On this day — 17th June 1931 — Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich died in Antibes, France
Born in St. Petersburg on 23rd (O.S. 10th) January 1864, Peter was the second son of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (Senior) and Grand Duchess Alexandra Petrovna (born Duchess Alexandra Frederica Wilhelmina of Oldenburg, and the grandson of Emperor Nicholas I.
On 26th July 1889, he married Princess Milica of Montenegro (1866–1951), daughter of King Nicholas I of Montenegro (1841–1921). The couple had four children: one son and three daughters.
Their son Prince Roman Petrovich (1896–1978) was father to the Princes Nicholas (1922-2014) and Dimitri Romanovich (1926-2016).
Together with the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and other Romanovs, Peter safely left Crimea in April 1919 on the British cruiser ‘HMS Marlborough’. In exile, he and his brother always stayed together, lived with their families in Italy, and then in the south of France.
Unlike some of his Romanov relations, Peter did not recognize the claim of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich as Head of the Russian Imperial Family and his rights to the throne.
Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich died in Antibes, France on 17th June 1931. His remains were buried in the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Cannes next to his wife Militsa Nikolaevna, who died twenty years after her husband.
Memory Eternal! Вечная Память!
