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


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On 27 August 2019, the National Bank of Romania, in accordance with the provisions of the law, will introduce into circulation 50 coins bearing the image of King Ferdinand I, made of brass.


Moneda-50-de-bani-in-circuitul-national-Ferdinand-Intregitorul.jpg



On 24 August will be his 154th birthday. He was the second King of Romania and the nephew of Carol I. He was married to Princess Marie of Edinburgh and had six issues.
 
Was Marie's mother, Duchess Maria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha very influential in her daughter's engagement to Prince Ferdinand?
 
CyrilVladisla said:
Was Marie's mother, Duchess Maria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha very influential in her daughter's engagement to Prince Ferdinand?
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The Duchess of Edindurgh and later Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had so many things she considered in marrying Marie off. One great reason was her disapproval of her husband and mother-in-law's wish of marrying Marie with the future George V.


  • The Duchess resented her husband's attitude and alcoholism. They had serious marital problems and this made her sure not to marry off her daughter Marie to her nephew Prince George of Wales later George V because she did not want her daughter to make the same mistake.

  • She doesn't like the then Alexandra, Princess of Wales (George's mother), whose father had been a minor German prince before being called to the Danish throne, was higher than her in the order of precedence.

  • She's also against the idea of first cousin marriage as this was not an allowed practice in her native Russian Orthodox.

Gawin said:
Yes, she arranged it.
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Marie has grown into a very lovely woman and was even courted by her cousin Prince George of Wales (later George V). Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) and her father approved of the marriage but the Princess of Wales (Queen Alexandra) and her mother the Duchess of Edinburgh did not.

Around the same time, King Carol I of Romania was looking for a suitable bride for his nephew the Crown Prince (later Ferdinand I), this decision was so important because this would secure the continuation of their royal house in Romanian throne. Thus, it happened, the Duchess of Edinburgh suggested that Marie meet Ferdinand.

Queen Victoria liked Ferdinand's family but not the societal landscape of Bucharest as she described it as insecure and immoral. Victoria, the German Empress her aunt, also thought that this marriage was too soon and Marie was so young.
 
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:previous: Queen Victoria and her daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia had very good outlooks about Marie's future marriage. However, did not her mother, Duchess Maria of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha want her oldest daughter to be married first?
 
Marie WAS Duchess Marie's eldest daughter and she did marry first. She was born in 1875, a year after her only brother, Young Alfred, and was 17 when she wed Ferdinand. Empress Vicky of Germany considered that far too young.
 
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As Vicky herself had married and moved to a foreign land at 17, she knew whereof she spoke.
 
:previous: Indeed, it's a question why Marie had to wed first than her eldest brother Alfred. But two years after Marie's marriage to Ferdinand, in 1895, he was betrothed to Duchess Elsa of Württemberg but the marriage didn't happen until his controversial death.

As with Victoria, The German Empress, I find it peculiar why she remarked Marie (17 when married) was so young when she herself was engaged and married at 17 and her daughter Princess Charlotte of Prussia who married Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen was also 17. Even, her other daughter Sophia later Queen of the Hellenes married age 19.
 
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Vicky was deeply in love with her Fritz and he with her but looking back at it perhaps she did feel that she had married a bit too young, especially in regard to her difficulties in Berlin. Or perhaps she had heard that Marie and Ferdinand's marriage wasn't a love match, unlike her own, and that therefore she felt sad that Marie had been pushed into the marriage by her mother.

As far as Charlotte was concerned, from everything I've read, she was considered to have had a VERY difficult and perverse personality and often clashed with her mother. I don't think Charlotte was in love with her groom but she did want to be married and independent of her parents. Her marriage seems to have been greeted with a sigh of relief from everyone around her.

On the other hand I think Sophie's marriage was believed to be a love match, and I suppose 19 wasn't considered extremely young by Royal standards of the day.
 
Crown Prince Ferdinand did not propose to Princess Marie in his native Romania. He proposed to her in Emperor Wilhelm II's Neues Palais at Potsdam.
 
I don't think anybody has said that Ferdinand did propose to Marie in Romania have they? And Kaiser Wilhelm imposing himself into matchmaking exercises wasn't anything new for him. He was delighted with the match, as the Romanian King and Queen were both German born and he was quite happy I think that Marie wasn't to marry into the BRF, as Prince George (the Duke of York) had wanted.
 
Today in Royal History is the 154th birthday of Ferdinand I of Romania son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and Infanta Antónia of Portugal. He got married to Princess Marie of Edinburgh who later became Queen Marie of Romania and had 6 children, 1 of whom became his heir and King and 2 daughters became Queen Consort.

One highlight of his reign was when he sided against the Central Powers in World War I, although a member of Germany's ruling Hohenzollern imperial family, thus Romania emerged as a much-enlarged kingdom and he became crowned King of Greater Romania which included Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania.
 
The Queen who risked her life for Romania and pleaded with Britain for help - 'I would have died with our last man – have I not English blood in my veins?’ In 140 years of British-Romanian diplomatic relations, English-born Queen Marie of Romania remains the stand-out personality.
A war hero, an international celebrity and a cultural icon, in episode 2 of Who Is Romania Dr Tessa Dunlop explores the WWI role and legacy of Queen Victoria’s most beautiful, ambitious granddaughter.
 
King Ferdinand and Queen Marie visited Transylvania in 1919.
 
Coronation of King Ferdinand & Queen Marie of Rumania (1922).

 
Last week Stéphane Bern's 'Secrets d'Histoire' was dedicated to Queen Marie. Yesterday the programme was uploaded to the youtube channel of the show:

 
I enjoyed it.
I did not know that after her behaviour during WW1 and her attendance in Paris, she was known all over the world.
I did not know that King carol II humiliated her . Her granddaughter the Princess Magaretha , whose french is perfect , said that Queen Marie wanted to die in Roumania and thet she suffered a lot during the travel .
I visited Balchik Castle her summer castle now in Bulgaria.
 
Laurie R. King wrote a novel in her Mary Russell mystery series heavily guest-starring Marie and her daughter Ileana in the 1920s, and set at the royal residence in Bram, Castle Shade.

Even the generally unsentimental, practical, and skeptical Russell (who has met other royalty at this point) confesses to being swayed and impressed by Marie.
 
If the page defaults to Spanish, mouse over it and right click to select Translate to English

Article by Cristina Barreiro
Romania: from the Iron Guard to communism

It was in the last third of the nineteenth century when a German prince arrived in Romania to be proclaimed King. Since then, a branch of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen reigned in this country plagued by political and border problems..
 
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