Michael calls off wedding for now.

Embed from Getty Images

January 10, 1948


Former King Michael of Romania has called off plans for marriage with Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, at least "for the immediate future," reports the Associated Press.

The 24-year-old Princess was on her way from Copenhagen to Switzerland to see Michael when she announced that she would be going to Luxembourg instead.  Prince Felix, the consort of Grand Duchess Charlotte, is Princess Anne's paternal uncle.

Michael's spokesman Jacques Vergotti explained that a "love entanglement" at this time could be used by the Romanian Communists to destroy Michael's hopes of "eventually returning to his throne.

A dispatch from Luxembourg stated that the princess and her mother, Princess Margaretha, spent the afternoon at the Grand Ducal Palace.


The new Romanian Communist government is trying to give the impression that Michael is an "unstable playboy following in the footsteps of his father, the former King Carol II," who abdicated in 1940.

Princess Anne, looking pale and tired, got off the train at Liege, Belgium, in mid-journey from Copenhagen.  She and her mother got into a car and drove to Luxembourg "for an undetermined period and have a little rest."  The princess does not expect Michael to join her in Luxembourg.

"I have no definite plans yet.  I might want to go to Paris but this is not certain.  You see we have been having such a lot of troubles and changings that no settlement could have been made up to now.

Earlier, as she began her journey from Copenhagen, she told reporters that perhaps Michael might have a ring for her when she arrived in Switzerland, adding that their engagement was "not official, although everybody seems to know about it."

Major Vergotti acknowledged that the former king "really loves Anne," and he expected Michael may "eventually" marry her.   He added that Michael's unofficial engagement was "another reason" why the king was forced to abdicated.

The Romanian Government did not want to see an "upsurge in the King's popularity, which would have followed a royal wedding, making it more difficult to force him off the throne.   Now, a wedding would "give a wrong impression/"

Vergotti added that the King is concerned about family members still in the country and friends for whom he is "making efforts to obtain exist visas."
The king arrived in Switzerland "with very little money," and is negotiations with the government for the sale of some of the royal property.