Ferdinand I (1865-1927) and Marie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1875-1938)

Pictures of Princess Ileana of Romania : http://www.tkinter.smig.net/PrincessIleana...llery/index.htm


Pictures of Queen Marie of Romania:
http://www.tkinter.smig.net/QueenMarie/Gal...llery/index.htm

Misc Pictures of Queen Marie's family:
http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/women/marie35.html
http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/women/marie91.html

[irinabarbu]

some pictures with one of the most beautiful queen of her time

[Mandy]

Ferdinand, 1865–1927, king of Romania (1914–27), nephew of Carol I. The second son of the Prussian prince, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, he was designated successor to the heirless Carol I in 1880. In 1893 he married Marie, daughter of Alfred, duke of Edinburgh and of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (and granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Czar Alexander II.) Although related to the German imperial family, Ferdinand took Romania (1916) into World War I on the Allied side, and in 1922 he was crowned king of the enlarged Romania established by the peace treaties. Ferdinand annexed (1918) Bessarabia from Russia and in 1919 ordered the Romanian military intervention in Hungary that broke up the Communist government of Béla Kun. During his reign, universal male suffrage and agrarian reforms were introduced. Ferdinand's son, Carol (see Carol II), renounced his succession in 1925, and Carol's son Michael succeeded in 1927.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.

APL Pictures

[fanletizia]

The Orthodox Church and the Ministry of Culture and Cults bid up by the safekeeping of the heart of Queen Maria (1875-1938), considered one of the strongest symbols of the Rumanian monarchy.

The heart of Queen Maria was conserved in a relicario adorned with 307 gems in the palace of Balcic (at the moment in Bulgaria), soon was transferred to the Bran Castle, near Brasov until 1947, and now it is deposited in the Museum of History of the Rumanians of Bucharest.
The priests of Bran, supported by local politicians, ask for that the relic returns to the castle, famous by to have belonged prince Vlad the Empalador, historical model of the Drácula vampire.
With this aim a small stone church was recovered that presents/displays all the conditions of security asked for by the Ministry of Culture, assure the local authorities, that they are arranged to resort to Justice. "It is necessary to respect the testamentary word", said to EFE the writer and historical investigator Valentin Hossu-Longin.
She told that recently she was discovered that princess Ileana de Habsburg, daughter and testamentary legataria of the sovereign deceased, also wished to transfer the relic to the church of Bran.
Maria de Sajonia Coburg, granddaughter of Reina Victory of England and the czar Alexander II of Russia, married in 1892 with Ferdinand de Hohenzollern, inheriting prince of Rumanía, next to which she reigned between 1914 and 1927.
Of rare beauty and unit devotion to the adoption town, with sensitivity and literary talent, Maria she was more throughout history one of the personalities wanted by the Rumanians. Its body is buried in the Monastery of Curtea de Arges, pantheon of the Rumanian kings

www.efe.es

[Sophus]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | 'Dracula Castle' put up for sale
Bran Castle is up for sale again. The Hapsburgs want £40 Million for it.
I do wonder whether the family have remembered that Queen Marie is buried (partly) in Bran Castle? What will happen there?

PARTLY ?

[Warren]

Originally Posted by Sophus

PARTLY ?

According to Hannah Pakula in "The Last Romantic", Queen Marie was buried in the church in the ancient village of Curtea de Arges, in the foothills of Wallachia. Her coffin was placed in the vault next to her husband. In accordance with Marie's instructions her heart had been taken from her body, put in a small gold casket, and sent to the chapel in the gardens of her home in Balcic.

When the Bulgarians took over Dobruja in 1940, the casket was moved to a church in Castle Bran. Quoting Pakula: "in recent years the Romanian government, concerned about the value of the jewelled casket, has moved it to a safe place (unknown) in Bucharest."

Point de Vue of 6 October 2004 stated that the casket is in the National Museum of Romania, Bucharest.

