Carlos II (15 de octubre de 1893 [ OS 3 de octubre de 1893] - 4 de abril de 1953) fue rey de Rumania desde el 8 de junio de 1930 hasta su abdicación forzosa el 6 de septiembre de 1940. Como hijo mayor del rey Fernando I , se convirtió en príncipe heredero tras la muerte de su tío abuelo, el rey Carol I , en 1914. Fue el primero de los reyes Hohenzollern de Rumania en nacer en el país, ya que sus dos predecesores habían nacido en Alemania y llegaron a Rumania solo como adultos. Como tal, fue el primer miembro de la rama rumana de los Hohenzollern que hablaba rumano como su primera lengua y también fue el primer miembro de su familia real en ser criado en la fe ortodoxa . [1]
La vida y el reinado de Carol estuvieron rodeados de controversias y acusaciones de falta de deber, debido a su deserción del ejército durante la Primera Guerra Mundial . Otra controversia fue su matrimonio con Zizi Lambrino , que resultó en dos intentos por parte de Carol de renunciar a los derechos de sucesión a la corona real de Rumania, ambos rechazados por su padre, el rey Fernando . [2]
Tras la disolución de su matrimonio, conoció a la princesa Helena de Grecia y Dinamarca , hija del rey Constantino I de Grecia , con la que se casó en marzo de 1921 y, más tarde ese año, tuvo un hijo, Michael . Pero debido a los continuos romances de Carol con Elena Lupescu, se vio obligado a renunciar a sus derechos de sucesión en 1925 y abandonar el país. Su nombre fue posteriormente eliminado de la casa real de Rumania por el rey Fernando I. Después de su expulsión de la Casa Real, Carol se mudó a Francia con Lupescu bajo el nombre de Carol Caraiman. Michael, de 5 años, heredó el trono tras la muerte del rey Fernando en 1927. La princesa Helena finalmente se divorció de Carol en 1928.
En la crisis política creada por las muertes de Fernando I e Ion IC Brătianu y la regencia ineficaz del príncipe Nicolás de Rumania , Miron Cristea y Gheorghe Buzdugan , a Carol se le permitió regresar a Rumania en 1930, y su nombre fue restaurado por la casa real de Rumania, destronando a su propio hijo. El comienzo del reinado de Carol estuvo marcado por los efectos económicos negativos de la Gran Depresión . Carol II debilitó el parlamento de Rumania, a menudo nombrando facciones minoritarias de partidos históricos para el gobierno e intentando formar gobiernos concentrados a nivel nacional, como el gobierno de Iorga-Argetoianu . También permitió la formación de una cámara parlamentaria corrupta a su alrededor, bajo el patrocinio de Elena Lupescu . Una crisis política siguió a las elecciones de diciembre de 1937, donde ningún partido logró una mayoría absoluta y no se pudo formar una coalición debido a los desacuerdos entre el Partido Nacional Liberal y el Partido Nacional Campesino y la Guardia de Hierro , a quienes habrían necesitado para formar un gobierno de coalición . Tras esta crisis, Carol estableció una dictadura real en 1938 eliminando la constitución de 1923 , aboliendo todos los partidos políticos y formando un nuevo partido único, el Frente Nacional del Renacimiento , que estaba formado principalmente por antiguos miembros del Partido Nacional Campesino y del Partido Nacional Cristiano que habían sido patrocinados por el rey. El Frente Nacional del Renacimiento fue el último de varios intentos de contrarrestar la popularidad de la fascista Guardia de Hierro .
Tras el inicio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial , Carol II reafirmó la alianza polaco-rumana ; sin embargo, Polonia rechazó la ayuda militar , que deseaba seguir el plan rumano de cabeza de puente que requería una Rumania neutral. Tras la caída de Polonia y la participación de la URSS , Carol II mantuvo una política de neutralidad. Tras la caída de Francia , la política de Carol II cambió hacia un realineamiento con la Alemania nazi con la esperanza de obtener una garantía alemana. Sin embargo, no estaba al tanto de las cláusulas secretas del pacto Ribbentrop-Mólotov entre Alemania y la Unión Soviética que verían a Rumania perder partes significativas de su territorio. El año 1940 marcó la fragmentación de la Gran Rumania con la secesión de Besarabia y el norte de Bucovina a la URSS, el norte de Transilvania a Hungría y el sur de Dobruja a Bulgaria . Aunque finalmente se logró una garantía alemana, la situación tuvo un efecto desastroso en la reputación de Carol II. La reorientación de la política exterior de Rumania hacia la Alemania nazi, sin embargo, no evitaría que su régimen colapsara y se vería obligado a abdicar por el general Ion Antonescu , el recién nombrado primer ministro respaldado por los nazis , que fue sucedido por su hijo Michael . [3] Después de su abdicación, a Carol se le permitió salir del país con un tren especial cargado con sus fortunas personales, que había adquirido durante su tiempo como rey, y la Guardia de Hierro intentó matarlo, disparando contra el tren con la esperanza de matar al ex rey. Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Carol II quiso regresar al mando del país y destronar a su hijo nuevamente, pero fue detenido por los aliados occidentales . Durante el resto de su vida viajó por el mundo y finalmente se casó con Elena Lupescu mientras vivía en Brasil en 1947. Después de establecerse en la Riviera portuguesa , Carol II, a la edad de 59 años, murió pacíficamente en el exilio y su hijo Miguel I, se negó a asistir a su funeral por disgusto por el trato dado a su madre, la princesa Helena, por su padre.
Carol nació en el castillo de Peleș y creció bajo el yugo de su tío abuelo dominante, el rey Carol I. El rey Carol I excluyó en gran medida a los padres de Carol, el príncipe heredero Fernando, nacido en Alemania, y la princesa heredera Marie , nacida en Gran Bretaña , de cualquier papel en su crianza. [4] Rumania a principios del siglo XX tenía una moralidad sexual "latina" notoriamente relajada, y la princesa británica Marie de Edimburgo, a pesar o quizás debido a su educación victoriana, terminó "volviéndose nativa", teniendo una larga serie de aventuras con varios hombres rumanos con los que podía obtener más satisfacción emocional y sexual que con Ferdinand, quien resentía ferozmente que le pusieran los cuernos. [5] La severa Carol I sintió que Marie no estaba calificada para criar al príncipe Carol debido a sus aventuras y su corta edad, ya que solo tenía diecisiete años cuando nació Carol, mientras que Marie consideraba al rey un tirano frío y autoritario que aplastaría la vida de su hijo.
Además, Carol I, que no tenía hijos y siempre había querido un hijo varón, trató al príncipe Carol como a su hijo adoptivo y lo mimó por completo, complaciendo todos sus caprichos. Ferdinand era un hombre bastante tímido y débil que fue fácilmente eclipsado por la carismática Marie, que se convirtió en el miembro más querido de la familia real rumana. Al crecer, Carol se sintió avergonzado de su padre, a quien tanto su tío abuelo como su madre maltrataban. [6] La infancia de Carol transcurrió atrapada en un tira y afloja emocional entre Carol I y Marie, que tenían ideas muy diferentes sobre cómo criarlo. [7] La historiadora rumana Marie Bucur describió la batalla entre Carol I y la princesa Marie como una entre el conservadurismo prusiano tradicional del siglo XIX, personificado por Carol I, frente a los valores liberales, modernistas y sexualmente desviados del siglo XX de la " Nueva Mujer ", personificada por la princesa Marie. [7] Aspectos de las personalidades de Marie y Carol I estaban presentes en Carol II. [7] En gran parte debido a la batalla entre el Rey y Marie, Carol terminó siendo malcriada y privada de amor. [7]
Durante su adolescencia, Carol ( en rumano , "Charles") adquirió la imagen de "playboy" que se convertiría en su personaje definitorio para el resto de su vida. Carol expresó cierta preocupación por la dirección que estaba tomando el príncipe Carol, ya que el único interés serio del joven príncipe era coleccionar sellos y pasaba una cantidad excesiva de tiempo bebiendo, de fiesta y persiguiendo mujeres. El joven Carol fue padre de al menos dos hijos ilegítimos con la colegiala adolescente Maria Martini cuando tenía 19 años. Carol se convirtió rápidamente en el favorito de los columnistas de chismes de todo el mundo debido a las frecuentes fotografías que aparecían en los periódicos que lo mostraban en varias fiestas sosteniendo una bebida en una mano y una mujer en la otra. [8]
Para enseñarle al príncipe el valor de las virtudes prusianas , el rey lo nombró oficial en 1913. [4] Su paso por el 1.er regimiento de la Guardia Prusiana no dio los resultados deseados y Carol siguió siendo el "príncipe playboy". A principios del siglo XX, Rumania era una nación intensamente francófila , de hecho, tal vez la nación más francófila del mundo entero, ya que la élite rumana se dedicaba obsesivamente a adoptar todo lo francés como modelo de perfección en todo. Hasta cierto punto, Carol estaba influenciado por la francofilia imperante, pero al mismo tiempo heredó de Carol I, en palabras de la historiadora estadounidense Margaret Sankey, un "profundo amor por el militarismo alemán" y la idea de que todos los gobiernos democráticos eran gobiernos débiles. [4]
En algún momento antes de la Primera Guerra Mundial , las familias reales de Rumanía y Rusia mantuvieron conversaciones sobre el matrimonio de Carol, en ese momento heredera del trono del Reino de Rumanía, con la Gran Duquesa Olga Nikolaevna de Rusia , la hija mayor del emperador ruso en ese momento, el zar Nicolás II : Sergey Sazonov , el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores del Imperio ruso entre 1910 y 1916, quería que Olga se casara con Carol para asegurar la posición de Rumanía como aliada de Rusia en la eventualidad de una guerra, ya que Rumanía era un aliado de Alemania en ese momento. Ambas familias reales, incluido el zar y su esposa Alexandra , dieron su apoyo a la idea y había grandes expectativas de que el matrimonio se llevara a cabo. Sin embargo, ni Carol ni Olga demostraron interés por la otra: a Carol no le gustó la apariencia de Olga, y Olga expresó su deseo de permanecer en Rusia (si el matrimonio se hubiera llevado a cabo, Olga se habría convertido en la princesa heredera y más tarde en la reina de Rumanía ). Esto se vio mejor durante la visita de la familia real rumana a Rusia en marzo de 1914 , y durante una visita de Nicolás y su familia a Rumania unos meses más tarde. [9]
Tras el fracaso de la unión prevista de Carol y Olga, la idea de un posible matrimonio entre una real rumana y una real rusa se desvaneció hasta 1917 , cuando Carol comenzó a mostrar interés por la hermana menor de Olga, la gran duquesa María Nikolaevna . En una visita a Rusia en enero de ese año, le hizo una propuesta formal a Nicolás para la mano de María, pero Nicolás "se rió de buen humor de la propuesta" y argumentó que María "no era más que una colegiala". María tenía solo 17 años en ese momento, y compartía el deseo de su hermana mayor de casarse con un ruso y permanecer en Rusia. [10]
En noviembre de 1914, Carol se unió al Senado rumano , ya que la Constitución de 1866 le garantizaba un asiento allí al alcanzar la madurez. [11] Conocido más por sus desventuras románticas que por sus habilidades de liderazgo, Carol se casó por primera vez en la Iglesia Catedral de Odesa, Ucrania , el 31 de agosto de 1918 (bajo la ocupación de las Potencias Centrales en ese momento), con Joanna Marie Valentina Lambrino (1898-1953), conocida como "Zizi", la hija de un general rumano, Constantin Lambrino. El hecho de que Carol técnicamente hubiera desertado cuando dejó su puesto en el Ejército sin permiso para casarse con Zizi Lambrino causó una inmensa controversia en ese momento. [12] El matrimonio fue anulado el 29 de marzo de 1919 por el Tribunal del Condado de Ilfov. Carol y Zizi continuaron viviendo juntos después de la anulación. Su único hijo, Mircea Gregor Carol Lambrino , nació el 8 de enero de 1920.
