Michael I of Romania

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Michael I
King of the Romanians
Reign	20 July 1927 – 8 June 1930 6 September 1940 – 30 December 1947
Coronation	6 September 1940
Born	October 25, 1921 (1921-10-25) (age 86)
Birthplace	Sinaia, Romania
Predecessor	Ferdinand I Carol II
Successor	Carol II Kingdom abolished
Consort	Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma
Issue	Margarita Elena Irina Sofia Marie
Royal House	Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Father	Carol II
Mother	Elena of Greece and Denmark
Religious beliefs	Romanian Orthodox

Michael I, King of the Romanians, Prince of Hohenzollern^[1][2][3] (born October 25, 1921), reigned as King of the Romanians (Romanian: Maiestatea Sa Mihai I Regele Românilor, literally "His Majesty Michael I King of the Romanians") from July 20, 1927 to June 8, 1930, and again from September 6, 1940, until forced to abdicate by the Communists on December 30, 1947. A great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, he is one of the last surviving heads of state from World War II^[4][5][6][7], another one being Simeon II of Bulgaria.^[8]

[edit] Early life

Michael was born in the Foişor Castle, Sinaia, Romania, the son of the then-Crown Prince Carol and Princess Elena of Greece, and grandson of the then-reigning King Ferdinand I of the Romanians. When Carol eloped with his mistress Elena "Magda" Lupescu and renounced his rights to the throne in December 1925, Michael was pronounced the Heir Apparent. He succeeded to the throne upon Ferdinand's death in July 1927. In August 1927 he appeared on the cover of Time magazine: he is the longest-surviving person to have appeared on the magazine's cover.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Rule

[edit] 1930s and the Antonescu era

A Regency, which included his uncle, Prince Nicolae (Nicholas), Patriarch Miron Cristea and the country's chief justice (Gheorghe Buzdugan, from October 1929 on Constantin Sărăţeanu) functioned on behalf of the 5-year-old Michael.^[9] In 1930, Carol II suddenly returned to the country at the invitation of politicians dissatisfied with the Regency, and was proclaimed King by the Parliament, designating Michael as crown prince with the title "Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia". In November 1939, Michael joined the Romanian Senate, as the 1938 Constitution guaranteed him a seat there upon reaching the age of eighteen.^[10] In September 1940, the pro-German régime of Prime-Minister Marshal Ion Antonescu staged a coup against Carol, whom the Marshal considered anti-German. Antonescu had the 18-year-old Michael proclaimed King by popular acclaim, without an oath on the Constitution and without a vote of the Parliament, initially suspended and reinstated only later, in 1946. Michael was instead crowned^[11] with the Steel Crown and anointed King by the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania, Nicodim Munteanu, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, on the very day of his second accession, September 6, 1940.^[12] Michael, thus, reigned the second time as an absolute, unconstitutional King, solely "by the Grace of God",^[11] that is by divine right. However, legally, Michael could not exercise much authority besides some prerogatives such as being Supreme Head of the Army and designating a plenipotentiary Prime-Minister ("Conducător").^[13]

The young King Michael.

[edit] Turning against Nazi Germany

Main article: King Michael Coup

In 1944, World War II was going badly for the Axis, but military dictator Ion Antonescu was still in control of Romania. On August 23, 1944, Michael joined with pro-Allied politicians including the Communists, in staging a coup d'état against Antonescu, and placed him under arrest. On the same night, the new Prime Minister, Lt. General Constantin Sănătescu, gave custody of Antonescu to the Communists, who delivered him to the Soviets on September 1.^[14][15] In a radio broadcast to the nation and army, Michael proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of the armistice offered by the USSR, Great Britain, and the United States, and declared war on Germany.^[16] However, this did not avert a rapid Soviet occupation, and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers transported to the Soviet Union, where many perished in prison camps.^[17] The coup speeded the Red Army's advance into Romania.^[17] The armistice was signed three weeks later on September 12, 1944, on terms the Soviets virtually dictated.^[17] According to some, the coup effectively amounted to a "capitulation",^[18] an "unconditional"^[19] "surrender"^[17][20] to the Soviets. King Michael was spared the fate of another former German ally, Prince Kyril, Regent of Bulgaria, executed by the Soviets in 1945, and was also the last monarch behind the Iron Curtain to lose his throne. By some accounts, the coup may have shortened World War II by six months, thus saving hundreds of thousands of lives.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the war, King Michael was awarded the highest degree (Chief Commander) of the Legion of Merit by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. He was also decorated with the Soviet Order of Victory by Joseph Stalin "for the courageous act of the radical change in Romania's politics towards a break-up from Hitler's Germany and an alliance with the United Nations, at the moment when there was no clear sign yet of Germany's defeat," according to an official description of the decoration.^[21] According to the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha,^[22] Michael had earned the Order of Victory for his surrender to the Soviets in a situation in which he could do nothing else.