[ailuromaniac]

Hi, this is my first post here.
I came across these two photographs in a dark corner of a local antique shop.
They are both signed: one Nicky and the other Ileana
Nicholas is dated 18 Aug 1922 and I suspect the other is a similar date, judging by her hair.
They had matching frames.
I have researched many photographs but haven't found this one on the Web of Ileana. Has anyone seen it before? I thought you might like it.

The one of Nicholas is also signed by the photographer Bassano.
The glass negative is held by the National Portrait Gallery in London, but theirs isn't signed, of course.

Could anyone help with two questions?

Who is Ol Bill? (Wilhem?) on Nicholas' photo.
Can anyone read the signature and impression from Bucharest in the closeup of Ileana's pic?

I have enjoyed learning about Romania. I knew nothing before.
It was a wonderful surprise to learn they are great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

Thank you

Ailuro

[Vanishing Lady]

I recently finished re-reading the book Royal Families of the World (I couldn't remember anything from the first time I read it) and I developed a soft spot for the Rumanian Royal Family.

I just found the tkinter site during my own web meanderings. What a beautiful family.

1. Princess Mignon
2. Princess Marie holding Princess Ileana
3. Queen Marie with (l-r) Princess Mignon, Princess Elizabeth, Prince Nicholas (on lap), and Prince Carol
4. Princess Marie with Princess Mignon and Prince Nicholas
5. Princess Mignon

[mskovacheva]

Hello,

Is there anybody who knows something about Gaetan Denize (Denise), Queen Marie's private secretary?

I saw his name on a plate, in the favourite palace of the queen in Balchik, Bulgaria.


Thank you!

[andrew]

Never heard about him, sorry...however I'll check his name in my books...

[Warren]

He must have been a very private private secretary as his name doesn't appear in the index of Hannah Pakula's book on Queen Marie.

[andrew]

Yes, indeed, I've checked it, too, but there's no reference to this gentleman...

[mskovacheva]

Thank you anyway!

[Marengo]

King Ferdinand I Viktor Albert Meinrad od Romania (Sigmaringen, 24 August 1865 - Sinaia, 20 July 1927; married at Sigmaringen on 10 January 1893 Princess Marie of Great Britain and Ireland, Pss of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Eastwell Park, 29 October 1875 - Pelesch Castle, 10 July 1938)

Reign: 1914 - 1927

Dynasty: Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Predecessor: King Carol I of Romania

Successor: King Carol II of Yugoslavia

Children: King Carol II of Romania; Queen Elisabeth of Greece; Queen Maria of Yugoslavia; Prince Nicholas of Romania, Archduchess Ileana of Austria-Tuscany and Prince Mircea of Romania

Parents Ferdinand: Fürst Leopold of Hohenzollern and Princess Antonia of Portugal

Parents Marie: Prince Alfred of Great-Britain, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Cobug-Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia

Siblings Ferdinand: Fürst Wilhelm of Hohenzollern and Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Siblings Marie: Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Russia; Princess Alexandra of Hohenlohe-Langeburg and Pirncess Beatrice of Spain, Duchess of Galliera

[Marengo]

from wikipedia:

Ferdinand (24 August 1865 – 20 July 1927) was the King of the Romanians from October 10, 1914 until his death.

Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Infanta Antónia of Portugal (1845-1913), daughter of Queen Maria II and King Ferdinand II, himself from that Slovakian-originated family.
Following the renunciations of his father and elder brother Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, young Ferdinand became the heir to the throne of his childless uncle, King Carol I of Romania in November 1888. The Romanian government did not require his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy from Catholicism, allowing him to continue with his born creed, but it was required that his children be raised Orthodox, then the state religion of Romania.
Ferdinand's mother's first cousin Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, originally a prince of Kohary, sat on the throne of the neighboring Bulgaria since 1889 and was to become the greatest opponent of the kingdom of his Romanian cousins. The neighboring Emperor Francis Joseph, monarch of Austria-Hungary and as such, ruler of Transylvania, a province with a clear ethnic Romanian majority, was Ferdinand's grandmother's first cousin.
In Sigmaringen on 10 January 1893, Crown Prince Ferdinand married his distant cousin, the Lutheran Princess Marie of Edinburgh, daughter of Anglican Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and the Orthodox Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia. Marie and Ferdinand were third cousins in descent from Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. Marie's paternal grandparents were Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her maternal grandparents were Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. The reigning Emperor of the neighboring Russia was Marie's first cousin Tsar Nicholas II.

