Carol I of Romania

Carol of Romania.

Carol I of Romania, original name Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern (April 20th, 1839, 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 Turkish Sultan whose armies were defeated in Roumania's 1877 Independence War 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.

During the Independence War of 1877-1878, Prince Charles personally led Roumanian troops, and also assumed command of the Russo-Roumanian army during the siege of Pleven, (in Romanian, Plevna) with the acquiescence of Russia's Czar Alexander II. The country achieved full independence from the Ottoman Empire (Treaty of Berlin, 1878), acquired access to the Black Sea, and later also acquired the Southern part of the Dobruja from Bulgaria in 1913, but lost Bessarabia in 1878 to its Russian 'allies'. Domestic political life, still dominated by the country's wealthy landowning families organized around the rival Liberal and Conservative]] parties, was punctuated by two widespread peasant uprisings, in Walachia (the southern half of the country) in April 1888 and in Moldavia (the Northern half) in March 1907.

Early life

Carol was born in Sigmaringen as Prince Karl von Hohenzollern Sigmaringen. He was the second son of Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and his wife, Princess Josephine of Baden. After finishing his elementary studies, Karl entered the Cadet School in Münster. In 1857 he was attending the courses of the Artillery School in Berlin. Up to 1866 (when he accepted the crown of Romania) he was a German officer. He took part in the Second War of Schleswig, particularly at the assault of the Fredericia citadel and Dybbøl, experience which would be very useful to him later on in the Russian-Turkish war.

Although he was quite frail and not very tall, prince Karl was reported to be the perfect soldier, healthy, disciplined, and also a very good politician with liberal ideas. He was familiar with several European languages. His family being closely related to the Bonaparte family (one of his grandmothers was a Beauharnais and the other a Murat), they enjoyed very good relations with Napoleon III. Romania was, at the time, under the influence of French culture and Napoleon's recommendation of Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen weighed heavy in the eyes of Romanian politicians of the time, as did his blood relation to the ruling Prussian family. Ion Brătianu was the leading Roumanian statesman who was sent to negotiate with Karl and his family the possibility of installing Karl on the Romanian throne. Ion Brătianu was to meet privately with Prince Karl at Dusseldorf, where he arrived on Good Friday 1866 and on the next day submitted the proposition that Prince Charles become the official ruler ('Domnitorul Romaniei') and Prince of Roumania, that is, of both Vallachia and Moldavia (but not Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time). Although Prince Charles may have been favorably inclined, he needed the approval or nodding consent of both Bismark and Napoleon III before providing a definitive and positive answer; he replied that while he had enough courage to accept the offer, he had to decline until he had permission to accept from the King of Prussia as head of the family. When a letter from the King arrived on April 16, it was not encouraging. In addition to asking whether such a position was sufficiently dignified for a member of the House of Hohenzollern, two issues remained undecided:

(a) Is there to be a union or not? (b) Is there to be a foreign Prince or not? Russia and the Porte are against the union, but it appears that England will join the majority, and if she decides for the union the Porte will be obliged to submit. In the same way both the former States are opposed to the election of a foreign Prince as the ruler of the Danubian Principalities. I have mentioned this attitude to the Porte, and yesterday we received a message from Russia to say that it was not disposed to agree to the project of your son's election, and that it will demand a resumption of the Conference... All these events prevent the hope of a simple solution. I must therefore urge you to consider these matters again... and we must see whether the Paris Conference will reassemble again. Your faithful Cousin and Friend, WILLIAM. P.S.—A note received today from the French Ambassador proves that the Emperor

Napoleon (III) is favourably inclined to the plan. This is very important.

