Jump to content

Elisabeth of Romania: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 66: Line 66:
[[File:HRH Elizabeth of Romania, HM Queen Marie of Romania, HRH Princess Ileana of Romania, HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia.jpg|thumb|right|At the wedding of sister, HRH Princess Ileana, in Sinaia on 26 July 1931.]]
[[File:HRH Elizabeth of Romania, HM Queen Marie of Romania, HRH Princess Ileana of Romania, HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia.jpg|thumb|right|At the wedding of sister, HRH Princess Ileana, in Sinaia on 26 July 1931.]]


====Queen of the Hellenes====
Meanwhile, the disaster of the Greco-Turkish War forced King Constantine I to abdicate, which pushes George and Elisabeth on the throne (27 September 1922).<ref name="Mateos185-186"/> The new rulers, however, have no power, and they attend with impotence to the repression organized by the revolutionaries who took power against the representatives of the old regime. The new royal couple saw with anguish the near execution of [[Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark|Prince Andrew]] at the [[Trial of the Six]].<ref name="Mateos186">Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 186.</ref><ref>Wimbles 2002, p. 168.</ref>


Despite this difficult context, Elisabeth tries to make herself useful to her adopted country. To respond to the influx of refugees originating from Anatolia, the Queen had built shacks on the outskirts of [[Athens]]. To carry out her projects, she mobilizes her family and asked her mother, Queen Marie, to send wood and other materials.<ref name="Mateos186"/><ref name="Wimbles169">Wimbles 2002, p. 169</ref>


However, Elisabeth was increasingly difficult to cope with Greece and its revolutionary climate. Her love for George II was over and her letters to her mother show how much she worried for her future.<ref name="Wimbles169"/><ref>Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 186–187.</ref> Her correspondence also reveals that she has no desire to have children.<ref>Wimbles 2002, p. 171.</ref>
⚫
==Return to Romania==

After an attempted [[Leonardopoulos–Gargalidis coup d'état attempt|monarchist coup d'état]] in October 1923, the situation of the royal couple became even more precarious. On 19 December 1923 King George II and his wife were forced into exile by the revolutionary government. With [[Paul of Greece|Prince Paul]], they then depart for [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]], where they learn of the proclamation of the Hellenic Republic on 25 March 1924.<ref name="Mateos187">Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 187</ref><ref>Van der Kiste 1994, p. 144.</ref><ref>Wimbles 2002, pp. 173–174.</ref>

⚫
===Return to Romania===
Elisabetha asked for her Romanian citizenship, which she had lost through her marriage, to be restored to her and as a princess sought a quiet and more comfortable life in her native country. In that regard she benefited from Romania's economic flourishing after the general crisis of the early 1930s and the help of an able, though controversial, business adviser in the person of Alexandru Scanavy, her chamberlain. In March 1935 she bought the [[Banloc]] domain in Western Romania, a magnificent country property that became her main residence where she was for the first time free to properly pursue her own ideas in matters of house decoration and develop a farming enterprise.
Elisabetha asked for her Romanian citizenship, which she had lost through her marriage, to be restored to her and as a princess sought a quiet and more comfortable life in her native country. In that regard she benefited from Romania's economic flourishing after the general crisis of the early 1930s and the help of an able, though controversial, business adviser in the person of Alexandru Scanavy, her chamberlain. In March 1935 she bought the [[Banloc]] domain in Western Romania, a magnificent country property that became her main residence where she was for the first time free to properly pursue her own ideas in matters of house decoration and develop a farming enterprise.


Revision as of 03:55, 20 July 2016

For Queen Elisabeth of Romania, wife of Carol I, see Elisabeth of Wied.
Elisabeth of Romania
Queen Elisabeth with her husband George II of Greece
Queen consort of Greece
Tenure27 September 1922 – 25 March 1924
Born(1894-10-12)12 October 1894
Peleş Castle
Died14 November 1956(1956-11-14) (aged 62)
Cannes, France
Burial
Hedinger Church, Sigmaringen, Baden-Wurttemberg, West Germany
SpouseGeorge II of Greece
Names
Elisabetha Charlotte Josephine Alexandra Victoria
HouseHohenzollern-Sigmaringen
FatherFerdinand of Romania
MotherPrincess Marie of Edinburgh
ReligionEastern Orthodox

Elisabeth of Romania (full name Elisabetha Charlotte Josephine Alexandra Victoria: Romanian: Elisabeta a României, Greek: Ελισάβετ της Ρουμανίας; 12 October 1894 – 14/15 November 1956), was a Princess of Romania and member of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and by marriage Queen consort of the Hellenes during 1922-1924.

