Ferdinand I of Romania

Biography

Ferdinand was born at Sigmaringen in 1865, the son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, and the Portuguese infanta Antónia, and studied at Tübingen and at Leipzig, graduating in 1889. After his father and his elder brother renounced their rights, he became in 1886 heir to his childless uncle, King Carol I of Romania. The Romanian parliament recognised him as a prince of Romania in 1889 and allowed him to remain Catholic on condition that his children were raised Orthodox.

His romance with the court lady Elena Văcărescu caused a dynastic crisis in 1891, and in 1893 he married Princess Marie of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. In Romania he pursued a military career and rose to the rank of corps general.

Ferdinand succeeded Carol I on 10 October 1914. Despite his German family he brought Romania into the First World War on the side of the Entente in August 1916, and Kaiser Wilhelm II had his name struck from the Hohenzollern house register. After much of the country was occupied he refused to sign the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest and took Romania back into the war. The union of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania with Romania followed, and on 15 October 1922 he was crowned king of Greater Romania at Alba Iulia.

His later reign saw land reform and the introduction of universal suffrage, and a succession crisis when his son Carol renounced his rights in 1925. Ferdinand died of cancer at Sinaia on 20 July 1927 and was succeeded by his grandson Michael under a regency.