Alex Ceslaw Maurice Jean Brimeyer (4 May 1946 – 27 January 1995) was a pretender who claimed connection to various European thrones. He used fraudulent combined titles such as "Prince d'Anjou Durazzo Durassow Romanoff Dolgorouki de Bourbon-Condé". He authored the highly controversial book, Moi Petit-Arriere-Fils du Tsar. He also sold false titles of nobility through "orders" that he and his associates had created.
Early life
Alex Brimeyer was born on 4 May 1946 in Costermansville (now Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo). His parents were the engineer Victor Brimeyer and his wife, Beatrice Dolgoruky, daughter of Ceclava Czapska.
Noble pretender
Brimeyer's first attempt to ennoble himself came when he named himself, Brimeyer de la Calchuyére, in the 1950s when he was about ten years old. This came to nothing. In 1955, he took a name, His Serene Highness Prince Khevenhüller-Abensberg, but the real Princess Khevenhüller threatened to sue him. He backpedaled and apologized. Brimeyer also wrote to a number of aristocrats to convince them to adopt him. In 1969, he received a passport of the Principality of Sealand with the name His Highness Prince Alexis Romanov Dolgorouki. This gave Alexis an excuse to add the title Bourbon-Condé.
Ties to Russia
Next, Alexis claimed that as his father was the son of Prince Dolgorouki and that Prince Dolgorouki had married the supposedly escaped Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, and that his mother was their only daughter.
Alexis claimed that his grandfather had been elected Volodar of Ukraine and persuaded a few orthodox priests that he was the heir to a throne. Through the Grand Duchess, Alexis claimed a connection to the Romanovs and the Russian throne.
Serbian throne
He sent numerous letters to King Juan Carlos of Spain and demanded his recognition. He married and had a son. He also managed to convince the British College of Arms to include himself in documents. Lord Mountbatten of Burma wrote to him on 3 January 1977, addressing him as Prince Dolgorouky as a courtesy.
In 1992, two Greater Serbian nationalists, including Vojislav Šešelj, visited Brimeyer in Spain. Supposedly they offered him the throne of Serbia. He told journalists that he had been in touch with Slobodan Milošević, who was supposedly in favor of restoring the Serbian monarchy. Then he used the title, "Prince Alexis II Nemanitch Romanov Dolgorouki", Grand Master of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. He had convinced his Serbian nationalist supporters that he was descended, in a very convoluted manner, from Hrebeljanović-Nemanjić dynasty.
Alexis claimed to have accepted the throne of Serbia. There appeared to be at least some support for him. The European Monarchist Association published a communiqué, where it stated Brimeyer's real identity.
See also
- Romanov impostors
- Bruce Conde