Queen Marie of Romania

The following article was written for the site We Love Romania, founded by Paul Ketchum. Many of the links will take you to Tom's Place, a haven of literary and general information along with some wonderful transcripts from the books of not only Queen Marie (books, memoires, correspondence) but also articles, quotes, photos, excerpts of Romanian writers (Ion Creanga comes immediately to mind), poetry, art and a wealth of other gems. It is always heart-warming to know that blogs such as the afore-mentioned two exist for those who do not speak Romanian (or not well enough to make it through an article or book), but love the country dearly... 

"I was barely seventeen when I came to you. I was young and ignorant, but very proud of my native country, and even now, I am proud to have been born an Englishwoman... but I bless you, dear Romania, country of my joy and my grief, the beautiful country which has lived in my heart."
Queen Marie of Romania

Queen Marie of Romania (previously Princess Marie of Edinburgh) was the Queen consort of Romania from 1914-1927, the wife of Ferdinand I. She was born on 29 October, 1875 in Kent, the eldest daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Her father was the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse.

At the age of 17, she married Prince Ferdinand of Romania (King Carol I's nephew) on 10th January, 1893. He was 10 years her senior. The marriage, which produced three daughters and three sons was, however, not a happy one. In her letters to her longtime secret confidante, the American dancer Loie Fuller, she wrote of "the distaste, which grew to revulsion" that she felt for her husband. Wikipedia says, "The couple's two youngest children, Ileana and Mircea, were born after Marie met her long-time lover, Barbu Ştirbey. Historians generally agree that Ştirbey was the father of Prince Mircea, who had brown eyes like Ştirbey, unlike Marie and Ferdinand. The paternity of Ileana is uncertain, as is the paternity of Marie's second daughter, Maria (known as Mignon), the future Queen of Yugoslavia.Ferdinand's paternity of the three other children, Carol, Nicholas and Elisabeth, has not been disputed." In 1897, while still Crown Princess, Marie began a romantic liaison with Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene.The affair and subsequent scandal became widely known and was quickly knocked on the head by King Carol I. However by autumn 1897, during the height of the scandal, Marie became pregnant. After fleeing to her mother in Coburg, Marie apparently gave birth to a child who has vanished from the history books.It has been suggested that the child was either stillborn or quickly placed in an orphanage. Whatever the truth, the story of this mysterious child of Marie of Romania was a secret she took to the grave.

Of course, the whys and wherefores of who fathered Queen Marie's children along with her earnest search for love and an escape from an unhappy marriage with a rather cold and dull man are of little importance, but they do make for rather fascinating reading for anyone who likes a mystery or a little court gossip! What IS important, however, is the enormous love she had for her adoptive country and, in consequence, the enormous love she in turn received from her people.

On with the story... Carol I died in 1914 passing the crown to Ferdinand. Crown Princess Marie became Her Majesty The Queen of Romania. Due to World War I, there was no coronation until 1922. During the war, she worked as a nurse for the Red Cross and wrote her book, "My Country" to raise funds for the cause. She was much admired for her tireless work raising money for the war effort. Wikipedia explains, "With the country half-overrun by the German Army, she and a group of military advisers devised the plan by which the Romanian Army, rather than retreating into Russia, would choose a triangle of the country in which to stand and fight; and through a letter to Loïe Fuller she set in motion the series of events that brought a timely American loan to Romania, providing the necessary funds to carry out the plan." For more about Queen Marie's valiant efforts to save Romania in this terrible time of crisis, see HERE in her "First World War Diaries".

Queen Marie's son, the Crown Prince Carol was never close to his father, Ferdinand. By the time Carol had reached adulthood, their differences were pretty much public knowledge, but there continued to be a "deep bond of affection and sympathy" between the Prince and his mother. Their relationship deteriorated however, due, largely, to Carol's objections to her relationship with Prince Ştirbey; the situation was made worse still when Queen Marie attempted to steer Carol towards a dynastic marriage for the good and the safety of Romania rather than let him choose his own bride. Queen Marie, it turned out, was absolutely right in her concern for Carol's choice of wife, as would become glaringly clear later on.During Carol's exile in Paris, Loïe Fuller befriended Carol and his mistress Magda Lupescu. Fuller initially advocated to Marie on their behalf, but later schemed unsuccessfully with Marie to separate Carol from Lupescu.Eventually, when Carol became King and did not seek her counsel, the chasm between mother and son became sadly complete.

