Carol I of Romania
April 20, 1839 – October 10, 1914
German prince of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen line who became ruling Prince of Romania in 1866, won its independence in 1878 and was its first King, from 1881 to 1914.
Biography
Carol I was born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in Sigmaringen in 1839, the second son of Prince Karl Anton, a Catholic Hohenzollern related both to the Prussian royal house and to the Bonapartes. He attended the cadet school in Münster and the artillery school in Berlin and served as a Prussian officer, taking part in the Second Schleswig War.
After Alexandru Ioan Cuza was forced to abdicate in 1866, Romanian politicians, on Napoleon III's suggestion, offered Karl the throne. He travelled incognito across Austria, was elected ruling prince (domnitor) on 20 April 1866, entered Bucharest in May and took the name Carol. Weeks later he signed the liberal constitution of 1866, which made the throne hereditary in his line.
His early reign was shaken by distrust of a German prince and by republican plots such as the short-lived Republic of Ploiești in 1870. In 1877 he allowed Russian troops through Romania, promulgated the declaration of independence and led Romanian forces in the Russo-Turkish War, taking command of the allied army at the siege of Plevna. The Treaty of Berlin recognised Romania's independence in 1878, and in 1881 the country became a kingdom with Carol as its first king.
During a reign of 48 years, the longest in Romanian history, he built Peleș Castle, had the first permanent bridge over the lower Danube built at Cernavodă, and in 1883 secretly allied Romania with the Central Powers. Romania gained Southern Dobruja in the Second Balkan War of 1913. When the First World War began he wanted to join Germany, but his Crown Council chose neutrality, and he died in October 1914.
