Stunned by Queen Marie of Romania’s golden-haired
beauty, graciousness and charming manner, the French author Colette wrote that
she ‘carried light within her’, after meeting her on the train when the Queen arrived in Paris. Queen Marie had travelled to Paris to meet the
leaders of the 1919 Peace Conference in Paris, hoping to persuade them to
honour the Treaty of 1916, and Romania’s territorial claims. Colette murmured
after interviewing Queen Marie: ‘Happy the city of Paris, Majesty, who can
welcome such a beautiful Queen,’ as she left Queen Marie’s train carriage.[i]
It has been a long hard road even for Queen Marie to
arrive at this point. Romania suffered great privation because of the
devastation of the Great War. Even the well-off struggled to survive, and famine
afflicted the country. ‘We are now burning dried corncobs, and files of old
newspapers in order to keep warm,’ the naval commander’s wife said. ‘We are
reduced to living principally on beans, and musty cornmeal porridge’.[ii]
Prime Minister Bratianu ordered Romanian troops to occupy Transylvania,
Bessarabia, Bukovina and the Dobruja, because he feared that the Allies would
not honour the Treaty of 1916, which gave Romania all these territories. He
wanted quick relief from the Allies. Unfortunately, the acquisition of these
lands only meant that Romania obtained several more millions to feed, and made
the country more susceptible to Communism, and revolution.
Warm-hearted, kindly Queen Marie, upset by the poverty stalking the country, visited destitute
villages after the Armistice with food, and clothing. Sometimes her young relation
Grand Duchess Marie joined her. She wrote that the pair often ‘came home long
after dark, cold and wet’.[iii]
Romania’s problem with wanting the secret Treaty of
1916 with the Allies honoured was that it had been forced to arrange a separate
peace with Germany. The PM also irritated the leaders of the conference by ‘playing
them off each other’.[iv]Bratianu’s demands fell on
deaf ears, and the Supreme Council rejected them. Also, Romania was only
allowed two delegates to the Council, when some other smaller countries had
three. The British PM, David Lloyd George asked: ‘Where the hell is that place
(Transylvania) and why is Romania so anxious to get it?’
Seeing the bleak prospects for Romania, the French
diplomat Saint Aulaire suggested that the Queen go to the conference, and the
King agreed that her warm personality might impress the leaders there. Queen Marie was extremely anxious about her
mission, but enthusiastic, and motivated to do her best. The Queen didn’t
know what she was in for!
Staying at the luxurious Paris Ritz, Queen Marie
impressed the French press who flocked to see her by offering to shake all
their hands! Her next ordeal was a meeting with French PM Clemenceau, ‘the
Tiger’. He immediately asked her about Romania’s agreement with Germany, and
Queen Marie explained that the Allies even ‘encircled Romania, and that the country was‘treated
like game’by both the Allies and the Entente. The fierce leader said that he liked her ‘speaking up’. When she
told him that Romania wanted the whole Banat as part of its claims, he said that ‘it’s the lion’s
share!’ Queen Marie said that that was why she came to ‘see his first cousin,
the Tiger’, and laughed.[v] Bratianu admitted that the
Queen had done more in a few days than he had in a month, or six weeks.
Queen Marie also visited England to make her case,
hoping to receive support from her old beau, King George V, who had once been very keen on her. She managed to
charm the press there as well, and Lord Curzon, acting Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs held an official dinner for her, so that she could plead her
cause. Her old friend Winston Churchill was very sympathetic.
Back in France, she wanted to see President Wilson.
Unfortunately, she didn’t ‘hit it off’ with him on her first visit, shocking
him by talking about free love in Russia, but Mrs Wilson was impressed with her
charm, and invited her to lunch. The President berated the Queen about pogroms
in Romania, and she annoyed him by mentioning the ‘Negro’ and Japanese question
in the U.S. These two were never going to become good friends!
Romania doubled in size, becoming the fifth largest
country in Europe, largely due to the charming Queen’s efforts.
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