The position will only be tenable if Russia agrees...on account of her professing the same religion and owing to her geographical proximity and old associations... If you are desirous of prosecuting this affair your son must, above all things, gain the consent of Russia. It is true that up to now the prospect of success is remote...." A "most important interview then took place between Count Bismark and Prince Charles (Karl) at the Berlin residence of the former, who was at the time confined to his house by illness. Bismark opened the conversation with the words:

'I have requested your Serene Highness to visit me, not in order to converse with you as a statesman, but quite openly and freely as a friend and an adviser, if I may use the expression. You have been unanimously elected by a nation to rule over them. Proceed at once to the country, to the government of which you have been called!' ...'Ask the King for leave—leave to travel abroad. The King (I know him well) will not be slow to understand, and to see through your intention. You will, moreover, remove the decision out of his hands, a most welcome relief to him, as he is politically tied down. Once abroad, you resign your commission (in the Prussian

army of the King), and proceed to Paris, where you will ask the Emperor (Napoleon III) for a private interview.' " (loc.cit.).)

On the way to Romania

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The former Romanian ruler, Alexander Joan Cuza, had been banished from the country and Romania was in chaos. Since his double election had been the only reason the two Romanian countries (Wallachia and the Principality of Moldavia) were allowed to unite by the European powers of the time, the country was in danger of dissolving. These two states had not been united since the time of Michael the Brave, who very briefly had united all three of the Romanian principalities. The third, Transylvania did not join until after World War I.

Young Karl had to travel incognito on the railroad Düsseldorf-Bonn-Freiburg-Zürich-Vienna-Budapest, due to the conflict between his country and the Austrian Empire. He traveled under the name of Karl Hettingen. As he stepped on Romanian soil, Brătianu bowed before him and asked him to join him in the carriage (at that time, Romania did not have a railroad system).

On 10 May 1866, Karl entered Bucharest. The news of his arrival had been transmitted through telegraph and he was welcomed by a huge crowd eager to see its new ruler. In Băneasa he was handed the key to the city. As a proverbial sign, on the same day it had rained for the first time in a long period of time. He pledged his oath in French: "I swear to guard the laws of Romania, to maintain its rights and the integrity of its territory."

The Constitution

Medal of Carol I

Immediately after arriving in the country, the Romanian parliament adopted, on 29 June 1866, the first Constitution of Romania, one of the most advanced constitutions of its time. This constitution allowed the development and modernization of the Romanian state. In a daring move, the Constitution chose to ignore the country's current dependence on the Ottoman Empire, which paved the way for Independence.

Silver coin of Carol I, struck 1880
Obverse: (Romanian) CAROL I DOMNUL ROMANIEI or in English, "Carol I, Prince of Romania"	Reverse: (Romanian) ROMANIA 5 L 1880, or in English, "Romania, 5 Leu, 1880"

Article 82 said "The ruler's powers are hereditary, starting directly from His Majesty, prince Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, on male line through the right of first-born, with the exclusion of women and their issue. His Majesty's descendants will be raised in the Eastern Orthodox Religion."

After the proclamation of the Independence (1877), Romania was effectively a kingdom. From 1878, Carol held the title of Royal Highness (Alteţă Regală). On 15 March 1881, the Constitution was modified to state, among other things, that from then on the head of state would be called king, while the heir would be called royal prince. The same year he was crowned King.

The basic idea of all the royalist constitutions in Romania was that the King rules without governing.

Romanian War of Independence with the Ottoman Empire (1877-1878)

On the 31st, a report was recieved

"that the Russians had suffered a severe defeat at Plevna, and were retiring panic-stricken on Sistow; this was confirmed at 9 P.M. by the following dispatch... (i.e., to Prince Carol) in cipher:

'WEDNESDAY, July 19-31, 1877, 3.35 P.M. 'PRINCE CHARLES OF ROUMANIA. 'Headquarters of the Roumanian Army.:

'The turks having assembled in great force at Plevna are crushing us. Beg you to join, make a demonstration, and, if possible, cross the Danube, as you wish. This demonstration between Jiul and Corabia is indispensible to facilitate my movements.

NICHOLAS" (the Russian Commander, General Nicholas, appointed by Czar Alexander II).

"Prince Charles replied that the Fourth... (i.e., Roumanian) Division would hold Nikopoli, and that the Third occupy the position quitted by the Fourth";...

"Prince Charles refused to allow the Third Division to cross, as he had no intention of allowing his army to be incorporated with the Russian."

