Elisabeth of Wied
Elisabeth of Wied | |||||
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Queen consort of Romania | |||||
Tenure | 15 March 1881 – 10 October 1914 | ||||
Coronation | 10 May 1881 | ||||
Princess consort of Romania | |||||
Tenure | 15 November 1869 – 15 March 1881 | ||||
Born | 29 December 1843 Schloss Monrepos (Neuwied) | ||||
Died | 2 March 1916 (aged 72) Curtea de Argeş or Bucharest | ||||
Burial | |||||
Spouse | Carol I of Romania | ||||
Issue | Princess Maria of Romania | ||||
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House | Wied-Neuwied | ||||
Father | Hermann, Prince of Wied | ||||
Mother | Princess Marie of Nassau | ||||
Signature | ![]() |
Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise of Wied (29 December 1843 – 2 March 1916) was the Queen of Romania as the wife of King Carol I, widely known by her literary name of Carmen Sylva.
Family and early life
Born at "Schloss Monrepos" in Neuwied, she was the daughter of Hermann, Prince of Wied, and his wife Princess Marie of Nassau.
Elisabeth had artistic leanings; her childhood featured seances and visits to the local lunatic asylum.[1]
Marriage
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Elisabeth_of_Wied_later_Queen_of_Romania.jpg/220px-Elisabeth_of_Wied_later_Queen_of_Romania.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/Monumento_a_Elisabetta_di_Wied%2C_regina_di_Romania%2C_castello_di_Pele%C8%99%2C_Sinaia%2C_Romania.jpg/220px-Monumento_a_Elisabetta_di_Wied%2C_regina_di_Romania%2C_castello_di_Pele%C8%99%2C_Sinaia%2C_Romania.jpg)
As a young girl, sixteen-year-old Elisabeth was considered as a possible bride for the heir apparent to the British throne, the future King Edward VII. His mother, Queen Victoria, strongly favored her as a prospective daughter-in-law, and urged her daughter Victoria to look further into her.[1] Elisabeth was spending the social season at the Berlin court, where her family hoped she would be tamed into a docile, marriageable princess. Vicky responded, "I do not think her at all distinguée looking—certainly the opposite to Bertie's usual taste", whereas the tall and slender Alexandra of Denmark was "just the style Bertie admires".[1] Bertie was also shown photographs of Elisabeth, but professed himself unmoved and declined to give them a second glance.[2] In the end, Alexandra was selected for Bertie.[citation needed]
Elisabeth first met Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Berlin in 1861. In 1869, Karl, who was now Prince Carol of Romania, traveled to Germany in search of a suitable consort. He was reunited with Elisabeth, and the two were married on 15 November 1869 in Neuwied. Their only child, a daughter, Maria, died in 1874 at age three — an event from which Elisabeth never recovered. She was crowned Queen of Romania in 1881 after Romania was proclaimed a kingdom.
In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, also known as the Romanian War of Independence, she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth to reward distinguished service in such work. She fostered the higher education of women in Romania, and established societies for various charitable objects. She was the 835th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa. She died at Curtea de Argeş or Bucharest.[citation needed]
Literary activity
As "Carmen Sylva", she wrote with facility in German, Romanian, French and English. A few of her voluminous writings, which include poems, plays, novels, short stories, essays, collections of aphorisms, etc., may be singled out for special mention:
- Her earliest publications were "Sappho" and "Hammerstein", two poems which appeared at Leipzig in 1880.
- In 1888 she received the Prix Botta , a prize awarded triennially by the Académie française, for her volume of prose aphorisms Les Pensees d'une reine (Paris, 1882), a German version of which is entitled Vom Amboss (Bonn, 1890).
- Cuvinte Sufletesci, religious meditations in Romanian (Bucharest, 1888), was also translated into German (Bonn, 1890), under the name of Seelen-Gespräche.
