95th birthday of HM Queen Frederica of the Hellenes

The Greek Queen Frederica was born on 18th April 1917 as daughter of Duke Ernest Augustus III of Brunswick and his wife, Duchess Victoria Luise, née Princess of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II and Empress Augusta Viktoria. As daughter of the head of the House of Hanover, she was Princess Frederica of Hanover, Great Britain and Ireland, and also Duchess Frederica of Brunswick-Lüneburg. As a descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, she was, at birth, 34th in the line of succession to the British throne.


HRH Crown Prince Paul of Greece proposed to her during the summer of 1936, while he was in Berlin attending the 1936 Summer Olympics. Prince Paul was the son of King Constantine I of Greece and Queen Sophie, sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Their engagement was announced officially on 28th September 1937. They married in Athens on 9th January 1938. With her marriage Frederica used the title Hereditary Princess (Greek: Πριγκήπισσα Διαδόχου, Prinkēpissa Diadókhou, literally "Princess of the Heir") of Greece, her husband being heir presumptive to his elder brother, King George II of the Hellenes.


During the early part of their marriage, they resided at Villa Psychiko in the suburbs of Athens. Ten months after their marriage, their first child, Princess Sophia (the future Queen Sofia of Spain), was born on 2nd November 1938. On 2nd June 1940, their son and heir, Prince Constantine (the future King Constantine II), was born.

On 28th October 1940 Mussolini's troops attacked Greece, but were defeated by the Royal Greek Army. In April 1941 Hitler came to Mussolini’s rescue and invaded Greece. Crown Princess Frederica and her infant children were evacuated on a British warplane to Crete, where they were repeatedly strafed by the Luftwaffe. Several weeks later, Crete fell, and the Royal Family escaped to Cairo. From there, Crown Prince Paul accompanied King George to London, where a government-in-exile was formed. Crown Princess Frederica and the children spent the next two and a half years in South Africa, where a third child, Princess Irene, was born in 1942.


After the war, the Allies oversaw a plebiscite, and in September 1946, the Royal Family returned to Athens. On 1st September 1946 the Greek people decided by referendum on the Monarchy, which won 69 percent of the vote. King George II returned to the throne for a third time.


On 1st April 1947, King George II died suddenly and Frederica's husband ascended the Greek throne as King Paul I. Civil war was raging with the Communist guerrillas in the North, and that spring the Truman Doctrine had been launched to prevent Greece and Turkey from coming under Communist control. The King and Queen toured Northern Greece under severe security to try to appeal for loyalty in the summer of 1947.



During the civil war, Queen Frederica set the Queen's Camps or Child-cities (translation of: Παιδο(υ)πόλεις / Paidopoleis or Paidupoleis) a network of 53 camps around Greece where she would gather mostly orphans and children of poor families. These camps provided much needed shelter, food, and education to these children.


The Greek Civil War ended in August, 1949. The Sovereigns took this opportunity to strengthen the monarchy. But Queen Frederica has been described as "inherently undemocratic". The reason why the Queen became an often hated figure was because she was involved in Greek politics. However this involvement was often undertaken out of necessity. A closer analysis of Queen Frederica’s actions indicate that she was motivated by a desire to promote democracy and ultimately ensure that the Greek Monarchy became an institution that was above politics.


On 6th March 1964, King Paul died of cancer, and her son ascended the throne as King Constantine II. Queen Frederica assumed the title of queen dowager but continued to serve in the role of Queen. When King Constantine married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark later that year on 18th September, Queen Frederica stepped back from the majority of her public royal duties in favor of the new Queen. She remained a target for vicious attacks. In response she renounced her apanage and retired to the countryside where she lived an almost reclusive life. However, she continued to attend Royal events that were family-oriented, such as the baptisms of her grandchildren in both Spain and Greece.


After King Constantine’s counter-coup to restore democracy failed on 13th December 1967, Queen Frederica left the country with the King, Queen Anne-Marie, the King’s two year old daughter Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, the King’s sister, Princess Irene and Prime Minister Kollias.