A truly devoted and great, Roumanian King

King Carol was mistakenly reported to be a 'cold' person. He was permanently concerned with the prestige of the country and dynasty that he had founded. His wife, Queen Elizabeth (Regina Elisabeta—whose 'nomme de plume' was "Carmen Sylva" ), has been reputed to have said that 'he wore the crown in his sleep'. He was very meticulous and he tried to impose his style upon everyone that surrounded him. This style was very important for the development and thorough, professional training of a disciplined and successful Roumanian army to gain Roumania's Independence from both the Turks and the Russians. Though he was entirely devoted to his position as a Roumanian Prince, and later King, naturally he never forgot his German roots.

In the beginning of his 48 years of rule (the longest rule any Roumanian principality has ever known), Prince Charles prepared/trained Roumania's armies and fought together with them to gain Roumania its independence from both the Ottoman Empire and Roumania's Russian 'allies' in this Independence War. After victory and the subsequent peace treaty, the (1881) crowned King Carol I raised enormously the country's prestige with the Porte, Russia, and Western European countries, procured funding from Germany—arranged for Romania's first railway system, successfully boosted Romania's economy to unprecedented levels in its history, and also initiated the development of the very first Romanian sea fleet and navy with the port at ancient Tomis (Constantza). In the beginning, some of his efforts to encourage economical prosperity in Romania encountered quite strong opposition from a large section of his government, and at one point he even offered to abdicate if his leadership continued to be challenged to a stalemate by such Romanian political, dissenting factions and their continuous bickering. During his reign, Romania became the paid 'agricultural supplier' of both Western Europe and Russia, exporting huge quantities of wheat and corn. He also succeeded (where his predecessor's attempts failed) to reward and endow with farmland many of the surviving Romanian veterans who fought along with him in Romania's Independence War.

Following his coronation on March 26th, 1881 as the first King of Romanians, he firmly established a Hohenzollern-family based dynasty. His main purpose was to make his new, adopted country a durable and sustainable, permanent one, well-integrated with Western Europe. King Carol I's true intent in establishing 'his' dynasty was to allow the Romanian nation to exist free and independent of its militarily powerful neighbor states to the East and East, by preventing the former from reversing after his death what he had accomplished in his lifetime. By a rather strange (but perhaps meaningful) coincidence, his former Russian 'ally' in the Independence War, the Czar (Tsar) Alexandr II Nykolaevich died, assassinated by the 'russified' Polish-Lithuanian Ignacy Hryniewiecki— known as "Ignaty Grinevitzky," only two weeks before the Corronation of King Carol I in 1881. The Tsar's assassination had been meant to ignite revolution in Russia, whereas in neighbor Romania, the crowning of its first, independent King was received with great enthusiasm by most Romanians, who were looking forward to a much brighter future as free, liberated descendants of an ancient people.

After leading Romania's (and also allied Russia' s) armies to victory in its Independence War, King Carol I received repeatedly similar offers to rule over two other countries as well, the neighbor Bulgaria and also Spain, but he courteously declined such serious propositions as he saw these as a conflict of interest which he could not accept. In the Carpathian mountains, he built Peleş Castle, still one of Romania's most visited touristic attractions. The castle was built in an external, German style, as a reminder of the King's origin, but its interior was, and is, decorated in various elegant styles, including art objects of neighboring nations, both East and West. After the Russo-Turkish war, Romania gained Dobruja and King Carol I ordered the first bridge over the Danube, between Feteşti and Cernavodă, linking the new acquired province to the rest of the country.

King Carol I left Roumania a rich legacy, unprecedented in its entire history of more than a thousand years (claimed, in fact, by some historians to go as far back as two millenia to the established Roman Empire colony of Roman Dacia), which his follower at the throne, King Ferdinand I would build upon, to what was called before World War II the ' Greater Romania ' (in Romanian: România Mare), that will also include the other three Roumanian principalities of: Transylvania, Bukovina (Bucovina) and Bessarabia (Bassarabia —now the Republic of Moldova).