Raised by her great-uncle King Carol I of Romania and his wife Queen Elisabeth of Wied, she develops an introverted character who socially isolated her. Married to the heir to the Greek throne in 1921, she felt no passion for him and suffered the political turmoil that crosses her adopted country after the World War I. After her husband became King of Greece in 1922, Elisabeth was involved in assisting refugees who arrived to Athens after the disaster of the Greco-Turkish War. The rise of the revolutionary climate, however, affected her health and with great relief she leaves the Kingdom of Greece with her husband in December 1923. The royal couple then settled in Bucharest, where eventually King George II was deposed on 25 March 1924.

In Romania, Elisabeth and George II's relationship became deteriorated and eventually the couple divorced in 1935. Very close to her brother, King Carol II of Romania, the princess amassed an important fortune, partly due to financial advice of her lover, the banker Alexandru Scavani. After the death of her mother, Queen Marie in 1938 and the dethronement of Carol II in 1940, Elisabeth took the role of First Lady of Romania. At the end of World War II, she established close links with the Romanian Communist Party and openly conspires against her nephew, the young King Michael I, earning the nickname of "Red Aunt" of the sovereign. However, her communist links didn't save her from being expelled from the country when was proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Romania in 1947. Exiled, the princess moved to Switzerland and then to Cannes, in southern France. She had a romantic relationship with Marc Favrat, a man almost thirty years younger than her who finally adopted before dying in 1956.

Life

Youth

Early years

Second child and first daughter of Crown Prince Ferdinand and Crown Princess Marie of Romania (a member of the British royal family and later Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), Elisabeth (nicknamed Lisabetha or Lizzy by her family) was born on 12 October 1894 at Peleş Castle, Sinaia.[1] Named after her paternal great-aunt, Queen Elisabeth of Wied,[2] shortly after birth she was removed from her parents. With her older brother Prince Carol, she was raised by King Carol I and his wife.[3][4]

Over the years, Elisabeth develops a cold character and a volatile temperament, who socially isolated her. Considered "vulgar" by her mother, however, she has the reputation of being a classical beauty.[1]

An undesired engagement

From 1911, the Greek and Romanian governments approach for geopolitical reasons and Prince George of Greece, then second-in-line to the throne, met Elisabeth for the first time.[5] After the Balkan Wars, during which Greece and Romania are allied, the Greek prince asks for the hand of Elisabeth, but, advised by her great-aunt, she declined the offer, saying that her suitor was too small and too English in his manners. Disdainful, the princess even says on this occasion, that "God began the prince but forgot to finish him" (1914).[6][7]

During World War I, Elizabeth is involved in helping wounded soldiers. She made daily visits to the hospitals and distributes cigarettes and comforting words to the victims of the fighting.[8]

In 1919, Elisabeth and her sisters Maria and Ileana accompany their mother, now Queen Marie, to Paris at the Peace Conference. The sovereign hope that during her stay there she could find suitable husbands for her daughters, especially Elisabeth, already aged twenty-five.[9] After a few months in France, the Queen and her daughters decided to return to Romania in early 1920. On the way back, they made a brief stop in Switzerland, where they found the Greek royal family, who lives in exile since the deposition of King Constantine I during the Great War. Elisabeth then finds again Prince George (now Diadochos and heir of the throne), who asks again her hand. Now more aware of her own imperfections more (her mother described her as fat and of very limited intelligence), Elisabeth decides to accept the marriage. However, at that time the future of the Diadochos was far from certain: displaced from the throne with his father and replaced by his younger brother, now King Alexander I, George was forbidden to stay in his country, penniless and without any condition.[5][10]

Nevertheless, the engagement satisfies both Elisabeth and George's parents. Delighted to have finally found a husband for her eldest daughter, the Queen of Romania soon invite the prince to travel to Bucharest in order to publicly announce the engagement.[10] George agrees but soon after his arrival in the country of his fiancée, he learned of the accidental death of Alexander I and the ensuing political turmoil that erupted in Greece.[11][12]