Carol se casó después con la princesa Helena de Grecia y Dinamarca , conocida en Rumania como la princesa heredera Elena, el 10 de marzo de 1921 en Atenas , Grecia . Eran primas segundas, ambas bisnietas de la reina Victoria , así como primas terceras en descendencia de Nicolás I de Rusia . Helen conocía el comportamiento disoluto de Carol y su matrimonio anterior, pero su amor por él no se vio disuadido. La intención detrás de este matrimonio arreglado era ayudar a organizar una alianza dinástica entre Grecia y Rumania. Bulgaria tenía disputas territoriales con Grecia, Rumania y Yugoslavia, y los tres últimos estados tendían a ser cercanos durante el período de entreguerras debido a sus temores compartidos hacia los búlgaros. El único hijo de Helen y Carol, Michael , nació siete meses después de su matrimonio, lo que desató rumores de que Michael fue concebido fuera del matrimonio. Aparentemente cercanos al principio, Carol y Helen se distanciaron. El matrimonio de Carol con la princesa Helen fue infeliz y él frecuentemente tuvo aventuras extramatrimoniales. [12] La elegante Helen, una flor de pared, encontró al bohemio Carol, con su amor por la bebida y las fiestas constantes, demasiado salvaje para sus gustos. [12] Por su parte, a Carol le desagradaban las mujeres reales y aristocráticas, a las que encontraba demasiado rígidas y formales, y tenía una marcada preferencia por las plebeyas, para gran disgusto de sus padres. [12] Carol encontró que las mujeres de baja cuna tenían las cualidades que buscaba en una mujer, como la informalidad, la espontaneidad, el humor y la pasión. [12]
El matrimonio pronto se vino abajo a raíz del romance de Carol con Elena (Magda) Lupescu (1895-1977), hija católica de padres judíos que se habían convertido al cristianismo. Magda Lupescu había sido anteriormente la esposa del oficial del ejército Ion Tâmpeanu. El Partido Nacional Liberal , que dominaba la política de Rumania, hizo mucho hincapié en la relación de Carol con Lupescu argumentando que no estaba calificado para ser rey. Una de las figuras principales de los liberales nacionales era el príncipe Barbu Ştirbey , que también era amante de la reina María, y Carol tenía una fuerte aversión por Ştirbey, que había humillado a su padre a través de su relación indiscretamente disfrazada con María, y por lo tanto por los liberales nacionales. [13] Sabiendo que Carol estaba mal dispuesto hacia ellos, los liberales nacionales emprendieron una campaña sostenida para mantenerlo alejado del trono. [14] La campaña llevada a cabo por los liberales nacionales tenía menos que ver con el disgusto por la relación de Carol con Madame Lupescu que con un esfuerzo por eliminar un potencial "cañón suelto", ya que Carol dejó en claro cuando accedió al trono que no se conformaría con dejar que los liberales nacionales dominaran la política de la misma manera que lo habían hecho los reyes Hohenzollern anteriores. [14]
Como resultado del escándalo, Carol renunció a su derecho al trono el 28 de diciembre de 1925, en favor de su hijo con la princesa heredera Helen, Miguel I (Mihai), quien se convirtió en rey en julio de 1927 tras la muerte de su abuelo paterno, el rey Fernando I. Helen se divorció de Carol en 1928. Después de renunciar a su derecho al trono, Carol se mudó a París, donde vivió abiertamente en una relación de hecho con Madame Lupescu. [15] El Partido Nacional Liberal fue en gran medida un vehículo para que la poderosa familia Brătianu ejerciera el poder y, después de que el primer ministro nacional liberal Ion IC Brătianu muriera en 1927, los Brătianu no pudieron ponerse de acuerdo sobre un sucesor, lo que provocó que la fortuna de los liberales nacionales entrara en declive. [16] En las elecciones de 1928, el Partido Nacional Campesino de Iuliu Maniu obtuvo una victoria rotunda, con el 78% de los votos. [16] Como se sabía que el príncipe Nicolae , jefe del Consejo de Regencia que gobernaba para el rey Miguel, era amigo de los liberales nacionales, el nuevo primer ministro estaba decidido a deshacerse del consejo de regencia trayendo de vuelta a Carol. [16]
Carol regresó al país el 7 de junio de 1930, en un golpe de estado orquestado por el primer ministro nacional campesino Iuliu Maniu , y el Parlamento lo reconoció como rey de Rumania al día siguiente. Durante la década siguiente, trató de influir en el curso de la vida política rumana, primero a través de la manipulación de los partidos campesino y liberal rivales y las facciones antisemitas, y posteriormente (enero de 1938) a través de un ministerio de su propia elección. Carol también trató de construir su propio culto a la personalidad contra la creciente influencia de la Guardia de Hierro , por ejemplo, estableciendo una organización juvenil paramilitar conocida como Straja Țării en 1935. El historiador estadounidense Stanley G. Payne describió a Carol como "el monarca más cínico, corrupto y ávido de poder que jamás haya deshonrado un trono en cualquier parte de la Europa del siglo XX". [17] Un personaje pintoresco, Carol era en palabras del historiador británico Richard Cavendish : "Apuesto, voluntarioso y temerario, amante de las mujeres, el champán y la velocidad, Carol conducía coches de carreras y piloteaba aviones, y en ocasiones de estado aparecía con uniformes de opereta con suficientes cintas, cadenas y órdenes para hundir un pequeño destructor". [18]
La historiadora rumana Maria Bucur escribió sobre Carol:
Por supuesto, le encantaba el lujo; al haber nacido en una familia privilegiada, no esperaba nada menos que el estilo de vida suntuoso que veía en las demás cortes de Europa. Sin embargo, su estilo no era extravagante ni grotesco como el estilo kitsch único de Nicolae Ceauşescu . Le gustaban las cosas grandes pero relativamente simples; su palacio real da testimonio de ese rasgo. Las verdaderas pasiones de Carol eran Lupescu, la caza y los coches, y no escatimaba en gastos en ellos. A Carol le gustaba presentar una personalidad impresionante y populista al público, vistiendo llamativos uniformes militares adornados con medallas y siendo el benefactor de todos los esfuerzos filantrópicos del país. Amaba los desfiles y los festivales grandiosos y los observaba de cerca, pero no se dejaba engañar por estos eventos como algo más que una muestra de su poder. No los tomaba como una muestra de popularidad sincera, como hizo Ceauşescu durante sus últimos años. [19]
Carol había jurado en su coronación defender la constitución de 1923, una promesa que no tenía intención de cumplir, y desde el comienzo de su reinado, el rey se entrometió en la política para aumentar su propio poder. [17] Carol era un oportunista sin principios ni valores reales más allá de la creencia de que era el hombre adecuado para gobernar Rumania y que lo que su reino necesitaba era una dictadura modernizadora. [20] Carol gobernaba a través de un organismo informal conocido como la camarilla , que comprendía cortesanos junto con diplomáticos de alto rango, oficiales del ejército, políticos e industriales, que de alguna manera dependían del favor real para avanzar en sus carreras. [21] El miembro más importante de la camarilla era la amante de Carol, Madame Lupescu, cuyo consejo político Carol valoraba mucho. [21] Maniu había llevado a Carol al trono por temor a que la regencia de Miguel I estuviera dominada por los liberales nacionales, que se asegurarían de que su partido siempre ganara las elecciones. [21] Madame Lupescu era profundamente impopular entre el pueblo rumano, y Maniu había exigido que Carol regresara con su esposa, la princesa Helena de Grecia, como parte del precio por recibir el trono. Cuando Carol rompió su propia palabra y continuó viviendo con Madame Lupescu, Maniu renunció en protesta en octubre de 1930 y emergió como uno de los principales enemigos de Carol. [21] Al mismo tiempo, el regreso de Carol había provocado una ruptura en los liberales nacionales con Gheorghe I. Brătianu separándose para fundar un nuevo partido, el Partido Liberal Nacional-Brătianu que estaba dispuesto a trabajar con el nuevo rey. A pesar de su desagrado por los liberales nacionales, la enemistad de Maniu hacia Carol no dejó al rey otra opción que alistar como aliados a las facciones escindidas de los liberales nacionales contra los campesinos nacionales, que exigieron que Carol desterrara a Lupescu y regresara con su esposa.
