X Ray picture of Queen Elisabeth of Romania’s hand taken with an early Roentgen machine

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Carmen Sylva, European royal families, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, Queen Elizabeth of Romania, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs

X Ray picture of Queen Elisabeth of Romania’s hand taken with an early Roentgen machine (www.royalromania.wordpress.com)

Queen Elisabeth of Romania (Carmen Sylva) had in 1896 an x ray image of her right hand taken at ‘Scoala de Poduri’ in Bucharest (the old Romanian technical university), with the first Roentgen machine imported in the country. The queen volunteered to have this photograph taken in order to inspire confidence in her fellow countrymen in that revolutionary medical technology based on x rays, discovered by the German professor Wilhelm Roentgen just the year before, in 1895. It is in my opinion a valuable piece of medical, social and also royal history. The radiography was recently sold for 800 Euro (in my view well bellow its market and historic value) at a Bucharest auction house (starting price 250 Euro). Diana Mandache

My forthcoming book: “Fatherland and Destiny. The Crown Princess of Romania”

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Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Diana Mandache, European royal families, King Michael of Romania, Prince Radu, Queen Anne, Queen-Mother Helen, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs

“Fatherland and Destiny” [Patrie si Destin] brings for the first time together, a significant part of the myriad of events, places and people encountered throughout the life of Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess Margarita of Romania. Her destiny is often congruent with that of her father, King Michael, and her life has been profoundly influenced by the more recent history of her country and south east Europe. His Majesty is the one who, by naming Princess Margarita as his successor, has shown vision in understanding the necessity to adapt to the realities of the new century, paralleling the approach of his illustrious predecessors King Carol I or King Ferdinand, in the 19th or the 20th century. Modernity and adaptability to new conditions thus ensures the continuation of the monarchy. Diana Mandache [the book will be released on 31 May 2012, 2 pm, at Bookfest, in Bucharest. Litera publishing house]

The Romanian National Day: 10 May 1916

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Romanian Royal Family, The Romanian National Day 10 May 1916

The Romanian celebrations of National Day – 10 May 1916 – cavalry passing in review before King Ferdinand. Being in the nature of a military review the Romanian National Day celebrations were mainly of a warlike character. The war in which Europe was involved gave that year a wider significance than before. The celebrations were mainly in the nature of a ‘preparedness for war’ demonstration.

A mobile anti-aircraft battery in the Romanian demonstration.

‘El Castillo Real de Peles’, article published in Spain

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Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Carol I, King Michael of Romania, Pelesh Castle, Romanian Royal Family, Royal Palaces, Rumania

View this document on Scribd

I would like to present you an article of mine published recently in Revista de Museologia #52, Madrid, about Pelesh Royal Castle in the Transylvanian Alps, built by King Carol I.

72 years ago, King Carol II bust statue at the New York World’s Fair

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Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Carol II, Romania, Romanian Royal Family

Cristina Georgescu, considered one Romania’s beauties of that time, dressed in a peasant costume, stands by a bust statue of King Carol II, exibited at the Romanian Pavilion from the 1940 World’s Fair in New York. She directed the preparations for the second opening (1940) to the public of the alabaster-lined structure, which had a particularly popular attraction in the foreign exhibit area of the exhibition last season (1939). With Romania occupying the headlines, along with other war-threatened European nations, her exhibit at the Fair, opened on 11 May, was of timely interest.

The building was constructed by architects Prince George Cantacuzino, Octav Doicescu & Aurel Doicescu.

The Romanian House

The Romanian House - Courtesy of the NY World's Fair Historical Society

Happy Birthday to HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania

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Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Prince Nicholas of Romania, Princess Helena of Romania, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs

HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania (21 October 2011), the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest

Twenty years ago HRH Prince Nicholas, the son of Princess Helena and grandson of HM King Michael, arrived for the first time in Romania. He was just 7 years old, and his perceptions of his heroic grandfather’s homeland were those of a child who came along with his mother and grandparents, but put suddenly in the front of the sheer enthusiasm of the over one million Bucharest people who came to greet King Michael for the first time in a half of century, after his forced abdication in 1947. Today, Prince Nicholas celebrates 27 years, soon he will finish his studies. He is the third in the line of the succession to the Romanian throne. Nicholas is held in high regard by his family and also by the Romanians. Happy birthday! DM  

Prince Nicholas w. his mother, Princess Helena of Romania, Bucharest 23 April 1992

see also La Multi Ani ASR Principelui Nicolae al Romaniei

HRH Crown Princess Margarita of Romania – Birthday Anniversary

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Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, King Michael of Romania, Prince Radu, Principesa Margareta, Principesa Mostenitoare a Romaniei, Queen Anne, Romanian Royal Family

A Happy birthday Your Royal Highness from the bottom of our hearts! Diana & Valentin Mandache. 26 March 2012: Princess Margarita’s birthday

The Line of Succession according to the Fundamental Rules of the Romanian Royal House

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Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, European royal families, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Prince Radu, Principele Radu, Principesa Margareta, Romanian Royal Family

THE NEW FUNDAMENTAL RULES of the ROMANIAN DYNASTY. AN APPRAISAL

By Diana Mandache (‘Royalty Digest Quarterly’, No 1/2008, 49-52pp)

75 years ago today – the Romanian press on Crown Prince Michael

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Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, prince michael, princess helen, Queen-Mother Helen, Regele Mihai, Romanian Royal Family

