King Felipe VI of Spain — king of spain with roots in the Russian Empire
Felipe de Borbón y Grecia was born in Madrid on 30 January 1968, the only son and youngest child of Juan Carlos, then Prince of Spain, and Princess Sofía of Greece and Denmark. When his father became king in 1975 he became heir to the throne, and in 1977 he was given the traditional title of Prince of Asturias. On his eighteenth birthday, in January 1986, he swore allegiance to the Constitution before the Cortes as heir to the throne.
His Russian descent comes through his mother. Queen Sofía's grandfather, King Constantine I of Greece, was the son of Queen Olga, who was born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna at Pavlovsk Palace near St Petersburg in 1851, the elder daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich and a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I. Olga is therefore Felipe's great-great-grandmother, and through her he is related to the British royal family by way of Prince Philip, whose grandmother she also was.
He was educated in Madrid and at Lakefield College School in Canada, trained at the military academies of all three Spanish armed services, and took a degree in law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, followed by a master's in international relations at Georgetown University in Washington. A keen sailor like his mother's family, he carried the Spanish flag at the opening of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and competed in the sailing events there.
In 2004 he married Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a television journalist; they have two daughters, Leonor, Princess of Asturias and heir to the throne, and Infanta Sofía. In October 2023 Leonor in turn swore allegiance to the Constitution on reaching eighteen. On 19 June 2014, following his father's abdication, he was proclaimed king before the Spanish parliament as Felipe VI.
As king he has carried out the constitutional duties of the Spanish crown, including the formal appointment of governments and state visits abroad. Through his mother's family he is also a nephew of the last King of Greece, Constantine II, and a cousin of the Greek and Danish royal houses, both of which carry Romanov descent of their own.
Tracing the roots — Pavlovsk (great-great-grandmother)
Through his mother, Queen Sofía, he descends from Queen Olga of Greece, born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna at Pavlovsk in 1851, a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I.
Great-great-grandson of Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna (b. Pavlovsk 1851), later Queen Olga of Greece, through his mother Queen Sofía, her father King Paul and his father Constantine I.
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Pavlovsk (great-great-grandmother). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.