Tag: #romania

Queen Helen of Romania-Part 3-Trouble upon Trouble.

When Princess Mother Helen of Romania (as she was styled following the accession of her son Michael to the throne in July 1927) learned that her ex-husband Carol had returned to his homeland as a result of a coup d’état engineered by National Peasant Prime Minister Iuliu Maniu, in June 1930, she was prepared for trouble and turmoil. However, Maniu naively believed that the former Crown Prince was returning as a Regent not as a future king. Yet within 36 hours of Carol’s arrival in Bucharest aboard a chartered plane from France on 6 June, he was being proclaimed king, with the full backing of both the Regency Council and the Cabinet. His son Michael was now demoted to Crown Prince.

Carol then turned his attentions on his ex-wife. Intent on isolating Helen (whom the international press now described as Queen of Romania), he surrounded her home with a police guard who were given firm instructions to report on all comings and goings. The King also refused to allow Sitta (as Helen was known en famille) to undertake public duties and prohibited her from having any contact with politicians. Carol even arranged to relieve Helen of her position as Honorary Colonel of the Ninth Hussars. Perhaps the hardest slight to bear was Carol’s insistence that Michael spend most of the day at the Royal Palace under his care and influence. Mother and son were also separated at Christmas when Michael left to spend the holiday with his father at Sinaia. It did not help that Helen had no homeland to escape to for some respite as the Greek royal family-including her brother King George-were living in exile in Italy.

However, many everyday Romanians sympathised with Sitta’s plight and there were some public demonstrations of sympathy. Sadly, these proved counter-productive as they only succeeded in increasing Carol’s feelings of paranoia. Finally, in July 1931, the situation became so intolerable that Helen boarded a train at Bucharest’s main railway station, without her son, and was waved off by her mother-in-law, Dowager Queen Marie who later admitted to finding the experience ‘unbearable.’ At least Sitta had somewhere to travel to: her brother King George had visited Bucharest in March and negotiated an allowance for his sister (later set at £14000 per annum) as well as sufficient funds for the purchase of a handsome Italian house-the Villa Sparta-at Fiesole, just outside Florence. In November, Helen spent a long spell in Frankfurt to help care for her ailing mother, Dowager Queen Sophie, who was seriously ill with cancer. Sophie died on 13 January 1932.

Thereafter, Helen-who enjoyed access rights to her son and still maintained the use of her home on the Chausee Kiseleff-was able to pay several visits to Romania to see Michael (whom she described as ‘the one bright feature’ in her life). However, Carol was intent on denying her this right of access and eventually succeeded-by means of a new separation agreement formulated in November-in banning Helen from returning to her adopted homeland. Thereafter, Sitta and Michael had to be satisfied with spending holidays together in Switzerland or Italy. Following the restoration of the monarchy in Greece in November 1935, Helen purchased a house in Athens and also spent time at Tatoi with her recently divorced brother King George II. He had a measure of understanding of his sister’s plight having previously been married to Carol’s highly-strung sister, Elisabetha. Sitta and her son Michael were very much in evidence too at the wedding of Crown Prince Paul to Princess Frederika of Hanover in Athens in January 1938. Otherwise, Helen would spend time working in her exquisite Fiesole garden or entertain members of her extended family at the Villa Sparta. She was particularly close to her sister Irene who married Prince Aimone, the Duke of Spoleto (and future Duke of Aosta) in 1939.

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, King Carol had grown increasingly autocratic, manipulating politicians of rival parties to his advantage and focusing on the design of new military uniforms and orders of chivalry with which to adorn himself. To add to his ‘personality cult’, the King also set up a paramilitary youth organisation (the Straja Țării). Following the outbreak of war in September 1939, Carol extended his two-faced approach to his dealings with the Axis and Allied powers. This all caused the American historian Stanley Payne to conclude that the King was “the most cynical, corrupt and power-hungry monarch who ever disgraced a throne anywhere in twentieth-century Europe”. However, in June 1940, Carol ‘s public standing was severely dented when Romania was forced to submit to Soviet demands that the provinces of Bessarabia and North Bukovina be ceded to the Soviet Union. Huge tracts of Transylvania were also given to Hungary under the Second Vienna Award. Amid increasing calls for his removal, the King abdicated in early September 1940 and would soon seek refuge, along with his mistress, Elena Lupescu, in Mexico.

Michael was once again King of Romania. Almost immediately, Helen was ‘respectfully’ invited by the new right-wing Prime Minister, Ion Antonescu, to return to Bucharest ‘to complete the training’ of her son in his role as king. Thousands turned out to cheer the Queen Mother of Romania (a new title bestowed on her by Antonescu) on her arrival. In a subsequent government speech of welcome it was stated that through ‘her modesty and good example’ the Royal Court ‘would again become a symbol of respect and affection’. A Te Deum was later held in the Orthodox Cathedral to conclude the celebrations for her return.