However, some claim^[23] that Michael's coup afforded Stalin's troops a faster advance^[24] into Romania and Europe, to the detriment of that of the Western Allies. Some others^[25] even see in Michael's failure to be invited, with a few exceptions, to most of the V.E. Day celebrations in the West throughout the years, a tacit condemnation by the Western Allies of the consequences of his coup. Michael was not invited to the 60th anniversary of the V.E. Day by any Western Ally. He was invited only to the celebrations in Russia and to some Czech and Slovak commemorations on the same occasion.^[26]

Romanian Royal Family House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

HM King Michael I of Romania HM Queen Anne of Romania HRH Crown Princess Margarita* HRH Prince Radu* HRH Princess Elena HRH Princess Irina HRH Princess Sophie HRH Princess Maria *titled accordingly in new family rules

[edit] The reign under communism

In March 1945, political pressures forced Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government dominated by the Romanian Communist Party. Under the Communist régime Michael functioned as little more than a figurehead. Between August 1945 and January 1946, during what was later known as the "royal strike," Michael tried unsuccessfully to oppose the first Communist government led by Prime Minister Petru Groza, by refusing to sign its decrees. In response to Soviet, British, and American pressures^[27], King Michael eventually gave up his opposition to the Communist government and stopped demanding its resignation.

He did not amnesty Ion Antonescu, later condemned as a war criminal^[28][29][30] or the leaders of the opposition such as Iuliu Maniu and the Bratianus^[31], victims of Communist political trials, as, some argue, the Constitution prevented him from doing so without the counter signature of the Communist justice minister, Lucreţiu Pătrăşcanu. The memoirs of the King's aunt Princess Ileana^[32] quote the high-ranking Communist Party politburo member, Soviet spy, minister of defense,^[33] and alleged lover of the Princess^[34], Emil Bodnăraş, as saying: "Well, if the King decides not to sign the death warrant, I promise that we will uphold his point of view." Princess Ileana was skeptical that the King would have willingly signed an unconstitutional document such as a death warrant decided by unconstitutional political courts: "You know quite well (...) that the King will never of his free will sign such an unconstitutional document. If he does, it will be laid at your door, and before the whole nation your government will bear the blame. Surely you do not wish this additional handicap at this moment!" The last cellmate of the most prominent Communist victim, Iuliu Maniu, the leader of the anti-Communist opposition and president of the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ), deprived of its victory in the general elections of 1946, which had been falsified by the Communist government, seemingly confessed under Communist interrogation, that Maniu "cursed Michael from behind the bars of the political prison where he died, for not having done anything in the defense of the PNŢ members, despite their many services rendered to the monarchy".^[35]

[edit] Forced abdication

The Standard of the King

In November, 1947 Michael traveled to London for the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II, occasion during which he met Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, who was to become his wife. According to Romanian Royalist circles, King Michael did not want to go back, but American and British personalities present at the wedding encouraged him to do so;^[36] Winston Churchill is said to have counseled Michael to return because "above all things, a King must be courageous." According to his own account,^[37] King Michael rejected any offers of asylum and decided to return to Romania.