The end of the reign

The long rule of 48 years by King Carol I allowed both the rapid establishment and the strong economical development of the Romanian state. Towards the very end of his reign in 1913, and close to the start of the World War I, the German-born king was in favor of entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, whereas the majority of the Romanian public opinion sided with the Triple Entente because of the traditional, Romanian cultural (and historical) links with France. However, King Carol I had signed a secret treaty in 1883 that linked Romania with the Triple Alliance (formed in 1882), and although the treaty was to be activated only in case of attack from Imperial Russia towards one of the treaty's members, Carol I thought that the honorable thing to do was to enter the war on the side of the German Empire. An emergency meeting was held with members of the government where the King told them about the secret treaty and shared his opinion with them. The strong disagreement that ensued is said by some to have brought on the 75-year old King's sudden death on October 10th, 1914. The future King Ferdinand I, under the influence of his Parliament and also of his wife, Marie of Edinburgh, a British Princess, will be much more willing to listen to public opinion and join instead the Triple Entente treaty; as Carol I might have anticipated in his thorough considerations of the European balance of military power, King Ferdinand's decision resulted in several years of misery for the Romanian population, and also millions of Romanian soldiers dying in the war by fighting the very well-equipped German army; however, King Ferdinand's and his government's gamble did surprisingly pay off when the Triple Entente finally won World War I, and the Greater Romania was established (with Transylvania joining Romania) under King Ferdinand I at the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919.

Life and family

King Carol I (right) and Queen Elizabeth of Romania

When he was elected prince of Romania, Carol was not married and, according to the Romanian Constitution he himself had approved, he was not allowed to marry a woman of Romanian origin. In 1869, the prince started a trip around Europe and mainly Germany, to find a bride. During this trip he met and married at Neuwied on 15 November 1869 princess Elizabeth of Wied. Their marriage was said to be 'one of the most unfitted matches' in history, with Carol being a 'cold' and calculating man, whereas Elizabeth was a notorious dreamer and a poet at heart. They had only one child, Princess Maria, born in 1871, who died on the 24th of March 1874. This is said to have led to the further estrangement of the royal couple, Elizabeth never completely recovering from the trauma of losing her only child.

After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania in 1881, the succession became a very important matter of state. Since Carol I's brother, Leopold, and his oldest son, William, declined their rights to succession, the second son of Leopold, Ferdinand, was named Prince of Romania, and also heir to the throne. Elizabeth tried to influence the young Prince into marrying her favorite lady in waiting, Elena Văcărescu, but according to the Romanian Constitution the heir was forbidden from marrying any Romanian lady. As a result of her attempt, Elizabeth was exiled for two years, until Ferdinand's marriage to Princess Marie of Edinburgh.

Towards the end of their lives, though, Carol I and Elizabeth are said to have 'finally found a way to understand each other', and were reportedly to have become 'good friends'.

Ancestors

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}}

House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Cadet Branch of the House of Hohenzollern Born: April 20 1839; Died: October 10 1914
Regnal Titles
Preceded by: Alexander John Cuza	Prince of Romania 1866-1881	Became King
New Title	King of Romania 1881-1914	Succeeded by: Ferdinand of Romania

Notes

Other references

• Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania, From Memory's Shrine: The Reminiscences of Carmen Sylva., Translated by Edith Hopkirk, J. B. Lippincott Co Publ.: Philadelphia, 1911.

• http://www.tboyle.net/Royalty/Royalty_Links.html :Eugen Wolbe., Carmen Sylva:Der Lebensweg einer einsamen Königin. Koehler & Amelang: Leipzig, 1933.

• Elizabeth Burgoune., Carmen Sylva: Queen and Woman., Thornton: London, 1940.

• CARMEN SYLVA – REGINA ELISABETA OF ROMANIA: BIBLIOGRAPHY

External links

Template:Commonscat-inline

• Royal House of Romania
• Princely House of Hohenzollern
• Princely House of Wied
• Online edition of Carol I' s 1899 Authorized Edition book entitled Reminiscences of the King of Roumania

Template:Redirect-acronym Template:Heads of State of Romania

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