King Ferdinand (b.1865 - d.1927)

When King Carol I died Ferdinand, the son of Carol's elder brother, inherited the throne. Ferdinand was a rather shy person, but he had a vast culture. He was fluently speaking several foreign languages and was a passionate botanist. Nicoale Iorga describes him as "for almost everybody he was an unknown, an unimportant one, for some he was a secret, and for nobody a certainty." In just 13 years of reign he was to turn into a great King from "an unknown". He was the King late r called as "Lealul¹" or "Intregitorul²" to express the way in which he dedicated his entire life to the good of his country.

Ferdinand was born on August 12, 1865 in Sigmaringen (Germany) as son of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern (Carol's brother) and of Princess Antonia (the sister of King Pedro I of Portugal). He first came to Romania in 1884 and after a short time he retur ned to Germany to continue his studies. In 1889, after graduating from University of Lipsca and from the School of Political and Economical Sciences in Tubingen, he moved to Bucharest to fulfill his duties as heir to the Romanian throne.

On January 10, 1893, Ferdinand married with Maria of Edinburgh, from the British Royal Family. They had six children, the elder one, named Carol will later become King Carol II.

In 1914 Ferdinand becomes King of Romania. He swore to be "a good Romanian". Two years later, in 1916, on September 14, King Ferdinand presides the Council of the Crown where the decision to enter the WWI against Germany is taken. His family in Germany denied him and they put a black flag on the Hohenzollern Castle. The troops of the Central Powers invaded Romania but King Ferdinand refused to sign a peace treaty and retreated with the government to Iasi in November 1916. It was a hard period for the K ing and the Royal Family. In 1917 Mircea, the youngest child of the Royal Family dies, only 4 years old.

1918 brought changes in the situation. Romanian troops are victorious on the battlefields and King Ferdinand returns to Bucharest in leading the troops. In December the same year, Transilvania joins Romania and Ferdinand is crowned as King Ferdinand I "Intregitorul²" on October 15, 1922 in Alba-Iulia (in the heart of Transilvania).

Despite all these accomplishments the King Ferdinand was not spared of troubles. Carol's life style caused serious problems to the Royal Family. King Ferdinand had to deny Carol his rights as heir of the throne and named Mihai (his nephew) as his successor to the throne.

King Ferdinand was only 62, when after 13 years of glorious reign and a long period of sufferance caused by cancer dies at Sinaia. He lived and reigned to lead Romania through the WWI, to see Transilvania as part of Romania, to complete the land reform for which he was named "The King of the Peasants", to promulgate the Romania Constitution of 1923, a landmark in the development of the Romanian democracy. He rests at Curtea de Arges next to his uncle and aunt, King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth.