Ancestry
Phillips's maternal grandmother, known as Lady Zia Wernher, was born Countess Anastasia de Torby, a younger daughter of Grand Duke Michael Mihailovich of Russia, grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia by his morganatic wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg, daughter of Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau (himself a brother of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg) by his morganatic wife, the younger daughter of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
Lady Zia's sister Countess Nadejda de Torby (Nada) was the wife of George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, elder maternal uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The Torby sisters were third cousins of the Duke through their common ancestor Nicholas I.
Through his Russian grand ducal father Phillips was descended from Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and was thereby in the line of succession to the British throne.
Phillips was also an indirect descendant of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Through Pushkin, he was descended from his African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal (otherwise Ibrahim Hannibal) who was Peter the Great's protégé.
Read more about this topic: Nicholas Harold Phillips
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