Carol I of Romania
Carol I or Charles I of Romania, nicknamed the King of Independence ; was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He was elected Prince of the Romanian United Principalities on 20 April 1866 after the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup d'état. In May 1877, Romania was proclaimed an independent and sovereign nation. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War secured Romanian independence, and he was proclaimed King on. He was the first ruler of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty, which ruled the country until the proclamation of a socialist republic in 1947.
During his reign, Carol I personally led Romanian troops during the Russo-Turkish War and assumed command of the Russo-Romanian army during the siege of Plevna. The country achieved internationally recognized independence via the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in 1913. In 1883 the king entered a top-secret military alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, despite popular demands against Hungary. When World War I broke out he was unable to activate the alliance. Romania remained neutral and in 1916 joined the Allies.
Domestic political life was organized around the rival Liberal and Conservative parties. During Carol's reign, Romania's industry and infrastructure were much improved, however this process also resulted in major scandals, including the Strousberg Affair which personally implicated Carol. Overall, the country still had an agrarian-focused economy and the situation of the peasantry failed to improve, leading to a major revolt in 1907, bloodily suppressed by the authorities.
He married Princess Elisabeth of Wied on 15 November 1869. They only had one daughter, Maria, who died at the age of four. Carol never produced a male heir, leaving his elder brother Leopold next in line to the throne. In October 1880 Leopold renounced his right of succession in favour of his son William, who in turn surrendered his claim six years later in favour of his younger brother, the future King Ferdinand.
Early life
Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was born on 20 April 1839 in Sigmaringen, in the Catholic branch of the family. He was the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and his wife, Princess Josephine of Baden. Prince Karl Anton would serve as Minister President of Prussia from 1858 to 1862, a period in Prussian history characterized by a moderate liberal reform policy.After finishing his elementary studies, Karl entered the Cadet School in Münster. In 1857 he was attending the courses of the Artillery School in Berlin. Up to 1866, when he accepted the crown of Romania, he was a Prussian officer. He took part in the Second Schleswig War, including the assault of the Fredericia citadel and Dybbøl, an experience which would be very useful to him later in the Russo-Turkish war.
Although he was quite frail and not very tall, prince Karl was reported to be the perfect soldier, healthy and disciplined, and also a very good politician with liberal ideas. He was familiar with several European languages. His family was closely related to the Bonaparte family, and they enjoyed very good relations with Napoleon III of France.
''En route'' to Romania
The former Domnitor of united Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, had been expelled from the country by the leading noblemen, leaving Romania in political chaos. Cuza's double election seven years earlier, both in Wallachia and in Moldavia, had been the basis on which the Romanian Principalities' unification was recognized by the European powers. With him gone, the country was in danger of disintegration, as the Ottoman Empire and other powers initially accepted the unification only on the condition that it would end with his reign.As Romanian politicians searched for a successor, Karl was not their first choice. The authors of the anti-Cuza coup first approached Philip of Flanders, brother of king Leopold II of Belgium, hoping that he would bring the institutions of his country to the Lower Danube and turn the newly unified country into a "Belgium of the East". Wary of France's oppositions, Philip, who also turned down the throne of Greece a few years earlier, refused.
Soon after, Napoleon III suggested Karl, who was the brother in law of Philip. Napoleon's recommendation weighed heavily with Romanian politicians of the time, since Romania was strongly influenced by French culture. Napoleon was a strong supporter of Romanian independence, hoping to consolidate French influence on the Black Sea. Another factor was Karl's blood relation to the ruling Prussian family. Ion Brătianu was the Romanian politician sent to negotiate with Karl and his family the possibility of installing him on the Romanian throne.
Due to the political conflict between Prussia and the Austrian Empire, Karl travelled incognito by railroad from Düsseldorf to Baziaș, through Switzerland. He received there a Swiss passport from a Swiss public clerk, friend of his family, under the name of Karl Hettingen. From Baziaș he travelled by boat to Turnu Severin, since there was no railroad to Romania. As he crossed the border onto Romanian soil, he was met by Brătianu, who bowed before him and asked Karl to join him in his carriage. He was formally elected Domnitor on 20 April.