Queen Frederica died during a surgery in Madrid on 6th February 1981. Her funeral on 12th February 1981 in the garden of the Royal Estate Tatoi was attended by a multitude of reigning and deposed royalty. This was testament to the high esteem that the late Queen was still held in royal circles. Unfortunately Queen Frederica’s status as an important twentieth century historical figure progressively diminished following her son’s exile and the repudiation of the monarchy in 1974. When King Constantine II and his family were allowed to return to briefly attend Queen Frederica’s funeral at Tatoi, the King’s return was brief and His Majesty was not even allowed to stay overnight. At Athens Airport the King and his family were greeted by cheers from Monarchists behind a wire fence. Poignantly, many of the assembled Monarchists were vexed to the point of crying that their King was not allowed to go over and meet with them.

In February 2006 the Royal Family commemorated the late Queen Frederica at Tatoi.

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La grande tragedia d'Italia - Umberto II

The Radical Royalist commemorated King Umberto’s accession to the Italian throne on 9th May 1946 here .

Fellow blogger Matterhorn has already paid tribute to His Majesty King Umberto II of Italy who was forced to go into exile 65 years ago. Matterhorn published the King’s noble last message he addressed to the Italian people upon departing into exile. This is the last passage:

With a spirit full of sorrow, but with the serene consciousness of having made every effort to carry out my duties, I leave my country. Let those who have taken the oath and kept faith through the hardest trials, consider themselves released from their oath of allegiance to the King, but not from their oath of allegiance to the Country. I think of all those who have fallen in the name of Italy, and I salute all the Italians. Whatever destiny awaits our Country, she will always be able to count on me, as on the most devoted of her sons.

Long live Italy!

13th June 1946

On 13th June 1946 the King left the Quirinale Palace, the only official building in Rome which was still flying the royal standard. The Royal Guard saluted their King for the last time.

Il re Umberto II si appresta a lasciare per sempre il Quirinale, e qui lo vediamo nel Cortile d’Onore del palazzo con il duca Riario Sforza, comandante dei corazzieri, mentre passa in rassegna il picchetto che rende omaggio all’ultimo dei Savoia. Sono attimi di profonda commozione, per tutti e in mode particolare per Umberto chi si trova nel ruolo di protagonist del tramonto di una dinastia.

“Guardia del re, salute al re!”, dice Riario Sforza ai suoi uomini.

“Viva il re!”, gridano per l’ultima volta i corazzieri. E viene ammainata la bandiera con lo stemma sabaudo.

King Umberto did not want a throne covered with blood: Non voglio un trono macchiato di sangue."

At four o'clock in the afternoon King Umberto reached Ciampino Airport, greeted by his most fervent supporters, he is guided to the military plane, Savoia Marchetti S 95, that would take him from Rome into the Portuguese exile. He never abdicated - neither for himself nor for his descendants.

Sono le quattro del pomeriggio del 13 giugno 1946. Umberto II ha raggiunto l'aeroporto di Ciampino e, salutato dagli fedelissime, si avvia a passo spedito verso l'aereo militare, un Savoia Marchetti S 95, che lo porterà da Roma nell'esilio portoghese. ... senza tuttavia rinunciare ai suoi diritti sul trono e quelli dei suoi discendenti.

From the aeroplane's door the King greeted the Italians for the last time on Italian soil.

Dal portellone dell'aereo Umberto rivolge un ultimo saluto ai pochi che, informati all'ultimo momento della sua partenza, lo hanno accompagnato. Un ultimo, mesto, forzato sorriso. Un ultimo sguardo a quell'Italia su cui ha regnato per un solo mese e che non rivedrà più. Anche il cielo sembra intristire, in quel giorno di tarda primavera.

In 1962 King Umberto attended the wedding of Prince Juan Carlos of Spain and Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark. On the right is the father of the bride, King Paul I of Greece.

Il re Paolo di Grecia presenta ai dignitari di Corte le re Umberto II.

His private study in his exile home, Villa Italia, near the Atlantic Ocean in Cascais, Portugal.