75 years ago today, the French language newspaper “L’Echo de Bucarest”  (12 February 1937) wrote about the Crown Prince Michael of Romania who underwent a hospital appendectomy emergency, which struck him while visiting his mother, Princess Helen in Florence. DM

Madalin Ghigeanu collection

Neo-Romanian style picture frames w. Queen Marie

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Romanian Royal Family, Queen Marie of Romania, Regina Maria, Familia regala, European royal families, istoria regalitatii

Article first published on the Historic Houses of Romania blog by Valentin Mandache

I would like to present you two beautiful Neo-Romanian style wooden picture frames, dating from the early 1910s at a time when the mature phase of Romania’s national style was hugely gaining in popularity, following the success of the Bucharest Great Jubilee Exhibition of 1906 when the new national style of Romania was showcased to the wider public. These fine artefacts are part of architect Madalin Ghigeanu’s collection of documents and objects of Romanian history, to whom I am grateful for allowing the publication of their photographs on this blog. The motifs craved on the frames are an encyclopaedia of Neo-Romanian style decoration: the Byzantine arch, short rope motif columns, ethnographic solar discs, patterns taken from peasant embroideries, etc. Fittingly the frames now host autographed photographs of Queen Marie, Romania’s British Queen, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, one of the iconic promoters of the Neo-Romanian style since its first years, especially in the field of interior and furniture design, gardening, fashion and painting.

Neo-Romanian style picture frame (arch. Madalin Ghigeanu collection)

Romanian Royal Memorabilia: Carmen Sylva’s Fan auctioned in 2006

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Carmen Sylva, European royal families, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, Queen Elizabeth of Romania, Royal Memorabilia

This is a rare and valuable fan that belonged to Queen Elisabeth of Romania, which was estimated at Christie’s, London (South Kensington) between  £3,000 – £5,000 ($5,211 – $8,685), and sold for £2,880 ($5,003) in February 2006. I would say that the amount paid for the acquisition at the auction was quite a good price for this more peculiar historical item. DM

Description: Queen Elisabeth of Romania’s Fan. The canepin leaf painted with wisteria signed E. Fanty Lescure and painted with a poem: ’Une Aile d’Ange d’aigle ou d’abeile c’est toujours une ail!’ signed ‘Carmen Sylva’, with mother of pearl sticks, the gold guardsticks enamelled in colours with daffodils, iris, lily and sunflowers, unsigned but probably by Paul Telge, Berlin, possibly to a design by the Queen of Romania, 33cm, circa 1895, in Perspex case. Provenance: Princess Elizabeth Bibesco. 

A fan also painted by Emma Fanty Lescure with very similar gold enamelled guardsticks was sold in these rooms 13 July 1978. It was in a fan box labelled Paul Telge – Berlin and had a note enclosed: Fan ornamented in gold enamels designed by Carmen Sylva H.M. the Queen of Romania; it was not painted with a poem signed Carmen Sylva. It is now no. 141 in the Helen Alexander collection and has been exhibited: Royal Fans, The Fan Circle International, 1985-6, Salisbury, Guildford and Harwood House, no. 160; The Fan Museum, 2001, no. 45; Royal Fans, The Fan Museum Greenwich, 2002, no. 47.

Fresco from the private chapel in Pelesh Castle

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Carmen Sylva, Pelesh Castle, Queen Elizabeth of Romania, Royal Chapel

Fresco from the private chapel in Pelesh castle. The chapel was a recollection place much loved by Queen Elisabeta of Romania (Carmen Sylva). Photo by Diana Mandache.

64 years ago, King Michael of Romania arrived in Switzerland, exiled at the orders of Kremlin

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Eastern Europe, European royal families, Familia regala, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, non reigning monarchs, Regele Mihai, Romanian Royal Family, South-East European Monarchs

"Exiled at the orders of Kremlin, King Michael arriving in Lausanne". In the image King Michael, Queen-Mother Helen of Romania and the Duchess of Aosta, Lausanne train station, 5 January 1948.

1912 A century ago season greetings card – Romanian Royal Family

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Romanian Royal Family

A Happy New Year 2012 … a hundred years later!

A century ago season greetings card - The Romanian Royal Family, old postcard (Diana Mandache collection)

The 15 most popular articles in 2011

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British Royal Family, Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Diana Mandache, European royal families, Familia regala, istoria regalitatii, King Michael of Romania, Queen Marie of Romania, Queen-Mother Helen

1. Exhibition of traditional Greek and Romanian costumes of Helen, Queen-Mother of Romania
2. A letter from King George V to Queen Marie of Romania, 1922
3. New article on King Michael of Romania entitled “The History Maker”, Majesty magazine
4. Three Royal Weddings: 1947, 1981, 2011
5. Philip de Laszlo in 1936 at the Romanian Royal Court
6. King Michael of Romania Parliament’s speech, 25 October 2011
7. “Dearest Missy” – My new book
8. Queen Marie of Romania, Colonel Joe Boyle and the Canadians
9. Princess Helen and King Michael of Romania: Black Sea royal holidays
10. Exclusive Interview with the Crown Princess Margarita of Romania
11. Princess Elisabeta of Romania
12. Wedding: Georg Friedrich Ferdinand of Prussia & Sophie of Isenburg
13. KOKOSHNIK: from traditional Russian headdresses to Royal Fashion
14. A symbol of the Romanian Monarchy: the Throne Room – used by the communist dictator
15. Visit by HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania to the National History Museum