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  REMINISCENCES OF THE
  KING OF ROUMANIA

[Illustration:

  _F. Mándy Bucharest._      _Art Repro Co. London._

Carol]




  REMINISCENCES OF THE

  KING OF ROUMANIA

  EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL WITH

  AN INTRODUCTION BY

  SIDNEY WHITMAN

  WITH PORTRAIT

  _AUTHORIZED EDITION_

  NEW YORK AND LONDON

  HARPER & BROTHERS

  1899




CONTENTS


                                                   PAGE.

  INTRODUCTION                                       vii

  I. THE PRINCIPALITIES OF MOLDAVIA AND WALLACHIA      1

  II. THE SUMMONS TO THE THRONE                       11

  III. STORM AND STRESS                               32

  IV. MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE                          83

  V. FINANCIAL TROUBLES                              129

  VI. THE JEWISH QUESTION                            143

  VII. PEACEFUL DEVELOPMENT                          155

  VIII. THREATENING CLOUDS                           218

  IX. THE ARMY                                       250

  X. THE WAR WITH TURKEY                             265

  XI. THE BERLIN CONGRESS AND AFTER                  311

  EPILOGUE                                           355




INTRODUCTION

    Volk und Knecht und Ueberwinder,
    Sie gestehn zu jeder Zeit;
    Höchstes Glück der Erdenkinder
    Sey nur die Persönlichkeit.

  GOETHE (_West-Oestlicher Divan_).


It is said to have been a chance occasion which gave the first
impetus towards the compilation of the German original[1] from which
these "Reminiscences of the King of Roumania have been re-edited and
abridged." One day an enterprising man of letters applied to one
who had followed the King's career for years with vivid interest:
"The public of a country extending from the Alps to the ocean is
eager to know something about Roumania and her Hohenzollern ruler."
The King, without whose consent little or nothing could have been
done, thought the matter over carefully; in fact, he weighed it in
his mind for several years before coming to a final decision. At
first his natural antipathy to being talked about--even in praise
(to criticism he had ever been indifferent)--made him reluctant
to provide printed matter for public comment. On the other hand,
he had long been most anxious that Roumania should attract more
public attention than the world had hitherto bestowed on her. In
an age of universal trade competition and self-advertisement, for
a country to be talked about possibly meant attracting capitalists
and opening up markets: things which might add materially to her
prosperity. With such possibilities in view, the King's own personal
taste or scruples were of secondary moment to him. So the idea
first suggested by a stranger gradually took shape in his mind, and
with it the desire to see placed before his own subjects a truthful
record of what had been achieved in Roumania in his own time. By
these means he hoped to give his people an instructive synopsis of
the difficulties which had been successfully overcome in the task of
creating practical institutions out of chaos.

  [1] "Aus dem Leben König Karls von Rumänien. Aufzeichnungen eines
  Augenzeugen." Stuttgart: Verlag der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung.

As so often happens in such cases, the work grew beyond the limits
originally entertained. But the task was no easy one, and involved
the labour of several years. However, the result achieved is well
worth the trouble, for it is an historical document of exceptional
political interest, containing, among other material, important
letters from Prince Bismarck, the Emperor William, the Emperor
Frederick, the Czar of Russia, Queen Victoria, and Napoleon III.
It is, in fact, a piece of work which a politician must consult
unless he is to remain in the dark concerning much of moment in the
political history of our time, and particularly in the history of
the Eastern Question. "The Reminiscences of the King of Roumania"
constitute an important page in the story of European progress. Nor
is this all. They also contain a study in self-revelation which, so
far as it belongs to a regal character, is absolutely unique in its
completeness--even in an age so rich in sensational memoirs as our
own.