Read more here.

[Marengo]

From wikipedia:

Marie of Edinburgh (Marie Alexandra Victoria; 29 October 1875 – 10 July/18 July 1938) was a member of the British Royal Family who became the queen consort of Romania as spouse of King Ferdinand I of Romania.

She was born on October 29, 1875, at Eastwell Park in Kent, the eldest daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia. Her father was the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother was the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse. She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on December 15, 1875 and her godparents were the Empress and Tsarevitch of Russia, the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Princess of Wales and the Duke of Connaught. As her father was in the Royal Navy she spent much of her time abroad, particularly in Malta.

In her youth, Princess Marie was considered a suitable match for marriage to the royalty of Europe. Her first cousin, Prince George of Wales, later King George V, fell in love with her and proposed marriage. Marie's father and George's father approved of the marriage, but Marie's mother disdained the British Royal Family and was keen to see her daughters marry outside its court.
Princess Marie married Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, nephew of King Carol I of Romania in Sigmaringen, Germany on 10 January 1893. The bride was 17 years old and the groom was 10 years her senior. (Marie's father did not become Duke of Coburg-Gotha until a few months later.) The marriage, which produced three daughters and three sons, was not a happy one. Her correspondence with her longtime secret confidante, the American dancer Gerte Fuller, revealed "the distaste, which grew to revulsion" that Marie felt for her husband. The last two children were born after Marie met her long-time lover, Barbu Ştirbey, and historians generally agree that Prince Mircea was his son (having brown eyes like Ştirbey, unlike Marie and Ferdinand), while Ileana's paternity is under discussion, as was her second daughter, Princess Maria,the future Queen of Yugoslavia (known as Mignon) Their eldest sons, Carol and Nicholas, and eldest daughter, Elisabeth, were quite certainly biologically Ferdinand's.

Read more here.

[Russophile]

Originally Posted by Vasillisos Markos

Sorry for the confusion, Russophile.

You're cool.
I just wanted to make sure everybody could keep up.
So Markos, where do you think Queen Marie got her romantic notions from? I never saw her mother, Grand Duchess Marie as being the romantic type.

[Vasillisos Markos]

Hi Russophile,

I am not sure where Queen Marie acquired her taste for the dramatic. Grand Duchess Marie was a very strict woman with a strongly held sense of honor and position, and she believed that royal personages were expected to act accordingly within the strict etiquette of their world. The grand duchess was not loathe to give advice to her children when needed and I believe they respected and admired her for that.

Of the five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who reigned as consorts (the other four being Sophie of Greece, Maud of Norway, Alexandra of Russia and Ena of Spain), it seems to me that Marie of Rumania was the most politically astute and perhaps it was the grandeur and romanticism of that country, along with a tinge of mysticism, which she instinctively realized would be an asset for the throne and the people's affection. Queen Marie knew how to present herself to the public and knew that showmanship was part of the game of being an effective Queen.

[EmpressRouge]

One possibility was Queen Marie's predecessor, Elisabeth of Wied aka Carmen Slyva. She and Marie never saw eye to eye, but some of Elisabeth's highly romantic nature could have rubbed off on Marie.

[Russophile]

Originally Posted by Vasillisos Markos

Queen Marie knew how to present herself to the public and knew that showmanship was part of the game of being an effective Queen.

Think she was reading her Shakespere? Cleopatra did the same thing. I had put on hold the 5 Granddaughters of QV but had to let it go. I was having the devil of a time trying to get Michael and Natasha read! I'll have to go pick that up.