The Prince was a silent, shy person who fancied theatre and was educated in the Corps des Pages, a military academy in Saint Petersburg.

He was interested in the Tsar's eldest daughter, Olga, but was also drawn to Princess Elisabeth of Romania.

Elisabeth's grandmother, the former Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, wrote to her daughter, the Crown Princess Marie of Romania in 1911, saying, "The young Kostya is seized now with terror that she will be snatched away, as he says, before he has even made her acquaintance.

However, the request was denied on political grounds, as Prince John was married to Helen of Serbia, and Konstantin never did find the marriage he longed for.

His body was eventually buried in the Russian Orthodox Church cemetery in Beijing, which was destroyed in 1986 to build a park.