But Helen’s happy return was soon blighted by various developments. Antonescu wielded dictatorial powers even greater than those enjoyed by King Carol prior to his abdication. These were enforced by the Fascist Iron Guard. Then, on 23 November, Antonescu forged closer links to Nazi Germany by signing the Tri-Partite Pact. German troops now crossed into Romania purportedly to protect the country’s oil fields from attack. Meanwhile, Romania’s Fascists waged war on supporters of ex-King Carol and others who had earned their displeasure. This culminated with the execution, on 26-27 November, of over sixty former dignitaries or government officials who were awaiting trial in Jilava prison.

Helen was appalled by the this reign of terror but was absolutely powerless. Yet, she was able to signal her displeasure by leaving Bucharest for Italy ‘at her own request’. The international press siezed on this development and reported that the Queen had departed Bucharest because the Romanian Nazis and the Iron Guard were ‘hostile’ towards her. Michael, however, remained in Bucharest.

Antonenscu now ramped up his right-wing credentials by persecuting the Jewish and Slavic minorities in Romania. One of the most horrific episodes of this period was the murder of 13000 Jews in Jassy, between June and July 1941, at the hands of Romanian forces. Over thirty anti-jewish decrees were issued.

Helen had by now returned to Romania where she tried to keep her personal feelings in check for the sake of her son and the monarchy. Although Antonescu was determined to ensure that she and Michael were mere figureheads, the Queen Mother spent time visiting the wounded in hospital and generally doing what she could to raise morale. With Romania committed, under the Pact, to provide troops for the Axis cause, the injuries and losses were great, particularly during the period of the Battle of Stalingrad, which ended in a defeat for the Axis forces in February 1943. Sitta was also determined to do what she could for the Jewish population and managed to prevent the deportation of the philologist Barbu Lazareanu. Helen also later persuaded the government to allow Jewish organisations to send medical aid, clothing and food to the Jews who were living in ghettos and camps in Transnistria.

Queen Mother Helen ensured too that King Michael developed some backbone. She also guided the King adroitly but firmly through the minefield of Romanian politics. Otherwise, she maintained a polite demeanour and bided her time. When the Axis front in north-eastern Romania collapsed following a successful Soviet offensive, King Michael’s representatives were approached by a pro-Allied National Democratic alliance (composed of communists, Social Democrats and members of the National Peasants Party) and asked to participate in a coup to remove Antonescu. This took place (with the support of the military) on 23 August 1944. Romania now turned against the Axis powers and, shortly thereafter, the country was occupied by the Soviet Army. This sent a shiver down Helen’s spine for she had strong family links to the Romanovs, many of whom had perished at the hands of the Bolsheviks following the 1917 Revolution. However, the Germans still posed a serious threat and in an act of retaliation against Michael’s involvement in the coup, they bombed Helen and Michael’s residence in Bucharest, Casa Nouă. The Queen Mother now fretted constantly over the safety of her son, who was often on military manoeuvres but stoically carried on with her war work. This included the setting up of a soup kitchen in the Royal Palace’s ballroom to feed starving children.

In March 1945, King Michael was forced to accept a communist government headed by Petru Groza. As the communist dictatorship took hold so the position of the King and his mother grew more precarious as they were increasingly marginalised. Sitta complained to her cousin Princesss Olga of Yugoslavia that she and her son were spied on constantly. Helen did manage to obtain permission to travel to Greece for the funeral of her elder brother King George who had died suddenly on 1 April 1947. She was also present at the wedding of her sister Katherine to Major Richard Brandram at the Royal Palace in Athens on 21 April.

Yet air travel was not without its dangers. In October 1947, Helen suffered a severe fright when a private aircraft conveying her from Zurich to Bucharest was forced to land by Soviet fighters on the near the Czech-Hungarian border. Although the Queen was detained for a short period, she was eventually released on the orders of ‘higher Russian officials’. However, she and King Michael later proceeded to London by air to attend the wedding of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on 20 November. It was during the nuptial celebrations that young Michael was introduced to Princess Anne of Bourbon Parma. The latter joined Michael, his mother and Aunt Irene on a trip to Lausanne, where the King proposed to this charming French-born princess of Danish heritage. The King and his mother then returned to spend Christmas together at Sinaia. However, it was clear that their presence was no longer welcome and many in authority were surprised that the royal duo had even bothered to make the return journey to Romania at all. On 30 December Michael was deposed from the throne against his will by the Groza government, although it was officially announced that he had ‘abdicated.’ As the year drew to a close, crowds in Bucharest sang the Internationale and called out ‘Long Live the Republic.’ Pictures of the King were removed from public buildings and the royal throne taken from the Parliament chamber. At Sinaia, an emotional Helen looked on as King Michael took the Royal Salute of the Royal Guard for the last time on New Year’s Eve.

