Diana and I would like to invite you to the new conference from the already traditional series inaugurated last year at the Liberal Cafe in Bucharest, on the royal and architectural history of Romania.
The subjects this year are the following:
Diana Mandache: “King Michael as a school pupil: curriculum, marks, fieldtrips”
Valentin Mandache: “Eastwell Manor: the birthplace of Queen Marie”
The event is organised by the National Liberal Party’s Bloggers’ Club, and is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 15 January, starting at 6.30 pm (The Liberal Cafe: 9, Doamnei Street, Lipscani quarter, just across the road from the National Bank).
Conference: *King Michael as a school pupil, *Eastwell Manor: the brithplace of Queen Marie
There will be shown and discussed photographs and period newsreel footage about the school pupil Michael, from the Regency period and then as a Crown Prince, and architectural photographs of Eastwell Manor, images of Queen Marie during her childhood and as an adult visiting her birthplace, and how these formative years in such significant circumstances and environments influenced those two royal figures later in their life.
Conference: *King Michael as a school pupil, *Eastwell Manor: the brithplace of Queen Marie
The Bloggers’ Club of the National Liberal Party and the presenters are looking forward to welcoming you at the conference!
History and historical facts discussed over the envelope of a letter sent from Bucharest to Paris in February 1948, just a few weeks after the forced abdication of King Michael of Romania. The envelope contains a two sets of stamps, one from the just ended royal period and another form the newly installed communist regime, constituting a good material witness of a watershed event in Romania’s history.
HM King Michael of Romania and HM Queen Anne of Romania
I would like to wish HM King Michael of Romania a very happy 92nd birthday!
Below is an article published in Majesty Magazine, written by Diana Mandache and the undersigned, entitled “The History Maker”, with the occasion of His Majesty’s 90th birthday, evocating his exemplary, heroic life.
Valentin Mandache, expert in historic houses
King Michael, a great personality who has decisively influenced and determined the history of his country, survived a tumultuous period. His actions saved Romania from catastrophe during the Second World War, and his uncompromising moral stand throughout his life, however difficult the personal circumstances were, constitute a supreme example for his countrymen and the rest of the world.
I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.
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If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.
The British monthly magazine “Majesty” has just published a richly illustrated article written by Diana Mandache and the undersigned with the occasion of the celebration of King Michael of Romania‘s 90th birthday on 25 October. This is our humble homage to His Majesty’s remarkable life, personality and achievements, and of all what he represents for the identity and history of his country!
The magazine cover is presented in the first image here, while the second, bellow, shows the first text page of the article. Majesty magazine is for sale at good newsagents in the United Kingdom and in the larger US cities and other English speaking countries.
I would like to cite here, for you, two short excerpts from the article:
King Michael stands high among royals throughout the world for having fulfilled his mission to be an example to his people, and for courageously defending their freedom against the many vicissitudes that befell that part of Eastern Europe.
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King Michael, a great personality who has decisively influenced and determined the history of his country, survived a tumultuous period. His actions saved Romania from catastrophe during the Second World War, and his uncompromising moral stand throughout his life, however difficult the personal circumstances were, constitute a supreme example for his countrymen and the rest of the world.
Valentin Mandache, expert in Romania’s historic houses.
Majesty Magazine article dedicated to the celebration of HM King Michael of Romania 90th birthday, by Valentin and Diana Mandache, October 2011 issue
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I endeavour through this series of periodic articles to inspire appreciation of the historic houses of Romania, a virtually undiscovered, but fascinating chapter of European architectural history and heritage.
***********************************************
If you plan acquiring or selling a historic property in Romania or start a renovation project, I would be delighted to advice you in sourcing and transacting the property, specialist research, etc. To discuss your particular plan please see my contact details in the Contactpage of this weblog.
This is a trailer from the documentary film entitled “Coroana Romaniei” (“The Crown of Romania”), directed by Marian Baciu from Sahia Studios in Bucharest, produced in 2010. The author of this blog presents within the section dedicated to His Majesty King Michael, together with the historian Diana Mandache who also details the reigns of King Carol I and Carol II. King Ferdinand and his achievements are likewise surveyed.
I would like to invite you to listen to HM King Michael of Romania’s radio message to the nation, broadcast 14 years ago by Radio Free Europe, shortly before he was allowed to return to Romania by officially regaining the country’s citizenship, abusively withdrawn by the communist regime nearly five decades before, on 2 February 1948. It is a highly emotional instance to listen to such a remarkable personality that has suffered with such a high d … Read More
King Michael of Romania’s Christmas 2010 message (via Romania Altfel. A blog by Prince Radu of Romania) – click the image above to access the article [in Romanian].
