King Carol II

2/1/2011 11:19:00 AM King Carol II Does he deserve the title of the playboy king?
Many view him as a philanderer responsible for the disintegration of Romania at the beginning of WWII in 1938
Pre-Playboy Years Son of prince Ferdinand and Princess Maria, Carol was born at Sinaia on October 3rd 1893 which makes him the first Romanian King to be born in Romania King Carol I took care of his initial education and prepared him for his royal duty Carol was a intelligent and interested student At age 21 Carol becomes the official heir to the throne and becomes senator by law in the Romanian parliament Playboy Years During WWI the Royal Family were in refuge at Iasi, Carol was serving with the army at the time which he deserts and runs away with his mistress Zizi Lambrino (real name Ioana) the daughter of an army major. After smuggling her across the Russian border, secretly married in Odessa on 31st of August 1918 Journalist A.L. Easterman of the Daily Express wrote that "Carol fell violently in love and was at no pains to dissemble it," There was a huge scandal following this and Carol was confined in Bistrita Monastery near Piatra Neamt in order to presumably straighten him out o The next step for his parents was to send him to the Court of Ilfov to get the marriage annulled in 1919 o However, this doesnt seemed to have work too well as they had a son on the 8th of August 1920 o In order to end this relationship Carol was sent on a long diplomatic trip designed to cut off any ties with his lover One year later Carol meets Elena, daughter of King George and Queen Sofia of Greece, they marry the same year. On the 25th of October their son Mihai, who will become the next King of Romania is born. Their relationship is cut short quite soon after Mihai is born. In a private conversation with King Ferdinand Carol cites a lack of tenderness as his reason for this.
In a time saving move Carol swaps one Elena for another, this time called Elena Wolf Lupescu, 2 years his junior, whom Carol falls in love with. She would go on to dominate Carols interests for the rest of his life They run away to Paris and Carol goes as far to change his name to Carol Caraiman (a mountain in Romania). However, some may see this as an improvement of his previous surname of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringe o In response to this scandal Ferdinand revokes Carols titles and names Mihai as his successor. Carol stays in Paris for the next ten years but according to accounts from Prince Paul, his grandson, kept in close contact with many royal advisors he was clearly still popular in the court King Ferdinand dies in 1927 and Mihai is named King of Romania with a regency controlled by Ferdinands brother, Prince Nicolae the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church However, following this all hell breaks lose in Parliament The Liberal party led by Ionel Bratianu had been in power during the reign of King Ferdinand. The Conservative party had splintered and fragmented leaving little opposition to Bratianu But, Bratianu dies in 1928, the Liberal party fades from power, the regency itself has little political power and the new Peasant party sweeps into power However, even the new political party in government could not quell the anarchy in parliament, and out of desperation people turned to the idea that Carol would be their only saviour. Prince Dimitri Soutzo wrote The whole country is for your Royal Highnessthere are 17 million Romanians flowing to bring you back Carol returns on June 6th 1930 and two days later is proclaimed King
Carols reign lasted from 1930 to 1940 and during this time there was strong growth for Romania following the global depression. Urban growth increased from 3% to nearly 4% in this period and goals for 50% increases in agricultural produce. He increases oil production to nearly 40% of all exports and he also took strong measures to improve the armed forces. More importantly, during Carols reign Romania became one of only 4 other teams, Brazil, France and Belgium to qualify for all 3 of the first world Cups.
Carol himself had a key role here with reports of him decreeing that all players were given a state holiday for 3 months in order to travel and play at the world cup. There are also reports of Carol himself coaching the world cup teams.
However, following the weakness of Parliament extremist groups such as the Legionary movement flourished. Under the reign of Carol two prime ministers were assassinated by the Legionary movement. Carol is on record as being staunchly against this, supporting Western democracy. This forced him to dissolve parliamentary democracy in 1938 and establish a Royal Dictatorship controlling both domestic and foreign policy. He is quoted as saying we cannot jeopardize the future when such acute danger exists both internally and from outside Unfortunately for Carol the signing of a treaty between Nazi Germany and the USSR meant that Romania lost Basarabia and Northern Bucovina to the USSR and Northwestern Transylvania to Hungary. The population blamed Carol for the breakup of what they saw were traditional Romanian lands and Carol was forced to abdicate and flee the country with his mistress on September 7th 1940 leaving his son to become King, again.
However, this is far from fair. Carol had intended to stay neutral throughout this period with a possible view to supporting the Allies if war broke out as they did in WWI. It is clear that the foreign policy of Romania was geared towards making Romania an unattractive target for German invasion. The Balkan Pact with Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey as well as attempting to improve relations with Poland were all aimed at improving state security. The only reason why he was forced to give up was through a genuine threat of invasion from the Soviet Union on 28th June 1940. Following his abdication the new government joins the axis and as such becomes the target for heavy Allied bombing raids in WWII. So who was really in the wrong at this point? Following a brief stint living in South America Carol finally moves to Portugal, he marries Elena Lupescu in 1949 but dies of cancer in 1953. Lupescu survives him by 25 years and lives off the considerable fortune that he amassed from selling a number of priceless art works the Carol took with him from Romania.
So to sum up, this was a man who fought in the war, was all but exiled, returned triumphantly and produced strong economic growth. Moreover, one could easily argue that much like Alexander I of Yugoslavia, Carol was forced to take control of the country and his attempt at remaining neutral, whilst costing some land was ultimately the right one for Romania at the time. Yes, he was an adulterous philanderer and yes changing your name to a mountain is a bit much. But what Romania needed at the time was a charismatic man to lead them in the dark times of global depression and international dangers. As such I would say that far from being just a Playboy King Carol II was a shrewd politician, a forward thinking statistician and a fine king.

King Carol II

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2/1/2011 11:19:00 AM King Carol II Does he deserve the title of the playboy king?

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