Michael I (Romanian: Mihai I Romanian: [miˈhaj ɨnˈtɨj] ⓘ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last king of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.
Shortly after Michael's birth, his father, Crown Prince Carol, had become involved in a controversial relationship with Magda Lupescu. In 1925, Carol was pressured to renounce his rights (in favour of his son Michael) to the throne and moved to Paris in exile with Lupescu. In July 1927, following the death of his grandfather Ferdinand I, Michael ascended the throne at age five, the youngest crowned head in Europe. As Michael was still a minor, a regency council was instituted, composed of his uncle Prince Nicolas, Patriarch Miron Cristea and Chief Justice Gheorghe Buzdugan. The council proved to be ineffective and, in 1930, Carol returned to Romania and replaced his son as monarch, reigning as Carol II. As a result, Michael returned to being heir apparent to the throne and was given the additional title of Grand Voievod of Alba-Iulia.
Carol II was forced to abdicate in 1940, and Michael once again became king. Under the government led by the military dictator Ion Antonescu, Romania became aligned with Nazi Germany. In 1944, Michael participated in a coup against Antonescu, appointed Constantin Sănătescu as his replacement, and subsequently declared an alliance with the Allies. In March 1945, political pressures forced Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government headed by Petru Groza. From August 1945 to January 1946, Michael went on a "royal strike" and unsuccessfully tried to oppose Groza's communist-controlled government by refusing to sign and endorse its decrees. In November 1947, Michael attended the wedding of his cousins, the future Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in London. Shortly thereafter, on the morning of 30 December 1947, Groza met with Michael and compelled him to abdicate, while the monarchy was abolished. Michael was forced into exile, his properties confiscated, and his citizenship stripped. In 1948, he married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, with whom he had five daughters. The couple eventually settled in Switzerland.
Nicolae Ceaușescu's communist dictatorship was overthrown in December 1989, and the following year Michael attempted to return to Romania, only to be arrested and forced to leave upon arrival. In 1992, Michael was allowed to visit Romania for Easter, where he was greeted by huge crowds; a speech he gave from his hotel window drew an estimated one million people to Bucharest. Alarmed by Michael's popularity, the post-communist government of Ion Iliescu refused to allow him any further visits. In 1997, after Iliescu's defeat by Emil Constantinescu in the presidential election of the previous year, Michael's citizenship was restored and he was allowed to visit Romania again. Several confiscated properties, such as Peleș Castle and Săvârșin Castle, were eventually returned to his family.
Early life
Michael was born in 1921 at Foișor Castle on the Royal Complex of Peleș in Sinaia, Romania, the son of Crown Prince Carol of Romania and Crown Princess Elena. He was born as the paternal grandson of the then reigning King Ferdinand I of Romania and maternal grandson of the then reigning King Constantine I of Greece. Michael's parents had married on 10 March 1921, and he was thus born just seven months after the wedding.
When Carol eloped with his mistress Elena Magda Lupescu and renounced his rights to the throne in December 1925, Michael was declared heir apparent. Michael succeeded to the throne of Romania upon Ferdinand's death in July 1927, before his sixth birthday. Later, Michael attended a special school established in 1932 by his father.
Reign
1930s and the Antonescu era
A regency, which included his uncle, Prince Nicolae, Patriarch Miron Cristea, and the country's Chief Justice (Gheorghe Buzdugan, and from October 1929, Constantin Sărăţeanu) functioned on behalf of the five-year-old Michael, when he succeeded Ferdinand in 1927. Notably, Queen Maria was absent from the regency, despite having been a figure of authority until then. The oath was taken before parliament on 20 July 1927. The main political parties had different attitudes toward the regency: the National Liberal Party supported it, while the National Peasants' Party even discussed the possibility of bringing Carol II back to the country. In 1930, Carol II returned to the country at the invitation of politicians dissatisfied with the regency in the context of the Great Depression, and was proclaimed king by the Parliament. Michael was demoted to crown prince with the title "Grand Voivode of Alba Iulia". This title had been proposed by Mihail Manoilescu and provoked protests in parliament from Nicolae Iorga. Following his father's restoration, Michael's mother was exiled to Florence, and a strict visiting regime was imposed, allowing her to see her son only for a few weeks each year. In November 1939, Michael joined the Romanian Senate, as the 1938 Constitution guaranteed him a seat there upon reaching the age of eighteen.