Il re Umberto nel suo studio privato di Villa Italia, la piccola reggia del lungo esilio a Cascais. "Cala la notte e prima di spegnere la luce e riposare ho la visione della piazza del Quirinale, di Roma, della città che non si può non amare. L'Italia è sempre nel mio cuore".

The King's library in 1970. Although he received a military education, Umberto always loved books and was interested in the arts.

Umberto nella sua grande biblioteca di Villa Italia. Dopo aver recevuto una rigida educazione militare, era stato considerato dai più come un uomo dai limitati interessi culturali. Al contrario il re Umberto era un raffinato umanista, un profondo conoscitore di storia, di letteratura e d'arte.

In 1982 Pope John Paul II visited Portugal. On 14th April 1982 the pontif and the king met in the residence of the Patriarch of Lisbon. At this stage King Umberto was already seriously sick and suffered from lung cancer.

He died on 18th March 1983 in Geneva, Switzerland. His body was not allowed to repatriated to Italy and was interred in Hautecombe Abbey in France.

Un affettuoso abbraccio, spontane e informale, tra Papa Giovanni Paolo II e il re Umberto II: è il 14 prile del 1982, il Papa si è recato in pellegrinaggio al santuario di Nostra Signora di Fatima, in Portogallo, e nella residenzia del cardinale di Lisbona ha concesso un'udienza privata alla re d'Italia. Umberto si è inginocchiato di fronte a lui, ma il Pontefice lo ha fatto subito rialzare e ha voluto abbracciarlo. Il sovrano sa di essere molto malato, che gli resta poco da vivere, e di certo in quel lungo colloquio ne parla con Papa Giovanni Paolo.

While King Umberto was totally ignored by the Italian officials, the Portuguese kept an affectionate memory of the Monarch they hosted for 37 years.

In 1987 a bust of the Italian King was unveiled in Cascais, in front of the Villa Italia, where he spent three and a half decades. The ceremony in the newly named Avenida Rei Humberto II de Itália was attended not only by King Umberto's only son, Prince Vittorio Emanuele, but also by the Portuguese President Mário Soares. Also present were Queen Marie José of Italy, King Umberto's widow, Queen Joana of the Bulgarians, the deceased King's sister, and Portugal's King-in-waiting, Dom Duarte Pio, Duke of Bragança.

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70th Birthday of the King of the Hellenes

Today His Majesty King Constantine II of the Hellenes Κωνσταντίνος, Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων celebrates his 70th birthday. That this important landmark in his life cannot be celebrated with joy and festivities at home has nothing to do with the Greek financial crisis that cripples the country. The King has been living in exile since the counter-coup to re-establish democracy in Greece, failed that fatal night of 13th December 1967.

The Mad Monarchist stated quite bluntly that “the ruling regime is so hostile to the former royal family and the royals so increasingly removed from the country that it can seem like a lost cause more along the lines of the plight of the Dalai Lama than even the King of Romania in terms of the likelihood of the success of a restoration. However, the Greek monarchists deserve a great deal of credit for fighting the good fight far more frequently and for greater durations than most other monarchists, especially in modern times. It is also important to note that when modern Greece won its independence from the Turks in 1829 it originally went back to the classical period which is so idealized and founded a republic. Monarchists should be quick to point out that this republic did not last long because it proved totally incapable and so a monarchy was established.”

When Prince Constantine of Greece and Denmark was born on 2nd June 1940 to Crown Prince Paul and Crown Princess Frederika (née Prinzessin Friederike von Hannover, Herzogin zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg) Europe was at war. On 28th October the same year the Duce decided to attack the Kingdom of Greece, but the defiant Greeks were able to claim the first great victory that the Allied forces had won against the Axis powers since the beginning of the war. It increased the prestige of King George II of Greece, Crown Prince Paul's brother, who was very active in monitoring the progress of the military campaign against Italy. The Italian troops were driven out of Greece, and the Royal Greek army entered Albania, that had also fallen victim to Italian expansion plans. German dictator Adolf Hitler came to his allies rescue and on 6th April 1941 German troops attacked the Royal Greek Army.