La "Reina Roja", como la conocían los rumanos por el color de su pelo, era la mujer más odiada de la Rumanía de los años 30. Era una mujer a la que los rumanos corrientes veían como "la encarnación del mal", [21] en palabras de la historiadora británica Rebecca Haynes. La princesa Helen era considerada por muchos como la mujer agraviada, mientras que Lupescu era considerada como la femme fatale que había arrebatado a Carol de los amorosos brazos de Helen. Lupescu era católica romana, pero debido a los antecedentes de sus padres, era considerada judía. La personalidad de Lupescu no le granjeó muchos amigos, ya que era arrogante, agresiva, manipuladora y extremadamente codiciosa, con un gusto insaciable por comprar la ropa, los cosméticos y las joyas francesas más caras. [22] En una época en la que muchos rumanos sufrían la Gran Depresión en Rumania , el hábito de Carol de complacer los gustos caros de Lupescu causó mucho resentimiento, y muchos de los súbditos de Carol se quejaron de que el dinero se habría gastado mejor en aliviar la pobreza en el reino. Para aumentar aún más la inmensa impopularidad de Lupescu, era una mujer de negocios que usaba sus conexiones con la Corona para participar en transacciones dudosas que generalmente involucraban grandes sumas de dinero público, que iban a parar a su bolsillo. [21] Sin embargo, el punto de vista contemporáneo de que Carol era una mera marioneta de Lupescu es incorrecto, y la influencia de Lupescu en la toma de decisiones políticas fue muy exagerada en ese momento. [22] Lupescu estaba principalmente interesada en enriquecerse para mantener su estilo de vida extravagante y no tenía ningún interés real en la política, más allá de proteger su capacidad para participar en la corrupción. [22] A diferencia de Carol, Lupescu no tenía ningún interés en la política social o los asuntos exteriores y era una narcisista tan egocéntrica que no era consciente de lo impopular que era entre la gente común. [8] Carol, por el contrario, estaba interesado en los asuntos de estado, y aunque nunca trató de negar su relación con Lupescu, tuvo cuidado de no exhibirla demasiado en público, ya que sabía que esto le traería impopularidad. [8]
Carol intentó enfrentar a los liberales nacionales, el Partido Nacional Campesino y la Guardia de Hierro entre sí con el objetivo final de convertirse en dueño de la política rumana y deshacerse de todos los partidos en Rumania. [17] Con respecto a la Legión del Arcángel Miguel , Carol no tenía intención de dejar que la Guardia de Hierro llegara al poder, pero en la medida en que la Legión era una fuerza disruptiva que debilitaba tanto a los liberales nacionales como a los campesinos nacionales, Carol dio la bienvenida al ascenso de la Guardia de Hierro a principios de la década de 1930, y trató de utilizar a la Legión para sus propios fines. [17] El 30 de 1933, la Guardia de Hierro asesinó al primer ministro liberal nacional, Ion G. Duca , lo que llevó a la primera de varias prohibiciones impuestas a la Legión. [23] El asesinato de Ion Duca, que fue el primer asesinato político de Rumania desde 1862, conmocionó a Carol, quien vio la disposición de Codreanu a ordenar el asesinato del Primer Ministro como una clara señal de que el ególatra Codreanu se estaba saliendo de control y que Codreanu no desempeñaría el papel asignado por el rey como una fuerza disruptiva que amenazara a los liberales nacionales y a los campesinos nacionales por igual. [23] En 1934, cuando Codreanu fue llevado a juicio por ordenar el asesinato de Duca, utilizó como defensa el argumento de que toda la élite francófila era completamente corrupta y no propiamente rumana, y como tal, Duca era solo otro político liberal nacional corrupto que merecía morir. El jurado absolvió a Codreanu, un acto que preocupó a Carol ya que mostró que el mensaje revolucionario de Codreanu de que toda la élite necesitaba ser destruida estaba ganando la aprobación popular. En la primavera de 1934, después de que Codreanu fuera absuelto, Carol, junto con el prefecto de policía de Bucarest Gavrilă Marinescu y Madame Lupescu, estuvieron involucrados en un complot poco entusiasta para matar a Codreanu envenenando su café, un esfuerzo que fue abandonado antes de intentarse. [24] Hasta 1935, Carol fue uno de los principales contribuyentes de los "Amigos de la Legión", el grupo que recaudaba contribuciones para la Legión. [25] Carol solo dejó de contribuir a la Legión después de que Codreanu comenzó a llamar a Lupescu "puta judía". La imagen de Carol siempre fue la del "rey playboy", un monarca hedonista más interesado en las mujeres, la bebida, el juego y la fiesta que en los asuntos de estado, y en la medida en que le importaba la política, Carol era visto como un hombre intrigante y deshonesto solo interesado en destruir el sistema democrático para tomar el poder para sí mismo. [26]
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Para compensar su imagen bastante negativa y bien merecida de "rey playboy", Carol creó un fastuoso culto a la personalidad a su alrededor que se volvió más extremo a medida que avanzaba su reinado, que retrataba al rey como un ser parecido a Cristo "elegido" por Dios para crear una "nueva Rumania". [26] En el libro de 1934 Los tres reyes de Cezar Petrescu , que estaba destinado a un público menos educado, Carol fue descrito constantemente como casi como un dios, el "padre de los aldeanos y trabajadores de la tierra" y el "rey de la cultura" que fue el más grande de todos los reyes Hohenzollern y cuyo regreso del exilio de Francia en avión en junio de 1930 fue un "descenso de los cielos". [26] Petrescu describió el regreso de Carol como el comienzo de su tarea designada por Dios de convertirse en "el creador de la Rumania eterna", el comienzo de una gloriosa edad de oro, ya que Petrescu afirmó que el gobierno de los monarcas era lo que Dios quería para los rumanos. [26]
Carol tenía poco conocimiento o interés en la economía, pero su asesor económico más influyente fue Mihail Manoilescu , que favorecía un modelo estatista de desarrollo económico en el que el Estado intervenía en la economía para fomentar el crecimiento. [27] Carol era muy activo en el ámbito cultural, siendo un generoso mecenas de las artes y apoyando activamente el trabajo de la Fundación Real, una organización con un amplio mandato para promover y estudiar la cultura rumana en todos los campos. [28] En particular, Carol apoyó el trabajo del sociólogo Dimitrie Gusti del Servicio Social de la Fundación Real, que a principios de la década de 1930 comenzó a reunir a científicos sociales de varias disciplinas como la sociología, la antropología, la etnografía, la geografía, la musicología, la medicina y la biología en una "ciencia de la nación". [29] Gusti llevaba equipos de profesores de varias disciplinas al campo para estudiar una comunidad entera desde todos los puntos de vista cada verano, quienes luego producían un extenso informe sobre la comunidad. [30]
Durante la mayor parte del período de entreguerras, Rumania estuvo en la esfera de influencia francesa y, en junio de 1926, se firmó una alianza defensiva con Francia. La alianza con Francia, junto con una alianza con Polonia firmada en 1921, y la "Pequeña Entente", que unía a Rumania, Checoslovaquia y Yugoslavia, fueron las piedras angulares de la política exterior rumana. A partir de 1919, los franceses intentaron crear el Cordón Sanitario que mantendría a Alemania y a la Unión Soviética fuera de Europa del Este. Carol no intentó en un principio reemplazar la política exterior que había heredado en 1930, ya que consideraba que la continuación del Cordón Sanitario era la mejor garantía de la independencia y la integridad territorial de Rumania y, como tal, su política exterior era esencialmente pro-francesa. En el momento en que Rumania firmó la alianza con Francia, la región alemana de Renania estaba desmilitarizada y la idea en Bucarest siempre había sido que si Alemania cometía cualquier acto de agresión en cualquier lugar de Europa del Este, los franceses iniciarían una ofensiva contra el Reich . A partir de 1930, cuando los franceses comenzaron a construir la Línea Maginot a lo largo de su frontera con Alemania, en Bucarest empezaron a surgir algunas dudas sobre si los franceses podrían realmente acudir en ayuda de Rumanía en caso de una agresión alemana. En 1933, Carol nombró a Nicolae Titulescu , un defensor declarado de la seguridad colectiva bajo la bandera de la Sociedad de Naciones, ministro de Asuntos Exteriores con instrucciones de utilizar los principios de seguridad colectiva como elementos básicos para crear algún tipo de estructura de seguridad destinada a mantener a Alemania y a la Unión Soviética fuera de Europa del Este. [31] Carol y Titulescu se detestaban personalmente, pero Carol quería a Titulescu como ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, ya que creía que era el mejor hombre para fortalecer los lazos con Francia y para hacer que Gran Bretaña participara en los asuntos de Europa del Este bajo el disfraz de los compromisos de seguridad colectiva contenidos en el Pacto de la Sociedad. [32]
El proceso de Gleichschaltung (coordinación) en la Alemania nacionalsocialista no se extendió sólo al Reich, sino que fue considerado por los dirigentes nacionalsocialistas como un proceso mundial en el que el NSDAP tomaría el control de todas las comunidades étnicas alemanas en todo el mundo. El Departamento de Política Exterior del NSDAP, encabezado por Alfred Rosenberg , había intentado hacerse cargo de la comunidad Volk Deutsch (étnica alemana) en Rumania a partir de 1934, una política que ofendió mucho a Carol, quien consideró esto como una escandalosa interferencia alemana en los asuntos internos de Rumania. [33] Como Rumania tenía medio millón de ciudadanos Volk Deutsch en la década de 1930, la campaña nazi para hacerse cargo de la comunidad alemana en Rumania fue una verdadera preocupación para Carol, quien temía que la minoría alemana pudiera convertirse en una quinta columna. [33] Además, los agentes de Rosenberg habían establecido contratos con la extrema derecha rumana, más notablemente con el Partido Nacional Cristiano encabezado por Octavian Goga y vínculos menos sustanciales con la Guardia de Hierro encabezada por Corneliu Zelea Codreanu , lo que molestó aún más a Carol. [33] El historiador estadounidense Gerhard Weinberg escribió sobre las opiniones de política exterior de Carol: "Admiraba y temía a Alemania, pero temía y detestaba a la Unión Soviética". [34] El hecho de que el primer líder en visitar la Alemania nazi (aunque no en calidad oficial) fuera el primer ministro húngaro Gyula Gömbös , quien durante su visita a Berlín en octubre de 1933 firmó un tratado económico que colocaba a Hungría dentro de la esfera económica alemana de influencia, fue una fuente de mucha alarma para Carol. [35] Durante todo el período de entreguerras, Budapest se negó a reconocer las fronteras impuestas por el Tratado de Trianon y reclamó la región de Transilvania de Rumania. Carol, como el resto de la élite rumana, estaba preocupada por la perspectiva de una alianza de los estados revisionistas que rechazaban la legitimidad del orden internacional creado por los aliados en 1918-20, lo que indicaba que Alemania apoyaría las reivindicaciones de Hungría sobre Transilvania. [36] Hungría tenía disputas territoriales con Rumania, Yugoslavia y Checoslovaquia, todos ellos aliados de Francia. En consecuencia, las relaciones franco-húngaras fueron extremadamente malas durante el período de entreguerras, por lo que parecía natural que Hungría se aliara con el archienemigo de Francia, Alemania.
