Monday, May 23, 2011

Ileana's engagement "recalls gossip"




Princess Ileana, "she of the lilting name and venturesome disposition," is getting married, reports the Associated Press.

Ever since the Princess was 15 years old,  "the question of a husband for her has been one of the stock subjects for Rumanian and European gossips."  The list of possible candidates have constituted  "an almost complete directory of the remaining crown princes of the Old World, with a few dukes and plain princes thrown in for good measure."  

There were rumors that Ileana's mother, the Dowager Queen Marie "was disappointed at the failure" to arrange a match between Ileana and King Boris of Bulgaria.  Her two elder daughters, Elizabeth and Marie, were married to King George II of the Hellenes and King Alexander of Yugoslavia.

Ileana, it is said, has "never had any ambition for a throne."   She once complained, "It is so hard to find a husband."    The man "of her choice, the second to whom she has promised her hand," is Archduke Anton of Austria.   He's a "working aviator, " as he has no private income.  He earns his living as a "test pilot and airplane factory consultant in Spain."

The princess's friends "hope there will be no such unfortunate denouement to this engagement."  Last year, she had accepted the proposal of Count Alexander of Hochberg, but the engagement was broken several weeks later.  Queen Marie took her daughter to Egypt to get over the romance, but Ileana  did not "acknowledge that romance was ended until some months later."

Besides King Boris,  Ileana was linked with the Prince of Wales,  the Crown Prince of Italy, the Prince of Asturias, and Archduke Albrecht of Austria.

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