Top 10 Facts about Queen Marie of Romania

Queen Marie of Romania, née Princess Marie of Edinburgh photo by Philip Alexius de Laszlo Wikimedia

Top 10 Facts about Queen Marie of Romania

Marie also Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh who was born in 1875- 1938 was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinard I. She was born into the British Royal Family.  Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh( later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand  Duchess Maria  Alexandrovna of Russia were her parents.

Early Marie’s life was spent in Coburg, Malta, and Kent. She was chosen in 1892 to be the future wife of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, the presumptive heir to King Carol I, after rejecting a proposal from her cousin, the future King George V. Between 1893 through 1914, Marie served as Crown Princess. She quickly gained favor with the Romanian populace.

Here are the Top 10 Facts about Queen Marie of Romania

1. One of the most stunning women ever was Queen Marie of Romania

Marie of Romania 1893 photo by Eduard Uhlenhuth Wikimedia

She was widely considered a worldwide emblem of beauty in the Western world. From her tenure as a Crown Princess in the late 1890s to far into the Jazz Age,10 by both French advertising executives and the women of New York.

Marie, who was large of German descent but also had Russian and English bloodlines, was statuesque in appearance and had blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. She was praised for being one of the most stunning women of her day and one of the most beautiful queens in history when this was combined with her well-known vivacity.
In addition, Queen Marie’s images have made the speculations that she would star in American films in the 1920s sound as ridiculous as they did during the days of Garbo.

2. The Queen was often called ‘The mother of the wounded or ‘the Queen Soldier’

Romania remained neutral during the first two years of World War I. Romania joins World War I in 1916, supporting Ferdinand against his native Germany and the Allied Powers. The Great Union and Queen Marie were aware that the War was Romania’s only chance to realize the long-held national dream.

The queen’s bravery and her warrior spirit are revealed during the conflict. She was visiting all the hospitals to care for the warriors and express her gratitude for what they had done for the nation. The Queen of Romania was frequently referred to as “the Queen Soldier” or “the mother of the wounded.”

3. Queen Marie of Romania was an International Fashion Icon

Queen Mary of Romania Public Domain photo Wikimedia 

Throughout her life, Marie was also regarded as a style icon. The British-born Crown Princess began promoting traditional Romanian dress through worldwide publications and postcards in the early 1900s, motivated by her predecessor, Queen Elisabeth of Romania.

4. The French Academy of Fine Arts appointed Queen Marie as its first-ever female member

Queen Marie became the first woman to ever be named a member of a distinguished learned society. When she accepted an invitation to join the Académie des Beaux-Arts in  1918 as a corresponding member in honor of her artistic achievements.

The French Academy of Fine Arts, which was a part of the Institut de France, had regularly had more than 50 members at a time since its founding in Napoleon’s time. This demonstrates the significance of Queen Marie’s accomplishments as well as how historically underappreciated female artists have been.

5. She became a public figure in Romania

Portrait of Marie of Romania (1875-1938) Photo by Pierre Bellet Wikimedia

Marie was able to successfully create her reputation as “one of the best-looking and richest princesses in Europe” even before she became queen. She was renowned for her beauty as well as her skills in literature, drawing, dance, and horseback riding.  Two defamation efforts, one launched by the Central Powers during World War I and the other by Communist leaders following Romania’s conversion to the Socialist Republic in 1947, hurt her popularity.

6. Queen Marie published 34 books and short stories during her lifetime

TIME Magazine Cover Featuring Marie of Romania (4 Aug 1924) Photo by TIME Magazine Wikimedia 

During her lifetime, Marie published 34 books and short stories, according to one of her biographers, Diana Mandache.  She was encouraged to write by her aunt Queen Elisabeth, and she found inspiration in King Carol I’s memoirs.  The Lily of Life, her debut work, was published in Bucharest in 1912. It is a fairy tale with symbolic characters that were originally written in English she would always use but was shortly translated into Romanian. 

After Carol I died in 1914, Marie penned a few pages in her journal, but she didn’t begin writing every day until in1916, the day Romania entered World War I. With a few breaks in her latter years, she continued to write fresh entries virtually every day both during and after the war.  In 1996, the first volume was released.  Marie’s war diary, edited by Lucian Boia, was published in 2014; ten further books of entries appeared between 2006 and 2014, and the entries from her dying years were made available to the public in 2018. 

7. She was a recognized visual artist

At that time, people admired Queen Marie’s illuminated books for their abundance of poetry. She used to give most of them as gifts to family members and friends, but some of them ended up being displayed at significant expositions.

They received two Gold Medals over the years—one at the Munich World’s Fair (1898) and the other at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition—becoming genuine objects of fascination for art critics.

8. The Queen was the leading royal advocate for the Art Nouveau style

Queen Marie of Romania, née Princess Marie of Edinburgh photo by Philip Alexius de Laszlo  Wikimedia

Marie stood out as a Belle Epoque icon par excellence by fervently supporting the Art Nouveau movement. Later in life, Marie’s taste in art turned out to be fairly conservative (she opposed the surrealism movement), yet when she was younger, she adored the avant-garde Art Nouveau movement.

She fostered the applied arts, helped numerous artists, and even owned a few pieces by renowned artist Alphonse Mucha, including his well-known Gismonda poster for Sarah Bernhardt. Then-Crown Princess Marie made her own masterpieces by fusing Celtic, Byzantine, and Romanian iconography, which she contributed to the style.

9. Queen Marie of Romania was one of the first women to receive a driver’s license in Germany

When the German Touring Club initially started, in Munich in 1909, Marie, then the Crown Princess of Romania, became one of the first women to drive throughout Germany. 13 She was driving a Mercedes 35 HP, considered to be the first modern automobile.

10. She Had A King’s Anointment

Queen Mary of Romania Public Domain photo Wikimedia 

Many dignitaries and royals would pay Marie and her family a visit, but Prince George of England was the most notable (who would later become King George V). He adored all of the family’s children, but our kid Missy was the one he adored above all others. It almost seems as though George had a sixth sense of greatness.

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