Sheremetevsky employed 11 other lawyers, and was a member of the minor Russian nobility, but had no title and was essentially a professional middle-class man.

[7] The couple moved into 13 Mansurovsky Lane, a new apartment building near the fashionable Prechistenka street, and had a daughter, Natalia or "Tata" to the family, on 2 June 1903.

[13] In early December 1907, Natalia was introduced to one of her husband's fellow officers in the Blue Cuirassiers: Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, the brother of Tsar Nicholas II.

[15] From then on, they began to see each other regularly,[16] though Michael was always careful to include Wulfert in his letters and invitations, at least until October 1908,[17] and use the formal form of "you" (vy) rather than the familiar one (ty).

Michael began sending her secret letters to a separate postal address, now writing to her in familiar terms,[20] and Wulfert grew physically violent, as Natalia refused to share his bed.

[21] Through Baron Frederiks, the court minister, Michael tried to buy off Wulfert by offering him a post in Moscow as aide-de-camp to Prince Odoevsky-Maslov at the Kremlin.

[25] Nicholas II intervened, and transferred Michael from the Blue Cuirassiers to the Chernigov Hussars at Orel, 650 miles (1,050 km) from Saint Petersburg.

[31] Against the wishes of Michael and Natalia, Nicholas II insisted that she remain in Moscow, and refused to vary the conditions of her residence permit.

[37] In May 1911, Nicholas II granted Natalia the surname "Brasova" and the right to live at Michael's estate at Brasovo, 70 miles (110 km) from his posting at Orel.

After shaking off agents of Nicholas II's secret police, the Okhrana, Michael and Natalia married in Vienna on 16 October 1912 in a Serbian Orthodox Church.

[52] As a divorcée, however, Natalia was often excluded from invitations to social events elsewhere; the divorced were not received at court and could not enter the Royal Enclosure at Ascot.

[53] Upon the outbreak of World War I, Michael requested Nicholas II's permission to return home and to the army, with the understanding his wife and children could accompany him.

Nicholas agreed and the family returned to the house on Nikolaevskaya street; Natalia was still not permitted to live in any of the imperial palaces.

[54] Michael was appointed to the rank of major-general, and given command of the Savage Division (Дикая Дивизия) formed from Chechens, Ingushes and Daghestani.

[55] As was expected of women in the imperial family, Natalia founded two hospitals for wounded soldiers and officers, one at Gatchina and one at Saint Petersburg, in properties owned by Michael.

[66] He wrote to her, "the present time is so hard for Russia that my conscience could not allow me not to join the frontline service – and I am convinced that having done that, I also brought you some good in terms of public opinion, which, unfortunately, we can't totally ignore.

"[67] Natalia's social circle widened to include deputies in the Duma, and she was perceived as a liberal who supported a constitutional monarchy rather than the Tsar's autocracy.

[72] In September 1916, they reunited at Mogilev, and spent time at Brasovo and Gatchina for the next six weeks, until Michael fell ill with stomach ulcers.

[73] Christmas 1916 was spent at Brasovo as a family, where Natalia's daughter was "thrilled to the core" to hear that Dimitri had helped murder Rasputin, Tsarina Alexandra's self-styled spiritual mentor.

By naming Michael as his successor, Nicholas effectively reversed the long-standing law that morganatically married dynasts forfeited rights of succession, but his actions were ultimately irrelevant.

With a permit to travel issued by Peter Polotsov, a former army colleague of Michael's who held a command in Saint Petersburg, the family planned to move to the greater safety of Finland.

[80] Natalia managed to gain access to her safety deposit box, by claiming that she needed to examine some papers at the bank, and thus retrieved as much of her jewellery as she could conceal without arousing suspicion.

[81] The house arrest was lifted in November, but on 7 March 1918 Michael and Nicholas Johnson—who had been his secretary since December 1912[82]—were re-arrested on the orders of Moisei Uritsky, the Head of the Petrograd secret police.

[86] With the help of the Danish embassy, which was next-door to Princess Puyatina's apartment, George was smuggled out of the country to Denmark by his governess, Miss Margaret Neame.

[89] With the approach of the Czechs, Michael and Natalia feared that she would become trapped in Perm, possibly in a dangerous situation, and so on 18 May she left for Moscow.

[90] In Moscow, Natalia continued to badger Bolshevik Commissars, including Lenin, Trotsky and Sverdlov, for Michael's release, but to no avail.

[94] Ten weeks after her imprisonment, in early September, Natalia pretended that she had developed tuberculosis, and was moved to a nursing home.

Johnson's widowed mother had leased a house, Snape in Wadhurst, Sussex, for Michael's family, and all the furniture and furnishings stored at Paddockhurst were moved in.

[106] On 12 August 1921, 18-year-old Natalia Mamontova married future BBC broadcaster Val Gielgud, against her mother's wishes and without her foreknowledge.

[111] Cyril's claim to the throne was met with opposition from within the Romanov family because at his birth his mother was a Lutheran and not a member of the Russian Orthodox Church.