On 1 January the international pressed announced King Michael’s abdication. He and Queen Helen arrived in Lausanne by train from Bucharest a few days later . The ex-King was only permitted to take £1000 in cash with him. Helen and her son dutifully posed for the press in their suite at the Beau Rivage. Yet Sitta was already focused on the future and, in February, she proceeded to the Vatican accompanied by Princess Anne’s Danish mother, Princess Margaret of Bourbon-Parma, for an audience with the Pope, Pius XII. The duo were intent on obtaining the Holy Father’s agreement to the marriage between the Orthodox ex-King and Anne, who was a Roman Catholic. The sticking point was that the Roman Catholic Church wanted a written assurance that any children of the marriage be raised in the Catholic faith. Sitta quickly pointed out that such an undertaking could not be given for political reasons. Permission was therefore refused.

In early March, Helen and her son proceeded via Paris to London where, in a display of royal unity, they lunched with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. The twosome then proceeded to New York where they were accorded the honours due to a reigning king and a queen mother. With royal funds being tight, Sitta and Michael’s expenses were paid for by the US State Department. The purpose of the trip was officially to ‘encourage’ Michael to ‘speak up’ and lay bare the true details of the Communist machinations and threats which had led to his dethronement.

As Michael and Anne’s union could not now be solemnised in a Roman Catholic church, it was arranged, with the help of Helen’s brother King Paul, that the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, Damaskinos Papandreou would officiate at a marriage service performed under Eastern Orthodox rites , with the reception being held afterwards at the Royal Palace. With Michael now safely married, Helen’s public role was now effectively over for Romania now had a new Queen, albeit one who was required to live in exile for many decades to come. Two final blows were dealt by the communist regime, in the spring of 1948, with the confiscation of all the royal family’s property in Romania and, hardest of all, the withdrawal of their Romanian citizenship.

Queen Mother Helen returns.

On a dark morning at Geneva’s international airport, a coffin, covered in a royal standard, was loaded onto the rear of a Romanian military transport plane. The casket contained the mortal remains of Her Majesty Queen Mother Helen of Romania, Princess of Greece and Denmark and the senior Greek Princess of her generation. Helen is the latest (and probably one of the last) members of a royal family of a former Eastern Bloc country whose remains have been repatriated.

At the time of her death on 29 November 1982, Queen Mother Helen was living in an apartment in Lausanne. Given that Romania was at that time ruled by a communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, who would certainly not have countenanced the interment of a member of the country’s former royal family in his fief, a plot had been purchased in the Boix-de-Vaux cemetery in Lausanne as a resting place for Helen. Yet, she was not to be alone: Helen’s cousin Olga’s husband, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, had already been interred there following his death in 1976, as had the mortal remains of his son Prince Nicholas who had died in a car accident in England in 1954 (his body had been brought over from the churchyard near his late Aunt, Princess Marina’s former home at Iver and reinterred in Lausanne at the request of Princess Olga). In 1997, Princess Olga was herself buried in the Bois-de-Vaux following her death at the age of 93.

However, following the ‘rehabilitation’ of Prince Paul by the Serbian High Court in 2011, he, Olga and Nicholas’ bodies were exhumed and reburied, with great ceremony, in the crypt of the Karageorge Royal Mausoleum at Oplenac in Serbia, on 6 October, 2012.

Meanwhile, since the fall of the Ceausescu regime in December 1989, the popularity of the former Royal Family was gathering pace in Romania. Much of this can be attributed to the dedicated involvement of Queen Mother Helen’s eldest granddaughter, Margareta (who now lived in Bucharest) and her Princess Margareta of Romania Foundation. Indeed, as early as 2003, Helen’s ex-husband, King Carol II’s mortal remains had been reburied in his homeland (from their original resting place in the Braganza Pantheon in Lisbon) in a side chapel of Curtea de Argeș Cathedral in the Carpathians. On 16 December 2017, his son King Michael I was also buried at Curtea de Argeș, although in a newly-constructed Royal Mausoleum, beside the remains of his late wife, Queen Anne, who died in August 2016.

Yet, all this took place while Queen Mother Helen’s mortal remains still languished in Lausanne. However, in early September 2019, it was announced that Her Majesty body was to be returned to Romania and reinterred at Curtea de Argeș. Which brings me back to Geneva International Airport on the morning of 18 October: Having obtained the necessary air clearance, the Romanian military aircraft flew to Otopeni Airport, Bucharest where Her Majesty’s coffin was received, just after 11am, by an Honour Party formed by the 30th Guards Brigade and carefully taken out of the plane preceded by a large wooden cross bearing the inscription ‘Elena-Regina 1896-1982’. Looking on were the Custodian of the Crown of Romania (Margareta), her husband Prince Radu and two of Helen’s other granddaughters (Princesses Sophia and Maria.) Also present were a plethora of politicians and representatives of Romanian religious denominations and, particularly apt, of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Following a brief religious service, Her Majesty’s coffin was later taken to the Elisabetha Palace, where it lay in state for a short while in the King’s Hall. The funeral cortege then processed northwards to Curtea de Argeș, arriving in the late afternoon to a warm greeting from a large crowd. The coffin-still draped with the royal standard-was then placed on a bier at the Old Cathedral. The public were subsequently allowed to pay their respects. Touchingly, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, issued a statement describing Queen Mother Helen as ‘ a powerful symbol of dignity, honour and courage and a special figure of moral conduct in the dark twentieth century.’

