Lesson of Dignity

NINE O’CLOCK

Editorial by Rodica Pricop

Lesson of dignity

published in issue 4202 page 1 at 2008-06-13

The week that is heading for an end has unfolded under the sign of the Royal House of Romania, with a number of ceremonies celebrating the Diamond Wedding Anniversary of King Mihai I and of Queen Ana. On the 10th of June, Their Majesties celebrated 60 years of marriage, through a range of events held in both Bucharest and at the Peles Castle in Sinaia, King Mihai I birthplace as well as seat of the Royal House of Romania. The Royal Family was joined for this event by members of various European royal houses including Queen Sofia of Spain, King Simeon of Bulgaria, King Constantin II of Greece, as well as close friends of the family from Romania and overseas, and outstanding figures of the Romanian society.

This anniversary has put the Royal House to the front of current affairs and showed to Romanians a different attitude and conduct of the people of state.

The ceremonies organised on the occasion have been governed by dignity, discretion, refinement as well as humbleness.

By total opposition to the flashy luxury displayed by the emerging Romanian leadership in the last 18 years who strike eye sight with their extremely expensive and armoured vehicles, with companions and officials escorts, with excessive restrictions applied to the general public, the Royal House showed that the beauty and solemnity of an event can be achieved by simplicity.

Without one single discordant note, without pointless glamour, the anniversary concert at the Romanian Athenaeum was impressive through the natural stature and conduct of the King and of the Queen who entertained with the same smile and warmth both their senior guests and the regular passers-by who stopped to congratulate them.

The reception offered to their guests at the Peles Castle, on Wednesday, was also extremely discreet. A tourist to Sinaia who went to visit the castle wouldn’t have noticed anything different. Only two buses with the marks of the Royal House on them that had drove in the guests, were parked there, but at some distance, not to disrupt the visitors…

There is no doubt about the fact that the events that have happened this week and that put the limelight onto the Royal House of Romania were a true lesson of high moral stature and presence for any head of state or for any aspirant to such position.

King Mihai I, a major political personality who has marked both Romanian and world history by the coup on August 23, 1944, facilitating an earlier Victory of the Allies, will survive in the awareness of this nation as a head of state who was always loyal to Romania in its darkest hours. King Mihai never stopped advocating the Romanian cause around the world, not even during the long years of exile that were only a stage in a life that has been totally devoted to his country and to its people.

If this ill society that has lost its moral benchmarks took the example of the Royal House, also a symbol of family values, there would still be a chance of redress and reconstruction of a hierarchy of values.

The marriage of King Mihai and Queen Ana is a love story that survived innumerable hardships marked by the years of exile.

The King and the Queen first met in London in 1947, where King Mihai accompanies by Queen Mother Elena was attending the Coronation of his cousin, Princess Elisabeth of Great Britain. King Mihai was asking Princess Ana of Bourbon-Parma in marriage only a week later. His devotement to his country, his sense of duty and also the support of his fiancée made the King return to Romania after Elisabeth’s coronation despite the pressure coming from the country where many politicians would have liked that he never came back.

The next moment was the King’s forced abdication on December 30, 1947, under the treat of 1,000 young men’s being executed by the Communists. Queen Ana was to step foot on Romanian soil only on the Easter of 1992.

King Mihai and Queen Ana’s wedding was also the beginning of 44 years of exile. The ceremony took place on June 10, 1948, at Tatoi, Greece, organised by King Pavlov and Queen Frederica of Greece. Some of the illustrious guests were Queen Mother Elena of Romania, Prince Erik of Denmark, the Uncle of Queen Ana, as well as members of the Houses of Hanover and Hesse. Like an arch over time, Queen Sofia or Spain and King Constantin of the Greeks present at their Diamond Wedding Anniversary, were also pages at their wedding in Athens.

The joy of the moment at the time was shadowed by the refusal of Pope Pius XII to recognize their marriage, which was a distress for the Queen who was a Roman-Catholic. Faithful to his country, King Mihai carried on the tradition established by King Carol I that all the members of the Romanian Royal House would be baptized as Orthodox. As a result, Queen Ana was excommunicated by the Catholic Church and remained so until Pope John XXIII came to office. None of her close families went to their wedding. The entire descent of King Mihai I are Orthodox.

Their years together were full of joy and hardships, mainly because of their exile. The couple has been through many trials but also blessed with five daughters: Princesses Margareta, Elena, Irina, Sofia and Maria.

To those who lived in communism too, the simple fact that King Mihai and Queen Ana are now part of the public life of the society looks like an extraordinary progress, unimaginable back then. Something worth remarking is the fact that the two post-Revolution ex-Presidents of the country – Ion Iliescu and Emil Constantinescu – attended the royal ceremonies – something telling us that the animosity of the past has been left behind. To the youngest of us who are only taking their first steps into the real world, the presence of the members of the Royal House at the major national events is something they take for granted, a state of normality and it should definitely stay like that…

Having been systematically banned from Romania for six years after the Revolution, in 1997 the King was given back his Romanian citizenship and the Royal Family returned home. Now, 11 years later, the current debating on the Constitution is bringing up monarchy as a possible form of government. I do not believe Romania will go back to being a monarchy, but I do believe that Romania could borrow the values of the Royal House, even if it will take many years. Someone is telling me that it doesn’t matter too much if Romania makes baby steps as long as the direction is forward…