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Carol I, King of Romania , photographed two years after Romania gained full independence upon the Russian-Romanian victory over the Ottomans.
********* I endeavor in the “Weekly Pictures” post series to bring to light worthy of note, often less known images from the royal past and present and thus further enhance the understanding of roy…
Find out more about Ferdinand I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen on Wikipedia
Bran Castle, supposedly Dracula's Castle, is actually a pretty fairy-tale castle in the little village of Bran in Romania. Neither the fictional Dracula nor the real Vlad Tepes, whom Bram Stoker may or may not have based Dracula, ever set foot in Bran Castle. Nevertheless, a market selling Dracula souveniers and hoards of tourists may lead one to believe otherwise. In fact, it was built by the people of Brasov to protect the Bran mountain pass from the Turks, and was inhabited by Queen Marie.
King Carol I of Romania together with his brother Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and nephew Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania outside Simaringen Castle , 1880s.
This letter Opener / paper Knife is hand crafted from the finest pewter. The letter Opener features remarkable detailing to the handle and features the Kingdom of Saxony coat of arms on one side, and the Hohenzollern -Sigmaringen Kingdom of Romania Peles Castle on the opposite side. The last prince, Karl Anton, served as Minister-President of Prussia from 1858-61. Karl Anton's second son, Karl Eitel Friedrich of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen became prince (1866-1881) and then king (1881-1914) of the Romanians, under the name Carol and the house remained on the throne until the end of the Romanian monarchy in 1947. Marie of Romania also known as Marie of Edinburgh, was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I. She was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. Other photos depict: The Peles Castle in Sinaia-Romania and the mediaeval weapons on the wall of Grand Armory Hall in Peles Palace, former royal castle, built between 1873 and 1914 near Sinaia city in Romania. As with all pewter made today this is completely safe and is made to be used. Total Length: 7.5 inches (19 cm). Blade Length: 4.5 inches (11 cm). Condition: excellent vintage. Interested buyers are highly encouraged to ask all necessary questions before purchase. Thank you. less
Regele Ferdinand s-a născut la data de 12 august 1865, în localitatea Sigmaringen, fiind al doilea fiu al Principelui Leopold de Hohenzollern și al Principesei Antonia de Braganza.
When European events began to move toward war, the Kingdom of Romania had already gone through some difficulties at the highest level. The Crown Prince had left the country over matters of the heart and when King Ferdinand I died in 1927 he was succeeded by his grandson, the child King Michael I. However, the situation changed in 1930 when Crown Prince Carol returned to the country, secretly, and with the attainment of power by G. G. Mironescu as Prime Minister. He was a member of the National Peasants’ Party (PNT) that was more authoritarian and opposed the leftist factions of the party. He worked in cooperation with Iuliu Maniu in organizing what some have called a sort of coup. His government backed the Crown Prince, causing a break-up of the regency council and so the parliament voted to give the crown to Carol and to make his son, then reigning as nominal king, to crown prince. So it was that King Carol II came to the Romanian throne on June 8, 1930. He presided over a country with a fractured political class, faced by internal and external communist threats and increasingly worrying international trends. King Carol II & Crown Prince Michael King Carol II decided to tackle these problems personally and began a campaign for what he called a “national renaissance”. Foreign observers described it as a royal dictatorship. The period between the wars in Europe saw something of a revival of absolute monarchy, at least in the Balkans. King Alexander I of Yugoslavia abolished the constitution on January 6, 1929 and ruled himself until his death in 1934. Outsiders called this period the “6 January Dictatorship” and, later, in 1935 King Boris III of Bulgaria had a “King’s Government” which some observers likewise described as a “royal dictatorship” which is a rather 20th Century term for what used to be known as absolute monarchy or the monarch actually ruling his country. King Carol II tried to do the same thing in Romania. He promised to restore the cultural pride of Romanians and sweep away the disorder and divisions caused by the old political parties. Along with “Monarchy Day” on May 10 (a preexisting holiday), King Carol II designated June 6 as “Restoration Day” to bring all sections of society together in a celebration of Romanian culture. One element that soon became central to such celebrations was the youth organization established by the King known as Straja Tarii or ‘Sentinel of the Motherland’. With their uniforms, beret headgear and Roman salutes many in the democracies of Western Europe thought noted their similarity to the Opera Nazionale Balilla of Italy or the Hitler Youth of Germany. In Romania, however, the creation of the organization was mostly seen as a reaction by King Carol II to the growth of the Iron Guard and its youth movement. This organization, first known as the Legion of the Archangel Michael, is typically labeled as “fascist” because members wore uniforms, used the Roman salute and were not communists. However, they were different in a number of ways from the actual Fascist Party, in good ways and bad ways but probably most noticeably in being almost as much a spiritual movement as a political one. One of the original requirements was that members had to be willing to die for Christ. They were also generally monarchist, though with