Elisabeth of Wied

Infobox Romanian Royalty|majesty|consort
name =Elisabeth of Wied
title =Queen consort of Romania


caption =Queen Elisabeth of Romania
coronation =13 March, 1881
reign =15 November, 1869 – September, 1914
spouse =Carol I
issue =Princess Maria
royal house =House of Wied
father =Prince Hermann of Wied
mother =Marie of Nassau-Weilburg
date of birth =29 December, 1843
place of birth =Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied
date of death =2 March, 1916
place of death =Curtea de Argeş or Bucharest
date of burial =
place of burial =The Cathedral of the Curtea de Argeş Monastery|

Pauline Elisabeth Ottilie Luise zu Wied (Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, 29 December, 1843 - Curtea de Argeş or Bucharest, 3 March/2 November, 1916) was the Queen Consort of King Carol I of Romania, widely known by her literary name of "Carmen Sylva".

Born in Neuwied, she was the daughter of German Prince Hermann of Wied and his wife Marie, daughter of Wilhelm, Duke of Nassau (and sister of Grand Duke Adolphe of Luxembourg). She was a prospective bride for Edward VII of the United Kingdom, then Prince of Wales. She first met the future king of Romania at Berlin in 1861, and was married to him on 15 November 1869 in Neuwied. Her only child, a daughter, Maria, died in 1874.

In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 she devoted herself to the care of the wounded, and founded the Order of Elizabeth (a gold cross on a blue ribbon) to reward distinguished service in such work. She fostered the higher education of women in Romania, and established societies for various charitable objects.

Early distinguished by her excellence as a pianist, organist and singer, she also showed considerable ability in painting and illuminating; but a lively poetic imagination led her to the path of literature, and more especially to poetry, folk-lore and ballads. In addition to numerous original works she put into literary form many of the legends current among the Romanian peasantry.

Literary activity

As "Carmen Sylva", she wrote with facility in German, Romanian, French and English. A few of her voluminous writings, which include poems, plays, novels, short stories, essays, collections of aphorisms, etc., may be singled out for special mention:
*Her earliest publications were "Sappho" and "Hammerstein", two poems which appeared at Leipzig in 1880.
*In 1888 she received the Prix Botta, a prize awarded triennially by the Académie française, for her volume of prose aphorisms "Les Pensees d'une reine" (Paris, 1882), a German version of which is entitled "Vom Amboss" (Bonn, 1890).
*"Cuvinte Sufletesci", religious meditations in Romanian (Bucharest, 1888), was also translated into German (Bonn, 1890), under the name of "Seelen-Gespräche".

Several of the works of "Carmen Sylva" were written in collaboration with Mite Kremnitz, one of her maids of honor, who was born at Greifs-wald in 1857, and married Dr Kremnitz of Bucharest; these were published between 1881 and 1888, in some cases under the pseudonyms Dito et Idem. These include:
* "Aus zwei Welten" (Leipzig, 1884), a novel
* "Anna Boleyn" (Bonn, 1886), a tragedy,
* "In der Irre" (Bonn, 1888), a collection of short stories
* "Edleen Vaughan", or "Paths of Peril", a novel (London, 1894),
* "Sweet Hours", poems (London, 1904), written in English.

Among the translations made by "Carmen Sylva" are:
* German versions of Pierre Loti's romance "Pecheur d'Islande"
* German versions of Paul de St Victor's dramatic criticisms "Les Deux Masques" (Paris, 1881-1884);
* and especially "The Bard of the Dimbovitza", an English translation of Elena Văcărescu's collection of Romanian folk-songs, etc., entitled "Lieder aus dem Dimbovitzathal" (Bonn, 1889), translated by "Carmen Sylva" and Alma Strettell.

The Bard of the Dimbovitza was first published in 1891, and was soon reissued and expanded. Translations from the original works of "Carmen Sylva" have appeared in all the principal languages of Europe and in Armenian.

The Văcărescu affair

In 1881, due to the lack of heirs to the Romanian throne, King Carol I adopted his nephew, Ferdinand. Ferdinand, a complete stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Elisabeth's ladies in waiting Elena Văcărescu. Elizabeth, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, although she was perfectly aware of the fact that a marriage between the two was forbidden by the Romanian constitution. (According to the 1866 Constitution of Romania, the heir to the throne was not allowed to marry a Romanian).

The result of this was the exile of both Elisabeth (in Neuwied) and Elena (in Paris), as well as a trip by Ferdinand through Europe in search of a suitable bride, whom he eventually found in Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Marie of Edinburgh. The affair helped reinforce Elisabeth's image as a dreamer and eccentric.

A Republican Queen

Quite unusually for a monarch, Elisabeth of Wied was personally of the opinion that a Republican form of government was preferable to Monarchy - an opinion which she expressed forthrightly in her diary, though she did not make it public at the time:

References

ee also

* The Romanian pioneer Julius Popper named after her Sierra Carmen Silva (now in Chile) and Río Carmen Silva (in Argentina, also Río Chico) in Patagonia.

External links

* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/wied.html Princely House of Wied]
* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/romania.html Royal House of Romania]
* [http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/hohenzollern.html Princely House of Hohenzollern]
* [http://www.tkinter.smig.net/CarmenSylva/index.htm Carmen Sylva Queen Elisabeth of Romania]

Bibliography

* Eugen Wolbe, "Carmen Sylva", Leipzig, 1933
* Gabriel Badea-Päun, "Carmen Sylva - Uimitoarea Regină Elisabeta a României, 1843-1916", Bucharest, Humanitas, 2003, second edition in 2007, third edition in 2008. ISBN 978-973-50-1101-7.
* Gabriel Badea-Päun, "Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923) à la cour royale de Roumanie", dans Bulletin de la Société de l'Historie de l'Art Français, Année 2005, Paris, 2006, p. 257-281.