Carol I

Carol I (born April 20, 1839, Sigmaringen, Prussia [now in Germany]—died October 10, 1914, Sinaia, Romania) was the first king of Romania, whose long reign (as prince, 1866–81, and as king, 1881–1914) brought notable military and economic development along Western lines but failed to solve the basic problems of an overwhelmingly rural country.

As a German prince, Carol was educated in Dresden and Bonn and in 1864 served as an officer of the Prussian army in the war against Denmark. With the tacit approval of his cousin, the French emperor Napoleon III, he was offered the throne of Romania after the deposition of the reigning prince, Alexandru Cuza (February 1866), and in April 1866 was elected prince by plebiscite. In 1869 he married the princess Elizabeth of Wied, who later gained fame as the poetess Carmen Sylva. His Germanophile sentiments caused him to be domestically unpopular during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), and in 1871 unrest almost forced his abdication; but he regained popular support for his military leadership at the Battle of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), and, with Romania’s complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, he was finally crowned king (May 1881). In 1883 he concluded an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, which remained a closely guarded state secret until the outbreak of World War I. He fostered the development of urban industrial and financial interests with a large measure of success and significantly built the national military establishment; but his neglect of rural problems—especially peasant land hunger—found its issue in the bloody peasant rebellion of 1907, which claimed perhaps several thousand lives. His rule brought a great measure of dignity and stability to the administration of government, but his manipulation of political parties also perpetuated some of the worst features of Romanian public life. He favoured entrance into World War I on the side of the Central Powers but accepted the decision of the Crown Council to declare neutrality.