Michael I of Romania

Mihai I
King of the Romanians
File:King-Michael.jpg
Reign	20 July, 1927 – 8 June, 1930 6 September, 1940 – 30 December, 1947
Predecessor	Ferdinand I Carol II
Successor	Carol II Kingdom abolished
Issue	Margarita Elena Irina Sophie Marie
House	Hohenzollern
Father	Carol II
Mother	Elena of Greece and Denmark
Religion	Romanian Orthodox

King Michael I of the Romanians (born October 25, 1921), Prince of Hohenzollern, reigned as King of the Romanians (in Romanian Maiestatea Sa Mihai I Regele Românilor or Majestatea Sa Mihai I Regele Românilor) from July 20, 1927 to June 8, 1930, and again from September 6, 1940 until deposed on December 30, 1947. He has since lived in exile. A great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a third cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, he is one of the last living public figures from the World War II era.

Early life

Michael was born in the Foişor Castle, Sinaia, Romania, the son of the then-Crown Prince Carol and Princess Elena, and grandson of the then-reigning King Ferdinand I of the Romanians. When Carol eloped with his mistress of Jewish descent 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.

Rule

File:King Mihai I of Romania postcard.jpg

Michael as a child king

A regency functioned on behalf of the 5-year-old Michael, but in 1930 Carol II suddenly returned to the country at the invitation of politicians dissatisfied with the regency and had himself proclaimed King, designating Michael as crown prince with the title "Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia". In September 1940 the pro-German régime of the Prime-Minister Marshal Ion Antonescu staged a coup against Carol, whom it considered anti-German. Antonescu had the 18-year-old Michael proclaimed King to popular acclaim, but legally Michael could not exercise much authority besides that of being supreme Head of the Army and of designating a plenipotentiary Prime-Minister ("Conducator").

In August 1944 as the Soviet armed forces approached Romania's eastern border, Michael joined with pro-Allied politicians which included the Communists in staging a coup d'état against Antonescu, whom he placed under arrest and who was immediately delivered to the Soviets. Michael proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies and declared war on Germany, but 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, facilitated by the King's cease-fire order given before any armistice was reached. The armistice was signed three weeks later on September 12 1944, on terms the Soviets virtually dictated. The coup effectively amounted to a "capitulation", an "unconditional surrender" 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, possibly saving hundreds of thousands of lives. 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. However, some claim that Michael's failure to be invited, with a few exceptions, to most of the Victory in Europe Day celebrations in the West throughout the years, could be seen as a tacit condemnation of the consequences of his coup, which afforded Stalin's troops a faster advance into Romania and Europe, to the detriment of that of the Western Allies.

In March 1945, political pressures forced Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government dominated by the Communist Party of Romania. Under the Communist régime Michael functioned as little more than a figurehead. Stalin decorated him with the Soviet Order of Victory, for his personal courage in overthrowing Antonescu, for putting an end to Romania's war against the Allies, and as a sign of gratitude for the King's cease-fire order given during the coup, which had speeded the Red Army's advance into Romania. Moreover, there are several reports that the Romanian Communist authorities obedient to Stalin presented King Michael with 42 valuable Crown-owned paintings shortly before the King's abdication, some of which 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 made by John Kreuger, the former husband of King Michael's daughter Princess Irina. The renowned Romanian editorialist Dan Cristian Turturica claims that "the King did not steal the paintings as they had been offered to him by the communist rulers so that he leave Romania more quickly." Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, in response to a query of the parliamentarian and former Securitate officer Ilie Merce, stated that the accusations about Michael having taken out of Romania Crown paintings were "more than dubious" and that the Romanian government had no proofs of any such action by King Michael, claiming that, prior to 1949, the government had no official records of the artwork taken over from the former royal residences.

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. At Soviet, British, and American pressures, King Michael eventually gave up his opposition to the Communist government and stopped demanding its resignation.