However, on December 30 of the same year, Michael was forced to abdicate Romania's throne. Later the same day, the Communists announced the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement by a People's Republic, broadcasting the King's pre-recorded radio proclamation^[38] of his own abdication. On January 3, 1948, Michael was forced to leave the country, followed^[39] over a week later by Princesses Elisabeth and Ileana, who collaborated so closely with the Russians that they became known as the King's "Red Aunts."^[40]

There are several accounts as to why Michael abdicated. As recounted by Michael himself, the Communist prime-minister Petru Groza had threatened him at gun point^{[41][42][43][44]} and blackmailed him that the government was to shoot 1,000 arrested students if Michael didn't abdicate.^[45] In an interview with The New York Times from 2007, Michael recalls the events: “It was blackmail. They said, ‘If you don’t sign this immediately we are obliged’ — why obliged I don’t know — to kill more than 1,000 students that they had in prison.”^[7] According to Time magazine,^[1] the Communist government threatened Michael that it would arrest thousands and steep the country in blood if he did not abdicate. According to the book Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness -- A Soviet Spymaster, the autobiography of the former leader of the Soviet intelligence agency NKVD, major general Pavel Sudoplatov, the deputy Soviet foreign minister Andrey Vyshinsky personally conducted negotiations with King Michael for his abdication, guaranteeing part of a pension to be paid to Michael in Mexico^[46]. According to a few articles in Jurnalul Naţional,^[47][48] one of which quotes the Romanian Securitate archives^[47], Michael's abdication was the result of his negotiations with the Communist government, not of a blackmail, which allowed him to leave the country accompanied by the goods he requested and by some of the royal retinue.^[48] Regarding the controversial episode of the then prime-minister Petru Groza's threat with a pistol, Queen-Mother Helen had apparently stated, according to the archives of Petru Groza's daughter, that Groza had behaved with the royal family "better than a father", and that on December 30, 1947, the day of the abdication, "the people got a divorce - both decent and elegant - from the monarchy." ^[49]

According to the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha^[50], who recounts his conversations with the Romanian Communist leaders on the king's abdication, Michael was threatened with a pistol by the Romanian Communist Party leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej rather than Petru Groza so as to abdicate. He was allowed to leave the country accompanied by some of his entourage and, as confirmed also by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev recounting Dej's confessions^[51], with whatever properties he desired, including gold and rubies^[50]. Hoxha makes no mention of any Communist blackmail with any executions in his book, but says that the Romanian Communist leaders had threatened Michael with their loyal army troops, which had encircled the royal palace and its troops loyal to Michael.

According to Time magazine,^[52] in early 1948 there had been negotiations between King Michael and the Communist government over the properties he left behind in Romania and those negotiations delayed his denunciation of the abdication as illegal.

There are reports^{[53][54][55][56][57]} that Romanian Communist authorities, obedient to Stalin, allowed King Michael to part with 42 valuable Crown-owned paintings in November 1947, so that he would leave Romania faster^[55]. Some of these paintings^[58] were reportedly sold through the famed art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. One of the paintings belonging to the Romanian Crown which was supposedly taken out of the country by King Michael in November 1947, returned to the national patrimony in 2004 as a donation ^[59][53][60] made by John Kreuger, the former husband of King Michael's daughter Princess Irina. In 2005 Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu^[61] denied these accusations about Michael, stating that the Romanian government has no proof of any such action by King Michael and that, prior to 1949, the government had no official records of any artwork taken over from the former royal residences. However, according to some historians, such records exist as early as April of 1948, having been, in fact, officially published in June 1948.^[62]

King Michael was awarded the Order of Victory (the highest Soviet order) for his personal courage in overthrowing Ion Antonescu in the August 23 coup and for putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies. As of 2008 he is the only recipient alive

According to Ivor Porter's authorized biography,^[63] "Michael of Romania: The King and The Country" (2005), which quotes Queen-Mother Helen's daily diary, the Romanian royals took out paintings belonging to the Romanian Royal Crown on their November 1947 trip to London to the wedding of the future Queen Elizabeth II; two of these paintings, signed by El Greco, were sold in 1976. However, many other journalists deny any such Communist gift to the King, and call such accusations anti-monarchist Communist propaganda.^{[citation needed]}

