Anniversary of the Accession of the King of Romania

Today is the ninetieth anniversary of the first accession to the throne of H.M. The King of Romania in 1927. 


This was on the occasion of the death of his grandfather King Ferdinand I, of whom there is a biography at  Ferdinand I of Romania. His eldest son Carol, and father of the present King, had renounced his right of succession the previous year and went into exile with his mistress. In 1930 he returned to the country, displaced the triune Regency that ruled in the name of his son and was enthroned as King Carol II. King Michael became Crown Prince until 1940 when his father abdicated and again went into exile, dying in 1953. Since 1940, most of that time, alas, in exile, the present King has been a symbol of his realm and a sign of hope to many.

The boy King Michael I with his grandmother Queen Marie and his mother Princess Elena in mourning for King Ferdinand I

Image: Hoover.org



The King of Romania during his first reign with his grandmother Queen Marie

and his mother Princess Elena.
His monogram can be seen behind the Royal group

Image:Pinterest






Funeral of the Queen of Romania

The BBC News webite has an account of Royal funeral for Romania's uncrowned Queen Anne
and the Royal Forums website has a post Mourners At the Royal Palace in Bucharest
with other related links from it to other posts.

From the blog New My Royals there are these pictures of the Queen's lying-in-state:

Romanians pay last respect to late Queen Anne of Romania

Hundreds of mourners have paid respect to the late Queen Anne of Romania, lying in state at the Royal Palace now the Art Museum of Romania, in Bucharest August 11, 2016. The body of Anne of Romania, the wife of the Romania's former King, Michael of Romania, arrived in Bucharest Tuesday for the royal funeral. Queen Anne, aged 92, died on August 1 in a hospital in Switzerland. Born Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, she met Michael in 1947 and married him in 1948.

  Images: newmyroyals.com

The Royal Standard of Queen Anne of Romania

Image: Wikipedia

Death of H M The Queen of Romania

The death of the Queen of Romania has been announced. There is a biography of Her Majesty at Queen Anne of Romania and the Daily Telegraph obituary can be read at Queen Anne of Romania – obituary

The King and Queen on their wedding day in 1948

Image:dcnews.ro

The Standard of the Queen of Romania 1922-1947

Image: crwflags.com

 

The health of King Michael

The recent sombre news about the health of the King of Romania has occasioned a post from The Mad Monarchist which is perfectly fair in what it says, that is that words are cheap and actions speak louder. His post can be read at Hollow Words for the King of Romania

                                             

The Royal Arms of the King of Romania

Image: Wikipedia

The Romanian Monarchy - a short history

The Mad Monarchist has a history of the Romanian monarchy on his blog, which links in with his recent post about discussion as to apossible restoration there, which I linked to in Discussing a Restoration in Romania my other posts on the subject can be found by clicking on the links at the end of this post

His latest post can be seen at Story of Monarchy: Romanian Rise and Fall

Discussing a Restoration in Romania

The Mad Monarchist had an informative and reflective post recently about discussions of a possible restoration of King Michael and his family to their legitimate throne in Romania.

This arises from the topic, either in principle or as a matter to be put to a referendum, of restoring the Romanian monarchy having been taken up by quite a few politicians in the current electoral process to elect a President of the republic.

King Michael I of Romania and Crown Princess Margarita of Romania.

 Image: erhj.blogspot

The Mad Monarchist is, I think, wise to be cautious and to wonder as to the political integrity of some of those speaking up for the Royalist cause or at least for a referendum on the issue. Talk can be cheap, especially at election times,a nd actions speak louder than words. However, like him, I would naturally  hope and wish for such a restoration and recognition of King Michael's rights. Something to renew in one's prayers.

The post can be read at Royalist Restoration in Romania?

The arms of the Kingdom of Romania since 1922

Image: Wikipedia

Coronation at Alba Iulia 1922

Today is the ninetieth anniversary of the coronation of King Ferdinand I of Romania and his consort Queen Marie at Alba Iulia in Transylvania. It had been st Alba Iulia on December 1 1918 that the vote to accede to the Romanian Kingdom was given by Transylvanian representitives, and the city had been the capital of the previous unified Romanian monarchy, that of Michael the Brave from 1599 to 1601. The coronation took place at the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral of the Reunion, built in 1921-22, next to the medieval Catholic cathedral. Both are within the eighteenth century Alba Carolina fortess built under the Emperor Charles VI.