the King wielding political power that meant that any political movement could be seen as a potential rival, if not to monarchy in principle then at least to the King. The royal regime Yet, for those on the lookout for anything fascist-like, King Carol II attracted his own comparisons. Using his emergency powers he enacted a constitution that formalized near absolute royal authority, reorganized the country somewhat on corporatist lines and he had his followers in uniforms (of a different color) as well. The public supported these changes in a national referendum, which many consider have been held simply for the sake of appearances, and while King Carol II remained the focus of the country he soon delegated most of the day-to-day ruling of Romania to his prime minister General Ion Antonescu in 1940. The problem was that Antonescu tended to favor friendship with Nazi Germany, probably for no other reason than they seemed to be the strongest power in the neighborhood. The Nazis, however, did not approve of King Carol II. Most attribute this to the fact that the King was not a virulent anti-Semite (his mistress and later wife was half Jewish). Hitler seized on the tensions between the King and the Iron Guard to interfere in Romanian politics, favoring the Iron Guard which was anti-Semitic (though it should be said in a different way and for very different reasons than the Nazis). With the start of World War II in Europe, with its string of early German victories, Hitler became more demanding toward the Kingdom of Romania. He wanted a Nazi-friendly government firmly in power so as not to jeopardize his access to the Romanian oil fields. Considering that, having been on the winning side in World War I, much territory had been ceded to create the “Greater Romania” that then existed, the country had plenty of enemies with Hungary and Bulgaria both longing for territory within Romania’s borders. Isolated on the world stage, King Carol II had no choice but to agree to a demand from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to hand over Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to Russia. When Antonescu protested, the King had him arrested and from then on Antonescu was seized upon as Hitler’s man in Romania. He promised Hitler secure and unfettered access to Romanian oil if the Nazi Fuhrer would back him and Hitler agreed. In a very short time, Germany pressured Romania to hand over further territory in Transylvania to Hungary and land in the south to Bulgaria. Thus, by the time Antonescu was back on the scene, the popularity of King Carol II had fallen dramatically as the Romanian people saw gains from the last war being signed away. King Michael and Antonescu Of course, with France defeated, Britain far distant and barely holding on and with a Nazi-Soviet pact in effect, there was simply no way for Romania to resist Hitler’s demands. King Carol II had defied him as long as possible but by the middle of 1940 it was clear that if the country were to have any future it would have to come to terms with the Germans. Antonescu seized on this as his great opportunity and demanded that King Carol II abdicate for having given up so much Romanian territory (though he would have done exactly the same and probably with far less hesitation). At first, he was put off by simply having the King hand over his ruling powers to him (as mentioned) but when he heard a rumor that two royalist generals were plotting his assassination, Antonescu insisted that King Carol II had to go. So, in September, Carol II abdicated and his young son became, once again, King Michael I of Romania but with Antonescu occupying the position of dictator. The Kingdom of Romania officially joined the Axis powers and Hitler had his secure source of oil as well as an additional ally for the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. The only individual Hitler had to worry about was the young King Michael who was as firmly in favor of the Allies as Antonescu and his government were of the Axis. And, it seems, Hitler was worried about the King but Antonescu was not. The Marshal of Romania was convinced that he was in control, the King was just a young man (he still thought of him as a boy) who was not at all interested in politics. And, true enough, at the outset of his (second) reign there was little the King could do, Romania being firmly in the Nazi grip. However, he would bide his time and slowly build up a network of reliable royalists who were loyal to him. He secretly kept himself informed by way of the BBC and various informants and was much more aware of what was going on both inside and beyond the Romanian borders than the dictator thought. Divisions in the country still existed, between the government and the Iron Guard as well as within the government itself between those loyal to Antonescu and those who opposed him. These spread to Germany as well with some of the Nazi leaders backing the Iron Guard and others, along with the army, backing Antonescu. In the end, there was an Iron Guard rebellion but Antonescu emerged victorious and had the organization wiped out, after which he firmly held control of the country. Hitler trusted him as he did no other. Antonescu The beginning of his end, and opportunity for King Michael, came with the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Antonescu was an enthusiastic supporter and contributed more troops to the invasion than all the other German allies combined, organized into the “General Antonescu Army Group” which was grouped with the forces led by German Colonel-General Eugen Ritter von Schobert. The contribution was also partly due to the fact that most assumed they would have to fight Hungary someday to regain the territory that had recently been ceded and they hoped that, if Romania proved most helpful in the war with Russia, Germany would favor them over the Hungarians. All such thoughts, however, came to an end with the disastrous Battle of Stalingrad, possibly