En 1934, Titulescu desempeñó un papel destacado en la creación de la Entente de los Balcanes , que reunió a Rumania, Yugoslavia, Grecia y Turquía en una alianza destinada a contrarrestar el revanchismo búlgaro. [32] La Entente de los Balcanes pretendía ser el comienzo de una alianza que reuniría a todos los estados antirrevisionistas de Europa del Este. Al igual que Francia, Rumania era aliada de Checoslovaquia y Polonia, pero debido a la disputa de Teschen en Silesia, Varsovia y Praga eran enemigos acérrimos. Al igual que los diplomáticos del Quai d'Orsay, Carol estaba exasperado por la amarga disputa polaco-checoslovaca, argumentando que era absurdo que los estados antirrevisionistas de Europa del Este estuvieran enemistados entre sí frente al ascenso de las potencias alemana y soviética. [32] Varias veces, Carol intentó mediar en la disputa de Teschen y así poner fin a la disputa polaco-checoslovaca sin mucho éxito. [32] Reflejando su orientación inicialmente pro-francesa, en junio de 1934, cuando el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores francés Louis Barthou visitó Bucarest para reunirse con los ministros de Asuntos Exteriores de la "Pequeña Entente" de Rumania, Checoslovaquia y Yugoslavia, Carol organizó fastuosas celebraciones para dar la bienvenida a Barthou que se hicieron para simbolizar la duradera amistad franco-rumana entre las dos "hermanas latinas". [37] El ministro alemán en Rumania, el conde Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, se quejó con disgusto en un informe a Berlín de que todos en la élite rumana eran francófilos incurables que le decían que Rumania nunca traicionaría a su "hermana latina", Francia.
Al mismo tiempo, Carol también consideró la posibilidad de que si las relaciones entre Rumanía y Alemania mejoraban, tal vez Berlín podría ser persuadido de no apoyar a Budapest en su campaña para recuperar Transilvania. [36] Otro factor que presionaba aún más a Carol hacia Alemania era el estado desesperado de la economía rumana: incluso antes de la Gran Depresión mundial , Rumanía había sido un país pobre, y la Gran Depresión golpeó duramente a Rumanía, ya que los rumanos no podían exportar mucho debido a la guerra comercial global desencadenada por la Ley Arancelaria Smoot-Hawley estadounidense de 1930, que a su vez provocó una disminución en el valor del leu a medida que se agotaban las reservas de divisas de Rumanía. [36] En junio de 1934, el ministro de finanzas rumano, Victor Slăvescu, visitó París para pedir a los franceses que inyectaran millones de francos en el tesoro rumano y redujeran sus aranceles sobre los productos rumanos. Cuando los franceses rechazaron ambas peticiones, Carol escribió en su diario, enfadada, que la «hermana latina», Francia, se estaba comportando de una manera poco fraternal con Rumania. [36] En abril de 1936, cuando Wilhelm Fabricius fue nombrado ministro alemán en Bucarest, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, el barón Konstantin von Neurath , en sus instrucciones al nuevo ministro, describió a Rumania como un estado hostil y pro-francés, pero sugirió que la perspectiva de un mayor comercio con el Reich podría sacar a los rumanos de la órbita francesa. [36] Neurath instruyó además a Fabricius que, si bien Rumania no era una gran potencia en un sentido militar, era un estado de importancia crucial para Alemania debido a su petróleo.
Carol a menudo alentaba divisiones en los partidos políticos para sus propios fines. En 1935, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod , el líder de la rama transilvana de los Campesinos Nacionales, se separó para formar el Frente Rumano con el apoyo de Carol. [38] Durante la misma época, Carol desarrolló estrechos contactos con Armand Călinescu , un ambicioso líder de los Campesinos Nacionales que fundó una facción opuesta al liderazgo del archienemigo de Carol, Iuliu Maniu, y quería que los Campesinos Nacionales trabajaran con la Corona. [38] De la misma manera, Carol alentó a la facción de los "Jóvenes Liberales" encabezada por Gheorghe Tătărescu como una forma de debilitar el poder de la familia Brătianu, que dominaba a los Liberales Nacionales. [23] Carol estaba dispuesto a permitir que la facción de los "Jóvenes Liberales" bajo el liderazgo de Tătărescu llegara al poder, pero excluyó a la principal facción Liberal Nacional bajo el liderazgo de Dinu Brătianu de obtener el poder; Carol no había olvidado cómo los Brătianus lo habían excluido de la sucesión en la década de 1920. [39]
En febrero de 1935, el líder de la Legión, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu , que hasta entonces había sido considerado un aliado de Carol, atacó por primera vez directamente al rey cuando organizó manifestaciones fuera del palacio real atacando a Carol después de que el Dr. Dimitrie Gerota había sido encarcelado por escribir un artículo que exponía los negocios corruptos de Lupescu. [24] Codreanu, en su discurso ante el Palacio Real, llamó a Lupescu una "puta judía" que estaba robando a ciegas a Rumania, lo que llevó a un insultado Carol a llamar a uno de los miembros de su camarilla , el prefecto de policía de Bucarest Gavrilă Marinescu, quien envió a la policía a disolver la manifestación de la Guardia de Hierro con mucha violencia. [24]
Las dudas sobre la voluntad francesa de emprender una ofensiva contra Alemania se reforzaron aún más con la remilitarización de Renania en marzo de 1936, que tuvo el efecto de permitir a los alemanes comenzar a construir la línea Sigfrido a lo largo de la frontera con Francia, algo que disminuyó considerablemente la perspectiva de una ofensiva francesa en Alemania occidental si el Reich invadía cualquiera de los estados del cordón sanitario . Un memorando del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores británico de marzo de 1936 afirmaba que las únicas naciones del mundo que aplicarían sanciones a Alemania por remilitarizar Renania si la Sociedad de Naciones votaba a favor de tal medida eran Gran Bretaña, Francia, Bélgica, Checoslovaquia, la Unión Soviética y Rumania. [40] Tras la remilitarización de Renania, y una vez que quedó claro que no se aplicarían sanciones contra Alemania, Carol comenzó a expresar sus temores de que los días de la influencia francesa en Europa del Este estaban contados y Rumania podría tener que buscar algún entendimiento con Alemania para preservar su independencia. [41] Después de continuar la alianza con Francia, Carol también inició una política de intentar mejorar las relaciones con Alemania. [42]
En el frente interno, en el verano de 1936, Codreanu y Maniu formaron una alianza para oponerse al creciente poder de la Corona y del gobierno Nacional Liberal. [43] En agosto de 1936, Carol hizo despedir a Titulescu como ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, y en noviembre de 1936, Carol envió al político nacionalliberal renegado Gheorghe I. Brătianu a Alemania para reunirse con Adolf Hitler , el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, el barón Konstantin von Neurath y Hermann Göring para contarles el deseo de Rumania de un acercamiento al Reich . [44] Carol se sintió muy aliviada cuando Brătianu informó que Hitler, Neurath y Göring le habían asegurado que el Reich no tenía ningún interés en apoyar el revanchismo húngaro y era neutral en la disputa de Transilvania. [44] La disociación de la campaña de Berlín para derrocar el sistema internacional creado por el Tratado de Versalles de la campaña de Budapest para derrocar el sistema creado por el Tratado de Trianon fue una buena noticia para Carol, ya que creó la posibilidad de que una Alemania más grande no significara una Hungría más grande. Göring, el recién nombrado jefe de la organización del Plan de Cuatro Años diseñado para tener a Alemania lista para librar una guerra total en 1940, estaba especialmente interesado en el petróleo de Rumania y habló mucho con Brătianu sobre una nueva era de relaciones económicas germano-rumanas. [44] Alemania casi no tenía petróleo propio y, durante todo el Tercer Reich, el control del petróleo de Rumania fue un objetivo clave de política exterior. Reflejando el cambio de énfasis, Carol vetó en febrero de 1937 un plan promovido por Francia y Checoslovaquia para una nueva alianza que uniría formalmente a Francia con la Pequeña Entente y previó vínculos militares mucho más estrechos entre los franceses y sus aliados en Europa del Este. [45] Debido a su petróleo, los franceses querían mantener fuerte su alianza con Rumania, y porque la mano de obra rumana era una forma de compensar a los franceses por su menor población en comparación con la de Alemania (los franceses tenían 40 millones de personas mientras que Alemania tenía 70 millones). Además, en París se suponía que si Alemania invadía Checoslovaquia, Hungría también atacaría Checoslovaquia para recuperar Eslovaquia y Rutenia. Los planificadores militares franceses imaginaron el papel de Rumania y Yugoslavia en una guerra de ese tipo como invadir Hungría para aliviar la presión sobre Checoslovaquia. [46]
Up until 1940, Carol's foreign policy teetered uneasily between the traditional alliance with France and an alignment with the newly ascending power of Germany.[44] In the summer of 1937, Carol told French diplomats that if Germany attacked Czechoslovakia, he would not allow the Red Army transit rights across Romania but was willing to ignore the Soviets if they crossed Romanian airspace on their way to Czechoslovakia.[47] On December 9, 1937, a German-Romanian economic treaty was signed that placed Romania within the German economic sphere of influence but left the Germans unsatisfied as the Reich's enormous demand for oil to power its increasingly large war machine, was not yet fulfilled by the 1937 treaty.[48] Germany had a tremendous need for oil and no sooner had the 1937 agreement been signed than the Germans asked for a new economic treaty in 1938. At the same time that the German-Romanian treaty was signed in December 1937, Carol was receiving the French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos to show that the alliance with France was not yet dead.[49]
In September 1937, Carol paid an extended visit to Paris, during which he indicated to the French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos that Romanian democracy would soon end.[50] In a campaign speech for the general elections due that December, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, "Captain" of the Archangel Michael Legion, called for an end to the alliance with France and stated: "I am for a Romanian foreign policy with Rome and Berlin. I am with the states of the National Revolution against Bolshevism. Within forty-eight hours of a Legionary movement victory, Romania will have an alliance with Rome and Berlin".[51] Without realizing it, Codreanu had sealed his doom with that speech. Carol had always insisted that control of foreign policy was his own exclusive royal prerogative, which no one else was allowed to interfere with.[52] Despite the constitution, which stated that the foreign minister was responsible to the prime minister, in practice, the foreign ministers had always reported to the king. By challenging Carol's right to control foreign policy, Codreanu had crossed the Rubicon in the king's eyes and from that time on, Carol was committed to the destruction of the arrogant upstart Codreanu and his movement who had dared to challenge the king's prerogative.[52] In the December 1937 elections, the National Liberal government of Prime Minister Gheorghe Tătărescu won the largest number of seats, but less than the 40% required to form a majority government in parliament.[53] After assassinating Prime Minister Duca in 1933, the Iron Guard had been banned from participating in elections, and to get around the ban Codreanu founded the All for Fatherland! party as a front for the Legion. The All for Fatherland! the party won 16% of the vote in the 1937 election, marking the high point of the Iron Guard's electoral success.
