Carol I or Charles I of Romania (Romanian: Carol I; Romanian: [ˈkarol ɨnˈtɨj] , born Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; 20 April 1839 – 10 October [O.S. 27 September] 1914), nicknamed the King of Independence (Romanian: Regele Independenței; Romanian: [ˈre.d͡ʒe.le in.de.penˈden.t͡sej] ); was the monarch of Romania from 1866 to his death in 1914, ruling as Prince (Domnitor) from 1866 to 1881, and as King from 1881 to 1914. He was elected Prince of the Romanian United Principalities on 20 April 1866 after the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup d'état. In May 1877, Romania was proclaimed an independent and sovereign nation. The defeat of the Ottoman Empire (1878) in the Russo-Turkish War secured Romanian independence, and he was proclaimed King on 26 March [O.S. 14 March] 1881. He was the first ruler of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty, which ruled the country until the proclamation of a socialist republic in 1947.
During his reign, Carol I personally led Romanian troops during the Russo-Turkish War and assumed command of the Russo-Romanian army during the siege of Plevna. The country achieved internationally recognized independence via the Treaty of Berlin, 1878 and acquired Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in 1913. In 1883 the king entered a top-secret military alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, despite popular demands against Hungary. When World War I broke out he was unable to activate the alliance. Romania remained neutral and in 1916 joined the Allies.
Domestic political life was organized around the rival Liberal and Conservative parties. During Carol's reign, Romania's industry and infrastructure were much improved, however this process also resulted in major scandals, including the Strousberg Affair which personally implicated Carol. Overall, the country still had an agrarian-focused economy and the situation of the peasantry failed to improve, leading to a major revolt in 1907, bloodily suppressed by the authorities.
He married Princess Elisabeth of Wied on 15 November 1869. They only had one daughter, Maria, who died at the age of four. Carol never produced a male heir, leaving his elder brother Leopold next in line to the throne. In October 1880 Leopold renounced his right of succession in favour of his son William, who in turn surrendered his claim six years later in favour of his younger brother, the future King Ferdinand.
The future King Carol was born on 20 April 1839 in the town of Sigmaringen in southern Germany as Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Born into the Catholic Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and his wife, Princess Josephine of Baden. His family was therefore related to the royal family of Prussia, but his family was also related to the Bonaparte family, the French imperial family. His maternal grandmother, Stéphanie de Beauharnais, was a Beauharnais, Empress Joséphine's niece-in-law and Napoléon I's adoptive daughter, whereas his paternal grandmother, Marie Antoinette Murat, was a Murat, Joachim Murat's niece, and the family thus enjoyed very good relations with Emperor Napoleon III of France.
Prince Karl's father, Prince Karl Anton, would later serve as Minister President of Prussia from 1858 to 1862, a period in Prussian history characterized by a moderate liberal reform policy.
After finishing his elementary studies, Prince Karl entered the Cadet School in Münster. In 1857 he was attending the courses of the Artillery School in Berlin. Up to 1866, when he accepted the crown of Romania, he was a Prussian officer. He took part in the Second Schleswig War, including the assault of the Fredericia citadel and Dybbøl, an experience which would be very useful to him later in the Russo-Turkish war.
Although he was described as quite frail and not very tall, Prince Karl was reported to be the perfect soldier, healthy and disciplined, and also a very good politician with liberal ideas. He was familiar with several European languages.
Election to the Romanian throne
The former Domnitor (ruling prince) of united Romania, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, had been expelled from the country by the leading noblemen, leaving Romania in political chaos. Cuza's double election seven years earlier, both in Wallachia and in Moldavia, had been the basis on which the Romanian Principalities' unification was recognized by the European powers. With him gone, the country was in danger of disintegration, as the Ottoman Empire and other powers initially accepted the unification only on the condition that it would end with his reign.
As Romanian politicians searched for a successor, Karl was not their first choice. The authors of the anti-Cuza coup first approached Philip of Flanders, brother of king Leopold II of Belgium, hoping that he would bring the institutions of his country to the Lower Danube and turn the newly unified country into a "Belgium of the East". Wary of France's oppositions, Philip, who also turned down the throne of Greece a few years earlier, refused.
Soon after, Napoleon III suggested Karl, who was the brother in law of Philip. Napoleon's recommendation weighed heavily with Romanian politicians of the time, since Romania was strongly influenced by French culture. Napoleon was a strong supporter of Romanian independence, hoping to consolidate French influence on the Black Sea. Another factor was Karl's blood relation to the ruling Prussian family. Ion Constantin Brătianu, one of the major political figures of 19th-century Romania, was the politician sent to negotiate with Karl and his family the possibility of installing him on the Romanian throne.
Due to the political conflict between Prussia and the Austrian Empire, Karl travelled incognito by railroad from Düsseldorf to Baziaș, through Switzerland. He received there a Swiss passport from a Swiss public clerk, friend of his family, under the name of Karl Hettingen. From Baziaș he travelled by boat to Turnu Severin, since there was no railroad to Romania. As he crossed the border onto Romanian soil, he was met by Brătianu, who bowed before him and asked Karl to join him in his carriage. He was formally elected Domnitor on 20 April.
On 10 May 1866 (22 May 1866 N.S.), Karl entered the capital of Bucharest. The news of his arrival had been transmitted by telegraph and he was welcomed by a huge crowd eager to see the new ruler. In Băneasa he was given the keys to the capital city. It was a rainy day after a long period of drought, which was taken to be a good omen by locals. As he was crowned, Karl swore this oath: "I swear to guard the laws of Romania, to maintain the rights of its People and the integrity of its territory." He took this oath in French, as he did not yet speak Romanian. In fact, it is said that, before his nomination as Domnitor, he had never heard of Romania. However, he endeared himself to his adopted country by adopting the Romanian spelling of his name, Carol. He learned to speak Romanian not long after that.
On 29 June – two months after Carol's arrival – the Romanian parliament adopted the 1866 Constitution of Romania, one of the most modern constitutions of its time. Carol signed it into law two days later. Modeled closely on the Constitution of Belgium, it guaranteed private propriety, freedom of speech, total freedom of the press, it abolished the death penalty during peace time, and established separation of powers. Despite the otherwise liberal nature of the act, the constitution barred non-Christians from becoming citizens, a measure which heavily affected the country's Jewish population
This constitution allowed the development and modernization of the Romanian state. In a daring move, the Constitution chose to ignore the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, which paved the way towards de jure independence.
Article 82 made the throne a hereditary office of Carol's descendants "on the male line through the right of first-born, perpetually excluding women and their descendants." It also required that Carol's descendants be "raised in the Eastern Orthodox Religion." Although Carol was vested with executive power, he was not politically responsible for exercising it. His acts were only valid if they were countersigned by a minister, who then became responsible for the act in question. Nevertheless, he commanded great moral authority as a symbol of the nation and its unity.