He did not amnesty Ion Antonescu or the leaders of the opposition, victims of Communist political trials, as, some argue, the Constitution prevented him from doing so without the countersignature of the Communist justice minister. Other sources, such as the memoires of the King's aunt Princess Ileana, quoting the high-ranking Communist Party politburo member, Soviet spy, and minister of defense Emil Bodnaras, rumored to have been Ileana's lover, claim that if the King had refused to sign the death warrants for the political prisoners condemned for "war crimes," the Communist government would have upheld his decision: "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 PNT party, deprived of its victory in the general elections of 1946 frauded by the Communist government, 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 PNT members, despite their many services rendered to the monarchy".

Abdication

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. King Michael "did not want to go back, but American and British personalities [present at the wedding] encouraged him to do so," according to "Romanian royalist circles" quoted by the Washington Post. He returned "at the express advice of Winston Churchill," who "is said to have counseled Michael, ‘above all things, a king must be courageous.’" According to his own account, King Michael had no such intentions of not returning back to his country. After his return to Romania, Michael was forced to abdicate, on December 30, 1947. The Communists announced the abolition of the monarchy and its replacement by a people's republic and broadcasted the King's pre-recorded radio proclamation of his own abdication. On January 3, 1948 Michael was forced to leave the country, followed 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.’"

When he left Romania, Michael's financial assets amounted to 500,000 Swiss francs, allegedly received from the Communist Government according to recently declassified Soviet transcripts of talks between Stalin and the Romanian Prime-Minister Petru Groza. In the past, King Michael repeatedly denied 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.

In January 1948, Michael started styling himself "Prince of Hohenzollern" instead of using the title of "King of Romania." 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 "he had been negotiating with the Communists for the salvage of some of his Romanian properties," in spite of earlier reports that "$3,000 in cash, four automobiles, and a diamond-and-ruby medal given him by Stalin were all that Bucharest let him take out." He has since styled himself mostly as "Michael of Romania."

Life after the throne

Styles of King Michael I of Romania
File:Stema mare a Regatului Romaniei.jpg
Reference style	His Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Sir

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. Michael's popularity alarmed the government of President Ion Iliescu so Michael was forbidden to visit Romania again for five years. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu, the Romanian Government restored Michael's citizenship and again allowed him to visit the country. He now lives partly in Switzerland and partly in Romania, in an official residence voted by the Romanian Parliament by a law concerning arrangements for former heads of state.

Michael has the following children:

• Margarita (Mme Margarita de Roumanie-Duda) (born 1949)
• Elena (Mrs. Helen Nixon McAteer) (born 1950)
• Irina (born 1953)
• Sophia (born 1957)
• Maria (born 1964).

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

For further details, see the genealogical listing.

Because of the Romanian succession law incorporated in 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 its necessary change along with the Constitution, which would first require the restoration of the monarchy, the succession will devolve back into the main Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family, with its head Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, currently first in line.

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 a right to be consulted on their future." The British expert in Romanian politics and history, and Encyclopaedia Britannica editor Tom Gallagher wrote that HRH Prince Charles of Wales was offered the Romanian throne, offer which it is said was made by the Romanian monarchists and was turned down by the Prince: "If, utopically speaking, His Royal Highness (...) had accepted the invitation to become the head of a state he had fallen in love with (...), perhaps he would have ended up proving himself to be the best sovereign Romania had since the great Carol I." 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."

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" prize to the then-prime minister Adrian Nastase, leader of the ex-Communist PSD party, on behalf of a minor tabloid. Recently, Adrian Nastase has been sent to trial on charges of bribe-taking, blackmail, and abuse of public office. Some monarchists regarded Michael's gesture as a break with the traditional political neutrality of the monarchy and a financially motivated compromise with his former Communist enemies.

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."

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

See also

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

External links

• Semi-official Michael of Romania website
• Royal Family events - Official website of Radu, Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen
• "Bonny King Michael" - Michael at age 5, on the cover of Time magazine
• "Michael of Romania" - 1990 interview with Peter Kurth
• "King of Romania recalls sacrifices," 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
• "A king and his coup," Telegraph, 12/06/2005
• "The King’s Revenge," Evenimentul Zilei, April 20, 2006
• "The King and The Jester," Evenimentul Zilei daily, December 18, 2003
• "A Lesson in Leadership" by Oliver North, Washington Times, April 17, 2006