On 28, 1937, Carol swore in the radical anti-Semitic poet Octavian Goga of the National Christian Party, which only won 9% of the vote, as prime minister. Carol's reasons for appointing Goga Prime Minister were partly because he hoped that anti-Semitic policies Goga would bring in would win him support from the All for Fatherland! voters and thus weaken the Legion and partly because he hoped that Goga would prove so incompetent as prime minister as to provoke such a crisis that would allow him to seize power for himself.[54] Carol wrote in his diary that the markedly stupid Goga could not possibly last long as prime minister and that Goga's failure would allow him to "be free to take stronger measures which will free me and the country from the tyranny of party interests".[54] Carol agreed to Goga's request to dissolve parliament for new elections on 18, 1938. As leader of the fourth party in parliament, Goga's government was certain to be defeated on a vote of no-confidence when parliament convened as the National Liberals, National Peasants and All for the Fatherland Party had all come out against Goga, albeit for very different reasons. The election got off to a violent start with a brawl in Bucharest between Goga's Lăncieri paramilitary group and the Iron Guard that left two dead, 52 hospitalized and 450 people arrested.[55] The 1938 election was one of the most violent elections in Romanian history, as the Iron Guard and Lăncieri battled one another for control of the streets while seeking to establish their anti-Semitic creditations by assaulting Jews.[55] As Parliament never met during the Goga government, Goga had to pass laws via emergency decree, which all had to be countersigned by the king.
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The harsh anti-Semitic policies of the Goga government impoverished the Jewish minority and led to immediate complaints from the British, French and American governments that Goga's policies were going to lead to a Jewish exodus out of Romania.[56] Neither Britain, France, nor the United States had any wish to take in the Jewish refugees that Goga was creating by imposing increasingly oppressive anti-Semitic laws, and all three governments pressed for Carol to dismiss Goga as a way of nipping the developing humanitarian crisis caused by Goga in the bud.[56] The British minister Sir Reginald Hoare and French minister Adrien Thierry both submitted notes of protest against the Goga government's anti-Semitism, while President Roosevelt of the United States wrote a letter to Carol complaining about the anti-Semitic policies he was tolerating.[34] On 12, 1938, Goga stripped all Romanian Jews of their Romanian citizenship, a preparatory move towards Goga's ultimate goal of the expulsion of all Romanian Jews. Carol was personally not an anti-Semite, but in the words of his biographer, Paul D. Quinlan, the king was "simply indifferent" to the sufferings of his Jewish subjects caused by Goga's oppressive anti-Semitic laws.[57] The opportunistic Carol did not believe in antisemitism anymore than he believed in anything else other than power, but if raison d'état meant tolerating an anti-Semitic government as the price of gaining power, Carol was quite prepared to sacrifice the rights of his Jewish subjects.[57] At the same time, Goga proved himself a better poet than politician, and there was a crisis atmosphere in early 1938 as the Goga government, which obsessed with solving the "Jewish Question", to the exclusion of everything else, was clearly floundering. Weinberg wrote about Goga, saying that he was "Unprepared for office and untouched by any leadership ability..." and whose clownish antics left diplomats stationed in Bucharest "half-amused, half-appalled".[34] As Carol had expected, Goga proved to be such an inept leader as to discredit democracy while his anti-Semitic policies ensured that none of the democratic great powers would object to Carol proclaiming a dictatorship.[56]
Coming to realize belatedly that he was being used by Carol, Goga had a meeting with Codreanu on 8 February 8, 1938, at the house of Ion Gigurtu to arrange for a deal under which the Iron Guard would withdraw its candidates from the election in order to ensure that the radical anti-Semitic right would have a majority.[58] Carol quickly learned of the Goga-Codreanu pact and used it as the justification for the self-coup he had been planning since late 1937.[56] On 10, 1938, Carol suspended the Constitution and seized emergency powers.[54] Carol proclaimed martial law and suspended all civil liberties under the grounds that the violent election campaign was at the risk of plunging the nation into civil war.[59]
Having outlived his usefulness, Goga was sacked as prime minister and Carol appointed Patriarch Elie Cristea, the head of the Romanian Eastern Orthodox Church, as his successor. Carol knew he would command wide respect in a country where the majority of the population was Orthodox. On 11, 1938, Carol drafted a new constitution. Although it was superficially similar to its 1923 predecessor, it was actually a severely authoritarian and corporatist document. The new constitution effectively codified the emergency powers Carol had seized in February, turning his government into a de facto legal dictatorship. It concentrated virtually all governing power in his hands, almost to the point of absolute monarchy. The new constitution was approved in a plebiscite held under far-from-secret conditions; voters were required to appear before an election bureau and verbally state whether they approved the constitution; silence was deemed as a "yes" vote. Under these conditions, an implausible 99.87 percent were reported as having approved the new charter, against fewer than 5,500 votes against it.[60]
At the time of his coup in February 1938, Carol informed the German minister Wilhelm Fabricius of his wish for closer ties between his country and Germany.[61] Thierry told Carol in a meeting after the coup that his new government was "well received" in Paris and that the French would not allow the end of democracy to affect their relations with Romania.[62] The new government of Patriarch Cristea did not introduce new anti-Semitic laws but did not repeal the laws passed by Goga either, though Cristea was less extreme about enforcing these laws.[62] When asked by a Jewish friend if his citizenship would be restored now that Goga was gone, Interior Minister Armand Călinescu, who detested the Iron Guard and antisemitism, replied that the Cristea government had no interest in restoring citizenship back to the Jews.[63]
In March 1938, Armand Călinescu, the Interior Minister who had emerged as one of Carol's closet allies and who was to serve as the "strong man" of the new regime, demanded the Iron Guard be finally destroyed.[64] In April 1938, Carol moved to crush the Iron Guard by having Codreanu imprisoned for libeling the historian Nicolae Iorga after Codreanu had published a public letter accusing Iorga of dishonest business dealings. After Codreanu's conviction on April 19, 1938, he was convicted again in a second trial on May 27, 1938, of high treason where he was accused of working in the pay of Germany to affect a revolution since 1935 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.[64]
Carol was made a Stranger Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter in 1938 (the 982nd member since the order's inception) by his second cousin, George VI (King of the United Kingdom). In 1937, he was awarded the Grand Cross of Justice of the Military and Hospitaler Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem and given the Grand Collar of the Order on October 16 October 1938. He served as the Grand Bailiwick of the budding Grand Bailiwick of Romania.[65]
Carol, together with the rest of the Romanian elite, was deeply shocked by the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, which he saw as allowing all of Eastern Europe to fall within the German sphere of influence.[66] Romania had long been one of the most Francophile nations in the world, which meant that the effects of Munich were felt especially strongly there.[66] Weinberg wrote about the effect of Munich on Franco-Romanian relations: "In view of the traditional ties going back to the beginnings of Romanian independence and manifested in the way in which the Romanian elite looked to France as the model for everything from fashion to government, the revelation of France's abdication was particularly shocking."[66] In October 1938, the Iron Guard had begun a terrorist campaign of assassinating police officers and bureaucrats and staging bombings of government offices as part of an effort to overthrow Carol.[67][68] Carol struck back hard, ordering the police to arrest Iron Guardsmen without warrant and to summarily execute those found with weapons.
In view of Germany's desperate need for oil and the repeated German requests for a new economic agreement that would allow for more Romanian oil to be shipped to the Reich, Carol met Fabricius to tell him that he wanted such an agreement to create a lasting understanding between Germany and Romania.[69] At the same time, in October–November 1938, Carol was playing a double game and appealed to Britain for help, offering to place Romania within the British economic sphere of influence, and visited London between November 15 and 20 to hold unsuccessful talks on that subject.[70] On November 24, 1938, Carol visited Germany to meet with Hitler in order to improve German-Romanian relations.[71] During the talks for the new German-Romanian economic agreement, which was signed on December 10, 1938, Weinberg wrote that "Carol made the needed concessions, but he demonstrated his concern for his country's independence by driving a very hard bargain.".[71] The British historian D.C. Watt wrote that Carol had a "trump card" in his control of the oil Germany needed so badly and that the Germans were willing to pay a very high price for Romanian oil, without which their military could not function.[72] During his summit with Hitler, Carol was much offended when Hitler demanded that Carol free Codreanu and appoint him prime minister.[73] Carol believed that as long as Codreanu lived, there was a possible alternative leadership in Romania for Hitler to back, and that if this possibility was eliminated then Hitler would have no choice other than to deal with him.[73]
Carol had initially planned to keep Codreanu in prison, but after the terrorist campaign began in October 1938, Carol agreed to Călinescu's plan drawn up in the spring to murder all of the Iron Guard leaders in custody.[74] On the night of November 30, 1938, Carol had Codreanu and 13 other Iron Guard leaders murdered, with the official story being that they were "shot while trying to escape.".[75] The killings on the night of November 30, 1938, which saw much of the Iron Guard's leadership wiped out, have gone down in Romanian history as "the night of the vampires.".[73] The Germans were much offended by the murder of Codreanu and for a period in late 1938 waged a violent propaganda campaign against Carol, with German newspapers regularly running stories casting doubt about the official version of events that Codreanu had been "shot while trying to escape" while calling Codreanu's murder "a victory for the Jews,"[75][76] but ultimately economic concerns, especially the German need for Romanian oil caused the Nazis to get over their outrage over the killings of the Iron Guard leaders by early 1939, and relations with Carol soon went back to normal.[75]
In December 1938, the National Renaissance Front was formed as the country's only legal party. That same month, Carol appointed his friend since childhood and another member of the camarilla, Grigore Gafencu as foreign minister.[77] Gafencu was appointed foreign minister partly because Carol knew he could trust Gafencu and partly because of Gafencu's friendship with Colonel Józef Beck, the Polish foreign minister, as Carol wanted to strengthen ties with Poland.[77] Gafencu was to prove himself something of an opportunist as foreign minister, the man who always wanted to take the path of least resistance, in marked contrast to Armand Călinescu, the tough, "almost freakish-looking," diminutive, one-eyed Interior Minister (and soon to be prime minister) who proved himself a consistent opponent of fascism both in Romania and abroad and encouraged Carol to stand with the Allies.[77]
Carol's foreign policy going into 1939 was to strengthen Romania's alliances with Poland and the Balkan Entente, work to avoid conflicts with Romania's enemies Hungary and Bulgaria, and encourage Britain and France to get involved in the Balkans while trying to avoid giving offense to Germany.[78] On March 6 March 1939, the Patriarch Cristea died and was replaced as prime minister by Călinescu.
