The Times

April 27, 2007
Court & Social

Peter Jennings

The former King of Romania, King Michael, tells Peter Jennings about his rare stamp collection

Former King Michael of Romania, a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria, revealed during a recent interview at his home overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland that he was once an enthusiastic collector of the stamps of Great Britain and the British Empire.

A third cousin of The Queen, King Michael is remembered for his courageous efforts to serve his country during the difficult years of the Second World War. King Michael and his wife, Queen Anne, a member of the Danish and French Royal Family, are making a five-day visit to London at the end of April.

King Michael was born in Sinaia, Romania, on October 25, 1921, the son of Crown Prince Carol. In December 1925 Michael was pronounced heir apparent when his father eloped and renounced the rights to the throne. Two years later on the death of King Ferdinand, a regency functioned on behalf of the five-year-old Michael. The boy-king was depicted on a set of postage stamps issued on March 16, 1928.

Asked if he still collected stamps, King Michael replied: “I used to enjoy collecting stamps very much. I built up a collection of the stamps of Great Britain and the British Empire. I was once a client of Stanley Gibbons, the famous stamp shop in London. When I was young I enjoyed studying and learning from the Stanley Gibbons stamps catalogues”.

Despite rumours that have circulated in the philatelic world, King Michael declared that he “did not inherit” his father’s valuable stamp collection, adding: “I do not know what became of that collection”. The only stamps he has are a few pages of mint stamps depicting himself, which he showed me with evident pleasure.

King Michael reigned until June 8, 1930, when his father returned to the country and proclaimed himself King. In September 1940 the pro-German Prime Minister, Marshal Ion Antonescu, staged a coup against King Carol II, and the 18-year-old Michael was proclaimed King to popular acclaim. A new set of definitive stamps was issued depicting a portrait of King Michael. King Michael remarked that “during the early 1940’s I was not given the opportunity to approve the stamps issued by Romania”.

King Michael staged a coup d’état against the Germans on August 23, 1944, and proclaimed Romania’s loyalty to the Allies. With the Soviet occupation in 1945, political pressures forced King Michael to appoint a pro-Soviet government dominated by the Romanian Communist Party. He was deposed by the Communists on December 30, 1947.

It was only in 1992, three years after the revolution which overthrew the Communist dictatorship, that King Michael was allowed to visit his country.

King Michael worked tirelessly to help to achieve Romania’s membership of Nato in March 2004 and the European Union on January 1 this year. He is a quiet and retiring man, preferring as he said himself in the words of a Romanian proverb “to listen rather than to speak”.

King Michael, the last surviving head of state from the Second World War, has not written his memoirs and explained his decision by saying that he tends to be “very blunt” when discussing the way his country had been treated by the Communists.

A definitive stamp depicting King Michael issued during 1940 was included on an engaging stamp issued by Romania in 2006 to commemorate historical events — 140 years since the foundation of the Romanian royal dynasty and 125 years since the proclamation of the Romanian kingdom.

Asked what message he would like to convey to readers of The Times, about his country, now that it is a member of the European Union, King Michael emphasized that other member countries need to be “patient and give Romania time. The people of Romania suffered much under the Communists and have not yet fully recovered”.