Just prior to noon on 19 October, members of the Romanian Royal Family and representatives of foreign royal houses (the Earl of Rosslyn represented the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III) gathered in the Old Cathedral for the religious service. Thereafter, Queen Mother Helen’s coffin, containing her mortal remains, was borne by soldiers to the new Royal Mausoleum nearby. Her Majesty is buried alongside her beloved son King Michael and Queen Anne. The remains of her former husband, King Carol II, also rest nearby, having been transferred to the new Royal Mausoleum in the spring.

Please read my various recent blogs on the life of this unique and charming Greek Princess and Queen Mother of Romania who surely ranks as one of the royal icons of the 20th century.

Queen Mother Helen of Romania-part 2: Marriage, Motherhood and Divorce.

In October 1920, the engagement of Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark’s brother George to Princess Elisabetha of Romania was announced. Elisabetha’s mother, the ethereal Queen Marie, was delighted with the proposed marriage and decided to invite George and his sisters Helen and Irene (who were currently living in exile in Lucerne) to her summer residence in Sinaia, for a royal get-together. Also present was Elisabetha’s brother, 27-year-old Crown Prince Carol, who had just returned from a world tour, the purpose of which was to help him to overcome his sorrow at the annulment (by the Romanian courts) of his first (morganatic) marriage to his First World War sweetheart, Joanna Marie Valentina ‘Zizi’ Lambrino.

As Carol’s unsuitable union to a commoner had also met with strong opposition from his parents, so it was with some relief that Queen Marie observed that her eldest child was attracted to the tall, slender and charming Princess Helen. Nevertheless, ‘Sitta’ was still somewhat naïve in the ways of the world and seemed totally unaware of Carol’s reputation as a coureur . However, the news that her favourite brother, King Alexander, had died, on 25 October, from sepsis as a result of being bitten by a monkey, left Helen devastated and in an emotionally vulnerable state. Forbidden to return to Greece by the authorities, she and her sister Irene therefore decided to return to Switzerland to be with their parents, ex-King Constantine and Queen Sophie.

By sheer coincidence, word then arrived that Queen Marie’s mother, the Duchess of Coburg and Edinburgh, had also passed away at the Hotel Dolder Grand in Zurich. Marie therefore joined the Greek Princesses on their journey back to Switzerland, as did her son Carol. Although the Crown Prince was supposedly there to support his mother, Queen Marie felt that he and Helen were on the verge of ‘coming to an understanding.’ Indeed, within a few days of their arrival in Switzerland, Carol asked Helen (known as Sitta en famille) to marry him. Helen’s father, Constantine, was wary and would only permit the marriage after receiving an assurance from Carol that he had completely finished with Zizi Lambrino. The couple’s path was somewhat smoothed by the fact that the royal houses of Romania and Greece were already about to be linked in matrimony with the marriage of Elisabetha and George.

Thereafter, in November, Eleutherios Venizelos, the Prime Minister who had been at odds with Helen’s father over his failure to adopt a pro-Entente stance, was defeated in the general election and fled into exile. With this development, Helen was able to accompany her parents and siblings from Switzerland back to Athens where, in December, there were scenes of public jubilation following the restoration of King Constantine to the Hellenic throne. Carol visited Sitta in Athens in the New Year and the betrothed couple motored together through the surrounding countryside. The Crown Prince was a cultured individual with an interest in antiquities and found the architectural sites of classical Greece particularly enthralling.

On 27 February 1921, Helen and Carol both attended the wedding of Elisabetha and George in Bucharest. The royalties of Greece and Romania then reassembled in Athens on 10 March for the nuptials of Helen and Carol. Thousands of Greeks lined the main boulevards as the bride-to-be processed to the Metropolitan Cathedral in a gold coach attired in a white satin dress trimmed with gold and accessorised with a deco diamond tiara rumoured to be worth 1 million French Francs. Queen Marie was ecstatic that her son had married a great-granddaughter of ‘Grandmama Queen [Victoria]’.

