Hereditary Commander
A Hereditary Commander is a Commander whose family holds that title by hereditary right.
Hereditary Commanders of the Russian tradition
was officially launched by Paul I of Russia in January 1797. The original 1797 statute allotted ten revenue-producing estates, the commanderies, to be issued to the most deserving knights of the Order. The award was not hereditary; the recipients were obligated to contribute a share of commandery revenue to the Order. In November–December 1798 Paul assumed the title of Grand Master of the Order and expanded its operation in Russia, increasing the number of non-hereditary commanderies to 99. In 1799 Paul decreed the statute for hereditary commanderies. Unlike ordinary commanderies that provided direct financial benefits to their commanders, hereditary commanderies were financed by the applicants themselves. An eligible applicant needed to pledge his own real estate to the order, provided that it was sufficiently large to generate 3,000 roubles annual income. Hereditary commanderies remitted 10% of their revenue to the Order.Two examples within the Order of St John of Jerusalem of Ancestral Commanderies before the creation of the Russian Grand Priory are the Priory of Bohemia and the Priory of Poland prior to its absorption into the Russian Priory. One early precedent is that of Grand Master Jean de Lascaris-Castellar granting an hereditary knighthood to the Vicomte d'Arpajon for assisting in checking a Turkish attack on Malta.
Ancestral Commanderies during the reigns of Paul I and Alexander I of Russia were:
1. Narychkine, 2. Count Chéréméteff, 3. Prince Youssoupoff †, 4. Stroganov †, 5. Count Samoiloif ‡,
6. Prince Belosselsky, 7. Prince Dolgoroukov, 8. Davydov, 9. Prince Barytinsky, 10. Démidoff, 11. Prince Troubetzkoy, 12. Count Worontzoff, 13. Maruzzi †, 14. Beklechev †, 15. Prince Tioufiakine †, 16. Count Olsoufieff, 17. Gerebtzoff, 18. Count Strogonoff †, 19. Boutourline, 20. Potemkine †, 21. Tchirikoff †, 22. Prince Khilkoff ‡, 23. Prince Odoevsky †, 24 Prince Youssoupoff †.
Key. † Direct Male line from the first Commander extinct. ‡ Direct Male line is extinct, but the family was reinstated via the female line by the Imperium.
There were originally 24 Commanders of Families registered in 23 families.
Under the Imperial Ukase 19.044 of 1799 it is clear that there can be only one Commander per Commandery. Thus only 24 Hereditary Commanders could ever have existed.
In Article XI, it is also true that more than one Commandery per family could be founded, and this happened. However all such Commanderies were created under the regulations given in the Ukase "Ancestral Commanderies of Jus Patronatus" of 1799. Furthermore, pluralities were listed separately.
Changes to the Russian Ancestral Commanderies in 1810 and 1811
The Beneficed Commanderies were weaned of state funds in 1810, their holders being given other posts with comparable compensation, and the affected properties of the Family Commanders were handed back to the families, provided a redemption payment was made. The Order's properties were also reclaimed by the state; for example, the Palace of the Sovereign Order of St John of Jerusalem in St. Petersburg was given to the Corps des Pages to serve as a military academy.Qualifications needed by candidates
Russian Hereditary Commanders, must be confirmed as such under the Russian Laws which gave birth to that category of membership; Ukase 19.044 of 1799 specifies inter alia "5 years of seniority in the Order and 2 years of seniority of military service" in the Order's troops, in other words five years belonging to the Order, and two years military service in the Order. None of the descendants of the Family Commanders in the days of the Empire and into exile qualified in these respects.Even where the candidate is qualified, he must demonstrate that he is the "present representative elder of the masculine posterity of its first beneficiary"; Professor Baron Michel Alexsandrovitch, de Taube. L'Empereur Paul I de Russie, Grand Maître de l'Ordre de Malte, et son Grand Prieuré Russe, Paris 1955, page 50.
Hereditary Commanders in exile 1928
On June 24, 1928, twelve Russian Hereditary Commanders met in Paris to re-establish the activities of the Russian Grand Priory. They were supported by three other Russian nobles who were aspirants and admitted as Knights, and a Hereditary Commander of the Catholic Grand Priory of Russia.The signatories of the founding document were ;
Count Dmitri Cheremeteff; Prince Serge Belosselsky-Belozersky; Count Hilarion Worontzoff-Dachkoff ; Paul Demidoff; Prince Wladimir Galitzine ; Count Wladimir Borch ; Dmitri Boutourline; Prince Serge Dolgorouki; Denis Davydoff; Léon Narichkine; Count Alexandre Mordvinoff, ; Prince Nikita Troubetzkoi; Count André Lanskoi ; Dmitri Jerebzoff Nicolas Tchirikoff; Count Dmitri Olzoufieff.
Although Prince Nikita Troubetzkoy was counted as a Commander, and was a subsequent member of the Council, he was a distant cousin to the Prince Troubetkoy who qualified; Prince Cyrille Troubetzkoy. Baron Michael de Taube was aware of the mistake, and had met the qualifying Commander in Paris.
By 1955, out of a possible 14 Commanders, only 6 were in membership of the Paris Group; Taube ibid page 50. Those families in membership are listed in italics, and the families where the direct descendants had come to an end, were signified by a Latin cross.
Under the guidance of Grand Duke Vladimir, applicants claiming to the Hereditary Commanders were carefully scrutinised, and those qualifying admitted under the signature of Grand Duke Vladimir – claimant to the Russian Throne.
The numbers of qualifying Commanders in membership of the Paris group continued to decline into the 1970s, and lines of several Hereditary Commanders coming to an end continued. For example, in 1974, Nicholas Tchirikoff, the Dean of the Paris Group died without an heir to the Commandery.
The Priory of Dacia in Denmark makes a claim to the tradition, but none met the original requirements.
Dissolution of the Union in 1975
In recent years there has been speculation about the demise of the Paris Group, with a question about a possible dormancy of the institution - in other words whether a group of individuals could resurrect the institution, and thereby claim to continue it. If done, this would open the way to abuse of claims by such as the self-styled "Russian Orders". One group did exactly this in July 2006, connected to the self-styled Order the "Sovereign Order of Orthodox Knights Hospitaller Saint John of Jerusaelm" created in 1977 but by so doing leaving themselves open to challenge by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who have proprietary rights over the phrase "St John of Jerusalem" in France.The original Union ended with the death of its General Secretary General Georges Rticheff in 1975. Following this, the President of the Union, Grand Duke Vladimir authorised a Bailiff of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to intervene in his "name and to help the Sovereign Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and Malta on any occasions which presents itself to act against the false orders, which, usurping the names belonging to the Sovereign Order of Malta, pretending themselves to be of Russian Imperial origin."
The Union Order founded in 1928, was via the Imperial Grand Dukes, Kirill, Alexandre, Andrei and Vladimir of 'Imperial origin'. The self-styled Orders claiming the Russian tradition, even with those of Russian descent, are clearly not of 'Imperial' origin.