The King is Dying

You don't know who I'm talking about, but you should. The last head of state who took part in World War II still alive today, the man awarded the highest distinctions by Stalin, Hitler and Harry Truman, a man who made history, a man betrayed by the brutal history of the 20th century.
King Michael I of Romania turned 96 ten days ago and he's been fighting cancer for the last few years. And then the chilling press release today – the king's health has taken a turn for the worse. That's bad, it means it won't be long now. I want to tell you his story while he still is.

King Michael was born in 1921, the son of Carol II of the Hohenzollern bloodline, while his mother, Queen Helen was a princess of Greece. For many outside Europe this might not be important, but here it is. Our country is small, but our King is related to most of the royal families in Europe.
Michael became king in 1940, when his father was deposed. Imagine being only 17 and becoming the leader of a country at war. As he said in an interview, he grew up fast. At the time, Romania was effectively under a military dictatorship led by marshal Antonescu, an ally of Hitler. Not out of ideology, but out of interest. We had to go with the Germans in order to get back parts of our territory under Soviet occupation. You might have heard about that territory still known today as the Republic of Moldova, because, as you know, the Soviets won the war so we never got that back.

The image above is of King Michael I, during a 1942 visit to the briefly recaptured territory.

Stalin's poisoned gift

The King grew stronger and by 1944 he was able to put together an internal coalition to overthrow the military dictatorship and turn against Hitler. In itself the conspiracy was like a movie plot with clandestine meetings and secret emissaries to the Western powers. On August 23rd, Romania officially allied itself with the Soviets and the Americans – a move that was later said to have shortened the war in Europe by a few good months.
Just like Hitler, his new friends showered the young king with medals and praise. For Stalin, it was a very small price to pay – the shiny trinket was delivered by Soviet tanks rolling freely in our country. The medal was pinned on his chest by the Soviet representative to Romania, the country's new de facto ruler.

The napkin that wiped away our freedom

From across the Ocean, US president Harry Truman also had words of praise for King Michael, commending his bravery in turning the tide of the war. Very nice words that meant nothing. When the USSR crushed Romanian democracy and sent the king to exile, the American leaders looked the other way. As did all his royal relatives in Europe.
The fate of Eastern Europe was decided at the Yalta conference in February 1945, attended by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British prime-minister Winston Churchill and US president Theodore Roosevelt.
Officially, only Poland's fate was discussed at Yalta, but historians agree that it was at that moment the Western powers decided to leave Eastern Europe to Stalin. Legend has it that the map of the post-war world was drawn on a table napkin.

On the other hand, in Winston Churchill's memoirs there's this document from a 1944 conference, during which the British prime-minister and Stalin discussed in percentages the influence the USSR and the UK would have in each Eastern European country. Romania was to be 90% under Soviet influence, although it's hard to say what happened to the other 10% as we sure didn't get it.
Anyway, in 1945, with the whole world exhausted by war, nobody cared what happened in a distant corner of Europe.

Bullets speak louder than words

With Soviet troupes occupying the country, young King Michael had an impossible task – saving his country from communism, alone. In just a few months, a communist government was put in place, taking orders from the Soviet representative, Andrey Vyshinsky, state prosecutor during the Soviet purges of the 1930's. A quote attributed to him - 'Give me a man and I will find a crime' - gives a clear idea of the man who oversaw the Sovietization of Romania.
By 1947, the Soviets had had enough of this whole king business and decided to get rid of him once and for all. Getting him out of the country was crucial as he was the symbol and the rallying point of the opposition. The people loved him, students chanted his name on the streets, schoolgirls climbed the palace gates to catch a glimpse of the dashing King.
Michael would not go quietly. The abdication papers were signed with a Soviet gun on the table. They didn't threaten only the king's life, the Soviets made it clear they were prepared to execute thousands of young people already in jail.
On December 30, 1947, King Michael I signed the papers and was sent into exile. “There was death in my heart the day I left”, the King said of that moment.

Citizen King

Contrary to Soviet propaganda that the king left the country with a train full of riches, a lie some believe to this day, Michael lived and worked like any ordinary citizen. In 1948 he married Princess Anne of Bourbon Parma, whom he had met a few months before at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II.
They had five daughters together, quite a lot of mouths to feed. They moved from country to country, going from Italy to England or the US, but what they called home was a little Swiss town called Versoix, where the ailing King has been living since his diagnostic.
The exiled king got used to being called Monsieur Michel and started his own farm, raising chicken and growing vegetables, which he sold like any other farmer. He tried his hand at being a broker, but he didn't like that job.

Fortunately, he had always been fascinated by engines and had a pilot's license. During the 1950s, he worked in California as a pilot for the Lear company, where he was known as Michael King. Luckily, his wife was not a Disney-style princess, but a tough one who had worked as an ambulance driver during WWII. She did not mind feeding chicken or selling flowers at a department store.
In his many interviews after the fall of communism, King Michael spoke at length about life in exile, sometimes with a chuckle remembering a funny episode. He never complained of the many hardships, but only of the unbearable sadness of being far from his people, which made him feel lonely, despite of his numerous family.

The king's speech

King Michael with Queen Anne, who died last year

During the decades of communism in Romania, his only contact with the country was via short-wave radio stations, like Free Europe, which were, of course, forbidden in our country. Nevertheless, every year, on Christmas Eve, most families had their radios tuned to those stations, waiting for the King's message to his people. Decorating the tree, baking Christmas goodies, gift-wrapping – everything was dropped the moment the message was played. Entire families huddled around their radio sets, straining their ears to catch every word over the lousy transmission. The King's message was hope. Hope for us that we'll someday be back, hope for him that he'll see his country again.

A symbol of all that is decent

The communist regime fell in 1989, but Michael was not allowed back until 1992, for a brief visit during Easter. Looking back, I guess the day he was greeted by millions of people on the streets of Bucharest helped heal the wound of decades of exile. He saw the people still loved him. Unfortunately, other eyes saw that, too. The leftist regime in place at the time saw to it that Michael is kept away. He only managed to get back his Romanian citizenship and the use of his real name, Michael I of Romania in 1997, under a new government.
Sometimes, I think it was for the best he was not allowed to return as King. Hitler is gone, Stalin is gone, but now we have new masters in Brussels and Washington. This is how things are for a small country.

Not being involved in murky modern politics, King Michael was able to remain a symbol of what this country might have been without Stalin and Hitler. It is hard to explain why people my generation care so deeply for this man. In a world where most politicians are crooks, this man always conveyed the image of an honest man. A decent man.
I only got to see him in person when he was old and a bit frail. But always straight as a tree.

King Michael never stooped.

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