After bringing the country to a critical situation, King Carol II abdicated on September 6, 1940, his son, King Mihai I, returning to the head of the country.
Carol II (1893 – 1953) is the most controversial king of Romania. After an adventurous youth, in 1925 he separated from his wife Elena, renounced his rights as heir to the Romanian crown and settled in Paris, together with Elena Wolf-Lupescu. “This erotica is a danger for the country and for us; let’s thank Providence that we can get rid of him”, said Ion IC Brătianu to Gh. Tătărescu, shortly before the Crown Council meeting that took note of Carol’s resignation.
King Ferdinand removed him from the Royal Family and appointed his young nephew, Mihai, as heir. Thus, the first reign of His Majesty King Michael I began in 1927, after the death of His grandfather, King Ferdinand I. The child King was tutored by a Regent led by His uncle, Prince Nicolae of Romania.
After negotiations with Iuliu Maniu, Carol returned to the country on June 6, 1930 and was proclaimed king two days later. Although he had promised to give up his relationship with Elena Wolf, he exiled Queen Mother Elena and brought his lover to Bucharest.
The years of his reign, 1930-1940, were marked on the one hand by economic growth and cultural development, but on the other hand by the breakdown of democracy. He influenced the course of political life by manipulating political parties and finally by suppressing them.
The execution of Codreanu
One of the forces hostile to Carol was the Legionnaire Movement led by Corneliu Codreanu, a movement that was increasingly popular, thanks to its unusual forms of manifestation: support given to the peasantry in the household, labor camps in construction. But the acts of violence, the anti-Semitic attacks and the fierce criticism of the parties, determined the taking of measures against the legionnaires. The fascist war between the king and the charismatic Codreanu intensified with the 1937 electoral success of the legionnaires who had become the third force in the country. A force that Carol would decapitate on the night of November 29/30, 1938 when he ordered the execution of Codreanu, already under arrest at Jilava prison. The reason is perhaps the one cited by Armand Călinescu in his notes: the king wanted to remain Hitler’s only possible interlocutor, in the eventuality of the orientation of Romanian politics towards Germany.
In 1938, King Charles II dissolved the political parties, abolished the constitution and established a regime of monarchical authority.
Against this background, gradually, his regime loses the support that the monarchical institution in Romania had enjoyed until then, so that, in 10 years, the situation becomes very difficult.
In this context, the figure of General Ion Antonescu came to the fore. Although he was a known opponent of the head of state, Antonescu was considered by Carol to be the only person capable of restoring order in the country at that time. The general enjoyed authority within the army, he had the trust of the Iron Guard, and Iuliu Maniu and Dinu Brătianu did not show vehement opposition to his person. On September 4, 1940, the king appointed Antonescu to the position of president of the Council of Ministers. In the evening immediately after the appointment, the general asked Carol to invest him with full powers. Although he initially refused, at around 03:50 on the morning of September 5, the king signed the decree by which Ion Antonescu, the Prime Minister of Romania, was invested with full powers in the state.
At the same time, the Constitution of February 27, 1938 is abrogated and the Legislative Bodies are dissolved. Against the backdrop of continuing public demonstrations, at around 9:30 p.m., Antonescu asked Carol to abdicate, warning him that in the event of a refusal, he was no longer responsible for the security of the person and the royal entourage.
Antonescu protected them from the legionnaires
In an extremely tense atmosphere, on the morning of September 6, 1940, Carol II signed a manifesto in which he appreciated: “Today, days of unspeakable betrayal are grieving the country, which is facing great dangers. These dangers I want, out of my great love for this land in which I was born and raised, to remove by passing today to my son, whom I know how much you love, the heavy burdens of the reign”. General Antonescu immediately signed a decree-law in which it was stated that: “Considering the act of abdication of HRH King Charles II”, the succession to the throne belonged to Grand Voivode Mihai. Consequently, he was invited to take the oath. When the aide signed, Mihai was still asleep, and when he put his hand on the receiver, he was informed: “Your Majesty is called at ten o’clock in the Throne Hall, to take the coronation oath.” In the afternoon, Mihai took the oath by which he became king of Romania again.
General Antonescu promised Carol II protection against the legionnaires whom everyone knew had sworn revenge on Codreanu.
Thus, on the morning of September 7, 1940, Carol II left the country accompanied by Elena Lupescu and Ernest Urdăreanu, with a special train made up of 12 carriages, loaded with objects from the Crown’s heritage, paintings by great masters, such as Titian , Rubens and Rembrandt, hundreds of tapestries, jewels, armor that decorated the walls of the royal palaces in Pelişor and Peleş. A group of legionnaires fired at the royal train but failed to stop it.
Carol II and Elena Lupescu lived in the United States of America, Brazil and Portugal. He died on April 4, 1953, being buried in the chapel of the Kings of Portugal in Estoril. Since 2003, the remains of King Charles II have been brought to Curtea de Arges, where his predecessors are also buried.
Find out presents the main historical meanings of September 6:
1683 – Jean Baptiste Colbert, a politician who held several positions during the reign of King Louis XIV, passed away, including that of general controller of finances. Thanks to the fiscal policy applied, he succeeded in consolidating the economic power of France, (b. August 29, 1619).
1766 – The scientist John Dalton was born, known as one of the fathers of modern physics; studied a vision anomaly in the perception of color, which he himself had (color blindness) and formulated the first atomic theory (1808) (d. July 27, 1844)
1817 – Mihail Kogălniceanu was born, politician, historian, prime minister of Romania between 1863 and 1865, foreign minister in 1876 and between 1877 and 1879. (d. June 1891)
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1819 – The writer Nicolae Filimon was born. His work “Ciocoii Vechi si noi” marked a decisive moment in the evolution of the Romanian novel (d. March 18, 1865)
1837 – Charles Jacques Bouchard was born, physiologist, foreign honorary member of the Romanian Academy (d. March 2, 1915)
1907 – The poet Sully Prudhomme (René-Francois Armand Prudhomme), laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1901, passed away (poetry – “Stances et poèmes”, “Les Vaines Tendresses”, “Le Bonheur”; prose – “Que sais-je?”, “La Vraie religion selon Pascal’) (b. March 16, 1839)
1937 – The poet Alexandru Călinescu passed away (b. February 13, 1907)
1997 – The funeral of Princess Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris, took place. She was married to Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, with whom she had two sons: Prince William and Prince Henry.
1998 – The Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, nicknamed the “emperor of Japanese cinema” (“The Seven Samurai”, “The Hidden Fortress”) passed away (b. March 23, 1910)
2007 – The famous Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti (b. 1935) passed away
Source: www.descopera.ro
