Declaration of Prince Serge Troubetzkoy
in favour of the John Grady Order.

PROCLAMATION

Be it known to all Knights of Saint John, and to all men:

I, Serge Serevitch Troubetzkoy, a Prince of Russia and Hereditary Knight Commander of Justice, Grand Cross, of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights Hospitaller, do declare:
I am a descendant of Guedimin, ruler of ancient Lithuania and ancestor of the Kings of Poland, which nations at one time covered much of what is now European Russia. My noble ancestors served under Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and all subsequent Tsars of Russia; and I am related to the Romanov Imperial line.
Regards the Order of Malta, 1 am the direct descendant, on my father's line, of Prince Vasili Sergevitch Troubetzkoy, and, an my mother's line, from Count Andre Cheremetiev and the noble Paul Demidov - these being three of the twenty-three Hereditary Knight Commanders created in l799 by His Imperial Highness Emperor Paul I, Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem -- an act performed to ensure that the Order would never die. The majority of these twenty-three hereditary lines have ceased to be; however, my hereditary lines are intact, and all of my ancestors, since 1799, have been Chevaliers of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (Order of Malta).
I hereby attest that the Sovereign Order was established and headquartered in Jerusalem 1048-1291, was on Cyprus 1291-1310, ruled Rhodes 1310-1523, and was the sovereign of Malta 1530-1798. Following the loss of Malta to Napoleon in 1798, the Order assembled in St. Petersburg, Russia where the Knights of the Order held a Chapter General and elected their protector Tsar Paul I, Grand Master of the Sovereign Order. In St. Petersburg the Order occupied the magnificent Palace of Malta (formerly the Vorontzov Palace) and remained active from 1798 until the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
I further declare that I am now, and have been for many years, the Lt. Grand Master of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem -- Knights Hospitaller, the legitimate continuation of the historic Order which after 1798 was headquartered in Russia.

Because the Order had long suffered from external assaults on its history and integrity, and suffered as well from the personal ambition of glory seekers within the Order, and because the Order was in grave crisis and threatened with destruction, 1 gave my support in 1984 to the lawful reconstitution of the Order under the authority of the Hereditary Knights of the Order, who since 1799 have been the guardians of the Order and the foundation of its government. This re-organisation took place during the period 1983-1991 under the leadership of Chevalier Commander Dr. John Grady, O.S.J. Subsequently, I re-organised the Chapter General of September 1991, which completed the official reconstitution of the Sovereign Order, provided a comprehensive Constitution for the Order, and elected Dr. Grady to be the Order's Grand Master.
Now therefore, I, Prince Serge Troubetzkoy, hereby confirm my aforesaid recognition and support of the Sovereign Order of Saint John, authenticate the present Order's continuity with its historic tenure in Russia, reaffirm my position and authority as the Order's Lt. Grand Master, and attest to the validity of the Order's present Grand Master, Dr. John Grady, whom I have personally dubbed a Knight in our holy Order, and to whom I have conveyed the full authority and hereditary status of the Russian Hereditary Commanders who have heretofore assured the continuity of the Sovereign Order.
Furthermore, I earnestly entreat, and respectfully command to the full extent of my authority, that all Knights of the Sovereign Order, world-wide, proclaim their allegiance and obedience to the Prince Grand Master, H..H. Chevalier John Grady M.D., O.S.J., Hereditary Knight Commander of Justice, Grand Cross, and assist him in reuniting our Holy Order as the essential prerequisite of returning the Order to its rightful glory, noble purpose and holy mission.

COMMENT.

BACKGROUND NOTES ON RUSSIAN HEREDITARY COMMANDERS.
When Emperor Paul I allowed the creation of jus patronat commanderies (commanderies of family), in 1798, the official descriptions provide for a real hereditary principle. This is confirmed by N.N. Bantys-Kamenskij who compiled a digest of official documents dealing with foreign relations up until 1800. This was completed in 1802. The work was not published until 1896 in Moscow.
According to this official work the 'rodovye, or jus-patronatskie komandorstva' were founded in favour of the holder's descendants, with permission to extend the right of inheritance, see Bantys-Kamenskij, N.N. Obzor Vnesnix Snosenij Rossii, Moscow 1896, - pages 228 and 229. Added to this reference is the 1785 Charter of Nobility of Catherine the Great, which reinforces the hereditary rights of Russian Nobility. This Charter was confirmed under Emperor Alexander I.
Thus the jus-patronat commanderies, according to an official account complied under Emperor Alexander I, and using sources created under Emperor Paul I, carried the notion of an hereditary principle.
In other words, after the notion of the 'jus patronat 'commanderies had been carried over from the Roman Catholic Order, into a new Russian framework, the definition and understanding were Russian!

COMMENT ON THE TROUBETZKOY DOCUMENT.