In February 1939, Göring dispatched his deputy Helmuth Wohlthat of the Four Year Plan organization to Bucharest with instructions to sign yet another German-Romanian economic treaty that would allow Germany total economic dominance over Romania, especially its oil industry.[79] That Wohlthat, the number two man in the Four-Year Plan organization, was sent to Bucharest indicated the importance of the German-Romanian talks.[78] Carol had resisted German demands for more oil in the December 1938 agreement and instead had succeeded by early 1939 in placing Romania to a certain extent within the British economic sphere of influence.[77] To counterbalance the increasingly powerful German influence in the Balkans, Carol wanted closer ties with Britain.[77] At the same time, the Four-Year Plan was running into major difficulties by early 1939, and in particular, Göring's plans to have synthetic oil plants that would make oil from coal were well behind schedule.[78] The new technology of making synthetic oil from lignite coal had run into major technical problems and cost overruns, and Göring had been informed in early 1939 that the synthetic oil plants whose construction had started in 1936 would not be operative by 1940 as planned. It was not until the summer of 1942 that Germany's first synthetic oil plants finally started operating. It was painfully obvious to Göring in the first months of 1939 that the German economy would not be ready to support a total war by 1940 as the Four-Year Plan of 1936 had envisioned while at the same time his economic experts were telling him the Reich needed to import 400,000 tons of oil per month while Germany had in fact imported only 61,000 tons of oil per month in the last four months of 1938.[78]
In 1938, Romania produced 6.6 million tons of crude oil, 284,000 tons of crude steel, 133,000 tons of pig iron, 510,000 tons of cement and 289,000 tons of rolled steel.[80]
Hence Wohlthat demanded during his talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu that Romania nationalize their entire oil industry, which was henceforth controlled by a new corporation owned jointly by the German and Romanian governments, while demanding Romania "respect German export interests" by only selling their oil to Germany.[78] In addition, Wohlthat demanded a host of other measures that, to all practical purposes, would have converted Romania into a German economic colony.[78] As Carol had no intention of giving in to these demands, the talks in Bucharest went very badly. It was at this point that Carol began what became known as the "Tilea affair" when, on March 17, 1939, Virgil Tilea, the Romanian minister in London, burst unexpectedly into the office of the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax in an agitated state to announce that his country was faced with an imminent German invasion and asked Halifax for British support.[81] At the same time, Carol mobilized five infantry corps on the Hungarian border to guard the supposed invasion.[82] The British "economic offensive" in the Balkans was causing Germany very real economic pain as the British bought up Romanian oil that the Germans badly needed, hence their demands for control of the Romanian oil industry that so offended Carol.[78] As the British believed in Tilea's claims, the "Tilea affair" had an immense impact on British foreign policy and led to the Chamberlain government changing from appeasement of Germany to a policy of "containing" the Reich.[83][84] Carol denied, unconvincingly, knowing anything about what Tilea was up to in London, but the British warnings to Germany against invading Romania in March 1939 led the Germans to relax their demands, and the latest German-Romanian economic treaty signed on March 23, 1939, was, in the words of Watt 'very vague".[85] Despite the "Tilea affair", Carol had decided that he would refuse to become involved in any diplomacy that would force him to decisively choose between Germany and Britain, and he would never accept any support from the Soviet Union to deter Germany.[85]
As part of their new policy of seeking to "contain" Germany starting in March 1939, the British sought the construction of the "peace front," which was to comprise at a minimum Britain, France, Poland, the Soviet Union, Turkey, Romania, Greece and Yugoslavia. For his part, Carol was obsessed with fears in the first half of 1939 that Hungary, with German support, would soon attack his kingdom.[86] On April 6, 1939, a cabinet meeting decided that Romania would not join the "peace front" but would seek Anglo-French support for its independence.[86] The same meeting decided that Romania would work to strengthen ties with other Balkan nations but would seek to prevent the Anglo-French efforts to link the security of the Balkans to the security of Poland.[87] On April 13, 1939, the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain speaking in the House of Commons and the French Premier Édouard Daladier speaking in the Chamber of Deputies, announced a joint Anglo-French "guarantee" of the independence of Romania and Greece.[88] Carol promptly accepted the "guarantee.". On May 5, 1939, the French Marshal Maxime Weygand visited Bucharest to meet with Carol and his prime minister, Armand Călinescu to discuss Romania's possible participation in the "peace front.".[89] Both Carol and Călinescu were supportive but evasive, saying that they would welcome having the Soviet Union fight against Germany, but would never allow the Red Army to enter Romania even if Germany should invade.[89] Carol told Weygand: "I do not wish to let my country be engaged in a war which would result, in a few weeks, in the destruction of its army and the occupation of its territory...We do not wish to be the lighting conductor for the coming storm".[90] Carol went on to complain that he had enough equipment for only two-thirds of his army, which also lacked tanks, anti-aircraft guns, heavy artillery and anti-tank guns while his air force had only about 400 antiquated aircraft of French manufacture that were no match for latest German aircraft.[90] Weygand reported to Paris that Carol wanted Anglo–French support, but would not fight for the Allies if war came.[90]
On May 11, 1939, an Anglo-Romanian agreement was signed under which Britain committed itself to grant Romania a credit of £5 million pound sterling and promised to buy 200,000 tons of Romanian wheat at above-market prices.[91] When Yugoslavia reacted negatively to the Anglo-Turkish Declaration of May 12, 1939, promising to "ensure the establishment of security in the Balkans" and threatening to pull out of the Balkan Pact, Gafencu had a summit with Yugoslav Foreign Minister Aleksandar Cincar-Marković on May 21, 1939, at the Iron Gates to ask the Yugoslavs to stay in the Balkan Pact.[92] However, Cincar-Marković's talk of leaving the Balkan Pact turned out to be a ploy by the Yugoslav Regent, Prince Paul, who was backing a plan mooted by the Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu to have Bulgaria join the Balkan Pact in exchange for Romania ceding part of the Dobruja region.[93] In a letter to Carol, Paul stated that he wanted the Bulgarians "off my back" as he was afraid of the Italians building up their forces in their new colony of Albania and asked his friend to make this concession for him.[93] Carol stated in response that it was out of the question for him to cede any territory to Bulgarians, partly because he was against giving any of his realm on principle and partly because to cede the Dobrudja would only encourage the Hungarians to renew their claims on Transylvania.[91]
Despite his formal opposition to joining the "peace front," Carol did decide to strengthen the Balkan Entente, especially to strengthen ties with Turkey.[94] Since Britain and France were working for an alliance with Turkey while at the same time holding talks with the Soviet Union, Carol reasoned that if Romania was to be firmly allied to Turkey, this would be a way of associating Romania with the emerging "peace front" without actually joining it.[94] Despite the way in which Carol disappointed Paul, he very much wanted to strengthen Yugoslav-Romanian relations as Yugoslavia was one of Romania's few friendly neighbors.[94] He was awarded the Yugoslav Order of Karađorđe's Star.[95] To resist Bulgarian claims on the Dubrujda, Carol also wanted better relations with Bulgaria's archenemy, Greece.[94]
In July 1939, the king had a major clash with Fritz Fabritius, the leader of the Nazified German National Party, which was the largest of the Volk Deutsch parties and which joined the National Renaissance Front in January 1939.[96] Fabritius had taken to calling himself the Führer, had formed two para-military groups, the National Workers Front and the German Youth, and was holding ceremonies in which members of Romania's 800,000 strong German minority had to swear personal oaths of loyalty to him.[96] In early July, Fabritius, during a visit to Munich, gave a speech in which he stated that the Romanian Volk Deutsch were loyal to Germany, not Romania, and spoke of his wish to see a "Greater German Reich," which would be secured by armed peasant settlements along the Carpathians, Ural, and Caucasus mountains.[citation needed] In this Grossraum (an untranslatable German word meaning roughly "greater space"), only Germans would be allowed to live, and those not willing to be Germanized would have to leave.[citation needed] In response to this speech, when Fabritius returned to Romania, he was summoned to a meeting with Călinescu on July 13, who told him that the king had enough and was going to take action against him.[citation needed] Fabritius promised to behave, but was expelled from Romania shortly afterwards when one of his staffers accidentally left on a train a briefcase full of documents showing Fabritius's supporters were arming themselves and that Führer Fabritius was being financed by Germany.[citation needed]
In July 1939, when Carol heard rumors that Hungary, supported by Germany, was planning on invading Romania following a new crisis in Romanian-Hungarian relations caused by complaints from Budapest that the Romanians were mistreating the Magyar minority in Transylvania (which were supported by Berlin), the king ordered general mobilization of his military while taking off in the royal yacht to Istanbul.[97] During his unexpected trip to Istanbul, Carol held talks with the Turkish President İsmet İnönü and the Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu during which the Turks promised him that Turkey would immediately mobilize its military in the event of an Axis attack on Romania. The Turks, in their turn, pressed Carol to sign an alliance with the Soviet Union, something that Carol said very reluctantly he might do if the Turks were to serve as the middlemen and if the Soviets were to promise to recognize the border with Romania. The show of Romanian resolve, supported by Turkey had the effect of causing the Hungarians to back off on their demands against Romania.[97]
The news of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in August 1939 was received with horror by Carol, who had sought to play off both sides against each other.[98] Carol allowed Călinescu to tell Thierry that the Romanians would destroy their oil fields if the Axis invaded, while at the same time Gafencu told the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop of his firm friendship with Germany, his opposition to the "peace front," and his desire to sell more oil to the Germans.[99] After the signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact, Călinescu advised Carol: "Germany is the real danger. An alliance with it is tantamount to a protectorate. Only Germany's defeat by France and Britain can ward off the danger.".[63] On August 27, 1939, Gafencu told Fabricius that Romania would declare neutrality if Germany invaded Poland and that he wanted to sell to Germany some 450,000 tons of oil per month in exchange for 1 million and a half Reichsmark plus a number of modern German aircraft for free.[99] Carol met with the German air force attaché on 28 August 28, 1939, to congratulate the Germans on the great diplomatic success they had gained with the pact with the Soviet Union.[99] Unknown to Carol, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact had in its infamous "secret protocols" assigned the Romanian region of Bessarabia to the Soviet Union. In the short run, the German–Soviet pact was a blessing for Carol since Germany now had access to Soviet oil, which reduced the pressure on Romania.