After several weeks of intense fighting, the Greek armed forces were defeated and German troops occupied Athens on 27th April. At that time the King was determined to continue the resistance. He formed a government under Emmanouel Tsouderos (a former opponent of the King’s), who also happened to be from the island of Crete - the place of the latest epic battle between the Greeks and the Germans. On 23rd April King George , Crown Prince Paul, Queen Frederika and their children, Princess Sophia and Prince Constantine and the royal government were evacuate to Crete.

The German invasion of Crete began on 20th May 1941 and by 1st June the last Allied troops had surrendered. King George II, Crown Prince Paul and the Royal Greek government were first evacuated to Egypt, and later went to the United Kingdom to continue their fight for the liberation of Greece. Crown Princess Frederika and her children went to South Africa, where in 1942 the couple's third child, Princess Irene, was born.

After the German defeat the Monarchy was re-affirmed in a referendum in 1946. In the midst of a bloody civil war, King George II died and was succeeded by his brother, who ascended the Greek throne as King Pavlos I. Now Crown Prince Constantine went to the Anavryta School in Athens; graduated of three military academies; was inscribed in the Faculty of Law at the University of Athens; and underwent postgraduate studies in modern European History at Cambridge University. At the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome Crown Prince Constantine won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 for yachting, becoming the first Greek to do so since 1912.

On 6th March 1964 King Paul died, and his son ascended to the throne as King Constantine II. The US magazine Time illustrated his proclamation:

Last week, as high government officials, the hierarchy of the Greek church, leading judges and Members of Parliament gathered solemnly for a candlelight ceremony at the royal palace, new King Constantine kissed a silver-bound Bible, then took the royal oath. "I succeed my father to the throne with the firm determination to follow his lofty example," Constantine declared. "I pledge to serve my country with wholehearted devotion, and all my powers as a vigilant guardian of the free institutions of the democratic regime. My only thoughts and cares will always be the true and supreme interest of our fatherland." When the vows had been spoken, Premier George Papandreou shouted "Long live the King!" and the assemblage echoed the words. At 23 the world's youngest monarch, Constantine will be tutored in statecraft by the foxy Papandreou,* 76, whose Center Union coalition won a landslide victory over Karamanlis' Conservatives last month. A tall, athletic youth who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960, Constantine can rely for some time on sympathy for his father and the good feeling engendered by his impending marriage next January to Denmark's Princess Anne-Marie to facilitate his task. But ultimately Constantine can calm Greece's latent antimonarchist feelings only by calling, like his father, on the motto of his royal house: "My power is the love of my people."

* Whose own son Andreas, 45, gave up U.S. citizenship and a University of California post as an economics professor to run for election and join his father's Cabinet as chief aide to the Premier.

The following years were full of unrest and unstable governments. For a good account of this period see Wikipedia.

King Constantine’ Counter-Coup:

From the outset, the relationship between King Constantine II and the colonels was an uneasy one. The colonels were not willing to share power with anyone whereas the 25-year old King, like his father before him, was used to playing an active role in politics and would never consent to being a mere figurehead, especially in a military administration.

The King finally decided to launch his counter-coup on 13th December 1967. Since Athens was effectively in the hands of the junta militarily, Constantine decided to fly to the small northern city of Kavala, East of Thessaloniki. There he hoped to be among troops loyal only to him.

The vague plan he and his advisers had conceived was to form a unit that would advance to Thessaloniki (Greece's second biggest city and unofficial capital of northern Greece) and take it. Constantine planned to install an alternative administration there. International recognition, which he believed would be given, as well as internal pressure from the fact that Greece would have been split in two governments would, as the King hoped, force the junta to resign, leaving the field clear for him to return triumphant to Athens.

In the early morning hours of 13th December the King boarded the royal plane together with Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, their two baby children, Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark and Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, his mother [Queen] Friederike and his sister, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark. Constantine also took Premier Kollias with him. At first things seemed to be going according to plan. Constantine was well received in Kavala which, militarily, was under the command of a general loyal to him. The air force and navy, both strongly royalist and almost not involved in the 1967 coup, immediately mobilized. Another of Constantine's generals effectively cut all communication between Athens and the north.