After a honeymoon spent at Tatoi and at a hunting lodge known as Foișor at Sinaia, the newlyweds set up a temporary home with the King and Queen at Cotroceni Palace where Helen soon established that she was pregnant. In the meantime, she was missing her close-knit family and spent much of her time in the company of her Greek maid, Rosa. Following a difficult confinement (when she was attended by her old family doctor and nurses from Greece), the Crown Princess gave birth to a son Michael on 25 October 1921 at Foișor.

Thereafter, the little family moved into a villa on Bucharest’s fashionable Chausee Kiseleff. It was around this time that Helen noticed that Carol possessed some disturbing character traits: Although he could be caring and kind, the Crown Prince displayed a fiery temper and was often arrogant and dismissive of his wife. Yet, the problem was far from one-sided. Helen was critical of her new homeland, finding the court to be pompous and oppressive; while the standard of housekeeping and the behaviour of the servants was not to her liking either. Following her son’s christening (he was known as Mihail or Michael in English) on 10 January 2022, Helen paid a visit to her homeland-where she enjoyed the familiarity and close ‘cosy’ bonds of her Greek family circle. However, she also discovered that King Constantine was ailing. Helen was so concerned that she extended her stay in Athens to three months. When the Greek army was defeated by the Turks in August, the King Constantine abdicated his throne in favour of his son, George.

Meanwhile, Carol was left behind in Romania to amuse himself as he thought fit and rumours soon circulated that he was being unfaithful to his wife. Furthermore, even when in Bucharest, the Crown Princess habitually invited her Greek relatives for extended visits. Indeed, following the death of Helen’s father in January 1923 (by which time the the Greek royals were enduring yet another period of exile from their homeland), Helen’s mother Queen Sophie and her younger sisters were omnipresent, leaving the couple with little time alone together. Carol had also discovered that his wife was no intellectual, with little interest in reading or music or the arts. Both parties to the marriage began to acknowledge that they seemed to have little in common.

These matters aside, Helen had much to offer both to her new family and her new country: She was polite, neat, worthy, well-organised and conscientious. She also took great care over the running of her home and, unlike many royal mothers of that period, showed great concern over the day-to-day care of her son and the running of the nursery. Similarly, the Crown Princess took great trouble over her official patronages, particularly in relation to nursing care. An accomplished horsewoman, Sitta’s skills were highly evident (and favourably commented on) at the many official parades. To her mother-in-law’s surprise, Helen also possessed a highly-developed sense of humour and a gift for mimicry, something she shared with her Greek cousins, Olga, Elisabeth and Marina.

But behind the duty and laughter, by the mid-1920’s the marriage had soured. Sitta was by now all too aware of Carol’s many paramours but, like many royal wives before her, she might have turned a blind eye had it not been for the arrival of a teasing redhead, Elena Lupescu. This gay divorcee with her swaggering gate and cheeky demeanour was the complete antithesis of Helen. She was also ambitious and self-assured, deliberately positioning herself at events attended by Carol so better to attract his attention. The ruse worked and the adulterous Crown Prince was soon coaxed into her tangled web. Sitta reacted by withdrawing into herself and the marriage disintegrated just as her father-in-law King Ferdinand of Romania’s health was waning. Perhaps in a bid to save his son’s marriage, the King momentarily toyed with the idea of banishing Lupescu into exile.

On November 7, 1925 Helen and Carol appeared together in public for the final time at a flower exhibition. Thereafter, the Crown Prince departed for England to attend the funeral of Helen’s Great-Aunt, Queen Alexandra. He later made for Paris and the ample arms of Lupescu. The duo then journeyed to northern Italy. Carol now decided to renounce his rights to the throne so that he could remain with his paramour. He informed Sitta and his parents of his intentions by letter, claiming to be ‘misunderstood [and] misjudged’ . Despite a hand-written plea from his mother delivered in person by the Marshal of the Court, General Angelescu, Carol held fast to his decision. Meanwhile, Helen tormented herself over the failure of her marriage and offered to travel to Milan to reason with her husband. However, in a rare moment of decisiveness, King Ferdinand instead held a meeting of the Crown Council and, after revealing the details of his son’s renunciation, proposed that a Regency Council should be formed in the event of his death. The three-man Council would rule until young Michael reached the age of majority. This proposition seemed to meet with general approval and was ratified by the Romanian Parliament on 4 January, 1926. Michael was now officially the heir to the throne in place of his father. Ordinary Romanians were astonished at this turn of events.

While Carol would later profess his ‘highest esteem’ for Helen, both as a wife and mother, the shock and humiliation took its toll on Sitta’s wellbeing. Always in the background lurked the nagging feeling that Carol might still somehow inveigle his way back into the frail King and exuberant Queen Marie’s ‘good books’. This was not such a fantastical notion for there were certainly many Carlists who were only too ready to provide support for the former Crown Prince’s return and reinstatement. Indeed, even Queen Marie, at times, found herself torn over whether she would be able to support such a future bid should it happen.