Life in Greece

Restoration of the Greek royal family. Wedding of George and Elisabeth

On 5 December 1920 a referendum of disputed results[a] called the Greek royal family to return home.[13] King Constantine I, Queen Sophia and Diadochos George therefore return to Athens on 19 December. Their return was accompanied by a significant jubilation. A huge crowd surrounded the sovereign and the heir to the throne through the streets of the capital. Once at the palace, they must appear repeatedly on the balcony to greet the people who cheered them.[14][15]

However, a few weeks later George returns to Romania to marry Elisabeth. The wedding took place with great pomp in Bucharest on 27 February 1921. Shortly after, Crown Prince Carol of Romania, Elisabeth's older elder brother, marry with George's younger sister, Princess Helen of Greece.[1][11][16]

An isolated Crown Princess

In Greece, Elisabeth has great difficulty to integrated into the royal family, and her relationship with Queen Sophia are particularly awkward.[1][17] From an introverted temperament that could be mistaken as arrogance,[18][19] Elisabeth feels displaced by her in-law, who regularly talk in Greek in her presence, becaushe she has not yet mastered the language.[1][20] Only King Constantine I and his sister, the Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia, found favor in her eyes.[1][19] Indeed, even the shy Diadochos disappoint his wife, who would share with him a more passionate relationship.[21][22]

Regretting not having her own home and being forced to constantly live with her ​​in-laws, Elisabeth spend the already little revenues of her husband into redecorating their apartments. In addition, her family delayed in pay her dowry[21] and the savings that she left in Romania were soon lose because of the poor investments made ​​by the manager of her fortune.[23]

Facing a very difficult political situation, due to the Greco-Turkish War, Elisabeth quickly understands that her space for maneuver was limited in her new country. However, she integrates the Red Cross, which was overwhelmed by the arrival of wounded coming from Anatolia.[19][24] The Crown Princess also occupies her free time practicing gardening, painting and drawing. She thus illustrates a book of poems written by the Belgian author Emile Verhaeren. She also likes writing and producing some new books of low value.[21][25] Finally, she spends long hours studying the Modern Greek, a language that was extremely hard for her to learn.[23]

Disappointed by the mediocrity of her daily routine, Elisabeth begins to nourish jealousy for her sister Maria, married to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, and her sister-in-law Helen of Greece, wife of her brother Crown Prince Carol of Romania.[21][26] With the war and the revolution, the everyday life of the Greek royal family was indeed increasingly difficult, and the pension received by the Diadochos George doesn't allow her to buy the clothes and jewelry that she wanted.[21]

Already strained by the war, the relations of the Diadochos and his wife are clouded by their inability to give an heir to the Kingdom of Greece. In fact, Elisabeth became pregnant a few months after her marriage, but she suffered a miscarriage during an official trip to Smyrna.[b] Deeply affected by her miscarriage, the Crown Princess became sick with typhoid soon followed by pleurisy and worsened by depression. She found refuge with her family in Bucharest, but despite the efforts of her mother and husband, either Elisabeth's health nor her marriage were fully recover from the loss of her child.[29][30][31]

At the wedding of sister, HRH Princess Ileana, in Sinaia on 26 July 1931.

Queen of the Hellenes

Meanwhile, the disaster of the Greco-Turkish War forced King Constantine I to abdicate, which pushes George and Elisabeth on the throne (27 September 1922).[30] The new rulers, however, have no power, and they attend with impotence to the repression organized by the revolutionaries who took power against the representatives of the old regime. The new royal couple saw with anguish the near execution of Prince Andrew at the Trial of the Six.[32][33]

Despite this difficult context, Elisabeth tries to make herself useful to her adopted country. To respond to the influx of refugees originating from Anatolia, the Queen had built shacks on the outskirts of Athens. To carry out her projects, she mobilizes her family and asked her mother, Queen Marie, to send wood and other materials.[32][34]

However, Elisabeth was increasingly difficult to cope with Greece and its revolutionary climate. Her love for George II was over and her letters to her mother show how much she worried for her future.[34][35] Her correspondence also reveals that she has no desire to have children.[36]

After an attempted monarchist coup d'état in October 1923, the situation of the royal couple became even more precarious. On 19 December 1923 King George II and his wife were forced into exile by the revolutionary government. With Prince Paul, they then depart for Romania, where they learn of the proclamation of the Hellenic Republic on 25 March 1924.[37][38][39]

Return to Romania

Elisabetha asked for her Romanian citizenship, which she had lost through her marriage, to be restored to her and as a princess sought a quiet and more comfortable life in her native country. In that regard she benefited from Romania's economic flourishing after the general crisis of the early 1930s and the help of an able, though controversial, business adviser in the person of Alexandru Scanavy, her chamberlain. In March 1935 she bought the Banloc domain in Western Romania, a magnificent country property that became her main residence where she was for the first time free to properly pursue her own ideas in matters of house decoration and develop a farming enterprise.

The Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, a large and well designed Italianate villa with overtones of Art Nouveau, was inaugurated on 19 December 1937 in the presence of the princess and her siblings Carol and Mignon, together with Romanian officials. This house was for Elisabetha the achievement of a long elusive dream, heightened during the dearth years spent in Greece: "Perhaps the only thing that I really want is a house of my own something that I can call mine. It has always been my greatest longing since the age of 17. My house to create, to improve, to make perfect and love, offering hospitality to and rejoicing with all those who would love it too. I think the possession of a house would really make me happy. I lived on that hope when I came back to Romania".

She also had established at her own expense a hospital and home for children in Bucharest one of the most modern institutions of its type. For poor children she maintained two canteens. Through charitable activities she expressed her maternal sentiments: "Children interest me most. Teach them humanitarianism, to help their neighbors. Give them the right basis for life, not the stupid illusion that everything is perfect". She continued to participate during the late 1930s and through the war at official royal events and ceremonies in Romania, dividing her time between her residencies in, Bucharest, Banloc and Copăceni, north of the capital.

In August 1944, King Michael of Romania achieved one of the greatest watershed moments in Romania's history, when he succeeded in overthrowing the pro-German government, firmly placing Romania within the allied camp, saving the country from the catastrophe of an imminent and destructive invasion. Inevitably the Soviet Union became the main player in the country in the ensuing period. Elisabetha with her known patriotic ardor tried to do her bit for the cause of her country though it soon showed that she was close to naivety and certainly lacked the political skills and experience to steer through the difficult landscape in which the Soviet interests became gradually entrenched in Romania.

The forced abdication of King Michael on 30 December 1947 through the pressure of the pro-Communist government and their Soviet sponsors found Elisabetha in the same situation as the other members of the royal family resident in the country, being forced to leave Romania at a very short notice. The communists confiscated all of her properties, as well as her jewels and numismatic collection. A part of the jewelry is still kept at the Romanian National Bank, with other items illicitly sold by the communists, stolen, or given as presents to the so-called fraternal communist party delegations from abroad.

Elisabeth died in exile on 14 November 1956 at Cannes.

Ancestry

Family of Elisabeth of Romania
16. Charles, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
8. Charles Anthony, Prince of Hohenzollern
17. Marie Antoinette Murat
4. Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern
18. Karl, Grand Duke of Baden
9. Princess Josephine of Baden
19. Stéphanie de Beauharnais
2. Ferdinand I of Romania
20. Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
10. Ferdinand II of Portugal
21. Maria Antonia Koháry de Csábrág
5. Infanta Antónia of Portugal
22. Pedro I of Brazil
11. Maria II of Portugal
23. Maria Leopoldina of Austria
1. Elisabeth of Romania
24. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
12. Albert, Prince Consort
25. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
6. Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
26. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn
13. Victoria of the United Kingdom
27. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
3. Marie of Edinburgh
28. Nicholas I of Russia
14. Alexander II of Russia
29. Charlotte of Prussia
7. Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia
30. Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse
15. Marie of Hesse
31. Princess Wilhelmine of Baden

Arms and monogram

Royal Monogram as Princess Elisabeth of Romania
Coat of Arms of Queen Elisabeth of Greece
Royal Monogram of Queen Elisabeth of Greece