When World War II began with German-Soviet Invasion of Poland in September 1939, Carol proclaimed neutrality. In doing so, Carol technically violated the letter of the treaty of alliance with Poland signed in 1921 and the spirit of treaty of alliance signed with France in 1926. Carol justified his policy under the grounds that, with Germany and the Soviet Union allied in the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact of August 1939 and France holding its forces behind the Maginot line, unwilling to start an offensive into Germany, that neutrality was his only hope of preserving his kingdom's independence.[100] For its part, the Polish government was more interested in weapon deliveries from its Western allies through Romanian ports, but this became insignificant following Poland's defeat on the battlefield. As usual with Carol, he sought to play a careful balancing act between the Allies and the Axis, on one hand signing a new economic treaty with Germany while on the other hand allowing for a considerable period of time for the Polish troops to cross into Romania while declining to intern them as international law required. Instead, the Poles were allowed to travel to Constanța to board ships to take them to Marseille to continue the fight against Germany from France.[100] The Romanian Bridgehead remained a key escape route for thousands of Poles in the desperate days of September 1939. It was only after receiving a number of furious complaints from Fabricius about the passage of Polish soldiers across Romania that Carol finally started to intern the fleeing Poles.
On 21 September, 1939, Prime Minister Călinescu was assassinated by the Iron Guard in a plot organized out of Berlin, thus silencing the strongest pro-Allied voice amongst Carol's camarilla.[76] The next day, the nine assassins of Călinescu were publicity shot without the benefit of a trial and on the week of 22–28 September 22–28, 1939, 242 Iron Guards were the victims of extrajudicial executions.[101] Because of its oil, Romania was highly important by both sides, and during the Phoney War of 1939–40 there occurred what Weinberg called a "silent struggle over Romania's oil," with the German government doing everything within its power to have as much Romanian oil as possible while the British and French governments equally doing everything possible to deny it.[102] The British launched an unsuccessful campaign to sabotage Romanian oil fields and the transportation network that took Romanian oil to Germany.[100] In January 1940, Carol broadcast a speech to proclaim that it was his brilliant handling of foreign policy that kept Romania neutral and safe from danger.[103] He also announced that he was going to be building a gigantic defense line around the kingdom, and as such, taxes would have to rise to pay for it. Romanians called the proposed line the Imaginet Line, as the line was considered to be a purely imaginary version of the Maginot line and many of Carol's subjects suspected that the money raised by higher taxes would go to the king's Swiss bank accounts.[103]
Carol had hedged his bets about whether to choose between the Allies and the Axis. It was only in late May 1940, when France was clearly losing the war that Carol swung decisively over to the Axis side.[104] During the later period of the Phoney War, after waging a campaign of bloody repression against the Iron Guard, which reached its peak after Călinescu's assassination, Carol began a policy of reaching out to the surviving Iron Guard leaders.[105] Carol felt that a "tamed" Iron Guard could be used as a source of popular support. In April 1940, Carol had reached an agreement with Vasile Noveanu, the leader of the underground Iron Guard in Romania, but it was not until early May 1940 that Horia Sima, the leader of the Iron Guards in exile in Germany, could be persuaded to support the government.[106] On May 26, 1940, Sima returned to Romania from Germany to begin talks with General Mihail Moruzov of the secret service about the Iron Guard joining the government.[106] On May 28, 1940, after learning of the surrender of Belgium, Carol told the Crown Council that Germany was going to win the war, and Romania accordingly needed to realign its foreign and domestic policies with the victors.[106] On June 13, 1940, an agreement was reached whereas the Iron Guard would be allowed to join the National Renaissance Front in exchange for more and harsher anti-Semitic laws.[106] The National Renaissance Front was reorganized as the Party of the Nation, which was described as "a single and totalitarian party under the supreme leadership of His Majesty, King Carol II."[107] On 21 June 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. Romania's elite had been so obsessively Francophile for so long that France's defeat had the effect of discrediting that elite in the eyes of public opinion and led to an upswing of popular support for the pro-German Iron Guard.[103]
In the midst of the turn towards the Iron Guard and Germany came a bombshell from abroad. On June 26, 1940, the Soviet Union submitted an ultimatum demanding that Romania hand over the Bessarabia region (which had been Russian until 1918) and the northern part of Bukovina (which had never been Russian) to the Soviet Union and threatened war within the next two days if the ultimatum was rejected.[108] Carol had at one moment considered following the example of Finland in 1939 when faced with a similar Soviet ultimatum, but the outcome of the Winter War was scarcely an inspiring example.[108] Carol at first considered rejecting the ultimatum, but upon being informed that the Romanian Army would be no match for the Red Army, agreed to cede Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union. Carol appealed to Berlin for support against the Soviet ultimatum, only to be told to comply with Stalin's demands.[108] The loss of the regions without any fighting to the Soviet Union was felt to be a national humiliation by the Romanian people and was a huge blow to Carol's prestige. Carol's personality cult had by 1940 reached such extreme heights that the withdrawal without any resistance from Bessarabia and northern Bukovina revealed that Carol was a mere man after all, and so badly dented his prestige more than would have been the case if Carol had maintained a more modest image.[103]
On June 28, 1940, Sima entered the cabinet as Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education.[109] On July 1, 1940, Carol, in a radio speech, renounced both the 1926 alliance with France and the 1939 Anglo-French "guarantee" of Romania, saying that henceforth Romania would seek its place in the German-dominated "New Order" in Europe.[110] The next day, Carol invited a German military mission to train the Romanian Army.[110] On July 4, 1940, Carol was sworn into a new government headed by Ion Gigurtu with Sima as Minister of Arts and Culture.[111] Gigurtu had been a leading figure in the anti-Semitic National Christian Party in the 1930s, was a millionaire businessman with many connections to Germany, and was a well-known Germanophile.[111] For all these reasons, Carol hoped that having Gigurtu as prime minister would win him Hitler's goodwill and thus prevent any further loss of territory.[111] Along the same lines, Carol signed a new economic treaty with Germany on August 8, 1940, that finally gave the Germans the economic dominance of Romania and its oil that they had been seeking all through the 1930s.
Immediately afterwards, inspired by the Soviet example of gaining Romanian territory, the Bulgarians demanded the return of Dobruja, lost in the Second Balkan War of 1913, while the Hungarians demanded the return of Transylvania, lost to Romania after World War I.[112] Romania and Bulgaria opened talks that led to the Treaty of Craiova, which saw the southern Dobruja ceded to Bulgaria. In particular, Carol proved unwilling to cede Transylvania, and had it not been for the diplomatic intervention of Germany and Italy, Romania and Hungary would have gone to war with each other in the summer of 1940.[112] In the meantime, Carol imprisoned General Ion Antonescu after the latter had criticized the king, charging that it was the corruption of the royal government that was responsible for the military backwardness of Romania and hence the loss of Bessarabia.[113] Both Fabricius and Hermann Neubacher, the man in charge of the Four Year Plan's operations in the Balkans, intervened with Carol, saying that Antonescu's "accidental death" or being "shot while trying to escape" would "make a very bad impression on the German headquarters," as Antonescu was known to be a leading advocate of an alliance with Germany.[113] On July 11, 1940, Carol had Antonescu freed, but kept under house arrest at the Bistrița monastery.[113]
Hitler was alarmed about the possibility of a Hungarian-Romanian war, which he feared might result in the destruction of Romania's oil fields and/or might lead to the Soviets intervening to seize all of Romania.[112] At this time, Hitler was already seriously considering invading the Soviet Union in 1941, and if he were to take such a step, he would need Romanian oil to power his military.[112] At the Second Vienna Award of 30, 1940, the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and the Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano ruled that northern Transylvania was to go to Hungary while southern Transylvania would stay with Romania, a compromise that left both Budapest and Bucharest deeply unhappy with the Vienna award.[114] For economic reasons, Romania was far more important to Hitler than was Hungary, but Romania had been allied to France since 1926 and had flirted with joining the British-inspired "peace front" in 1939, so Hitler who personally disliked and mistrusted Carol – felt that Romania deserved to be punished for waiting so long to align with the Axis.[112] After the fall of Paris in June 1940, the Germans had captured the archives of the Quai d'Orsay and were thus well-informed about the double-line that Carol had pursued until the spring of 1940.[112] Hitler was annoyed with Carol's efforts to forge closer ties with France at the same time proclaiming his friendship towards Germany.[112] At the same time, Hitler offered Carol a "guarantee" of the rest of Romania against further territorial losses, which Carol promptly accepted.[114]
The acceptance of the Second Vienna Award completely discredited Carol with his people, and in early September 1940 enormous demonstrations broke out all over Romania demanding that Carol abdicate. On 1 September 1940, Sima who had resigned from the government gave a speech calling upon Carol to abdicate, and the Iron Guard began to organize demonstrations all over Romania to press for king's abdication.[115] On 2 September 1940, Valer Pop, a courtier and an important member of the camarilla first advised Carol to appoint General Ion Antonescu as prime minister as the solution to the crisis.[116] Pop's reasons for advising Carol to have Antonescu as prime minister was partly because Antonescu – who was known to be friendly with the Iron Guard and had been imprisoned under Carol – was believed to have enough of an oppositional background to appease the public and partly because Pop knew that Antonescu for all his Legionary sympathies was a member of the elite and would never turn against it. As the increasingly large crowds started to assemble outside of the royal palace demanding the king's abdication, Carol considered Pop's advice, but was reluctant to have Antonescu as prime minister.[117] As more and more people started to join the protests, Pop feared that Romania was on the verge of a revolution that might not only sweep away the king's regime, but also the elite who had dominated the country since the 19th century. To apply further pressure on Carol, Pop met with Fabricius on the night of 4 September 1940 to ask him to tell Carol that the Reich wanted Antonescu as prime minister, which led to Fabricius promptly calling Carol to tell him to appoint the general as the prime minister.[117] Additionally, the very ambitious General Antonescu who long coveted the premiership now suddenly started to downplay his long-standing antipathy to Carol, and he suggested that he was prepared to forgive past slights and disputes.
