Boris Skosirev is a Belarusian adventurer, who in 1934 became the king of Andorra for a short time. In 1984, the Catalan writer Anthony Morel-i-Mora wrote the novel “Boris I, King of Andorra”, which describes in detail the Andorran period of the adventurer's life.
Boris was born on June 12, 1896 in Vilnius. The son of a retired cornet Mikhail Mikhailovich Skosirev and Countess Elizabeth Dmitrievna Mavras, who belonged to the petty Belarusian gentry. He spent his childhood in an estate outside the city of Lida. From a young age, he showed extraordinary ability to languages, so fluent in English, French and German. According to Skosirev himself, he studied at Oxford University, as well as at the Paris Lyceum of Louis the Great, although not a single official document confirming the veracity of the information was revealed. During the First World War, he was on the Russian front as part of the British armored division, where he performed the work of a military translator under the command of officer Oliver Loker-Lempson.
Emigration
According to Boris Skosirev himself, during the civil war he had to fight in southern Ukraine. He also claimed that in 1917 he was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks together with his father and three uncles, but, unlike his relatives, he managed to escape and emigrate to London. In January 1919, Skosireva was detained by the local police and charged with fraud with checks, after which a trial took place, which obliged him to pay all the losses. His name also appears in the case of the theft of gold watches from the Japanese attache Major Hashimota. There are also suggestions that Skosirev at that time collaborated with intelligence agencies of different countries. In 1922, Skosirev moved to the Netherlands, and already in 1923 received Dutch citizenship and a passport, which was issued to him by the Dutch consulate in France.
March 21, 1931 Skosirev married Frenchwoman Marie-Louise Para where Gasier, but the following year he started a short-term romance in Spain with the Englishwoman Filis Gerd. In the same 1932 he met Florence Marmont, the ex-wife of Howard S. Marmont, the owner of the "Marmon MotorCar Company". He lived with her in the city of Palma de Mallorca, introducing himself as a professor of English and physical education.
Andorra period
On May 17, 1934, Skosirev visited Andorra and claimed his rights to the throne of the king, relying on the title of Count of Orange, which the Queen of the Netherlands allegedly granted him. Despite the fact that he was expelled from the country on May 22, he returned again on July 6-7 and proposed to the General Council a program of reforms and modernization of Andorra. On July 8-10, the General Assembly proclaimed Skosirev the monarch of Andorra Boris I, whose reign lasted until July 20, 1934. In this short period of time, a new constitution was approved, a new government was appointed, and the country's flag was changed.
On July 20, Skosireva was detained by the Catalan police, who soon brought him to Madrid. On October 31, 1934, a Spanish court deprived Skosirev of liberty for one year for illegally crossing the border, but already in November 1934 Skosirev was sent to Portugal.