On 10 May 1866, Karl entered the capital of Bucharest. The news of his arrival had been transmitted by telegraph and he was welcomed by a huge crowd eager to see the new ruler. In Băneasa he was given the keys to the capital city. It was a rainy day after a long period of drought, which was taken to be a good omen by locals. As he was crowned, Karl swore this oath: "I swear to guard the laws of Romania, to maintain the rights of its People and the integrity of its territory." He took this oath in French, as he did not yet speak Romanian. In fact, it is said that, before his nomination as Domnitor, he had never heard of Romania. However, he endeared himself to his adopted country by adopting the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol. He learned to speak Romanian not long after that.
Early reign
The Constitution of 1866
On 29 Junetwo months after Carol's arrivalthe Romanian parliament adopted the 1866 Constitution of Romania, one of the most modern constitutions of its time. Carol signed it into law two days later. Modeled closely on the Constitution of Belgium, it guaranteed private propriety, freedom of speech, total freedom of the press, it abolished the death penalty during peace time, and established separation of powers. Despite the otherwise liberal nature of the act, the constitution barred non-Christians from becoming citizens, a measure which heavily affected the country's Jewish populationThis constitution allowed the development and modernization of the Romanian state. In a daring move, the Constitution chose to ignore the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, which paved the way towards de jure independence.
File:CuzaGhimpele1872.PNG|thumb|Anti-dynasty cartoon, published in Ghimpele, 1872. Left panel: Alexandru Ioan Cuza betrayed by Ion Brătianu; right panel: Carol I, supported by Otto von Bismarck and Brătianu, feeding off German influence and economic privilege
Article 82 made the throne a hereditary office of Carol's descendants "on the male line through the right of first-born, perpetually excluding women and their descendants." It also required that Carol's descendants be "raised in the Eastern Orthodox Religion." Although Carol was vested with executive power, he was not politically responsible for exercising it. His acts were only valid if they were countersigned by a minister, who then became responsible for the act in question. Nevertheless, he commanded great moral authority as a symbol of the nation and its unity.
Franco-Prussian War and the Republic of Ploiești
While Romania did not take part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the conflict nonetheless affected the early reign of Carol I. Since he was a German prince ruling a historically Francophile country, there was a strong feeling of distrust towards Carol during the time, who was not yet seen as Romanian. Several attempts to force the prince to abdicate took place around this time, usually led by the republicans and radical liberals led by Ion C. Brătianu and C. A. Rosetti. Carol's alliance with the Conservatives which effectively blocked the Liberals out of government did little to quell Liberal animosity towards the prince.The most well known such incident took place on 8 August 1870, when radical liberals in the city of Ploiești started a revolt and attempted coup by arresting the chief of police and the county Prefect, occupying several official buildings and proclaiming the so-called Republic of Ploiești. The revolt lasted less than 24 hours and lead to the arrest of many Liberal leaders.
Future republican projects were rare, especially since Brătianu became prime minister in 1876 and helped Liberals hold power until 1889, becoming loyal supporters of King Carol.
File:Siege of Plevna MKL Bd. 13 1890.jpg|thumb|Map of the Siege of Plevna from the 4th edition of the Meyers Konversationslexikon
War of independence (1877–1878)
Background
Between 1875 and 1877 anti-Ottoman revolts took place in several Balkan countries, most notably Bulgaria, where the April Uprisings of 1876 were brutally suppressed by irregular bashi-bazouks. The international outrage at the Bulgarian massacre – particularly on the part of Russia, who saw itself as a protector of Orthodox Christians in general and Bulgarians in particular – triggered several diplomatic efforts over the next year. After the failure of these diplomatic attempts, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 24 April 1877, launching the Russo-Turkish War, which is known in Romanian historiography as the War of Independence.At the behest of then foreign minister Mihail Kogălniceanu and against the advice of his Crown Council, Carol decided to permit Russian troops to pass through its territory on the way to Bulgaria. This resulted in Turkish bombardments of Romanian towns on the Danube. At this point, Romania was de facto independent, being "bound to the Ottoman Empire only by the payment of tribute and a number of largely formal prerogatives in matters of foreign policy."