March 26, 1949
Queen Anne of Romania gave birth to a daughter in Lausanne, Switzerland today. The infant princess was born at the Mont Choisi Clinic and weighed seven pounds. She was named Margarita in honor of her maternal grandmother, Princess Margrethe of Denmark.
This is the first child of Queen Anne and her husband, King Michael, who was forced to abdicate following a Communist takeover of his country in December 1947. King Michael went into exile in January 1948. He married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma in Athens in June 1948.
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The family is now living in Switzerland.
Major Jacques Vergotti, King Michael's aide, told reporters that "the birth was normal" and that the queen and her daughter were "in fine shape."
It was noted that the infant princess "will have no claim on the dormant throne" as the succession descends "through the male line only."
Shortly after Margareta's birth, the family moved into a modest rental home in Lausanne, where they stayed for several months. It was in this house where Margarita's baptism took place. The only guests at the ceremony, apart from the King and Queen, were Queen Helen of Romania (Michael's mother), Princess Margrethe of Bourbon-Parma (Anne's mother), and Princess Irene, Duchess of Aosta (Queen Helen's sister.)
Margareta's godparents were her maternal grandmother, Princess Margrethe, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who could not attend the ceremony. The family moved to Florence, Italy when Margarita was 12 weeks old.
Princess Margareta was four years old when she learned about what exile meant. She asked her mother why her father was "so sad and quiet." Queen Anne told her that her father "was upset because he lost his country." In her memoir, A War, An Exile, A Life, Queen Anne wrote: "Our children knew this right from the beginning, even if they had to grow up a little before they could understand the situation properly."
Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Crown, is the eldest of five daughters. She has four younger sisters: Helen (1950), Irina (1953), Sophie (1957) and Marie (1964).
Although the Romanian succession was based on Salic law (males only), King Michael knew that his eldest daughter would succeed him, and he pursued her "education with great attention." After receiving her Baccalaureate, Margareta wanted to study art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Her parents were not thrilled with this plan. They recommended she spend a year with her grandmother, Queen Helen, in Florence.
In an interview in 2014 with the Daily Telegraph, Margareta said of her grandmother: "She taught me everything I know. Everything I am is thanks to her. She introduced me to people -- diplomats, artists, people from the UN who were working in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa. "
She spent several months working in a refugee camp in Ethiopia before deciding she no longer wanted to go to art school. She was now determined to go to university in the United Kingdom. After looking at several schools, Margareta attended the University of Edinburgh, where she studied "political science, sociology, and international relations."
In 2011, Margareta told Romanian historian Diana Mandache: "I wanted to study philosophy, I really liked philosophy, but I realized that I had to be a little more practical. Then, in the 70s, sociology was fashionable, so I chose it alongside international law, which I wanted for the United Nations, and political science because it could be linked to international relations and offered the opportunity to know systems. This combination of studies was very interesting. Maybe now, if I had to do it over again, I'd do something more practical."
After graduating from Edinburgh, the princess "specialized in medical sociology." In 1983, she joined the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome where she remained for three years before taking a new job with the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
Margareta left her job in the summer of 1989. She told Diana Mandache: "I realized that something fundamental was happening in Eastern Europe and I had to return to my father."
On Christmas Day, Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife were executed on the orders of Romania's Provisional government, the National Salvation Front. Demonstrations in Timișoara were spreading throughout the country and the Communist regime was about to fall.
On January 18, 1990, Princess Margareta and her younger sister, Princess Sophie, arrived in Bucharest. They were the first members of the Royal Family to visit the country since King Michael, Queen Helen, and Princesses Elisabeta and Ileana, were forced into exile.
Margareta told the press she had come to Romania to "rediscover her lost homeland." She and her sister spent eight days in the country, visiting villages, hospitals, orphanages, and nursing homes.
It was a difficult visit due to the apparent and open hostility from the Romanian government toward the two princesses.
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"Getting off the plane was quite emotional. We didn't know what was going to happen to us," she told the Telegraph.
The emotions were not muted. Speaking to Diana Mandache, she said: "Arriving on Romanian soil, I felt for the first time in my life a whole person! Before, I always had the feeling that half of my being was missing."
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| @Alain Morven |
Shortly after her first visit to her homeland, Margareta established her foundation, which helps Romanian children and the elderly.
https://www.frmr.ro/en/
Margareta became the heiress presumptive to the throne on December 30, 2007. Her father, King Michael wanted the Romanian monarchy restored, and the Parliament amended the succession law to allow for female inheritance. Following the King's death in 2017, Margareta has been styled as Her Majesty Margareta, Custodian of the Crown.
Today - in 2024 - Her Majesty and her husband, Prince Radu (né Radu Duda) live in the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest. They married on September 21, 1996, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The best way to describe Romania is to say it is a monarchy within a republic.
It is not every day that you run into members of a Royal Family. This happened to me in June 2022.
I can say that I ran into Her Majesty & Prince Radu as they walked out of the Buckingham Palace courtyard in June 2022. They were coming from Clarence House where they had dinner with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
Her Majesty and Prince Radu had attended the Trooping of the Colour.
https://casamajestatiisale.ro/
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2022/03/hm-margareta-most-important-woman-in.html
https://royalmusingsblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2020/05/interview-with-hm-margareta-custodian.html