Notes

  1. ^ 99% of voters would cast in favor of the deposed sovereign.[13]
  2. ^ In his biography of Elisabeth, John Wimbles doesn't mention this pregnancy and the miscarriage that followed. Other authors, like Michael Darlow, have a very different theory of this event. According to them, the Crown Princess would actually became pregnant after an affair with the British diplomat Frank Rattigan, and the miscarriage was merely a disguised abortion to prevent the birth of an illegitimate child.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 183.
  2. ^ Marcou 2002, p. 42.
  3. ^ Gelardi 2006, p. 76.
  4. ^ Marcou 2002, p. 43.
  5. ^ a b Marcou 2002, p. 122.
  6. ^ Queen Marie of Romania 2006, p. 61.
  7. ^ Van der Kiste 1994, p. 121.
  8. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 137 and 140.
  9. ^ Marcou 2002, p. 112.
  10. ^ a b Van der Kiste 1994, p. 122.
  11. ^ a b Van der Kiste 1994, p. 130.
  12. ^ Marcou 2002, pp. 117–118.
  13. ^ a b Van der Kiste 1994, p. 126.
  14. ^ Van der Kiste 1994, pp. 128–129.
  15. ^ Gelardi 2006, pp. 295–296.
  16. ^ Palmer and Greece 1990, p. 63.
  17. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 136, 138 and 141.
  18. ^ Gelardi 2006, p. 309.
  19. ^ a b c Wimbles 2002, p. 137.
  20. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 136.
  21. ^ a b c d e Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 185.
  22. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 137–138.
  23. ^ a b Wimbles 2002, p. 138.
  24. ^ Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 184.
  25. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 139.
  26. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 140 and 141–142.
  27. ^ Michael Darlow, Terence Rattigan: The Man and his Work, Quartet Books 2010, p. 51.
  28. ^ Geoffrey Wansell, Terence Rattigan (London: Fourth Estate, 1995) ISBN 978-1-85702-201-8
  29. ^ Palmer and Greece 1990, p. 65.
  30. ^ a b Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, pp. 185–186.
  31. ^ Van der Kiste 1994, p. 138.
  32. ^ a b Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 186.
  33. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 168.
  34. ^ a b Wimbles 2002, p. 169
  35. ^ Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 186–187.
  36. ^ Wimbles 2002, p. 171.
  37. ^ Mateos Sainz de Medrano 2004, p. 187
  38. ^ Van der Kiste 1994, p. 144.
  39. ^ Wimbles 2002, pp. 173–174.

Bibliography

  • Ricardo Mateos Sainz de Medrano, La Familia de la Reina Sofía, La Dinastía griega, la Casa de Hannover y los reales primos de Europa, Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros, 2004 ISBN 8-4973-41953
  • Julia Gelardi, Born to Rule : Granddaughters of Victoria, Queens of Europe, Headline Review, 2006 ISBN 0755313925
  • Lilly Marcou, Le Roi trahi : Carol II de Roumanie, Pygmalion, 2002 ISBN 2857047436
  • Queen Marie of Romania, Însemnari zilnice, vol. 3, Editura Historia, 2006
  • John Van der Kiste, Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings, 1863-1974, Sutton Publishing, 1994 ISBN 0-7509-21471
  • Hannah Pakula, The Last Romantic: A Biography of Queen Marie of Roumania, Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, 1996 ISBN 1-8579-98162
  • Alan Palmer and Michael of Greece, The Royal House of Greece, Weidenfeld Nicolson Illustrated, 1990 ISBN 0-2978-30600
  • John Wimbles, Elisabeta of the Hellenes: Passionate Woman, Reluctant Queen - Part 1: Crown Princess, Royalty Digest, vol. 12#5, no 137,‎ November 2002, pp. 136–144 ISSN 0967-5744
  • John Wimbles, Elisabeta of the Hellenes: Passionate Woman, Reluctant Queen - Part. 2: Crown Princess, Royalty Digest, vol. 12#6, no 138,‎ December 2002, pp. 168–174 ISSN 0967-5744
  • John Wimbles, Elisabeta of the Hellenes: Passionate Woman, Reluctant Queen - Part. 3: Exile at Home 1924-1940, Royalty Digest, vol. 12#7, no 139,‎ January 2003, pp. 200–205 ISSN 0967-5744
  • John Wimbles, Elisabeta of the Hellenes: Passionate Woman, Reluctant Queen - Part. 4: Treachery and Death , Royalty Digest, vol. 13#1, no 145,‎ July 2003, pp.13–16 ISSN 0967-5744
  • The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (Random House, 1995) by Robert K. Massie, pgs 210–212, 213, 217, and 218ISBN 0-394-58048-6 and ISBN 0-679-43572-7
  • Ileana, Princess of Romania. I Live Again. New York: Rinehart, 1952. First edition.
  • Lillian Hellman: A Life with Foxes and Scoundrels (2005), by Deborah Martinson, PhD. (Associate Professor and Chair of English Writing at Occidental College)

External links

Elisabeth of Romania
Cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern
Born: 12 October 1894 Died: 14 November 1956
Greek royalty
Preceded by Queen consort of the Hellenes
27 September 1922 – 25 March 1924 		Vacant
Title next held by
Frederica of Hanover
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elisabeth_of_Romania&oldid=730608875"