the bloodiest battle in human history. The Romanian divisions were singled out for attack by the Soviet Red Army and they suffered horrendous losses. The momentum on the Eastern Front shifted in favor of the Soviets and, thereafter, Russian troops moved steadily closer to the Romanian border. And, as the war situation deteriorated and public discontent increased, young King Michael began to seriously plan how to take his country back. It took time to get everything in place, to be sure that he had loyal people available at the right time to support him. The advancing Russians also had to be considered and whether the Allies would support the King as he tried to switch camps. Finally, in 1944, it was time for King Michael to act and launch his own royalist coup against Antonescu. The Allies, however, remained a cause for concern as the King had secretly sent out messages to them asking if they would grant Romania an armistice only to receive no reply. This was, in all likelihood, because Winston Churchill (whom he had contacted) had already agreed that Romania would be placed in the Soviet sphere of influence in exchange for Greece being reserved for the British sphere. Nonetheless, the King boldly went ahead, requesting Antonescu to meet with him on the afternoon of August 23. The Marshal arrived alongside a general who was party to the conspiracy and a group of royalist army officers waited secretly in the next room as Antonescu was brought before the King. King Michael speaks King Michael calmly asked the dictator to take Romania out of the Axis and make a separate peace with Russia. Of course, he refused and when the general beside him suggested a change in government might be in order, the haughty Marshal scoffed that they could not seriously consider putting the country in the hands of a “child” referring to King Michael. He underestimated his monarch to the last. At a signal from the King, the officers next door burst into the room, saluted him and placed the Marshal under arrest. After briefly trying to order them to stop, Antonescu realized that he was isolated and had been outmaneuvered by King Michael. At that point, the King had to move quickly, arresting pro-Antonescu officials, setting up a communications center and appointing a new administration for the country. In a hastily organized broadcast, King Michael announced that Romania was leaving the Axis, that democracy was restored and he declared peace with Russia. Crowds of war-weary Romanians soon gathered around the palace shouting, “Long live the King!” On the advice of his officials, the King then left Bucharest, coming under fire as went and it was a good thing too as German forces shelled the palace that same day, demolishing the room where the King would have been staying. Loyalist troops began rounding up the Germans in the country over the next few weeks as Romania put itself in the Allied camp but the Soviet troops who crossed into the country did not come as liberators but killed and pillaged as they went, taking prisoner all Romanian troops they encountered who had been ordered not to resist since the Soviets were then supposed to be their allies. The Soviets also began picking out communist traitors who would be subservient to them to form a new socialist regime when the country was completely taken over as it was in due course. In the meantime, King Michael ruled by royal decree until a new parliament could be elected and in September of 1944, in Moscow, he formally signed the armistice with the Allied nations and pledged Romania to the Allied cause. However, the Soviets demanded crippling reparations and the return of Bessarabia and Bukovina as well as ordering the King to choose a new prime minister. King Michael did so but, in an act of defiance, chose a prominently anti-communist one. Red Army troops terrorized, intimidated and stirred up trouble which they then offered to put down so long as the King appointed the leader that Stalin preferred. He had no choice but to comply. King Michael, his situation showing on his face The British and Americans demanded a return to democratic government with U.S. President Truman refusing to agree to an armistice until Romania did so. This, the King thought, was a life-saving opportunity for his country. However, to his horror, the elections would not be held until 1946 by which time the Soviets had firmly taken control of the country and terrorized everyone into voting for the candidates favored by Stalin. Romania had been abandoned by the western democracies to the Soviet Union and King Michael was little better than a prisoner in his own palace. The war was over for Romania but the monarchy had not long to live. The following year, tired of his continuous resistance and refusal to leave the country and abandon his people, the communists finally forced King Michael to abdicate by threatening to start massacring Romanian students if he did not sign the document. He did so, all of his property was confiscated and he was forced into exile. World War II was a conflict that the Kingdom of Romania did not want to fight. King Carol II declared neutrality when it started and the country only joined in when all power was in the hands of Antonescu. King Michael took the country out of the Axis and out of the war but was undercut by the post-war settlement that gave Eastern Europe to Stalin. Yet, his action, which so shocked everyone, proved the value of monarchy. It was only because of the existence of the Romanian monarchy and the person of King Michael and the loyalty that he, an inexperienced but intelligent young man, commanded as monarch that he was able to bring down a dictator who had seemed totally unassailable. That was the power, not of an individual young man, but the power of monarchy. Happily, the era of Soviet domination did finally come to an end and King Michael was returned to his country. It is only unfortunate that his country has not been returned to him.