1. Prince Troubetzkoy as an Hereditary Commander.
Prince Sergei Sergeivitch Troubetzkoy was not an Hereditary Commander - that entitlement belonged to a distant Cousin, a direct descendant of the Prince Basil Troubetzkoy who was the first Hereditary Commander in 1799. Prince Sergei Troubetzkoy's older bother, Nikita Sergeivitch Troubetzkoy who was a founding member of the Paris group.

Thus Prince Serge Sergeivitch Troubetzkoy was not an Hereditary Commander although he claimed to be. Therefore before any discussion takes place, his signature is devalued by his usurpation of his elder brothers rights.

2. Other Russian Hereditary Commanders. 
Of the other Commanders, Prince Sergei Troubletzkoy suggests that most of the other lines of such Commanders had died out - this is incorrect. The lines can continue, if necessitated via a female of the family, a daughter to her son - or to a brother, to his son etc. This follows the normal property inheritance. Thus the ability for the survival of such lines has meant that more lines have survived that Troubetzkoy suggests.

3. Scope of Authority for Individual Commanders.
An Hereditary Commander cannot act on his own. Otherwise there is a potential for 23 Orders of St John (from the fact that there were originally 23 Hereditary Commanders in the period 1799-1805)- plainly a nonsense!
In fact the expert in pre-Revolutionary law, was Baron Michael de Taube, Professor of Law at St Petersburg University, and first minister in the Emperor Nicholas II Foreign Office, and a member of the Council of the Empire.
He wrote that the Russian Grand Priory was "represented by THE ASSEMBLAGE of direct descendants of the first Hereditary commanders" or more accurately in French "représenté par L'ENSEMBLE des descendants directs de ses premiers commandeurs héréditaires" - in other words by the Hereditary Commanders as a whole - the ensemble.
See http://www2.prestel.co.uk/church/oosj/taube.htm Item 7.

4. The Russian Grand Priory in Exile set up by the Assemblage of Hereditary Commanders in 1928.
12 of the 13 known surviving Commanders met at Paris in 1928 and agreed to set up the Russian Grand Priory in exile. The thirteenth could not attend the meeting but joined the group the following year. This group was acknowledged by the claimant to the Russian Throne, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovitch. It was presided over first by his Cousin, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovitch until his death in 1933, then by Grand Duke Kirill's brother, Grand Duke Andrew Vladimirovitch to his death in 1956, and then by the claimant to the Russian Throne, Kirill's son, Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovitch until he retired from office in 1977, and then by other members of the Romanoff family.
The group formed a Corporation in 1955 in France. By 1975, the leaders of the Paris Corporation had died, but the tradition was continued by individual members and the by the Priory of Dacia, based in Demark and founded as a full part of the Russian Grand Priory by the Paris Group. Prince Sergei Troubetzkoy was not a member of the Paris Group, nor of the Danish Group.

5. Prince S. Troubletzkoy - "Lieutenant Grand Master".
Prince S. Troubletzkoy has always held this title - however! from group to group, or self-styled Order to self-styled Order!
i. As under the Shickshinny/Pichel Order (from which the Grady Order has split - see http://www.law.emory.edu/6circuit/july97/97a0209p.06.html for the details of the Court Case on the schism).
ii Then as LGM in the King Peter Order
iii. Then as LGM in his own led ex King Peter Order.
iv. Then as a member of the BObrinskoy Order - but left when asked to drop a title which had never existed in the historic Russian Grand Priory.
v. Then possibly with another group or groups - the data is still being gathered!
vi. Then lastly with the Grady Order until his death.

6. John Grady - Hereditary Knight Commander?
On whose authority? It appears to be on the authority of Prince S. Troubletzkoy in the declaration. It must be noted however, that Prince Sergei was not an Hereditary Commander, and even if he had been, he is not a "fount of honour" or "fons honorum" - this has to be a Prince/Monarch of a Ruling House. This runs very much counter to the tradition of the Russian Grand Priory, where the Emperor alone could make such Commanders in the Russian tradition.
De Taube wrote in his book of 1955, pages 49-50 (Taube, Professor Baron Michel de. L'Empereur Paul I de Russie, Grand Maître de l'Ordre de Malte, et son Grand Prieuré Russe, Paris 1955);
"any nomination of Hereditary commanders nomination is not known after 1805. The persons which claim this dignity without belonging to one of families mentioned below* thus run the risk of being treated as impostors and adventurers."
In the original French;
"aucune nomination de commandeurs héréditaires n'est connue après 1805. Les personnes qui s'arrogent cette dignité sans appartenir à l'une des familles mentionnées ci-dessous courent ainsi le risque d'être traitées d'imposteurs et d'aventuriers."

* The "below" reference is to the 23 families which were given the status by Imperial Sanction.

CONCLUSIONS.
Thus the document as a record of authority to be a continuation of the Russian Grand Priory fails.
Prince Sergei Troubletzkoy simply as a Russian Noble, certainly did not enjoy the prerogatives of an Emperor, or Head of State, and could not make new Hereditary Commanders in the Russian Grand Priory, nor in his own person continue any legitimate succession of the Russian Grand Priory.