November 2, 1899
Little Prince Carol of Romania, the 6-year-old son of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Romania, is "lying dangerously ill at Bucharest with an attack of typhoid fever and an inflammation of the lungs," reports the Marquise de Fontenoy.
The little prince's illness is further complicated by other ailments "sufficiently serious, in view of the boy's delicacy, to give rise to to the gravest apprehensions."
His recovery is "despaired of in England," where many believe that he will be the first of Queen Victoria's great-grandchildren to die. The aged sovereign has already lost "no less than eight of her grandchildren."
There seems to be a "fatality about this question of successorship to the Roumanian throne." Queen Elisabeth of Roumania's only child, Princess Marie, died at age five. If the young Prince Carol dies, "it will become necessary to look around for another heir to the throne." Crown Prince Ferdinand's older brother, Prince Wilhelm, has twin sons, and one could be adopted as an heir if Crown Princess Marie does not bear another son.
Interesting that they mention little Princess Marie as relevant to the successorship to throne. Was she considered to be the heiress or a candidate to be made the heiress in the absence of a son being born to the King and Queen? This is of course relevant to the controversy over King Michael's change of the family laws regarding the succession.
ReplyDeleteThe actual article mentions the Queen's child dying at a young age ... just as Carol was believed to be dying at a similar age ... I added the child's name ... Marie was never thought of as an heir ...
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