In 1942 Prince Irakli (Erekle) Bagrationi-Mukhraneli, of the genealogically senior branch of the dynasty, proclaimed himself head of the Royal House of Georgia, in the absence of evidence that Bagrationis of the Kakhetian branch (which had reigned until 1801) still survived behind the Iron Curtain. He founded the Union of Georgian Traditionalists in exile. His second wife, Maria Antonietta Pasquini, daughter of Ugo, Count di Costafiorita, bore him a son and heir, but died in childbirth in February 1944. In August 1946 the widower married Princess María Mercedes de Baviera y Borbón, a granddaughter of King Alfonso XII, and daughter of "Don" Fernando de Baviera y Borbón, who had renounced his royal rights in Bavaria to become a naturalised "infante" in Spain.