For contracting this marriage without permission, Emperor Alexander III of Russia stripped him of his military titles and banished the couple from the Russian Empire.

[citation needed] Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich was born at Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg on 16 October [O.S.

[6] In 1882, when Grand Duke Michael was twenty years old, he returned with his family to St. Petersburg upon his father's appointment as chairman of the State Council.

[1] He became popular on the social circuit in the capital, spending a great deal of his time on endless parties, dancing and gambling.

[1] Grand Duke Michael lived in St. Petersburg's Mikhailovsky Palace with his parents, but he intended to marry soon, and to house his expected family, he ordered the construction of a large residence in the imperial capital.

[9] The same year Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich proposed marriage to Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine.

Later, he fell in love with Countess Catherine Nikolaevna Ignatieva (1869–1914), the daughter of the former Minister of Interior, Nicholas Pavlovich Ignatiev.

[10] While in Nice, in 1891, Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich fell in love with Countess Sophie von Merenberg, his third cousin once removed, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau and his morganatic wife, née Natalia Alexandrovna Pushkina, a member of the minor Russian nobility.

[10] Sophie's maternal grandfather was the renowned poet-author Alexander Pushkin; through him, she had black African ancestry (one part in 32) as a direct descendant of Peter the Great's protégé, Abram Petrovich Gannibal.

[10] The marriage was not only morganatic but also illegal (3rd cousins) under the Imperial house laws and caused a scandal at the Russian court, despite the bride's dynastic paternal ancestry.

Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich was deprived of his military rank and of his position as adjutant at the Imperial Court.

[13] When his mother heard of his morganatic marriage, she collapsed with shock and went by train to the Crimea to recover, but then had a heart attack and died, for which Michael was blamed.

[14] Because of his morganatic marriage, Grand Duke Michael would spend the rest of his life living in exile in England, France and Germany.

His wife was granted the title of Countess de Torby by her uncle Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

They became prominent figures in the international set in the French Riviera, where the grand duke came to be known as the "Uncrowned King of Cannes".

[17] In 1900, the grand duke began renting Keele Hall, a stately home in Staffordshire, a few miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Michael was very pleased when the town council of Newcastle-under-Lyme in late 1902 conferred on him the distinction of Lord High Steward of the borough.

At the death of his father in Cannes on 18 December 1909, Michael was allowed to come to Russia for the funeral;[16] however, his wife refused to go with him as she still resented the insults which had marred their marriage so many years before.

Every year Grand Duke Michael and his wife would visit Edward VII at Windsor Castle or Sandringham and attend luncheons at Buckingham Palace.

After the death of Edward VII, Grand Duke Michael, pushed by his wife, tried in vain to obtain a British title for her.

In his reply George pointed out "I have not the power to grant a title in England to a foreign subject and still more impossible in the case of a Russian Grand Duke."

[13] Not only did they not secure a title for Sophie, but the couple's position in British society was threatened when in the same year Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, Nicholas II's younger brother, chose England for his exile after also contracting a morganatic marriage.

Their refusal to open their doors to the couple meant that many others in British society followed suit, with the result that Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich and his wife were effectively marginalized.

[13] In September 1912, Grand Duke Michael was allowed to visit Russia for the centennial of the Battle of Borodino, and was restored to the honorary colonelcy of the 49th Brest Regiment.

[22] During World War I, Michael was made a chairman of the commission to consolidate Russian orders abroad, but was denied permission to come back to Russia and serve with its armed forces.

[16] On 31 October 1916, the grand duke wrote to Tsar Nicholas II warning him that British secret agents in Russia were expecting a revolution, and that he should satisfy the people's just demands before it was too late.

Wernher, being extremely wealthy, provided substantial financial support for his in-laws, alleviating the loss of income from Michael's imperial estates.