When her husband died in 1927, Queen Marie stayed in Romania, writing books and her famous memoir, "The Story of My Life". She died in Peleş Castle on 18 July 1938, and was buried next to her husband in the Monastery of Curtea de Argeş. Her dying wish was that her heart be encased in the palace at Balcic - a place she loved and had built herself with much attention and tenderness. Her wishes were carried out until, that is, Balcic was returned to Bulgaria. Queen Marie's heart was moved to Bran Castle where she had lived most of her married life. If one visits Bran Castle today, one can walk through the rooms that Queen Marie decorated and designed herself. Her heart remained there in a small tomb just in front of the castle until the communists moved it and today, it's whereabouts is unclear.

Queen Marie had a tremendous influence on the development of Romanian art in the 45 years she spent in the country. Perhaps from being the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria on one side and of Tsar Alexander II on the other, she had a lively awareness of artistic developments right across Europe and was probably the biggest patron of Art Nouveau in Romania. More importantly, she enthusiastically encouraged national art movements, such as the group 'Tinerimea Artistica' (Artistic Youth), and did much to promote the revival of interest in peasant crafts and vernacular industry. She even built parts of her palaces in the new neo-Romanian style of architecture (see at Balcic, Bran and her apartments at Cotroceni, which incidentally, she hated the first time she saw it due to its darkness and vowed to transform it into somewhere sunny where she could be happy).

Perhaps the most beloved monarch in Romanian history, Queen Marie is as popular now as she ever was. Films and documentaries about her life grace the internet and her books make fascinating reading. I wonder what she would feel about the country of her heart as it is today? She would, I believe, still have hope...

"Love, Faith, Courage – with these three we can win the world."
Queen Marie of Romania ________________________________________________________________________________________

I do realise, of course, that I have written nothing above of Queen Marie's painful exile - an exile that caused her immense chagrin and terrible 'dor'... here is an excerpt from her book, "The Country that I Love":

"There is nothing of the Roumanian land that I have not loved. More intimately than most children born on its soil have I communed with its wide-stretching plains, with its endless roads, with its sunsets, with its early dew-covered dawns, with its dark forests and its ripe golden cornfields. I have loved even the giant thistles that in arid stone-strewn places have stretched towards the skies the useless beauty of their thorny arms. I have, during my wanderings, come to spots so lonely that they have seemed to be the end of the world, and there have I stood contemplating the sun's last glory before it sank to its rest. And I have loved the solitude around me; I have loved the sky's glowing colours; the strange melancholy of coming night; the smell of the dew rising out of the ground, the veil of dust that hung over the world… I have loved it all, loved it deeply… loved it well!"

To be continued...

Comments

[sairj]

Ceau Balbeck! Ce faci? Merg bine, mersi :o)

[balbeck]

Hi!It is very interesting.How are u?

[valentin]

Because the Hohenzollern denied his grandfather.King Ferdiand the right to use the name as a punishment for fighting along with Britanin and against Germany. It was a gesture that practically put Romania on the right side in WWI letting aside that the family rejected him and all his offsprings. Calling him Hohenzollern would simly erase this hystorical detail and this is not the family's name for the last two generations. Besides, during communist time the royal family was presented as being "Hohenzollern" , stranger of the country, sucking the people's blood so to something untrue we would add a note of disdain. For this was the reason why the whole family was presented like this in schools. Romanians found after the revolution the truth (not all of them,of course:D) For 20 years we have this fight for the name - Iliscu and alll the communist called hin Mohenzllerns, the historian, monarchist aso called him "Of Romania" .Iliescu & company to enphasise he has no right to be here, us to say that he is the King of Romania. So calling him today "of Hohenzollern" is similar to telling that he des not belong here, his family did nothing for this country, and he is just a foreigner who wants to rob us.

[sairj]

Just a question, Valentin - King Mihai WAS a "Hohenzollern", genetically, so why in calling him so would that mean denying Romania fought against the Germans? I don't understand.

[sairj]

Yes indeed. I was trying to be brief, but under the paragraph of what she did for the war effort, I deliberated on including her taking the cause to WDC and getting the support that was needed but there's a link to the Wikipedia site where all that is noted. Quite right Valentin, along with the "of Romania" point. I shall include it as a preface paragraph when I write about the exile which, incidentally, is difficult to find on line. there isn't a lot about their years outside Romania. Strange.

Thank you for commenting!