Two referenda, the first under the military junta’s rule in 1973 and another one in 1974 did not bring back the Monarchy. The Greek Royal Family left Rome in 1973 and took residence in the United Kingdom.

King Constantine suffered another blow in 1994, when the Greek parliament, the very same parliament that is directly responsible for Greece's current debt crisis, passed a law to expropriate his property and revoke his citizenship. To this day, he refuses to accept being told that he is not Greek.

The Prime Minister in 1994 was Andreas Papandreou, son of the former Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou, and father of the current Prime Minister... so much for democracy in a republic!
One of the most recent photos: On 16th April 2010 the King and Queen of the Hellenes attended H.M. Queen Margrethe of Denmark's 70 birthday anniversary at the Palace of Fredensborg.

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Romania's Crown Princess turned 60

Crown Princess Margarita of Romania celebrated her 60th birthday on 26th March. Her father, King Michael I (in Romanian: Regele Mihai , *25th October 1921) was forced to abdicate on 30th December 1947.

In November 1947 the King attended the wedding of his cousins, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in London. There he met Princess Anna of Bourbon-Parma. On his return to Bukarest, the Romanian Communists who controlled the country objected the King founding a family and threatened to shoot 1,500 young people whom they had arrested, should he not abdicate. King Michael left Romania on the 3rd January 1948 feeling, as he once said, as if his heart had died. He had signed, under duress, an abdication that he never recognized.

He and Princess Anna were married on the 10th of June 1948 in Athens, at the invitation of King Paul I and Queen Frederica of the Hellenes. The ceremony took place at the Royal Palace of Athens.

Exile in Switzerland
From 1949 until 1950 the royal couple lived in Lausanne, where Princess Margarita, their first child, was born. Princesses Helena and Irina were also born in Switzerland, in 1951 and 1953 respectively. Princess Sophie was born in Athens in 1957 and Princess Marie in Copenhagen in 1964. In 1950 the Romanian Royal Family established itself in England, in Bramshill House in Hampshire and then in Ayot St-Lawrence, in Hertfordshire. There, the King and Queen ran a chicken farm and built a carpentry workshop. In 1955 the Romanian Royal Family settled in Switzerland in 1955.

Crown Princess Margarita spent her teenage years in Switzerland. For her higher education however, rather than heading straight for Paris and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, her preferred destination, she was persuaded to spend a year with her grandmother, Queen Helena of Romania, a cousin of Prince Philip, in Florence.

"She taught me everything I know. Everything I am is thanks to her. She introduced me to people - diplomats, artists, people from the UN who were working in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa." As a result she spent some months working in refugee camps in Ethiopia.

Her years in Scotland
Dreams of art school were, to Queen Helena's relief, quickly replaced by a determination to go to university. A supporter of the Romanian cause offered to pay for her fees and the British consul was summoned.

"We looked through the UCCA handbook and I thought, 'Well, I won't get into Oxford so easily.' I didn't want to go to London because some of my parents' friends were there and I didn't want to get tied down. Scotland seemed so romantic and lovely."

In the early 70s she enrolled at the Edinburgh University. She became a member of the Student Representatives' Council, where she would meet the man who was to share her life for the next five years. Gordon Brown, “a socialist student firebrand” (The Daily telegraph in a long article on that romance) meets the beautiful young Princess. They fall in love. Political principles force them apart. He turns, not into a frog, but into Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. The five-year love affair between Gordon Brown and his Romanian Princess was such that all who knew them in their student days were convinced they would marry.

"She was the one great love of his life," a close friend of Brown's once said. "He has never got over it." The Princess remains friends with Brown and his family.

Crown Princess Margarita, as a great-great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was 81st in line to the British throne at that time and a goddaughter of Prince Philip - something she did not broadcast widely.

Working with the United Nations
After Edinburgh, Crown Princess Margarita specialised in medical sociology. In 1983 she joined the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, transferring, three years later, to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Six years later her life took a new course. In Romania, the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had been executed. She decided to accompany her father on his return home.