The subject-matter deals with a period of over twenty-five years
in the life of a young European nation, in the course of which she
gained her independence and strove successfully to retain it, whilst
more than trebling her resources in peaceful work. In this eventful
period greater changes have taken place in the balance of power in
Europe than in many preceding centuries. A republic has replaced
a monarchy in France, and also on the other side of the Atlantic,
in Brazil, since the days when a young captain of a Prussian
guard regiment, a scion of the House of Hohenzollern, set himself
single-handed the Sisyphean task of establishing a constitutional
representative monarchy on a soil where hitherto periodical
conspiracies and revolts had run riot luxuriously. Just here,
however, our democratic age has witnessed the realisation of the
problem treated by Macchiavelli in "Il Principe"--the self-education
of a prince.

To-day, the man who thirty-three years ago came down the Danube as
a perfect stranger--practically alone, without tried councillors or
adherents--is to all intents and purposes the omnipotent ruler of a
country which owes its independence and present position entirely
to his statesmanship. Nor can there be much doubt that but for him
Roumania and the Lower Danube might be now little more than a name
to the rest of Europe--as, indeed, they were in the past.


II

King Charles of Roumania is the second son of the late Prince
Charles Anthony[2] of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen: the elder South
German Roman Catholic branch of the House of Hohenzollern, of
which the German Emperor is the chief. Until the year 1849 the
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringens, whose dominions are situated between
Württemberg and Baden, near the spot where the Danube rises in the
Black Forest, possessed full sovereign rights as the head of one of
the independent principalities of the German Confederation. These
sovereign rights of his own and his descendants Prince Charles
Anthony formally and voluntarily ceded to Prussia on December 7,
1849. Of him we are credibly informed:

"Prince Charles Anthony lives in the history of the German people
as a man of liberal thought and high character, who of his own
free will gave up his sovereign prerogative for the sake of the
cause of German Unity. His memory is green in the hearts of his
children as the ideal of a father, who--for all his strictness and
discipline--was not feared, but ever loved and honoured, by his
family. He was always the best friend and adviser of his grown-up
sons." His letters to his son Charles, which are frequently quoted
in the present memoir, fully bear out this testimony to the Prince's
intimate, almost ideal, relationship with his children, as also to
the magnanimity with which he is universally credited.

  [2] This Prince always wrote his name Karl Anton, as a double name:
  hence the retention here.

Of the King's mother--Princess Josephine of Baden--we learn:
"Princess Josephine was deeply religious without being in the least
bigoted. Her unselfishness earned for her the love and devotion of
all those who knew her. As a wife and a mother her life was one of
exceptional harmony and happiness. The great deference which King
Charles has always shown to the other sex has its source in the
veneration which he felt for his mother."

Prince Charles was born on April 20, 1839, at the ancestral
castle of the Hohenzollerns at Sigmaringen on the Danube, then
ruled over by his grandfather, the reigning Prince Charles of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. The castle was not in those days the
treasury of art and history which it is at the present day. The
grandfatherly _régime_ was of a patriarchal, almost despotic kind:
every detail of household affairs was regulated with a view to
strict economy. Though, perhaps, unpleasant at times, all this
proved to be invaluable training for the young Prince, whose
ultimate destiny it was to rule over one of the most extravagant
peoples in Europe. Punctuality was strictly enforced: at nine
o'clock the old Prince wound up his watch as a sign that the day
was over, and at ten darkness and silence reigned supreme over the
household.

Prince Charles was a delicate child, and was considered so
throughout his early manhood, though in reality his health and
bodily powers left little to be desired. The first happy years of
his childhood were passed at Sigmaringen and the summer residences
of Inzigkofen and Krauchenwies. This peaceful life was broken by
a visit in 1846 to his maternal grandmother, the Grand Duchess
Stéphanie of Baden. On this occasion Prince Charles attracted the
attention and interest of Mme. Hortense Cornu, the intimate friend
and confidant of Prince Louis Napoleon--later Napoleon III.

It cannot be said that the young Prince progressed very rapidly in
his studies; but though he learned slowly, his memory proved most
retentive. His naturally independent and strong character, moreover,
prevented him from adopting outside opinions too readily, and this
trait he retained in after years. For though as King of Roumania he
is ever willing to listen to the opinion of others, the decision
invariably remains in his own hands.