The Royalty Digest Quarterly will publish in its December issue (4/2010) an insightful interview with HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania, entitled "I see Romania as one big history lesson", in which he speaks about his country, education, his famous grandfather- HM King Michael, plans for the future. Interviewers: Diana Mandache & Valentin Mandac … Read More
A Very Happy Birthday to HM King Michael of Romania, 25 October 2010! HM King Michael of Romania celebrates today his 89th birthday! He is an example to follow by all his fellow countrymen of high moral standards and dignity in the face of vicious and continuous adversity endured throughout his life, a monarch and a human being to be respected by the generations to come! In my work over the years as a historian, I came across a great multitude of … Read More
On 23 August 1944, King Michael of Romania led the antifascist against the pro-German government, by personally arresting the dictator, marshal Ion Antonescu, a war criminal responsible for the death of hundred of thousands of Romanian and Soviet Jews, who allied the country with Nazi Germany and took it into a hugely disastrous war against the Soviet Union where, by some reckonings, over half a million of Romanian soldiers perished senselessly. The subsequent communist government hijacked the significance of this day claiming the entire merit for themselves and declaring it as the National Day. Nowadays the event is largely forgotten or in the best case ignored by a population that has a low level of education and interest in history, reflected also in the wholesale destruction of the country’s architectural heritage for the purpose of crude property speculation. King Michael, by allying Romania with the democratic powers and the Soviet Union, ensured the shortening of the entire WWII with at least six months, according to western historians, and obtained a better deal for Romania in the subsequent peace negotiations.
In 2008 I published, in the academic magazine “Cold War History”, a review of one of the best books on those events and the personality of King Michael, written by Ivor Porter (“Michael of Romania: The King and the Country”), a former British special operative in those days, who participated directly at the events and is a close friend of His Majesty. He died in 2012 at the age of 98 after an eventful and exemplary life, here is his obituary in the Daily Telegraph). I am extremely fortunate and honoured to have met in the past decade both these two personalities in places like London or Bucharest. The book review below is my humble tribute to HM King Michael and his heroic deeds on this day in 1944:
Cold War History
Vol. 8, No. 4, November 2008, Routledge, pp. 564-565
Michael of Romania: The King and the Country, by Ivor Porter, Stroud, Sutton, 2005, xxi + 328pp.
The relevance of monarchies in modern South-East European history is a subject that is very much underrated by the Western specialists on the region. The Balkan monarchs made crucial contributions to the process of state and nation building and even today their pre-eminence is conspicuous in countries such as Romania, where the king is a public figure of highest moral integrity who saved the country from disaster in the Second World War, or in Bulgaria, where the monarch became one of the prime ministers after the fall of communism. In this timely book Ivor Porter charts the life of King Michael of Romania with great skill and in-depth understanding. Through eloquent personal accounts and historical records from the king’s personal archive he shows how very much the life of the sovereign was intertwined with the history of his country. The author knows Romania intimately, being well known for his activity as a British special operations executive operative in the country and later as a staff member of the Allied Control Commission in Bucharest.
The book is thus an important witness statement that throws new light on the onset of the Cold War in Romania and South-East Europe. The author shows that the communitisation of the country started with the direct Western approval, and also because of Allied’s unwarranted trust in the Soviet Union, coupled with hesitation at every step, mirroring in many aspects the behaviour toward Hitler before the war. Moscow did not display such niceties and went straight for the jugular in order to achieve its objectives. In Romania there was room for manoeuvre against the Soviet plans in 1945–46, but the opportunity to act was lost because of West’s procrastination. The Russians, unlike the Western Allies, expertly knew the problems of Romania and were able to exploit them in full, as shown by the restoration of Transylvania to Romania as a powerful bargaining argument securing the country’s cooperation.
King Michael of Romania and Queen Mother Helen – Diana Mandache collection
King Michael stands apart as a moral beacon in the middle of his country’s tragedies. Even in 1943 he made a public call for the country to extricate itself from the war, causing panic among the pro-German leadership. His greatest accomplishment was the coup of 23 August 1944, when with immense courage and vision he crucially instrumented the overthrow the pro-German dictatorship, with the effect that Romania immediately joined the Allies’ cause. The country thus avoided an imminent catastrophe, and according to western sources, the king’s action shortened the war by six months. That is a most remarkable achievement, even more so for a 23-year-old monarch, revealed by the fact that the army and administration followed their sovereign unwaveringly. That brought him and Romania the esteem of the Allies, well expressed in Churchill’s instruction to the British representatives in Bucharest: ‘stick to the boy’ (p. 130). The Soviets were conscious of his popularity among the people and even decorated the king with the Order of Victory, the highest Soviet honour given to only five foreigners, among them General Eisenhower. Uniquely in Cold War Europe, this resulted in three years of uneasy cohabitation between the king and a Soviet-imposed government led by the communists, with the Red Army present all over the country.
Valentin Mandache, architectural historian 