According to recently declassified Foreign Office documents, when he left Romania, Michael's only assets amounted to 500,000 Swiss francs.^[64] Recently declassified Soviet transcripts of talks between Joseph Stalin and the Romanian Prime-Minister Petru Groza^[65][66] show that shortly before his abdication, King Michael received from the Communist government financial assets amounting to 500,000 Swiss francs. King Michael, however, repeatedly denied^[67][68][69] that the Communist government had allowed him to take into exile any financial assets or valuable goods besides four personal automobiles loaded on two train cars. However, during a visit to New York City in March 1948, the 26-year-old Michael shopped on what has been described as the most expensive boulevard in the world, Fifth Avenue, and enjoyed so much the plane in which he had just flown over the Statue of Liberty, that he thought he might buy it.^[70]

In March 1948, he denounced his abdication as forced and illegal. Time magazine alleged that it took Michael over two months to denounce his abdication because before then he had been negotiating with the Communists for the salvage of some of his Romanian properties.^[52]

Some Romanian monarchists^[71], who consider Michael king solely by divine, not constitutional right, as he neither swore on the Constitution, nor was voted in office by the Parliament in his second reign, regard his 1947 abdication as null and void, arguing that it was a purely constitutional, not ecclesiastical act, which cannot depose him from a position in which he was appointed by God. The same argue that, as an absolute, unconstitutional king of divine right, Michael incarnates alone the Romanian State in its entirety and that as such he has every right to dispose as he pleases of the State's properties, including the Crown paintings, which are his own and of whose "theft" he has been accused.

[edit] Life after the throne

Styles of King Michael I of Romania
Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Sir

In January 1948^[1], Michael started styling himself as "Prince of Hohenzollern"^[2][72] instead of using the title of "King of Romania," adopting a new title he had never used before and which the Romanian royals had lost during World War I, when the German Hohenzollerns withdrew them the right to bear it. Only after denouncing his abdication as forced and illegal in March 1948, Michael started using again the title "King of Romania."

In June 1948 he married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma in Athens, Greece. They lived first in Britain and later settled in Switzerland. The Communist Romanian authorities stripped him of his Romanian citizenship in 1948. He became a commercial pilot and worked for an aircraft equipment company. He and his wife have five daughters.

In 1992, three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship, the Romanian government allowed Michael to return to his country for Easter celebrations, where he drew large crowds. In Bucharest over a million people turned out to see him.^[73] Michael's popularity alarmed the government of President Ion Iliescu so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years.^{[citation needed]} In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian Government restored Michael's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country.^{[citation needed]} He now lives mostly in Switzerland at Aubonne and partly in Romania, either at his Săvârşin castle in Arad county or in an official residence in Bucharest—the Elisabeta Palace—voted by the Romanian Parliament by a law concerning arrangements for former heads of state.

Michael has the following children:

• Margarita (born 1949)
• Elena (born 1950)
• Irina (born 1953)
• Sofia (born 1957)
• Maria (born 1964).

Both Elena and Irina have sons as well as daughters. Sophia, whose marriage was not accepted by her father, has a daughter.

For further details, see the genealogical listing^[74].

Because of the Romanian succession provisions of the kingdom's last democratic Constitution of 1923, upon the death of King Michael (assuming he dies without any male children, as it is likely now), in absence of a change of the said Constitution, which would first require the restoration of the monarchy, the succession will devolve back into the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, with its head, Frederick William, Prince of Hohenzollern, first in line (see "Line of succession to the Romanian throne").

On December 30, 2007, on the 60th anniversary of his abdication, King Michael signed the Fundamental Rules of the Royal Family of Romania^[11][75], by which he designated Princess Margarita as heiress to the throne with the titles of "Crown Princess of Romania" and "Custodian of the Romanian Crown." According to the opinions of some Romanian politicians and editorialists, this act is undemocratic^[76], with an eminently symbolic importance in the absence of its approval by the Parliament^[77][78]. On the same occasion, Michael also asked the Romanian Parliament that, should it consider restoring the Monarchy, it should also abolish the salic law of succession.