In the spring of 1927, King Ferdinand suffered a bad attack of flu. As he was heavily weakened by this (as well as an on-going battle with cancer), it was feared that his death was imminent. He passed away at Pelisor on 19 July. The ramifications for Helen were great: She was now the mother of the five-year-old King of Romania and, heavily-veiled in black, accompanied Michael to the Romanian Parliament where he was seated on a throne-like chair to receive the acclamation of the country’s political representatives. However, the power actually lay elsewhere with the Regency Council, one of whom was Sitta’s brother-in-law, Prince Nicholas, who certainly could not be relied upon to champion his sister-in-law’s cause.

Carol received the news of his father’s death at his rented home, which he shared with Elena Lupescu, in Neuilly, a suburb of Paris. He subsequently attended a Memorial Service at the city’s Romanian Orthodox Church, where some devotees greeted him with a defiant ‘Vive Le Roi!’ Thereafter, Dowager Queen Marie continued to correspond with her eldest son and various family members, including Prince Nicholas, visited him. Meanwhile, over time, the Dowager Queen began to resent Helen’s increasing influence and new position as ‘Princess Mother of Romania’, even accusing Sitta of separating her from her grandson, whom she felt was a ‘stranger’ to her. Certainly, Helen-perhaps wary of her in-laws intentions and determined to protect her son at all costs from familial machinations-tended to put her trust, as always, in her extended Greek family. Regular visitors to Bucharest included her cousin Princess Olga of Yugoslavia. As King Alexander of Yugoslavia was married to Carol’s sister, Marie (Mignon), Olga was ideally placed to act as a listening ear and gentle voice of reason. In due course Helen petitioned the courts for a divorce. The formal announcement that the marriage was finally dissolved was reported by the Associated Press on 21 June 1928. However, if Helen imagined that she was now completely free of her former husband’s, she was in for a rude awakening.

Part 3-Queen Mother of Romania-will follow soon.

Queen Mother Helen of Romania Part 1: Childhood and Exile.

With the recent news that the mortal remains of Her Late Majesty Queen Mother Helen of Romania are to be brought from Lausanne, Switzerland to Romania, in October, to be reinterred in the New Metropolitan Cathedral at Curtea de Argeș, alongside her son King Michael, I feel the time is right to examine the life of the Greek-born Queen Mother.

Part 1-Childhood into Womanhood.

Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark was born in Athens on 2 May 1896, the third child of Crown Prince Constantine and his wife Sophie (a daughter of the German Emperor, Frederick III). The Greek royal family-a misnomer if ever there was one, as not one member at that time possessed Greek blood-were unusually close and were presided over by Helen’s paternal grandfather, King George I of the Hellenes and his Russian-born wife, Queen Olga. George (born Prince Wilhelm of Denmark and second son of the future King Christian IX) had been ‘imported’ from his native Copenhagen, some thirty-three years earlier, to occupy the vacant Hellenic throne at the request of the Great Powers of France, Great Britain and Russia. ‘Willi’ hated pomp and ceremony and liked nothing better than to walk the streets of Athens, often stopping to talk to his subjects. Unsurprisingly, the Greek Court soon gained the reputation of being the most democratic in Europe.

Helen’s childhood was spent at the newly-constructed Crown Prince’s Palace in Athens. The ‘clannish’ household had some strange habits; lunch was served at 11am; while dinner was eaten at 3pm prompt. Each Tuesday, all of the royal family dined together at the home of Prince Nicholas, while on a Thursday it was the turn of the Crown Prince to act as host. As Queen Olga was devout, she ensured that her eldest granddaughter received religious instruction according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church. Helen was also required to attend Sunday service in her grandmother’s private chapel at the Royal Palace (during Holy Week and Easter attendance was on a daily basis). This was followed by a stroll through the Royal Gardens in the company of the King and Queen and other family members. Furthermore, from a young age, the Princess was driven in an open carriage, accompanied by liveried footmen, through the streets of Athens, the Evzone sentries ‘presenting arms’ as she passed through the palace gates. Although such excursions may have brought Helen some pleasure, the exercise was also designed to instil a sense of royal dignity in the child, for the tall, elegant and dutiful Crown Princess Sophie was a stickler for protocol and good manners. This extended to instructing her eldest daughter on how to return military salutes and acknowledge the greetings of bystanders.

Yet, the emphasis was also on fun: Summer afternoons were invariably spent swimming with her siblings and cousins at Phaleron or learning to ride under the instruction of an English groom. However, as with all the royal children of her generation, the warm summer months were spent at the royal family’s country residence at Tatoi, a wooded estate some 21 kilometres north west of the Greek capital. The estate was far from Greek in character and reflected the heritage of both the King and Queen. The main residence was modelled on the Gothic Cottage at Peterhof Palace, on Russia’s Baltic coast, while the estate also boasted a Danish dairy overseen by a Danish manager. The cattle producing the milk also came from King George’s homeland. However, Helen was more impressed by the roar of the stags in the nearby mountains or the annual feudal feasts attended by local people in native dress to celebrate Queen Olga’s birthday. The Princess also delighted in joining her grandfather for his anniversary festivities. These invariably involved sailing on the royal yacht to a different port each year, where the royal party would then disembark to attend a celebratory Te Deum service at the local church, followed by a reception hosted by the Mayor at the local Town Hall.