Several of the works of "Carmen Sylva" were written in collaboration with Mite Kremnitz, one of her maids of honor; these were published between 1881 and 1888, in some cases under the pseudonyms Dito et Idem. These include:
- Aus zwei Welten (Leipzig, 1884), a novel
- Anna Boleyn (Bonn, 1886), a tragedy
- In der Irre (Bonn, 1888), a collection of short stories
- Edleen Vaughan, or Paths of Peril (London, 1894), a novel
- Sweet Hours (London, 1904), poems, written in English.
Among the translations made by "Carmen Sylva" include:
- German versions of Pierre Loti's romance Pecheur d'Islande
- German versions of Paul de St Victor's dramatic criticisms Les Deux Masques (Paris, 1881–1884)
- and especially The Bard of the Dimbovitza, an English translation of Elena Văcărescu's collection of Romanian folk-songs, etc., entitled Lieder aus dem Dimbovitzathal (Bonn, 1889), translated by "Carmen Sylva" and Alma Strettell.
The Bard of the Dimbovitza was first published in 1891, and was soon reissued and expanded. Translations from the original works of "Carmen Sylva" have appeared in all the principal languages of Europe and in Armenian.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Queen_Elisabeth_of_Romania_with_her_daughter.jpg/220px-Queen_Elisabeth_of_Romania_with_her_daughter.jpg)
Văcărescu Affair
In 1881, due to the lack of heirs to the Romanian throne, King Carol I adopted his nephew, Ferdinand. Ferdinand, a complete stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Elisabeth's ladies in waiting Elena Văcărescu. Elisabeth, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, although she was perfectly aware of the fact that a marriage between the two was forbidden by the Romanian constitution.
The result of this was the exile of both Elisabeth (in Neuwied) and Elena (in Paris), as well as a trip by Ferdinand through Europe in search of a suitable bride, whom he eventually found in Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. The affair helped reinforce Elisabeth's image as a dreamer and eccentric.
Quite unusually for a queen, Elisabeth of Wied was personally of the opinion that a republican form of government was preferable to monarchy—an opinion which she expressed forthrightly in her diary, though she did not make it public at the time:
I must sympathize with the Social Democrats, especially in view of the inaction and corruption of the nobles. These "little people", after all, want only what nature confers: equality. The Republican form of government is the only rational one. I can never understand the foolish people, the fact that they continue to tolerate us.[3]
Titles, styles and honours
Styles of Queen Elisabeth of Romania | |
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Reference style | Her Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Titles
- 29 December 1843 – 15 November 1869: Her Serene Highness Princess Elisabeth of Wied
- 15 November 1869 – 15 March 1881: Her Royal Highness The Princess of Romania
- 15 March 1881 – 10 October 1914: Her Majesty The Queen of Romania
- 10 October 1914 – 2 March 1916: Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth of Romania
Honours
National honours
Germany: Dame of the Order of Louise
Hohenzollern: Dame of the House Order of Hohenzollern
Romania: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown[4]
Romania: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Carol I[5]
Romania: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania
Romania: Grand Master Knight of the Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth[4][6]
Romania: Recipient of the Ruby Jubilee Medal of King Carol I
Foreign honours
Austria-Hungary: Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross
Portugal: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Isabel[7]
Russia: Dame Grand Cordon of the Order of Saint Catherine[8]
Spain: 835th Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa[9]
- United Kingdom: Dame of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, 1st class
Serbia: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Sava
Legacy
- Sierra Carmen Silva (Chile)
- Río Carmen Silva (Argentina, also known as Río Chico)
- The Forest path of Carmen Sylva (Šetalište Carmen Sylve) in Opatija, Croatia
- Villa Carmen Sylva (Domburg)[10]
- Villa Carmen Sylva (Varese)[11]
Ancestry
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References
- ^ a b c Pakula, p. 144.
- ^ Hibbert, pp. 40-41.