Just days after the Second Vienna Award, the pro-Nazi anti-Soviet regime of Prime Minister Marshal Ion Antonescu staged a coup d'état against Carol II, whom he claimed to be "anti-German". Antonescu suspended the Constitution, dissolved the Parliament, and re-installed the 18-year-old Michael as king, by popular acclaim in September 1940. (Although the Constitution was restored in 1944, and the Romanian Parliament in 1946, Michael did not subsequently take a formal oath nor have his reign approved retroactively by Parliament.) Michael was crowned with the Steel Crown and anointed King of Romania by the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania, Nicodim Munteanu, in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Bucharest, on the day of his accession, 6 September 1940. Although King Michael was formally the Supreme Head of the Army, named Conducător ("Leader of the people"), and entitled to appoint the Prime Minister with full powers, in reality he was forced to remain a figurehead for most of the war, until August 1944. Michael had lunch with Adolf Hitler twice—once with his father in Bavaria in 1937, and with his mother in Berlin in 1941. He also met Benito Mussolini in Italy in 1941.
Turning against Nazi Germany
By 1944, the military situation in World War II had deteriorated significantly for the Axis powers, but Antonescu remained in control of Romania. By August 1944, the Soviet conquest of Romania had become inevitable, and was expected in a few months. On 23 August 1944, Michael joined the pro-Allies politicians, a number of army officers, and armed Communist-led civilians in staging a coup against Antonescu. Michael ordered his arrest by the Royal Palace Guard. On the same night, the new Prime Minister, Lt. General Constantin Sănătescu—appointed by King Michael—gave custody of Antonescu to the communists (in spite of alleged instructions to the contrary by the King), and the latter delivered him to the Soviets on 1 September. In a radio broadcast to the Romanian nation and army, Michael issued a ceasefire just as the Red Army was penetrating the Moldavian front, proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of the armistice offered by the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and declared war on Germany. However, this did not avert a rapid Soviet occupation and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers, who were transported to the Soviet Union where many perished in prison camps.
Although the country's alliance with Nazi Germany was ended, the coup sped the Red Army's advance into Romania. The armistice was signed three weeks later on 12 September 1944, on terms the Soviets virtually dictated. Under the terms of the armistice, Romania recognized its defeat by the USSR and was placed under occupation of the Allied forces, with the Soviets, as their representative, in control of media, communication, post, and civil administration behind the front. The coup effectively amounted to a "capitulation", an "unconditional" "surrender". It has been suggested by Romanian historians that the coup may have shortened World War II by six months, thus saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
At the end of the war, King Michael was awarded the highest degree (Chief Commander) of the American Legion of Merit by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. He was also decorated with the Soviet Order of Victory by Joseph Stalin "for the courageous act of the radical change in Romania's politics towards a break-up from Hitler's Germany and an alliance with the United Nations, at the moment when there was no clear sign yet of Germany's defeat", according to the official description of the decoration. With the death of Michał Rola-Żymierski in 1989, Michael became the sole surviving recipient of the Order of Victory.
Reign under Communism
In March 1945, political pressures forced King Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government headed by Petru Groza. For the next two-plus years, Michael functioned again as little more than a figurehead. Between August 1945 and January 1946, during what was later known as the "royal strike", King Michael tried unsuccessfully to oppose the Groza government by refusing to sign its decrees. In response to Soviet, British, and American pressures, King Michael eventually gave up his opposition to the communist government and stopped demanding its resignation.
