Excerpts :
Princess Marthe Bibesco
Ana Blandiana
Smaranda Braescu
Madelene “Madi” Cancicov
Nina Cassian
Elena Ceausescu
Ioana Celibidache
Queen Elisabeth of Romania
Princess Gregoire Ghica
Princess Ileana of Romania
Dora D’Istria
Monica Lovinescu
Ileana Malancioiu
Queen Marie of Romania
Dr. Agnes Kelly Murgoci
Mabel Nandris
Countess Anna de Noailles
Ana Novac
Oana Orlea
Ana Pauker
Marta Petreu
Elisabeta Rizea of Nucsoara
Sanda Stolojan
Leontina Vaduva
Anca Visdei
Sabina Wurmbrand
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Queen Elisabeth of Romania
(Princess Elisabeth von Wied), Regina Elisabeta, “Carmen
Sylva”
“Mama ranitilor” (Mother of the wounded)
First Queen of Romania, Patron of the Arts and Founder of Charitable
Institutions, Poet, Writer, Essayist, Consort of Carol I Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
(b. 29th December 1843, Neuwied, Germany – d. Curtea de
Arges, 18th February 1916, Romania)
American Ambassador:
“I thank you with all my heart for the kind letter you
sent me through your most amiable messenger! We are so glad
to have an American representative to ourselves at last, and
I am sure you will never regret it, as there are so many increasing
interests that could not be thoroughly understood by someone
who did not know our country at all.”
Letter to President Roosevelt in 1905 from Queen Elizabeth
Childless woman:
“A childless woman is like a bell without a clapper—the
sound of the bronze would perhaps be beautiful, but no one will
ever hear it.”
Quoted by Vincent van Gogh In a Letter to Theo Saint-Rémy,
19 September 1889
Romanian needlework:
“(This) will leave many amazed by the Romanian ladies and
their hard work. In Germany they no longer work as they used
to, which is a shame”.
Preface to the cataloguesof the 1912 Berlin exhibition “Die
Frau im Kunst und Beruf” (The woman in art and industry)
Biography:
Princess Elisabeth von Wied came to
Romania in 1869 at the age of 16, to marry Karl von Hohenzollern,
known as Carol I of Romania. At the time the Principality was
undr the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Following the War
of Independence of 1877 and the Treaty of Berlin (1878), Romania
was declared a Kingdom in 1881 and Elisabeth became the first
Queen of Romania.. During the 1877 War Elisabeta organised hospitals,
ambulance and nursing services and obtained medicine for the
wounded. Queen Elisabeth was very active in the patronage of
Arts and of Charitable society, through which she encouraged
the ladies of the high society to take an active role in fund-raising
and the administration of charities. In the absence of a welfare
system, the Queen’s own Societatea Regina Elisabeta (Queen
Elizabeth Society) funded in 1893, treated free of charge 17,000
patients a year, distributed free medicine and monitored the
welfare of needy families.
The Queen had the foresight, common sense and initiative to
recognise the immense potential of Romanian arts and crafts.
She wore the national costume herself, until then considered
the garb of the peasantry and encouraged her ladies-in-waiting
to do likewise and in this way she gave it social status. The
Queen organised at the royal castle at Sinaia a centre of national
crafts.
She made it her duty to encourage young talented people to study
through a programme od scholarships tind sts. The Queen surrounded
herself of budding artists such as Georges Enesco and Helene
Vacaresco and patronized the painter Grigoresco and poet Alecsandri.
Elisabeta also understood the immense benefit of tourism to
a country which was not yet on the circuit of a grand tour.
In this field she initiated a spirited PR campaign to make her
adoptive country be known abroad. The Orient Express stopped
at Sinaia the travellers were received at the royal castle.
As part of the same campaign Romania participated to the Paris
Universal Expositions of 1867, 1868, 1889 and 1900 inwith numerous
pieces traditionally made by women, such as embroideries and
tapestries and in 1912 the Queen organized in Berlin the exhibition
“Die Frau im Kunst und Beruf” (The woman in art and
industry) (q.v. quote)
An accomplished linguist the Queen published in French, German
and English under he nom de plume of “Carmen Sylva”
works which put Romania on the map, as she attracted the attention
of Pierre Loti and Marke Twain, who said of her: . “That
charming and lovable German princess and poet, Carmen Sylva,
Queen of Roumania, remembers yet that the flowers of the woods
and fields "talked to her”.
Despite her pronounced romanticism, it can be said without fear
of contradiction that Carmen Sylva succeeded in a patriarchal
society, at a time when western European values were only a
veneer, to start in earnest a movement for the emancipation
of the Romanian women: perhaps the best example of such school
was her erstwhile protégé, Helene Vacaresco (q.v.)
Queen Elisabeth diead before Romania declared war on Germany
and is buried at the Curtea de Argesh Monastery.
Bibliography:
- Elisabeth, Queen of Roumania. “From Memory's Shrine:
The Reminiscences of
- Carmen Sylva.” Translated by Edith Hopkirk. Philadelphia:
J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911.
- Elisabeth, Queen of Roumania. “Letters and Poems of Queen
Elizabeth (Carmen Sylva)”. 2 vols. Boston: Bibliophile
Society of Boston, 1920.
- Roosevelt, Blanche. “Elizabeth of Roumania.” London:
Chapman and Hall, 1891.
- Burgoyne, Elizabeth. “Carmen Sylvia, Queen and Woman.”
London: Thornton Butterworth, 1940.
- “Carmen Sylva, Queen of Roumania” (The Century Illustrated
Monthly Magazine - August 1884)
- Henry W. Fisher, “The Great Balkan Intrigue “ (Munsey's
Magazine - October 1895)
- “Steria's Revenge’, ( The Cosmopolitan - September
1889)
- “Galaxy of People” (The Century Illustrated Monthly
Magazine - December 1890)
- “Her Majesty the Queen of Roumania”, Royalties of
the World - 1902
- “The Summer Life of the Queen of Rumania” (The Century
Illustrated Monthly Magazine - May 1902)
- Carmen Sylva, “My Reminiscences of War ‘, (The North
American Review - October 1904)
- Mark Twain “Does the Race of Man Love a Lord? $30,000
Bequest and Other Stories” - 1906
- “Roosevelt and Royalties” , (Scribner's Magazine
- April 1920)
- Carmen Sylva, "The Women of My Realm," (The Ladies'
Home Journal)
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