"Getting on the plane was quite emotional. We didn't know what was going to happen to us," she recalls. "It was so strange to look out of the plane window and see the fields; they were huge." This was the first intimation of Ceausescu's collectivist policies that had destroyed rural communities.

"We stayed for a few days and found that villages had been knocked down and 150,000 children were living in orphanages. Ceausescu had wanted to boost the population. Family planning was forbidden, abortion was forbidden, women were compelled to have four children but they had nowhere to bring them up and had to give them to the state. A lot of children had Aids. It was a shock to the eyes and to the soul."

While she was visiting one orphanage, a child in a filthy cot died in front of her. It spurred her on to establish the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation. "I just didn't want this ever to happen again," she says.

In practical terms, life was "quite difficult; we had nowhere to stay. We didn't have much money. I said to my father, 'I think I had better quit my career and come home.' He said, 'What for?'" Nevertheless, she abandoned her job with the UN and, as the eldest of five daughters, found a role as the family representative in Romania where she began work on her foundation.

Education was one of her first priorities. Romanian doctors, who had not been allowed contact with the West, thought that Aids was spread through the air. Conditions in health centres were, she says, "disgusting. We began to provide training not just for the medical team but for the children in the village about sex education and how to protect yourself from getting Aids."

One of the bodies with which the foundation worked was the Actors' Union, with resting actors providing art therapy for the children. One, who ended up directing an orphanage project, was Radu Duda. His association with Princess Margarita was to prove more than professional and in 1996 the couple married in Lausanne. Created Prince Radu of Hohenzollern-Veringen, he now has an official role with the Romanian government as a trade ambassador.

To make a donation to the Crown Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, visit http://www.fpmr.ro/


The Crown Princess in her own words

HRH The Crown Princess Margarita of Romania's article for "Leaders" Magazine
Jan. Feb. March 2002, No 1 Vol 25
My country was one with which I was myself unacquainted, though I had grown up in its shadow. As a child I had grown to know it and yearn for it through the eyes and voice of my father, King Michael who was brutally forced by the communists to leave Romania in 1948. But I had never been warmed by its sunshine, never heard the wind in the trees, or felt its earth beneath my feet. My father would tell us stories about this distant land which he called home, and described with such love, longing - and constant pain. I read books about the painted monasteries of Moldavia and Bukovina, about the Danube Delta, we listened to Romanian music, we pored over old photograph albums. Later I read history books and raged at the injustice which had condemned 23 million people to a ruthless dictatorship, to hardship, darkness and hunger, locked behind the impenetrable and seemingly eternal Iron Curtain. The Romanians suffered and I searched for my roots, my history and my identity.

I do not believe that monarchy is the only solution to a country's political ills. But in Romania it remains a fact that the monarchy was removed by a Soviet diktat. And it is equally undeniable that the post-dictatorship transformation in many European states was assisted by historic personalities who either knew how to stabilise critical moments of crises, or project their sheer personality on the events. Does anyone deny that Spain's transformation in the 1970s would have taken a different, and altogether less favourable course if King Juan Carlos, my Father's good cousin, was not there?

My father encouraged me to set up a humanitarian foundation and immediately after that first trip to Romania I launched the work of the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation with the aim of helping to rebuild Romania - a lifelong task to be accomplished through projects across the country, drawing on people's imagination, aiming to recreate social relations, dignity and hope.

The Foundation is established in Romania, the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, France and Belgium. In the UK it is known as Princess Margarita of Romania Trust. This is a whole network which does fundraising activities for projects in Romania, as well as showing to a large number of people abroad the many faces and images of Romania.

We undertake projects in the areas of health, education, civil society development and culture. We encourage initiatives which develop people's potential to shape their own lives, and which can stimulate the revival of local communities, churches, health and educational establishments, and so help to restore a sense of civic responsibility.