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10 mai 1866. Prinţul Carol de Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, sosit de curând în România, depunea în faţa Parlamentului următorul jurământ: „Jur de a fi credincios legilor ţării, de a păstra religiunea României precum şi întegritatea teritoriului ei, şi de a domni ca domn constituţional”. Cu aceste cuvinte, Carol devenea oficial domnitor al României. 15 ani mai târziu, el era proclamat Rege al ţării, punând astfel bazele dinastiei de Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, care va conduce România până la instaurarea comunismului.
Prince Friedrich Viktor of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Mids 1910s. He s descendant of several well known royal houses such as the Bragance, Bourbon two Sicilies, Wittelsbach and Baden
Carol I, King of Romania (1839-1914) portrait by George P. A. Healey, American artist In 1874 the Paris-educated American artist Painter George Healey made several portraits of the Romanian Princely family of Hohenzollern - Princess Elsabeth of Wied (Carmen Sylva), Princess Consort of Carol I of Hohenzollern with her daughter and that of Prince Carol himself (seen above). Both of these portraits are in the collection of the National History Museum of Bucharest. Prince Carol I (later to become King Carol I of Romania) was of German and French lineage, with both paternal and maternal grandmothers being French, namely Antoinette Murat and Stephanie de Beauharnais respectively, which made him a relation of emperor Napoleon III. Educated at the Military Academy in Potsdam, upon hearing that young man was elected ruling Prince of the Romanian Principalities, in 1866, Chancellor Bismarck is reputed to have exclaimed; "Not a bad promotion for a Prussian officer". -He proved to be a great reforming statesman who pulled Romania from being a backward Ottoman province (up to its Independence in 1878) to becoming a modern European state, with a huge economic growth based on oil, agriculture, trade and rich mineral resources. This position made it possible for King Carol I to secure a commensurately appropriate marriage alliance for his heir to the throne Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern who married Marie of Edinburgh, Princess of Great Britain. Carol I was less successful in arranging the marriage of prince Carol of Romania (Marie and Ferdinand's son) to the Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, daughter of Tzar Nicholas Ii who perished with his family during the Bolshevik revolution. The SITTER (source Wikipedia): Carol I of Romania[1], original name Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern (April 20th, 1839 - 10 October [O.S. 27 September] 1914), German prince, was elected Domnitor (Prince) of Romania on April 20th, 1866, following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and proclaimed king on March 26th 1881, with the acquiescence of the Porte and the Turkish Sultan whose armies were defeated in Roumania's 1877 Independence War with the Ottoman Empire by the Roumanian-Russian army under the command of Prince Charles I. He was, then, the first ruler of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty which would rule the country until the imposition of a Stalin-directed republic, dictated at gun point in a coup d'etat devised by Dr. Petru Groza whose government was backed up by the Soviet armies of occupation in 1947; this forced abdication (and later exile) of King Michael I of Roumania by his former Soviet allies occurred shortly after the soviet dictator Joseph (Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) Stalin bestowed the Soviet Order of Victory upon King Michael I for his central role in the overturn of the Germans in Roumania in late August 1944. The ARTIST (source Wikipedia): George Peter Alexander Healy (July 15, 1813 - June 24, 1894), American painter, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Going to Europe in 1835 Healy studied under Baron Gros in Paris and in Rome. He received a third-class medal in Paris in 1840, and one of the second class in 1855, when he exhibited his "Franklin urging the claims of the American Colonies before Louis XVI." Among his portraits of eminent men are those of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Guyot, Seward, Louis Philippe, and the presidents of the United States from J. Q. Adams to Grant--this series being painted for the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.. His large group, Webster replying to Hayne, containing 180 portraits, is in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Mass. He was one of the most prolific and popular painters of his day. He died in Chicago, Illinois, on the 24th of June 1894.