He did not pardon Mareșal Antonescu, the former Prime Minister, who was sentenced to death "for betrayal of the Romanian people for the benefit of Nazi Germany, for the economic and political subjugation of Romania to Germany, for cooperation with the Iron Guard, for murdering his political opponents, for the mass murder of civilians and crimes against peace". Nor did King Michael manage to save such leaders of the opposition as Iuliu Maniu and the Bratianus, victims of Communist political trials, as the Constitution prevented him from doing so without the counter-signature of Communist Justice Minister Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu (who himself was later eliminated by Gheorghiu-Dej's opposing Communist faction). The memoirs of King Michael's aunt Princess Ileana quoted Emil Bodnăraș—her alleged lover, Romania's Communist minister of defence, and a Soviet spy—as saying: "Well, if the King decides not to sign the death warrant, I promise that we will uphold his point of view." Princess Ileana was sceptical: "You know quite well (...) that the King will never of his free will sign such an unconstitutional document. If he does, it will be laid at your door, and before the whole nation your government will bear the blame. Surely you do not wish this additional handicap at this moment!"
Forced abdication
In November 1947, King Michael travelled to London for the wedding of his cousins, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, an occasion during which he met Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma (his second cousin once removed), who was to become his wife. According to his own account, King Michael rejected any offers of asylum and decided to return to Romania, contrary to the confidential, strong advice of the British Ambassador to Romania.
Early on the morning of 30 December 1947, Michael was preparing for a New Year's party at Peleș Castle in Sinaia, when Groza summoned him back to Bucharest. Michael returned to Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, to find it surrounded by troops from the Tudor Vladimirescu Division, an army unit completely loyal to the Communists. Groza and Communist Party leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej were waiting for him, and demanded that he sign a pre-typed instrument of abdication. Unable to call in loyal troops, due to his telephone lines allegedly being cut, Michael signed the document. Later the same day, the Communist-dominated government announced the abolition of the monarchy, and its replacement by a People's Republic, broadcasting the King's pre-recorded radio proclamation of his own abdication. On 3 January 1948, Michael was forced to leave the country, followed over a week later by Princesses Elisabeth and Ileana, who collaborated so closely with the Soviets that they became known as the King's "Red Aunts". He was the last monarch behind the Iron Curtain to lose his throne.
Michael's own account of the abdication varied over time, and was gradually embellished, especially after 1990. Thus, in accounts published in 1950 and 1977, Michael only mentioned seeing armed groups with machine-guns on their shoulders around the palace, while in much later accounts these were described as "heavy artillery, ready to fire at any moment". The story of the supposed blackmail also evolved: in the 1950 account, Groza tried to negotiate some form of material compensations for the abdication, noting he could not guarantee for Michael's life in case he refused, and his refusal could lead to thousands of arrests and possibly a civil war; in a hearing before the United States House of Representatives in 1954, Michael mentioned Groza's generic threats regarding his personal security, bloodshed and ruin of the country, as well as "vague hints" of persecution, with Groza suggesting the government had a large dossier on Michael; the possible arrest of thousands and a generic threat of bloodshed is also mentioned in the 1977 account; however, beginning with 1990, Michael claimed that Groza threatened to shoot 1,000 students that had already been arrested for publicly showing their attachment to the throne. Thus, while according to a Time article published in 1948, Groza threatened to arrest thousands of people and order a bloodbath unless Michael abdicated, in an interview with The New York Times from 2007, Michael recounted: "It was blackmail. They said, 'If you don't sign this immediately we are obliged'—why obliged I don't know—'to kill more than 1,000 students' that they had in prison." In historian Ioan Scurtu's opinion, the new account was created in order to leverage the recent Revolution of 1989, presented at the time as a revolution of the youth and the students. Another new element in Michael's account after 1990 was that Groza had threatened him at gunpoint; in earlier accounts Michael mentioned that Groza had shown him the pistol he was carrying only after Michael signed the abdication.
According to the autobiography of the former head of the Soviet intelligence agency NKVD, Major General Pavel Sudoplatov, the Deputy Soviet Foreign Commissar Andrey Vyshinsky personally conducted negotiations with King Michael for his abdication, guaranteeing part of a pension to be paid to Michael in Mexico. According to a few articles in Jurnalul Național, Michael's abdication was negotiated with the Communist government, which allowed him to leave the country with the goods he requested, accompanied by some of the royal retinue.