War and tragedy also pervaded Helen’s childhood. The Greek nation had fought hard to obtain its independence from Ottoman rule and the King and his advisors were determined to maintain the status quo. As early as 1897, the Greeks had engaged Turkish forces over the future status of the island of Crete which, although under Ottoman rule, had a Christian majority desirous of union with Greece. This contretemps ended in a heavy defeat for Greece. Then, in 1912, there were further clashes with the Turks in the Balkans, over Ottoman oppression of the Christian section of the population in Thrace and Macedonia. Helen’s father was Commander-in-Chief of the Greek military and she could only look on helplessly as he headed northwards to lead his troops into battle against the Ottoman forces. Following a prolonged but successful campaign, Constantine entered Salonika, on 10 November, at the head of his troops. He was joined there, two days later, by a proud and joyful King George, who decided he would take up residence there for a while in a villa overlooking the Gulf of Thermai.

In the spring of 1913, the King was on the cusp of celebrating his Golden Jubilee and contemplating abdicating his throne in favour of Helen’s father. However, on the afternoon of 18 March, while strolling along a street in Salonika, he was shot at close range from behind, the bullet piercing his heart. King George was immediately rushed to a nearby military hospital, where his son, Prince Nicholas (the local Military Governor), arrived to find him lying lifeless on a bed in a private room. Helen’s father, Constantine, happened to be at army headquarters in Janina, and on receiving news of his father’s death, he immediately returned to Athens, as King, to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution. He then travelled to Salonika in the royal yacht to bring back the late king’s body for burial.

For Helen, the death of her beloved grandfather came as a great shock and it is not difficult to imagine her distress as she watched the late King being laid to rest at Tatoi on 30 March. As a sixteen-year-old, she was sufficiently mature to realise that her family’s life would now change, as the responsibility for the future of Greece lay firmly on the shoulders of her father, aided of course by her mother, Queen Sophie. Following his recent military successes, King Constantine was hailed as ‘Son of the Eagle’ and initially enjoyed a high approval rating.

However, unlike his father, the new King distrusted the Prime Minister, Eleftherios Venizelos. Following the outbreak of the First World War, in the summer of 1914, the two clashed. Constantine was adamant that Greece should remain neutral, while Venizelos wished to enter the war on the side of the Entente powers (France, Great Britain and Russia). It was a difficult time for Helen as her father (who had once served in the German Imperial Guard) and German-born mother (who was a sister of the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II) were now both accused of being pro-German and face open hostility from many of their subjects over their failure to back the Entente cause. Indeed, such were the pressures on the King, that in the summer of 1915, he succumbed to pneumonia and, for a time, his life was in grave danger from blood poisoning following surgery to remove two ribs. Helen did what she could to comfort her mother who was beset by rumours that she had stabbed her husband during a violent argument over his failure to side with Germany. Then, in October, the King dismissed Venizelos and appointed the seasoned politician Alexandros Zaimis to succeed him as Prime Minister. Yet, for Helen and her family, worse was to follow. On 14 July, 1916 the royal estate at Tatoi was set ablaze by arsonists intent on eliminating the King and his family. Constantine and Sophie (and their youngest child Katherine) were minutes from being consumed by the fire as they fled from the flames. Eighteen people-mostly loyal estate workers-perished in the blaze which also engulfed the King’s residence.

As December dawned, French and British forces landed near Athens. The French government, in particular, were now intent on unseating the King, taking control of the capital and reinstalling Venizelos (who had established a pro-Entente National Defence Government in Salonika in direct opposition to Zaimis’ neutral government) at the centre of power in Athens. To help achieve this, on 1 December, French ships in Piraeus harbour bombarded the Greek capital for three hours. As shrapnel rained down on the adjoining Royal Gardens, Helen, her mother and other family members sought shelter in the Royal Palace’s basement. However, the Athenians remained stoical and so the French forces imposed a blockade on the city in an attempt to weaken Greek resolve.

In March 1917, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated after bread riots broke out in Petrograd and the majority of the military garrison mutinied and stormed the Winter Palace. This ‘revolution’ proved a severe blow for the beleaguered Greek royal family who had close family links to the Romanovs. However, for Helen, the greatest worry was the whereabouts and safety of her Russian grandmother Queen Olga, who had earlier returned to her homeland to set up a military hospital at Pavlovsk.