- ^ Eugen Wolbe, Carmen Sylva, Leipzig, 1933, p. 137, here quoted from Brigitte Hamann, Elisabeth: Kaiserin wider Willen, Munich, 1982, translated to English as The Reluctant Empress, New York, 1986 (a biography of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who was Elisabeth of Wied's friend).
- ^ a b Queen Elisabeth wearing the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown and The Decoration of the Cross of Queen Elisabeth
- ^ "Ordinul Carol I". Familia Regala.
- ^ "Romanian Personalities - Carmen Sylva". www.romanianculture.org.
- ^ "Image". 4.bp.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2015-09-04.
- ^ https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b9/d2/81/b9d281dc62b582636503720fdb425b74.jpg
- ^ "Dames of the Royal Order of Queen María Luisa of Spain". geneall.net.
- ^ "Villa Carmen Sylva - VVV Zeeland". VVV Zeeland.
- ^ "C'è un cartiglio in Villa Sylva Svelerà il mistero della regina?".
Bibliography
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Eugen Wolbe, "Carmen Sylva", Leipzig, 1933
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, Carmen Sylva - Uimitoarea Regină Elisabeta a României, 1843–1916, Bucharest, Humanitas, 2003, second edition in 2007, third edition in 2008; ISBN 978-973-50-1101-7
- Gabriel Badea-Päun, Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842–1923) à la cour royale de Roumanie, dans Bulletin de la Société de l'Historie de l'Art Français, Année 2005, Paris, 2006, pp. 257–81.
- Hibbert, Christopher (2007). Edward VII: The Last Victorian King. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Pakula, Hannah (1995). An Uncommon Woman: The Empress Frederick, Daughter of Queen Victoria, Wife of the Crown Prince of Prussia, Mother of Kaiser Wilhelm. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84216-5.
- Zimmermann, Silvia Irina: Der Zauber des fernen Königreichs. Carmen Sylvas „Pelesch-Märchen“, (Magisterarbeit Universität Marburg 1996), ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart, 2011, 180 pages; ISBN 978-3-8382-0195-5.
- Zimmermann, Silvia Irina: Die dichtende Königin. Elisabeth, Prinzessin zu Wied, Königin von Rumänien, Carmen Sylva (1843–1916). Selbstmythisierung und prodynastische Öffentlichkeitsarbeit durch Literatur, (Doctoral thesis University of Marburg 2001/2003), ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart, 2010, 482 pages; ISBN 978-3-8382-0185-6.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Research Center Carmen Sylva of the Princely Archive of Wied
- Carmen Sylva – Regina Elisabeta of Romania at Tom's Place (tkinter.org) – works by and about her, gallery from newspapers and magazines
- Works by Carmen Sylva at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Elisabeth of Wied at the Internet Archive
- Books about Carmen Sylva and new editions of her works Template:Lang-icon
- Carmen Sylva at Library of Congress, with 29 library catalogue records
- Newspaper clippings about Elisabeth of Wied in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- 1843 births
- 1916 deaths
- Princesses of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
- Ladies of the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert
- Queens consort
- Honorary members of the Romanian Academy
- Romanian dramatists and playwrights
- Romanian folklorists
- Women folklorists
- Romanian Lutherans
- 19th-century Romanian novelists
- 19th-century Romanian poets
- Romanian royal consorts
- Romanian women short story writers
- Romanian short story writers
- Romanian translators
- Romanian writers in French
- Romanian writers in German
- Romanian women writers
- German women writers
- German writers in French
- 20th-century German writers
- Honorary Members of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences
- Burials at Curtea de Argeş Cathedral
- Recipients of the Order of Saint Catherine
- Dames of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa
- Dames of the Order of Louise
- Dames of the Order of Saint Isabel
- House of Wied-Neuwied
- People from Neuwied
- Romanian women novelists
- Romanian women poets
- Women dramatists and playwrights
- 20th-century Romanian novelists
- 20th-century Romanian poets
- Grand Crosses of the Order of Carol I
- Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Romania)
- 20th-century Romanian women writers