Prince Harry and Prince William are already related to such a powerhouse, Queen Elizabeth. But the sons of Prince Charles are also direct descendants of another unforgettable woman in history: Catherine the Great.
As the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, Catherine the Great made many reforms to modernize homeland. Her rule has been known as the Golden Age of the Soviet country.
Prince Harry and Prince William's direct relation to Catherine the Great can be traced back to their grandfather, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip, who is of Greek and Danish royal blood, is the grandson of Olga Constantinovna of Russia.
Olga was the granddaughter or Nicholas I, the ruling emperor of Russia from 1825 to 1855. Nicholas I's father is Paul I, the son of Catherine the Great.
Prince Philip also has Russian royal blood flowing through his veins on his mother side. His maternal grandmother is Princess Victoria of Hesse, whose sister is the last Russian Tsarina, Alexandra Feodorovna or Princess Alix of Hesse, the matriarch of the historically famous Romanov family. She was the wife of Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia who was overthrown in the Russian revolution in 1917.
Incidentally, Nicholas II is the cousin of Prince George V, Queen Elizabeth's grandfather. Nicholas II and Prince George come from the lineage of Queen Victoria, who was regarded as the grandmother of Europe since her grandchildren are members of the ruling royal families of the U.K., Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Greece, Romania and Germany before World War I.
In an interview on the Telegraph, Prince Philip said that he would very much he want to visit Russia to experience his heritage. Only, he's hesitant to go to there since the Russians wiped out and killed half his family.
When unearthed remains of the Romanovs were found by forensic experts in the 1990s, Prince Philip was asked to donate his blood to establish DNA. The experts confirmed that the bones found were, in fact, the Romanovs thanks to the Duke of Edinburgh's blood. This laid to rest all the speculations that some of the Romanovs lived with secret identities after their execution in 1917.
Meanwhile, Prince William and Prince Harry, as well as the rest of the British royal family, are actually banned from going to Russia inspite of their interest to go and their links to the country. Reports revealed that the government advised against their Russian visit in 2018 because of the killing of a former Russian spy in Salisbury.