On 5 September 1940, Antonescu became prime minister, and Carol transferred most of his dictatorial powers to him.[118][119] As prime minister, Antonescu was a man acceptable to both the Iron Guard and the traditional elite.[120] Carol planned to stay as king after appointing Antonescu and initially Antonescu did not support the popular demand for Carol's abdication.[120] Antonescu had become prime minister, but he had a weak political base. As an Army officer, Antonescu was a loner, an arrogant and aloft man with an extremely bad temper who as a consequence was very unpopular with his fellow officers. Antonescu's relations with the politicians were no better, and as such Antonescu was initially unwilling to move against the king until he had some political allies. Carol ordered Antonescu and General Dumitru Coroamă who commanded the troops in Bucharest to shoot down demonstrators in front of the royal palace, an order that both refused to obey.[121] It was only on 6 September 1940, when Antonescu learned of a plot to murder him headed by another member of the camarilla General Paul Teodorescu that Antonescu joined the chorus demanding Carol's abdication.[122] With public opinion solidly against him and with the Army refusing to obey his orders, Carol was forced to abdicate.
Concerning the claim of the American historian Larry Watts that it was Carol that allied Romania to Nazi Germany and that Marshal Ion Antonescu had unwillingly inherited an alliance with Germany in 1940, the Canadian historian Dov Lungu wrote:
[Watts's] claim that Romania's de facto alliance with Germany under Antonescu was the work of Carol, who began laying its foundations for it as early as 1938, is wide off the mark. Carol's concessions to Germany were made half–heartedly and delayed as much as possible in the hope that the western powers would regain the initiative on the political-diplomatic front and, from September 1939, the military one. He finally did change his country's external economic and political orientation, but only in the spring of 1940, when German hegemony on the Continent seemed imminent. In addition, there is more than a subtle distinction between Carol's request in the last weeks of his rule for the dispatch of a German military mission to train the ill–prepared Romanian Army and Antonescu's decision almost immediately after assuming power to fight on Germany's side until the very end. In fact, in his desire to regain the province of Bessarabia, Antonescu was keener than the Germans' in Romania's participation in an anti-Soviet war.[123]
Forced under Soviet and subsequently Hungarian, Bulgarian, and German pressure to surrender parts of his kingdom to foreign rule, he was finally outmaneuvered by the pro-German administration of Marshal Ion Antonescu, and abdicated in favour of Michael in September 1940. He went into exile, first in Mexico, then in Portugal. While in Portugal, he stayed in Estoril, at Casa do Mar e Sol.[124] Carol and Lupescu finally settled in Mexico City, where he purchased a house in one of Mexico City's most expensive districts. During World War II, Carol tried to set up a Free Romania movement based in Mexico to overthrow General Antonescu. Carol had hopes that his Free Romania movement would be recognized as a government-in-exile and would ultimately lead to him being restored. The closest Carol ever got to having his Free Romania movement recognized came in 1942 when President Manuel Ávila Camacho allowed Carol to stand beside him while reviewing his troops. Carol would have liked to operate out of the United States, but the American government refused him permission to enter.[125] However, Carol was in contact with two Eastern Orthodox priests living in Chicago, Father Glicherie Moraru and Father Alexandru Opreanu, who organized an unsuccessful campaign in the Romanian-American community to pressure the American government to recognize the "Free Romania" committee as the legitimate government of Romania.[126]
To advance his cause, Carol published a magazine in America called The Free Romanian and published several books in both Romanian and English.[125] A major problem for Carol's efforts to mobilize the Romanian American community was the Immigration Control Act of 1924, which drastically limited immigration from Eastern Europe into the United States. As such, the majority of Romanian Americans in the 1940s were either persons who immigrated prior to 1924 or their children; in either case, Carol did not mean much to them. Furthermore, many Romanian Americans were Jews who had neither forgiven nor forgotten that it was Carol who had appointed the anti-Semitic fanatic Goga as prime minister in 1937.[125] To improve his image amongst Jews, Carol persuaded Leon Fischer, the former vice-president of the United Romanian Jews of America, to write articles on his behalf in American Jewish magazines that portrayed the former king as the friend and protector of the Jews and an enemy of anti-Semitism.[125] The reaction to Fischer's articles was overwhelmingly negative with a flood of letters to the editor who complained bitterly that it was Carol who signed in all of Goga's laws that took away Romanian citizenship from Jews and made it illegal for Romanian Jews to own land and shares in public companies and work as lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc.[125] Furthermore, the writers of the letters noted that Carol allowed these laws to remain on the statute books after dismissing Goga and sarcastically commented that if Carol was the best friend of the Jews in Romania, then Romanian Jews certainly did not need enemies.[125]
Carol's offers to have his Free Romania committee recognized as a government-in-exile was hindered by his unpopularity in his own homeland with many British and American diplomats arguing that supporting the former king was likely to increase public support for General Antonescu. Beyond that, there was a rival Free Romania committee headed by Viorel Tilea based in London that wanted to have nothing to do with Carol's committee in Mexico City.[127] Virgil Tilea had as a university student in the 1930s supported the Iron Guard. Unusually for a Romanian in this period, Tilea was an Anglophile rather a Francophile, and had attended Cambridge University as an exchange student. Tilea's time in Britain changed his political views as he later stated that seeing many different types of people living in harmony in Britain made him realize that it was not necessary for one ethnic group to dominate all the others as Codreanu had proclaimed, leading him to break with Iron Guard. When General Antonescu was sworn in as prime minister as the new "National Legionary State", Tilea resigned as Romanian minister in London in protest at the appointment.[127] Later in 1940, Tilea formed his Free Romania committee in London that attracted support from a number of Romanians who fled the Antonescu regime into exile.[127]
Tilea's Free Committee was not officially recognized by the British government, but was known to have the support of Britain and to be very close to the Polish government-in-exile, which was a major reason why the British spurned the Carol's rival Free Romania committee based in Mexico City, which tended to attract support only from those Romanians who been closely associated with the king's camarilla.[126] Tilea's committee had an office in Istanbul which regularly sent couriers to a safe house in Bucharest, where messages were exchanged with one of Carol's former prime ministers Constantin Argetoianu who in turn acted as an emissary for those opposed to Antonescu.[127] Argetoianu reported that King Michael was opposed to the Antonescu regime and wanted to stage a coup d'état to depose Antonescu, waiting only for the Allies to invade the Balkans.[127] General Antonescu was the dictator, but Romanian army officers took their oath of loyalty to the king, so there was reason to believe in London that the Romanian Army would side with the king against the prime minister if the two came into conflict. From the British viewpoint, associating themselves with Carol's campaign to once again depose his own son would only complicate their dealings with King Michael.
Carol and Magda Lupescu were married in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 3 June 1947, Magda calling herself Princess Elena von Hohenzollern. In 1947 after the Communist take-over of Romania, a Romanian National Committee was set up to oppose the Communist regime. Carol's efforts to join the Romanian National Committee were rebuffed as all the factions were opposed to him, and Romanian monarchists on the committee made it clear that they regarded King Michael, not his father as the legitimate king of Romania.[125] Carol remained in exile for the rest of his life. He was never to see his son, King Michael, after his 1940 departure from Romania. Michael could see no point in meeting his father who had humiliated his mother so many times via his open affairs and did not attend his funeral.[128]
Carol died in Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera in 1953. His coffin was placed inside the Pantheon of the House of Braganza in Lisbon. His remains were finally returned to the Curtea de Argeș monastery in Romania in 2003, the traditional burial ground of Romanian royalty, at the request and expense of the government of Romania (led by Adrian Năstase).[129] They initially lay outside the cathedral, the burial place of Romanian kings and queens, as Elena was not of royal blood. Neither of his sons participated in either ceremony. King Michael I was represented by his daughter, Crown Princess Margareta, her husband, Prince Radu and two grandchildren Nicolae de Roumanie-Medforth-Mills and Karina de Roumanie Medforth-Mills.
In January 2018, it was announced that the remains of King Carol II would be moved to the new Archdiocesan and Royal Cathedral, along with those of Princess Helen. In addition, the remains of Prince Mircea would also be moved to the new cathedral. His remains were at the time interred at the Bran Castle's Chapel. King Carol II of Romania was reburied at the New Episcopal and Royal Cathedral in Curtea de Argeș on 8 March 2019.[130]
Carol Lambrino was forbidden (since 1940) from entering Romanian territory, but a Romanian court declared him a legitimate son in 2003. Carol visited Bucharest in November 2005, shortly before his death.
Young Prince Carol's letters to his grandfather, Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, are preserved in the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family archive, which is in the State Archive of Sigmaringen (Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen) in the town of Sigmaringen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[131] There are also letters from young Carol (together with letters from his mother, Crown Princess Marie) to his great-grandmother, Josephine of Baden, preserved in the State Archive of Sigmaringen (Staatsarchiv Sigmaringen).[132]
Carol II of Romania's letters to Zizi Lambrino as well as documents about their marriage are preserved in the "Jeanne Marie Valentine Lambrino Papers" collection in the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, California, US).[133]
Carol appears as a character [as Prince Carol] in the final episode of the third season of Mr. Selfridge, where he is played in a cameo appearance by British actor Anton Blake.[134]
Carol is also considered to be the inspiration for the character Prince Charles of Carpathia in the 1953 play The Sleeping Prince and the 1957 related film The Prince and the Showgirl.[135] "Ex-King Carol Weds Lupescu" was front-page news next to an article announcing a downed flying saucer in Roswell, New Mexico
He makes an appearance in the 2019 film Marie, Queen of Romania as an antagonist along with his mistress.
