Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich (1862-1929), is one of the lesser known grand dukes of Russia . . .
«Mish-Mish» was the second of six sons born to Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich (1832-1909) and Grand Duchess Olga Feodorovna (born Princess Cäcilie of Baden, 1839-1891).
In 1891 he contracted a morganatic marriage with Countess Sophie Nikolaievna of Merenberg, Countess de Torby (1868-1927), a morganatic daughter of Prince Nicholas William of Nassau and a granddaughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The couple had two daughters and one son.
For contracting this marriage without his permission, Emperor Alexander III stripped «Mish-Mish» of his military titles and banished the couple from the Russian Empire.
In exile the couple lived first in Wiesbaden, Nassau and then Cannes, before settling permanently in England in 1900. «Mish-Mish» became a prominent member of British society, one of his daughters marrying into the British aristocracy and another marrying a great-grandson of Queen Victoria.
He lost his fortune with the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1918. Three of his brothers [Nikolai, George and Sergei] were murdered by the Bolsheviks, but he escaped the Russian Revolution because he was living abroad. He spent his last years living under reduced circumstances with the financial help of his son-in-law, Sir Harold Wernher [who inherited Luton Hoo in 1912].
Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich contracted influenza and died in London on 26 April 1929, aged sixty-seven. He was buried with his wife in Hampstead Cemetery.