By May, the Entente powers had gained control of most of Greece, including the rail network. The French now sent an envoy, Charles Jonnart, who was tasked with issuing an ultimatum to King Constantine: abdicate or Entente forces will destroy Athens. Constantine could not face further bloodshed and realised that if he did not comply, Greece would be plunged into a civil war between royalists and supporters of Venizelos. He informed a shocked Helen and Queen Sophie of his decision to go. Fortunately, the monarchy was not to be abolished as an agreement was reached with Jonnart whereby Constantine’s second son, Alexander, would be accede as King pro tem.

However, as Helen prepared to depart Athens with her parents and siblings for exile in Switzerland, word of the King’s departure spread like wildfire through Athens and thousands of Constantine’s subjects besieged the Palace in a touching display of loyalty, for they were determined that their King should not leave. After an overnight stand-off, by indulging in a little deceit, involving the use of decoy cars, the royals finally managed to flee the palace. A heartbroken Constantine and his family departed Greece on 14 June from the little East Coast fishing village of Oropos. The new King, 23-year-old Alexander, cut a forlorn figure as he waved off his nearest and dearest. The young monarch was subsequently prohibited from having any contact with his family.

Helen and her family travelled via Italy and crossed the frontier into Switzerland at Chiasso. To her consternation, crowds subjected her parents to jeers and taunts, while in Lugano, ex-King Constantine was forced to seek shelter in the Lloyd Hotel after being recognised and attacked in the street. He later returned to his quarters at the Palace Hotel under police protection. Helen’s family later moved to Zurich where they were joined by Prince Nicholas and Prince Andrew, their wives and children. For Helen this was fortuitous as she was close to all of her Greek cousins, particularly 14-year-old Princess Olga. However, life was not easy: money was tight and, in such a confined environment, petty family squabbles were not infrequent. The royalties were also subject to endless petty humiliations, including the censorship of correspondence. Worse still, the family’s sense of isolation was intensified when former friends openly snubbed Helen’s parents even, on occasion departing a room when they entered. Nor did it help that the international (pro-Entente) press remained hostile and had taken to describing the little group as ‘discarded royalty’ who were ‘hard-up’ and could not pay their hotel bills. Queen Sophie was allegedly even reduced to selling some jewels. Unsurprisingly, Helen’s father’s health suffered and he was fortunate indeed to recover from an attack of pleurisy.

The family were temporarily uplifted by the arrival of Queen Olga in July of 1918. Although this proud Romanov Grand Duchess had survived the revolution (unlike the former Tsar Nicholas who, on 17 July, was murdered along with his immediate family in the basement of a house in Ekaterinburg in the Urals), Helen was horrified to learn that the Dowager Queen-who was ‘a ghost of her old self’-had lived for many months on dry bread soaked in oil at her home at Pavlovsk. The marriage, on 1 February 1920, of her Uncle, Prince Christopher to the rich American heiress Mrs Nancy Leeds (the widow of William Leeds the American “Tin Plate King”) at the Russian Orthodox Church at Vevey was another highlight. But just around the corner further tragedy awaited…

In early October 1920, King Alexander (whose wife Aspasia was four months pregnant) was bitten by a monkey while walking in the gardens at Tatoi. Sepsis sent in and a frantic Queen Sophie (currently in Lucerne) asked permission to travel to Greece to be with her son. Venizelos denied her entry but indicated that Queen Olga could come in her stead. Sadly, rough seas meant that the Dowager Queen arrived in Athens only hours after the King’s death on 25 October. Helen was distraught when she received the news of her brother’s premature death. Her grief was compounded by the fact that neither she nor any of her family were allowed to return to Greece for the funeral on 29 October. Queen Olga represented the family.

In November, Eleutherios Venizelos was defeated in the general election and fled into exile. Soon newspaper reporters were besieging Helen and her family with the news that the fickle Athenians were calling for Constantine’s return. Helen was anxious for both of her parents who were pale of complexion and racked with sorrow. How would they cope with returning to Tatoi which was filled with so many memories of Alexander? Meanwhile, Constantine insisted on a plebiscite to reaffirm his position as monarch and this was held on 5 December. Nearly one million people voted in favour of his return, with just over ten thousand against. Helen was delighted for her father whom she joined aboard the ship Averon at Venice, on 15 December, to sail home to Athens.

The royal family landed in Greece on 19 December. King Constantine’s subjects went wild with enthusiasm. The royal carriage was besieged with cheering well-wishers as it made its was slowly through the streets to the Palace where all of the extended royal family later appeared on the terrace. Yet, for Helen-as for the others-the return was bittersweet. The fact of Alexander’s absence was suddenly brought home, particularly when she observed the grief-stricken face of her mother. Aged 24, Helen also realised that the time had come to settle down and make a suitable marriage. As a tall and attractive brunette with an excellent royal pedigree there was no shortage of suitable candidates. But whom would she settle on?