 

King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania
following their Coronations on October 15, 1922, in Alba Iulia.

 

Image:www.tboyle.net/Royalty/Romania_Coronation

King Ferdinand I of Romania and his wife Queen Marie were crowned in a non-denominational ceremony on October 15, 1922, in the square in front of the Coronation Cathedral of the Reunification.  The ceremony was non- denominational because, although Romania was overwhelmingly Orthodox, the King was a devout Catholic and his wife was then an Anglican.

King Ferdinand's two successors, King Carol II and King Mihai I, however, had only swearing-in ceremonies. King Carol II, upon ascending the Throne in the summer of 1930, did schedule a coronation in Alba Iulia for the following September; but, a few weeks before the planned ceremony, the coronation was postponed and was never to be re-scheduled, because of the complicated situation with Carol's ex-wife, Queen Helen, who due to their divorce obviously could not be crowned with him, but was nonetheless living in Romania as "Queen Mother Helen" or Her Majesty Helen.

The Coronation was very much a celebration of the post-war unification of the Romanian people under one King. thus the pre-war kingdom based on Wallachia and Moldavia was now unired to Bessarabia [ now Moldova], Transylvania and the Dobruja. The diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference which achieved this owed no little part of its success to Queen Marie's presence, and the Coronation was very much her day. As the links above show, she was a somewhat larger-than-life figure, who won the hearts of her Romanian subjects by he enthusiastic support of the national cause during the First World War and the subsequent developments. Here are views from a set of postcards of the ceremony:

Images: Romania Postcards collection at postcardscollection.wordpress.com

Image:tkinter.smig.net

Two sisters, H.M. Queen Elizabeth of Greece and H.M. Queen Marie of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, at the Coronation of their parents. The Queens are followed by T.R.H. Princess Irene of Greece, Princess Ileana of Romania and Grand Duchess Viktoria Fyodorovna of Russia.

Image: Serbian Royal Family website

Queen Marie in her Coronation robes and crown

Image:hoover.org

Queen Marie's own account of the coronation can be read in the illustrated article which can be found here. 

There is information about one of the items of jewellery worn by the Queen, a spectacular sapphire, here  and here - the latter has an expandable link to Philip de Lazlo's 1924 Coronation portrait of the Queen.

A commemorative medal  for the Coronation

Image: e-bay

The Romanian Orthodox Cathedral of the Reunification built in Alba Iulia in 1921-22, and the setting for for the coronation

Image:Wikipedia

 

Accession day of the King of Romania

Today is the seventy second anniversary of the accession and coronation on the same day September 6 1940 of the King of Romania following the enforced abdication of his father King Carol II. King Michael is thus within a ew months of equalling the length of reign of King Louis XIV, with, of course, the very regrettable caveat that unfortunately for both the King and for Romanian people, he has only been able to exercise his soverein powers for a few of those years. If his period as King in the years 1927-30, about which I posted in The first accession of King Michael in July is included he has been a monarch longer than the Sun King was.



H.M.The King of Romania in 2007

Image: Wikipedia

The circumstances of his accession meant that the King was that in name only, and forced to concede power to the dictator Antonescu, of whom the online biography here gives a good account of the background to these events and the King was not able to exercise his powers until August 1944 with King Michael's Coup.
There is an online life of the King here.

There is an online version of a series of photographs of the King and his mother, Queen Helen, taken in April 1946 for the magazine Life which show them at the palace at Sinaia when it might still be hoped that he would remain in his kingdom and which can be viewed here.

Image:Wikipedia

The first accession of King Michael

Today is the eighty-fifth anniversary of the death of King Ferdinand I of Romania at Peleş Castle near Sinaia and the first accession to the Romanian throne of his grandson, King Michael I.

