Prince Michael—Prince Nicholas Obolovitch

Prince Michael and Prince Nicholas Obolovitch are first cousins whose relationship becomes politically consequential when Michael is murdered and Nicholas is identified as the next heir to the throne of Herzoslovakia. Their succession places competing restoration plans and foreign financial interests in direct tension—and culminates in the revelation that Nicholas, presumed dead, has been living as Anthony Cade.

Kinship and the Succession

Nicholas is described as Michael’s first cousin and the next heir. Before Michael’s murder, George Lomax hesitantly identifies Nicholas as the probable successor, an answer that makes clear that the question of inheritance is already relevant to the political negotiations surrounding the monarchy’s possible restoration.

The succession has a recent, violent history. After King Nicholas IV married Queen Varaga, whose claim to royal descent was fabricated, popular discontent and repression culminated in an uprising that killed the royal couple and proclaimed a republic. Years later, supporters again seek a monarchy, but the old dynasty’s return depends not only on political support but also on who can claim the crown.

Competing Restoration Interests

The proposed restoration initially centers on Michael. The people of Herzoslovakia are said to want the monarchy restored, and Michael is offered the crown with support from the British government. In exchange for a loan of roughly a million, he is prepared to grant concessions to Isaacstein and Co. The arrangement binds the succession question to both diplomatic backing and commercial ambition.

Nicholas represents a competing possibility. Superintendent Battle says that he has reason to believe Nicholas is in the United States, where he had been raising money on the strength of his expectations. Anthony interprets this as a contest between financial interests: Michael is backed by England, while Nicholas is backed by America, with groups of financiers seeking oil concessions. Michael’s death therefore unsettles the existing arrangement and forces his supporters to reconsider whom to support.

Death, Identity, and the Heir’s Return

After Michael is murdered, Anthony directly asks who will take his place. Battle confirms that Nicholas is the next heir and repeats that he is Michael’s first cousin. The question turns a murder investigation into a succession crisis: Michael’s death changes the political balance, while Nicholas’s possible return threatens to redirect the restoration and its financial backing.

The final revelation overturns the assumption that Nicholas is dead. Asked whether he can produce the prince, Anthony admits that he spread the report of Nicholas’s death and identifies himself as Nicholas Sergius Alexander Ferdinand Obolovitch. He explains that he adopted the name Anthony Cade after leaving the Congo because the royal name was unsuited to the life he intended to lead. Nicholas’s apparent absence had concealed not a distant claimant, but the man already moving through the story under another identity.

Significance of the Relationship

The cousins’ relationship links private identity to public legitimacy. Michael’s place in the restoration plan makes his murder a political turning point; Nicholas’s inherited claim makes his presumed death and concealed identity consequential beyond the personal deception. The succession is shaped by dynastic rules, but its practical course is also driven by foreign governments and financiers seeking influence and oil concessions. Their relationship thus provides the hinge between the murder plot and the struggle over who will rule Herzoslovakia.