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Ernest Urdărianu

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Ernest Urdăreanu (1897-1985) was the Lord Great Chamberlain and Minister of the Court during the reign of King Carol II of Romania (1930-1940). As closest confidant of the King[1] Urdăreanu was with Madame Lupescu, the King’s mistress, the third in the triumvirate which conduct virtually all the power in the state during the thirties of the last century. It is said that he was, after the King, the most powerful, and the most hatred man of Romania.[2][3][4][5] After the abdication of the King in 1940 Urdăreanu left the country with him and Madame Lupescu to seek asylum and he stayed with them for the rest of his life.

About the early years of Ernest Urdăreanu we know little. He had two brothers, an engineer and a business man. The background of his family was the military; his father was a captain of the army. Urdăreanu also received military training. Urdăreanu was a skilled car driver and interested in motor sports. In 1928 and 1929 he won for Romania the first and second Rally of San Remo, with Fiat cars.

Originally a cavalry officer from Craiova, Urdăreanu came in 1931 into the service of the King as an aide in the palace[6], than advocated by the Minister in London, Nicolae Titulescu, who would have been a relative of him.[7] Afterwards he became head of the palace garage and regular chauffeur of Madame Lupescu.[8]. In 1933 he became a private secretary of the King, after a conflict between the King and Madame Lupescu with Constantine ‘Piui’ Dimitrescu, who was the King’s secretary and ‘watchdog’ from the time of their asylum in France in the late twenties.[9][10] In 1936 Urdăreanu was promoted to vice marshal of the palace and a year later marshal of the palace, or head of the royal household.[11].

Urdăreanu was part of the so called camarilla around the King, all which consisted by the King's mistress Elena ('Magda') Lupescu, the wealthy industrialists Nicolae Malaxa, Max Auschnitt and Aristide Blank, Marthe Bibesco and others.[12] This camarilla, partly Jewish (Auschnitt, Blank and Lupescu by origin), was much hated by others in the upper class of Romanian society because of their decadent parties and corruption, in a country with a well spread anti-Semitic atmosphere.

Urdăreanu owned his powerful position not of any special skills or capacities, but of the entire confidence of the King and of Madame Lupescu, who he accompanied on her social activities. Contemporaries called him shrewd, sly, slick, resentful and corrupt. In the palace he decided who had access to the King and for what purposes.[13][14][15][16] It is said that people who want to speak with the King first had to pay Urdăreanu to get access.[17][18][19] Urdăreanu also had a decisive vote on the nomination of political appointments.[20] He should have been said: ‘Madame Lupescu controls the King, but I control Madame Lupescu, so I control Romania’.[21] There were rumours that Urdăreanu and Lupescu were lovers too.[22][23]

Urdăreanu was not only an influenced adviser of the King, from 1938 till the end of the reign of the King on September 6th, 1940, as Minister of the Court he also was the representative of the King in the government.[24]. In that capacity he was member of the Crown Council, which took decisions on moments of severe crises. For instance with the forced cession of Bessarabia and Transylvania in June and August 1940. According to the journal of King Carol II, Urdăreanu voted on the 28th of June 1940 during the meeting of the Crown Council against the cede of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, no doubt on designation of the King.[25]

In 1938 Urdăreanu accompanied King Carol and Crown Prince Michael on their state visit in the United Kingdom, and afterwards on their visit to the French Government in Paris and Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, although Urdăreanu was not received by the Führer.[26][27][28] Urdăreanu served regularly to solve difficult tasks for the King. In February 1939, in the King's conflict with the historian Nicolae Iorga about the King's political organisation, the National Renaissance Front (FRN), all which Iorga opposed vehemently, the King sent Urdăreanu to the Academy hall of the university to stop Iorga publicize his critics.[29]. In the beginning of 1940 Urdăreanu acted as a representative of the King to reach a settlement with the Iron Guard.[30][31][32]

As a representative of the King Urdăreanu had seat on the board of numerous companies in which the King had financial interests.[33] It is generally believed that Urdăreanu was helping the King to put large sums of money out of the country and to foreign banks, and that Urdăreanu not lost sight of his own financial position.