There is a  biography of King Ferdinand I here.   There are some very interesting archive photographs of his life and reign here  and there are other portraits of the King from his first visit to the country as a Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and heir to his uncle King Carol I until the end of his life here.

There are also a fine series of photographs of the funeral of King Ferdinand and the accession of King Michael which can be viewed here.

King Michael in the years 1927-30

Image:Wikipedia

The accession of the child King Michael I (Mihai), was a consequence of his father's affair with Magda Lupescu. Crown Prince Carol  had 

renounced his right to the throne on 28 December 1925 in favour of his son by Crown Princess Helen,who thus now became King in July 1927. Princess Helen divorced the exiled Carol in 1928.

 A regency, composed of the new King's uncle, Prince Nicolae, Patriarch Miron Cristea, and the country's Chief Justice (Gheorghe Buzdugan, from October 1929 on Constantin Sărăţeanu) functioned on his behalf during the years 1927–1930.  However on 6 June 1930,his father returned to the country at the invitation of politicians dissatisfied with the Regency, and on 8 June was proclaimed King Carol II by the Parliament, and designated Michael as Crown Prince with the title "Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia". In a somewhat curious inversion of King Henry VIII's proceedings King Carol then sought to have his divorce annulled, but refused to grant his (former) wife the title of Queen - she was to be addressed as Her Majesty Helen.

Image:Wikipedia

King Michael I - further reflections

This evening, after having drunk the health of King Michael I on his ninetieth birthday, it occurred to me that he is noteworthy for the his longevity as a monarch. King from 1927 until 1930 and since 1940, allbeit forced into exile in 1947 with an enforced abdication which he subsequently disclaimed and which was exacted under pressure, and not therefore voluntary, and only returning to the country in recent years in anambiguous position, he has been a monarch longer, at 74 years already, than those better known long-reigning rulers, Queen Victoria (63 and a half years), Emperor Francis Joseph (just short of 68 years) and King Louis XIV (72 years).

In fact the only person I can think to have potentially exceeded that is Otto of Austria, who as the de jure Emperor Otto I of Austria and King Otto II of Hungary may be assigned a reign from his father's death in 1922 until his death earlier this year of 89 years. His various renunciations of claim may be discounted as what he considered necessary at the time, and may be therefore discounted had been able to exercise his hereditary rights.

If however one looks at monarchs who did actually occupy their thrones, then King Michael is the longest reigning European monarch - the tragedy for him and his people is that he has not been enabled to exercise that role.

The Romanian Royal Standard,
as adopted in 1922

Image:Wikipedia

The King of Romania at 90

Today is the ninetieth birthday of the King of Romania.

King Michael I, King of the Romanians to give him the proper translation of his title, is one of the great survivors of the last century - there are no other heads of state who were such in either the 1920s or again in the 1940s. There is an illustrated online biography of the King here, and there are many more pictures and other related material on Diana Mandache's Royal Romania blog. There is an illustrated site from 2001 here about the Romanian royal family.

There is an article with interviews with King Michael and Queen Anne by Peter Kurth from 1990 which can be read here.

There is a BBC World report about the birthday including an interview with the King which can be read here.

Today the King addressed the Romanian Parliament and other celebrations in Bucharest this week are described here, but it is, to my mind, disappointing that our own Royal family are not listed as attending, whereas others, both reigning and exiled will be present, including the King and Queen of Sweden and the Queen of Spain. Putting such a public distance between deposed or exiled monarchs and royal houses who are also relatives, which seems to go back to the reign of King George V and the post Great War situation, is not good for monarchical solidarity, even though they do attend our own royal occasions, such as the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The King in 1947, the year he was forced into exile.

Image: Wikipedia

The text of the King's speech to the Romanian Parliament today can be read here, and there is a report here about the occasion. Here are some pictures of this rather remarkable event:

King Michael I stands by a bust of King Carol I

The King awaits to give his address to Parliament

Image:sfgate.com

The King addressing Parliament

Image:Getty images

The King receiving a standing ovation

Image: sfgate.com

The Royal Arms of Romania

Image: Wikipedia