Torby and other Morganatic Arms and Titles
Zwartendÿk
Mikhailovich of Russia come up with Torby as the name of their comital
morganauts?
Is it really true that Michael invented the name himself, based on
Tori, a village on his Borjomi estate, which I understand he derived
quite a large income from from also in exile? (Apparently it was also
an older name for the whole Borjomi region.)
Why did he change it to Torby with a b? Did it have something to do
with:
- Torbay on the English Riviera?
- The location Torby on the Finnish factory estate of Fiskars (of
knives and other metal tools fame, and founded and owned by the Von
Julins, the maternal family of Marshall Mannerheim) in the southern
Finnish province of Nyland? (Torby is a typical Nordic name, meaning
"village/town of Thor", but this location in the Russian-ruled Grand
Duchy of Finland is the only Torby I could see as having a possible
link with the Romanovs.)
- And a location in a peat moor in the village of Les Ponts-de-Martel
in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. (This Torby appearently derived from
French "tourbe", peat. Unlikely name patron, but Sophia of Merenberg
was born in Geneva not far from Neuchâtel.)
- Apparently it has no meaning in Russian, I've only found out it's
the declinated form of a word meaning "bags" in various Slavic
languages, but not in Russian.
And what about arms? Were the Counts of Torby also granted arms to go
with their titles?
Were Russian morganauts like the Counts and Countesses Torby,
Osternburg, Zarnekau, Merenberg, Hohenfelsen etc. styled
"siyatelstvo",
Erlaucht, just like Russian Counts, even though they were created by
German sovereigns like the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the Grand Duke of
Oldenburg, the Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont and the Prince-Regent of
Bavaria? (And thus probably actually technically held the lesser style
of Hochgeboren, "visokorodye", like non-mediatized German counts.)
And speaking of Russian morganauts, what about the arms of the
Paleys??? (To be found in (Part 20 of the General Armorial of Noble
Families of the All-Russian Empire, page 1, for those who have access
to that publication.) Thanks!
Why was Zarnekau chosen? Because it was a grand-ducal Oldenburgish
domain? Because the name had Slavic roots?
(Zarnekau is a small village (and former grand-ducal estate?) in the
municipality of Süsel in Eastern Holstein, between the grand-ducal
residence Eutin and the Baltic. It formed part of the Principality
(former Prince-Bishopric) of Lübeck, the Grand-ducal Oldenburgian
exclave in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. Fittingly
enough Zarnekau is probably a Slavic name (Germanized Tsarnekov), as
the area was one of the strongholds of the Wends into the 12th
century.)
