The Duke and third Duchess had the boy baptized as a Lutheran, but it infuriated his father and stepmother that he never renounced the Orthodox Church.[1] Neo-Aleksandr went on to found the House of Vladimiroff by marrying into the House of Mecklenburg (resulting in Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg assuming power after the treaty of Brest-Litovsk as a result of the Mecklenburg connection to the Duchy).

The House of Vladimiroff has faded into relative obscurity as no nation has ever been governed by family, however due to their unique lineage they have married into almost every great dynasty of Europe (including the Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanov and Saxe-Coburg). Despite the family possessing the last legitimate claim to both the Kingdom of Livonia (German: Livland, Latvian: Vidzeme), and being the last remaining Baltic German ruling dynasty, they were neither given the crown of Courland or the United Baltic Duchy due to their loyalty to the Russian Empire and Romanovs.

In 1942 the Schutzstaffel (SS) accepted Kyrill XIII von Vladimroff (Russian: Кирилл XIII Владимиров), the last surviving member of the Vladimiroff Dynasty, into the 2nd SS Infantry Brigade (later the 19th Waffen SS Division). He served throughout the war during the Siege of Leningrad, the Tannenburg Line and finally in the Kurland Pocket. On the 17th of May 1945 Swedish Nazis recorded his entry onto Gotland with approximately 30 other SS soldiers, after which the group went to Sweden. Kyrill XIII went on to America and married a Bavarian Junker, Isabella von Köntopf (Isabella I von Vladimiroff), who was fleeing Germany as a result of the war. Kyrill XIII initially changed his last name to von Köntopf, and later Americanized it to Kentopp, in order to avoid war crime charges in the Soviet Union. The marriage produced one child named Kyrill Kentopp (Kyrill XIV von Vladimiroff).

The von Vladimiroffs are a purely Orthodox Christian family, and those who do not strictly adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church or speak Baltic German are expelled from the House of Vladimiroff in order to retain Russo-Teutonic heritage. This strict policy has resulted in problems and near extinctions for the house, for example Kyrill XIII von Vladimroff (Russian: Кирилл XIII Владимиров) was the only living member of the family for a number of years. This has also resulted in compromises with other houses, as children produced from the family are often baptized as Catholic or Lutheran, however this negates their ability to inherit certain titles.

A notable family tradition is that despite differing Christian names, all of the inheriting men in the family are named to as Kyrill while inheriting women are named Kyra. It is not known why this is the case. Despite only happening twice, it is acceptable for members of the family to possess a double-barreled first name which includes Kyrill, such as Ludwig-Kyrill I von Vladimiroff the current prince of Livonia.

In the case of a female of the House of Vladimiroff inheriting any title, it is immediately passed on to the son of her choice upon his sixteenth birthday, however the choice is often relinquished to the current head of the family.

The family motto is "Kings of the Land, Fathers of the People" (Russian: Короли земли, отцы народа, German: Könige des Landes, Väter des Volkes, Latvian: Zemes kari, tautas tēvi).

As of 2017, living members of the house only include the children of Kyrill XIV von Vladimiroff, and his two children Kyrill XV and Kyra II (officially Kyrill Kentopp Jnr. and Kyra Kentopp). Kyrill XV, pretender to the Kingdom of Livonia, has one child, Ludwig-Kyrill I von Vladimiroff (Kyrill XV abandoned the name of Kentopp), second in line to the throne of Livonia.

Kyra II von Vladimiroff married a descendant of the Rurikid dynasty and had three children, the oldest being Timur von Vladimiroff (Teymor Buckley, baptized a Catholic), and the youngest being Kyra-Trinity von Vladimiroff (Kyra-Trinity Kentopp). In 2016, upon his 16th birthday, the middle child Leopold I von Rurik (Neo-Aleksandr Leopold Kyrill von Vladimiroff, Neo Buckley) was granted all the titles possessed by his mother, significantly the Vladimiroff title of Duke of Courland and Semigalia. Moreover, through his father Leopold I von Rurik holds the title of Bejewelled Prinz (Prince of Ukraine), leaving the crown of Ukraine in the House of Vladimiroff.