[edit] Political positions

Michael has not encouraged monarchist agitation in Romania and royalist parties have made little impact in post-Communist Romanian politics. He takes the view that the restoration of the monarchy in Romania can only result from a decision by the Romanian people. "If the people want me to come back, of course, I will come back," he said in 1990. He said that "Romanians have had enough suffering imposed on them to have the right to be consulted on their future." In spite of this, King Michael has not given up the hope for himself or his family of returning back on the throne: "We are trying to make people understand what Romanian monarchy was and what it can still do^[79]."

Michael has undertaken some quasi-diplomatic roles on behalf of post-Communist Romania. In 1997 and 2002 he toured Western Europe, lobbying for Romania's admission into NATO and the European Union, and was received by heads of state and government officials.

In December 2003, Michael awarded the "Man of The Year 2003"^[80] prize to the then-prime minister Adrian Năstase, leader of the PSD party, on behalf of a minor tabloid. Some monarchists regarded^[81] Michael's gesture as a break with the traditional political neutrality of the monarchy and a financially motivated compromise with his former Communist enemies.

[edit] Personality and personal interests

Michael has had a reputation for taciturnity. He once said to his grandmother, "I have learned not to say what I feel, and to smile at those I most hate."

Before getting to know his future wife Anne of Bourbon-Parme, Michael had a romantic relationship with, among others,^[82] a Greek woman, Dodo Chrisolegos, a protégé of the Romanian Communist Party leader Ana Pauker.^[83] Some claim that political influences had been exerted upon King Michael through this liaison.^[83][84]

Michael is passionate about cars,^[85] especially military jeeps.^[86][87] He is also interested in airplanes,^[88] having worked as a commercial flight pilot^[89] during his exile. In 1998 Michael gave his honorary patronage,^[90] together with King Juan Carlos of Spain, to the publication of a new version of the renowned Almanach de Gotha.

On May 10, 2007, King Michael received the Prague Society for International Cooperation and Global Panel's 6th Annual Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award, previously awarded to Vladimir Ashkenazy, Madeleine Albright, Václav Havel, Lord Robertson, and Miloš Forman.^[91] On April 8, 2008, King Michael was inducted as honorary member of the Romanian Academy.^[92][93]

[edit] Ancestors

[edit] See also

• Kings of Romania
• Communist Romania
• Line of succession to the Romanian throne

[edit] External links

• The official website of The Romanian Royal Family
• Semi-official Michael of Romania website
• Royal Family events, Official website of Radu Duda, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen
• "Bonny King Michael" (Michael at age 5), on the cover of Time, August 1, 1927
• "Michael of Romania", interview with Peter Kurth, 1990
• "King of Romania recalls sacrifices", The Prague Post, May 2005
• "We reigned in darkness", The Spectator, June 14, 1997
• "World War II -- 60 Years After: Former Romanian Monarch Remembers Decision To Switch Sides", Radio Free Europe, May 6, 2005
• "The King’s Revenge", Evenimentul Zilei, April 20, 2006
• "The King and The Jester", Evenimentul Zilei, December 18, 2003
• Oliver North, "A Lesson in Leadership", The Washington Times, April 17, 2006
• (Romanian) Costel Oprea, "Regele Mihai, retrocedare de un miliard de euro", România Liberă, April 27, 2007
• (Romanian) Costel Oprea, "Harta marilor retrocedări (II)", România Liberă, April 18, 2007

[edit] References

v • d • e Heads of State of Romania United Principalities of Romania Domnitor of Romania (1859-1881) Cuza • Carol I Kingdom of Romania King of the Romanians (1881-1947) Carol I • Ferdinand I • Michael I • Carol II • Michael I Romanian People's Republic Interim Presidential Committee (1947-1948) President of the State Council (1948-1965) Parhon • Groza • Maurer • Gheorghiu-Dej Socialist Republic of Romania President of the State Council (1965-1989) President of the S.R. Romania (1974-1989) Stoica • Ceauşescu Post-1989 Romania President of Romania (1989-present) Iliescu • Constantinescu • Iliescu • Băsescu • Văcăroiu • Băsescu italics denotes interim • Categories: Heads of state of Romania, Presidents of Romania, Romanian monarchs