When King Carol and Madame Lupescu where forced to leave the country after the King's abdication on the 6th of September 1940 Urdăreanu accompanied them on their adventurous flight out of the country, while the royal train was hounded and shot by members of the Fascist Iron Guard.[34][35][36][37] First they went to Switzerland and afterwards to Spain, where they stayed in Barcelona, Madrid and Seville. Due to the indistinct position of the Spanish government and the severe pressure of the German and Romanian government for the extradition of in the first place Lupescu and Urdăreanu, because of their supposed crimes against the Romanian state and for corruption.[38], in March 1941 Urdăreanu organised their adventurous flight to Portugal.[39][40]

After a brief stay in Portugal Carol, Lupescu and Urdăreanu sought asylum further, first in Cuba, afterwards in Mexico and Brazil. Always been a bachelor, Urdăreanu himself married in 1944 in Mexico 18 years old Monique Cook.[41][42] Urdăreanu organized in 1947 in Brazil the marriage of King Carol with Elena Lupescu. In 1949 the company of four now returned to Portugal, where they set up a household in Estoril, with Urdăreanu still as secretary and chamberlain of the King. After the unexpected death of King Carol in 1953, Urdăreanu organized the funeral in Lisbon[43], which was not attended by ex King Michael, partly because he didn’t want to meet Lupescu and Urdăreanu. Michael, who detested Urdăreanu, nicknamed him ‘Murdareanu’, which means dirt.[44][45][46]

After the death of King Carol, Urdăreanu and his wife stayed in de company of Madame Lupescu till her death in 1977. Urdăreanu died in Portugal in 1985 in the age of 88 years. He never returned to Romania.

Notes

  1. ^ Easterman
  2. ^ Waldeck
  3. ^ Pakula
  4. ^ Porter
  5. ^ Moats
  6. ^ Pakula
  7. ^ Moats
  8. ^ Porter
  9. ^ Pakula
  10. ^ Porter
  11. ^ Scurtu
  12. ^ Waldeck
  13. ^ Waldeck
  14. ^ Kürenberg
  15. ^ Moats
  16. ^ Cartland
  17. ^ Pakula
  18. ^ Kürenberg
  19. ^ Cartland
  20. ^ Moats
  21. ^ Moats
  22. ^ Pandrea
  23. ^ Moats
  24. ^ Scurtu
  25. ^ Prince Paul
  26. ^ Moats
  27. ^ Cartland
  28. ^ Easterman
  29. ^ Turlea
  30. ^ Hitchins
  31. ^ Ornea
  32. ^ Zamfirescu
  33. ^ Waldeck
  34. ^ Waldeck
  35. ^ Kürenberg
  36. ^ Moats
  37. ^ Easterman
  38. ^ Moats
  39. ^ Prince Paul
  40. ^ Moats
  41. ^ Rogalski
  42. ^ Moats
  43. ^ Moats
  44. ^ Waldeck
  45. ^ Kürenberg
  46. ^ Cartland

References

  • Barbara Cartland, 'The scandalous life of King Carol'. Frederick Muller Ltd. London, 1957.
  • A.L.Easterman, 'King Carol, Hitler and Lupescu'. Victor Gollancz Ltd., London, 1942.
  • Hitchins, Keith, 'România, 1866-1947' (translation of the English-language edition 'Rumania, 1866-1947', Oxford University Press, USA, 1994). Bucharest: Humanitas, 1998.
  • Prince Paul of Hohenzollern-Roumania, 'King Carol II. A life of my grandfather'. Methuen London, London, UK, 1988.
  • Joachim von Kürenberg, 'Carol II und Madame Lupescu'. Athenäum-Verlag, Bonn, 1952.
  • Alice-Leone Moats, 'Lupescu. The story of a royal love affair'. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1955.
  • Ornea, Z., 'Anii treizeci. Extrema dreaptă românească' ('The Thirties: the Far Right in Romania'). Bucharest: Editura Fundației Culturale Române, 1995.
  • Hannah Pakula, 'The last romantic: a biography of Queen Marie of Romania'. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1984.
  • Petre Pandrea, 'Cronică valahă cu inginerul Malaxa' ('Wallachian Chronicle with Engineer Malaxa'), in Magazin Istoric, May 2002 (in Romanian).
  • Ivor Porter, 'Michael of Romania. The king and the country'. Sutton Publishing, Stroud, UK, 2005.
  • Mihaela Rogalski, interview with Monique Urdareanu on Elena Lupescu and Carol II, Ziua, 14 January 2006 (in Romanian).
  • Ioan Scurtu, Theodora Stănescu-Stanciu, Georgiana Margareta Scurtu: 'Istoria Romănilor Intre Anii 1918-1940' (in Romanian).
  • Petre Ţurlea, 'Vodă da, Iorga ba' ('Yes Says the Ruler, No Says Iorga'), in Magazin Istoric, February 2001 (in Romanian).
  • R. G. Waldeck, 'Athene Palace', Blue Ribbon Books, Robert M. McBride & Company, New York, 1942.
  • Zamfirescu, Dragoş, 'Coordonatele unui fenomen politic românesc. Mişcarea Legionară: apariţie şi evoluţie' ('Coordinates of a Romanian Politician Phenomenon. The Legionary Movement: Emergence and Evolution') (in Romanian). Dosarele Istoriei 4 (II), 1997.
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