FRIENDS - His Imperial Highness Prince Paul-Théodore Paléologue-Crivez (1894-1984)

PAUL-THEODORE PALEOLOGUE-CRIVEZ
& ZENA GUNTHER

Frontispiece to the pamphlet about Crivez's Ordre Souverain de Saint Constantin de la Maison Imperial d'Orient del Paleologues (1969)

Giorgio presented his copy of the pamphlet to a friend of his with this inscription.

As with the story of Marziano Lavarello (the "Emperor" Marziano II - see the posting for 19th May 2015), Paul-Théodore Paleologue-Crivez was one of a number of royalty claimants who managed to find acceptance in post-war Europe. They often got themselves recognised in various court sentences and, armed with these proofs of legitimacy, set about starting, or  perhaps one should say "resurrecting" chivalric equestrian orders and even granting titles of nobility, as they had then become a fons honorum, of however doubtful a provenance. This is naturally a useful, amusing and fruitful source of income, as the world is full of people anxious for a title. In certain branches of the Italian armed forces an equestrian order meant better promotional prospects. Thus people like Paul-Thèodore (I use the name by which Giorgio Quintini called him in conversation) provided  a means by which people who might have found it difficult to enter some of the recognised equestrian orders, like the Order of Malta or a Vatican order, could acquire a handle to their names. This was in a period before many of the ex-reigning European royal houses had started regranting knighthoods in their own dynastic family orders; those obviously had a cachet which the orders of Crivez or Marziano, or many other similar orders which still exist, never had.

Just how Giorgio met Paul-Théodore is not sure, but we know they met in the 1950s and it is clear from letters in the post here for 11th May 2015 that they were closely in touch throughout the 1960s.  It is also obvious that Giorgio was an extremely useful man for Crivez. He was fluent in French, which was their lingua franca, and since Italy was a very fertile hunting ground for royalty claimants and their orders, Giorgio was the perfect representative for him in Rome, which was also the seat of the Vatican, itself happy to be involved with anti-communist pretenders from the Orient.

Giorgio Quintini with the Duca del Sera Fiaschi di Santa Giustina & Paul-Théodore in 1955

"Le Marquis Georges Quintini dei Paléologue de Monferrat" was to all effects the Roman representative for Paul-Théodore's order. He had been made a Knight Commander of the Order and was on its governing body. Crivez wished to use Giorgio at the Vatican to help with his attempt to have the last Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI, canonised by the Church. He held various receptions in Rome and Giorgio was often at his side.

Paul-Théodore, Giorgio & Donna Rina de Marchi in 1955

The following cutting from a newspaper of the period shows the pretender to Byzantium with the claimant to the throne of Georgia, His Royal Highness Prince Irakly Bagration, a lady and what appears to be a large lion cub, in the Villa Borghese in Rome. Bagration had, for sound genealogical reasons, laid claim to the Royal House of Georgia in 1942. His grandson Davit now heads the family and as such issues various equestrian orders and gives titles which are recognised by many international bodies. Giorgio knew Prince Irakly well and had many anecdotes about his period in Rome.

Paul-Théodore's Paléologue-Crivez was also an artist and a poet. He had exhibited in Venice and was a portrait painter. His oils were not only signed but had the imperial seal set into them, as may be seen in this view of Venice (the present writer recalls seeing a portrait on a flea-market stall in Rome many years ago which had the same signature and seal).

Below is the cover of the presentation pamphlet produced for an exhibition by Paul-Théodore. Giorgio kept it in his Crivez archive.

As well as pamphlets about his Orders and his pretensions, Paléologue-Crivez wrote poetry and such was his friendship with Giorgio Quintini that he dedicated one of his  poems in a proposed volume to him. The book was to be called 25 poèmes du poete inconnu and the 22nd poem, "Le temple profané" was dedicated to Giorgio. Here are the first three and the final two stanzas of the thirteen stanza poem about a youth.

There is no doubt that Giorgio's relationship with Paléologue-Crivez and his Order was closer than he would admit to his Venetian cousins later on; the post here for 11th May 2015 has a reference to Giorgio's presence at a reception and this seems to have been a regular part of his Roman life during the 1960s. Later he would joke about it and about Paul-Théodore. 

At the time Crivez was close enough to him to ask for his advice about a title to be given to one of the women whose support he treasured. This was Zena Gunther, who had been born to a poor Cypriot family but had married a wealthy German and now had a fortune. She was looking for social success, which, then as now, was most easily achieved through charitable donations. 

Marquis Giorgio Quintini dei Paleologo, Mme Zena Gunther de Tyras & H.I.H. Prince Paul-Théodore Paléologue-Crivez at a reception at the Grand Hotel, Rome for Zena Gunther.

One newspaper report which survived in the Quintini archive.

As Mme Gunther had taken up with Crivez and was soon to be adopted by him as his heir and presented to the Pope, he required a suitable title for her. She was to become the Chancellor of his equestrian order. 

This is Mme Gunther as she was when she was presented to Pope Paul VI in the Vatican, as the adopted daughter of Paul-Théodore and heiress to the Empire of the Orient.

In nine pages of a long letter to Giorgio, Crivez discussed what title would be a suitable one for Mme Gunther and he finally hit upon Princess Zena Guther de Tyras, and explained why. This is the title by which she is still known and under which she published her romantic biography. She was lavish with her largess and in Cyprus there seems to be a Zena Gunther Street, though I have been unable to find it. Here is the key page of Crivez's long letter to Giorgio Quintini, which is dated 25th May, 1967.

She was eventually to write her own, ghosted and romanticised, biography, which may be found through second hand book finding sites.

There is another fictional account of her life in Christakis Georgiou’s Archipelagos: 

"The book tells the story of Ioanna Manoleon, a cabaret performer in 1940s Cyprus who marries the heir of an American mining family, Matthias Oriol. Matthias’ family owned mines around the world and operated the Cypriot copper mines. He is an alcoholic/epileptic man with mental problems and his decision to marry Ioanna does not go down very well with his conservative family. Ioanna, however, rises through the challenge to gradually gain control of her husband’s business. All this is happening during a succession of troubles on the island: the miners’ strikes in the late 40s, the anti-colonial nationalist struggle of the 1950s and the rift between the island’s two communities, Greek & Turkish of the late 50s onwards. 

Georgiou gives a fairly accurate account of the real rags-to-riches story of Zena Gunther de Tyras, a cabaret dancer in Limassol who married the heir of the Gunther family, owners of the Cyprus Mines Corporation which exploited the Skouriotissa mine, one of the largest copper mines in the world. Zena went on to become a global socialite, a major charity donor and a leading personality in Cyprus and Europe."

(https://macondosunsets.wordpress.com/page/14/)

At some point Giorgio found he no longer wanted to be a part of this pseudo-royal circus. We can only suppose that either it was too much work for him, or there were few rewards. In any case we have a document drawn up by Paléologue-Crivez in which Giorgio's name is crossed out as the tenth member of the ruling "Grand Conseil de l'Ordre Souverain de Saint Constantin". Crivez added vague threats about the detrimental effect this might have upon Giorgio Quinitini's social life and that of his family. This is the last actual letter which Giorgio kept in his archive.

Paul-Théodore Paléologue-Crivez died in 1984. In a later note in a book Giorgio Quintini simply called him an "impostor", but for many years they seem to have been close friends and allies. The following card sending Christmas wishes for 1973 shows they remained in contact for some years after Giorgio ceased to take an active part in the life of the Order.

 Giorgio was always amused by odd characters and it seems a pity that he did not write one of his dramatized monologues about Paul-Théodore and perhaps also about Marziano II.