Princess Ileana of Romania

Princess Ileana
Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Born (1909-01-05)5 January 1909
Bucharest, Romania
Died 21 January 1991(1991-01-21) (aged 82)
Youngstown, Ohio, US
Spouse Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu
Issue Archduke Stefan
Archduchess Maria Ileana
Archduchess Alexandra
Archduke Dominic
Archduchess Maria Magdalena
Archduchess Elisabeth
House House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Father King Ferdinand I of Romania
Mother Princess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Edinburgh
Religion Romanian Orthodox
Romanian Royalty
House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
House of Romania
Carol I
Queen
Princess Elisabeth of Wied
Children
Princess Maria
Ferdinand I
Queen
Princess Marie of Edinburgh
Children
Carol II
Elisabeth, Queen of the Hellenes
Maria, Queen of Yugoslavia
Nicholas, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Princess Ileana
Prince Mircea
Carol II
Consort
Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark
Children
Michael I
King Michael I
Queen
Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma
Children
Crown Princess Margareta
Princess Elena
Princess Irina
Princess Sophie
Princess Maria
Grandchildren
Prince Nicholas

Princess Ileana of Romania (also Mother Alexandra) (5 January 1909 – 21 January 1991) was the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand I of Romania, and his consort Queen Marie of Romania. She was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and of Czar Alexander II. She was born Her Royal Highness Ileana, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern. After marriage she was known as Her Imperial and Royal Highness, Ileana, Archduchess of Austria, Princess Imperial of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern.

Birth and early life

Ileana was born in Bucharest on 5 January 1909, the youngest daughter of Queen Marie of Romania and King Ferdinand I of Romania. Although it was rumored that Ileana's true father was her mother's lover, Prince Barbu Ştirbey, the king admitted paternity. Ileana had four older siblings: Carol, Elisabeth – later Crown Princess of Greece, Princess Maria – later Queen of Yugoslavia – and Nicholas. Her younger brother Mircea was also claimed to be the child of Prince Ştirbey even though the king also claimed to be his father.

Girl Guiding

Before her marriage, Ileana was the organizer and Chief of the Romanian Girl Guide Movement.

Later Princess Ileana was involved in Guiding in Austria and served as president of the Austrian Girl Guides[1][2] from 1935 until Girl Guiding and Scouting were banned in 1938 after the Anschluss.

Other achievements

Ileana was the organizer of the Girl Reserves of the Red Cross, and of the first school of Social Work in Romania.

She was an avid sailor: she earned her navigator's papers, and owned and sailed the "Isprava" for many years.

Before King Michael's abdication

Marriage

In Sinaia on 26 July 1931, Ileana married the Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany. This marriage was encouraged by Ileana's brother, King Carol II, who was jealous of Ileana's popularity in Romania and wanted to get her out of the country.[3] After the wedding, Carol claimed that the Romanian people would never tolerate a Habsburg living on Romanian soil, and on these grounds refused Ileana and Anton permission to live in Romania.[3]

After her husband was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, Ileana established a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers at their castle, Sonneburg, outside Vienna, Austria. She was assisted in this task by her friend Sheila Kaul. In 1944, she and the children moved back to Romania, where they lived at Bran Castle, near Brasov.[4] Archduke Anton joined them but was placed under house arrest by the Red Army. Princess Ileana established and worked in another hospital in Bran village, which she named the Hospital of the Queen's Heart in memory of her beloved mother Queen Maria of Romania.

After exile

After Michael I of Romania abdicated, Ileana and her family were exiled from the newly Communist Romania. They escaped by train to the Russian sector of Vienna, then divided into three parts. After that they settled in Switzerland, then moved to Argentina and in 1950, she and the children moved to the United States, where she bought a house in Newton, Massachusetts.

The years from 1950 to 1961 were spent lecturing against communism, working with the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States, writing two books: I Live Again, a memoir of her last years in Romania,[5] and Hospital of the Queen's Heart, describing the establishment and running of the hospital.

On 29 May 1954, Ileana and Anton officially divorced and she married secondly in Newton, Massachusetts, on 20 June 1954, to Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu (Turnu-Severin, 5 October 1906 – Providence, 21 December 2002).

In 1961, Princess Ileana entered the Orthodox Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God, in Bussy-en-Othe, France. Her second marriage ended in divorce in 1965. On her tonsuring as a monastic, in 1967, Sister Ileana was given the name Mother Alexandra. She moved back to the United States and founded the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, the first English language Orthodox monastery in North America. She was the third female descendant of Queen Victoria to become a Mother Superior in a convent of her own foundation. She served as abbess until her retirement in 1981, remaining at the monastery until her death.

She visited Romania again in 1990, at the age of 81 in the company of her daughter, Sandi.

In January 1991, she suffered a broken hip in a fall on the evening before her eighty-second birthday, and while in hospital, suffered two major heart attacks. She died four days after the foundations had been laid for the expansion of the monastery.

Family history

Doubts about paternity

There is some doubt about Ileana's true paternity. It has been suggested that Ileana's biological father was actually Prince Barbu Ştirbey, but this, according to Hannah Pakula's biography of her mother, Queen Marie (The Last Romantic) appears to be simply rumor.

Children

Ileana and Anton had six children; they were raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her husband and of the country:

Major family events

Honours and award

Honours

Award

Ranks

Military

Scouting/Guides

National

Foreign

Ancestry

References

  1. Pribich, Kurt (2004). Logbuch der Pfadfinderverbände in Österreich (in German). Vienna: Pfadfinder-Gilde-Österreichs. p. 279.
  2. Pribich, Kurt (2004). Logbuch der Pfadfinderverbände in Österreich (in German). Vienna: Pfadfinder-Gilde-Österreichs. p. 106.
  3. 1 2 Pakula, Hannah (1985). The last romantic : a biography of Queen Marie of Roumania. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-78598-2.
  4. Middleton, Christopher (11 May 2014). "Buy a stake in Dracula’s castle". Daily Telegraph.
  5. Complete text of I Live Again from the Internet Archive
  6. 1 2 3 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Iosif_Berman_-_Familia_Regală.jpg
  7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gd_ekaterina_fyodorovna/3962367283
  8. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/princessileana/LHJ-Dec1951/index.htm
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/399061216952861889/
  10. http://www.tipsimages.it/Photo/ShowImage_Editorial_Popup.asp?IMID=2148479&or_h=h&or_v=v&or_s=s&or_p=p&tp_f=f&tp_i=i&tp_c=c&ps_1=1&ps_2=2&ps_3=3&ps_g=g&rpid=23&cl_c=c&cl_bw=bw&chrm=start&chrf=start&chcr=cr
  11. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/princessileana/RAHC/index.htm
  12. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/princessileana/ILiveAgain/Chapter27.htm
  13. http://www.czipm.org/ileana-alexandra.html
  14. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/princessileana/ILiveAgain/Dustjacket.htm
  15. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/princessileana/ILiveAgain/Chapter03.htm
  16. http://www.tipsimages.it/Photo/ShowImage_Editorial_Popup.asp?IMID=2148476&or_h=h&or_v=v&or_s=s&or_p=p&tp_f=f&tp_i=i&tp_c=c&ps_1=1&ps_2=2&ps_3=3&ps_g=g&rpid=23&cl_c=c&cl_bw=bw&chrm=start&chrf=start&chcr=cr

External links

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