Beneficiaries of the projects have included the elderly poor, hundreds of children in orphanages, children with HIV/AIDS, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers and high school students, but just as the Foundation's programs provide help to disadvantaged categories we have also encouraged and supported that which is positive, dynamic and creative in Romania: non-governmental organisations working in the field of child protection, talented young artists, and playwrights. For instance we have a program aiming to provide Scholarships to Young Gifted Children in the Arts. Because of the very difficult economic situation in Romania, there is an enormous amount of poverty, and art has become a luxury. Faced with financial hardship, artistically talented children often become disheartened and find it impossible to go on studying, so they abandon what could be a promising career in the arts and do something else for which they do not care. So we are starting a programme of scholarships for high school students so that they can continue their studies in music, visual arts or dance. We are hoping to raise enough money this year to help 30 students, and we aim to increase that amount every year. Maybe some of you might get involved so that people your own age but less fortunate can be helped.


"Freedom and Hope in Romania"
American Women's Club in Geneva, 17th MAY 2001 By HRH Crown Princess Margarita of Romania

The work of the Foundation is based on one fundamental premise: that Romanian society, just as the societies of other East European states, must be recreated from the bottom up. And this can only be achieved through perseverance despite adversity; determination despite obstacles. Our work acts to coordinate and concentrate our operations away from areas now subject to world attention, by directing our efforts towards medium term grass roots pilot projects - in the areas of health, education, civil society development and culture. We encourage initiatives which develop people's potential to shape their own lives, and which can stimulate the revival of local communities, churches, health and educational establishments, and so help to restore a sense of civic responsibility and pride.

Education and capacity building in particular are built into all of our projects to help make a positive and meaningful change which will have an impact well beyond the life of any financial or technical support given by the Foundation and ensure that the programs achieve sustainability in the long-term.

To date beneficiaries of the projects have included many thousands of elderly poor: for instance last year we assisted over 32,000 senior citizens living well below any arbitrary poverty line, some, earn the equivalent of only $16 a month; other beneficiaries are about fifteen hundred institutionalized children and children with HIV/AIDS, healthcare workers and over 1000 high school students a year, but we also encourage and support that which is positive, dynamic and creative in Romania: non-governmental organizations working in the field of child protection, talented young artists, and playwrights.

There is an important issue that is facing Romania, and one that it has to solve, it is the problem of institutionalized children. It is paradoxical, but, in spite of all the changes that have taken place since 1989, there are still thousands of children living in institutions - over 80,000. In addition, there are about 6,000 children who are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. In 1997-1998 the Romanian Government created an Agency for the Protection of Child Rights which has introduced a comprehensive reform policy for the de-institutionalization of children. The Foundation is one important partner NGO that is taking part in the formulation of the national strategy and has continuously provided feedback and shared the experience gathered in our programs.. The Foundation has several programs not only to help improve the quality of the lives of the kids in institutions but to support as a priority efforts to de-institutionalize them as well.
The aim is to close the orphanages.


Succession of King Michael
HM King Michael named, his eldest daughter, HRH Princess Margarita as his successor and Head of the Royal House of Romania and Custodian of the Romanian Crown after his death. The King mentioned: ‘If the Romanian Nation and Parliament were to decide to reinstate the Monarchy as the form of government’ the King will ask the Parliament ‘to cease to implement the Salic-law as the form of succession, which does not correspond either to the elementary rights in Europe today, or to the values of Romanian society’. A notable proportion of the Romanian population believes that a monarchy would bring the much-needed political stability to their country. Details on the reformed Romanian succession here.

The new Line of Succession to the Throne and to the Headship of the Royal House of Romania was decided by HM King Michael, in keeping with duty to History and to the heirs of the Family:

1. HRH Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Custodian of the Crown of Romania
2. HRH Princess Helena of Romania
3. Nicholas de Roumanie Medforth Mills (who shall become HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania on 1st April 2010 – according to the Document of the Head of the Royal House, 5th January 2005)
4. Elisabeta Karina de Roumanie
5. HRH Princess Irina of Romania
6. Michael de Roumanie Kreuger
7. Angelica de Roumanie Kreuger
8. HRH Princess Sophie of Romania
9. Elisabeta Marie Biarneix
10. HRH Princess Marie of Romania

Nicholas de Roumanie Medforth Mills will assume the title, style and rank when upon his 25th anniversary or immediately the demise of the current Head of the Royal House and at that time he will enter in the order of succession to the Throne.

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