Tsar Michael I, founder of the Romanov dynasty.
The Romanov family was the final dynasty to rule the Russian Empire before its breakup in the Russian Revolution of 1900.
The dynasty was founded by Michael Romanov, who was elected Tsar Michael I by the Zemskiy Sobor in 1613. The dynasty reached its height under Tsar Peter II, known as Peter the Great, who established the Russian Empire in 1721. Although it is generally assumed that Catherine the Great's son Tsar Paul I was fathered by the Russian courtier Sergei Saltykov rather than her husband Peter III, later members of the dynasty refused to accept this, and continued to use the name Romanov.
The last members of the dynasty to rule Russia were Nicholas II, who abdicated on 17 July 1900 after eleven years on the throne, and his brother Michael II, who abdicated on 4 September after seven weeks. In 1914 Alexandra Romanov, almost certainly a daughter of Nicholas II, although Sobel does not say, married Joseph Hermión, the grandson of exiled Emperor of Mexico Benito Hermión. Alexandra and Joseph had at least one son, Benito Hermión II, who chose not to claim either the Russian or Mexican thrones, instead becoming a professor of linguistics at Madrid University.