An exciting period supervened for the little South German
Principality with the year 1848, when the revolutionary wave forced
the old Prince to abdicate in favour of his son Prince Charles
Anthony. Owing to the action of a "Committee of Public Safety,"
the Hohenzollern family quitted Sigmaringen on September 27. This
the children used to call the "first flight" in contradistinction
to the "second," some seven months later. Though Prince Charles
Anthony succeeded in gaining the upper hand over the revolutionary
movement of '48, the trouble commenced again in 1849 owing to
the insurrection in the Grand Duchy of Baden. As soon as order
had been completely restored, Prince Charles Anthony carried out
his long-cherished plan of transferring the sovereignty of the
Hohenzollern Principality to the King of Prussia, and in a farewell
speech he declared his sole reason to be "the desire to promote
the unity, greatness, and power of the German people." The family
settled first at Neisse in Prussian Silesia, then at Düsseldorf,
as Prince Charles Anthony was appointed to the command of the
Fourteenth Military Division, while Prince Charles Anthony, and
later on also his brother Friedrich, were settled with their tutor
in Dresden, where Prince Charles spent seven years.

Before joining his parents at Düsseldorf, Prince Charles
successfully passed his ensign's examination, though he was entitled
as a Prince of the House of Hohenzollern to claim his commission
without submitting to this test. As a reward for his success he was
permitted to make a tour through Switzerland and Upper Italy before
being placed under his previously appointed military governor,
Captain von Hagens. This officer was a man in every way fitted to
instruct and prepare the young Prince for his career by developing
his powers of initiative and independence of action. In accordance
with his expressed wish, he was gazetted Second Lieutenant in the
Prussian Artillery of the Guard, but was not required to join his
corps until his studies were completed. A thorough knowledge of the
practical part of his profession was acquired at the fortress of
Jülich, followed, after a visit to the celebrated Krupp Works at
Essen, by a course of instruction at Berlin.

The betrothal of his sister, Princess Stéphanie, to King Pedro V.
of Portugal, in the autumn of 1857, was followed by her marriage by
proxy at Berlin on April 29, 1858, whilst another important family
event occurred in November of the same year. William, Prince of
Prussia (afterwards King William I., who had assumed the regency
during the illness of his brother the King, Frederick William IV.),
appointed Prince Charles Anthony, of Hohenzollern, to the Presidency
of the Prussian Ministry. His son Charles developed the greatest
interest in politics, and at that time unconsciously acquired a fund
of diplomatic knowledge and experience which was to stand him in
good stead in his future career.

In the midst of the gaieties of Berlin the Prince was deeply
affected by the melancholy news of the death of his sister Stéphanie
on July 17, 1859. Two years later the marriage of his brother
Leopold to the Infanta Antoinette of Portugal afforded him a welcome
opportunity of visiting the last resting-place of his dearly loved
sister near Lisbon. On his return from his journey, Prince Charles
requested to be transferred to an Hussar Regiment, as the artillery
did not appear at that time to take that place in public estimation
to which it was entitled. This application, however, was postponed
until his return from a long tour through the South of France,
Algiers, Gibraltar, Spain, and Paris. After a short stay at the
University of Bonn, Prince Charles again resumed military duty as
First Lieutenant in the Second Dragoon Guards stationed at Berlin,
where he speedily regained the position he had formerly held in
the society of the capital. The Royal Family, especially the Crown
Prince, welcomed their South German relative most warmly, and the
friendship thus created was subsequently more than equal to the test
of time and separation.

A second visit to the Imperial Court of France in 1863, this time
at the invitation of Napoleon III., was intended by the latter
to culminate in a betrothal to a Princess of his House, but the
project fell through, as the proposed conditions did not find
favour with the King of Prussia. Prince Charles was forced to
content himself with the consolation offered by King William, that
he would soon forget the fair lady amidst the scenes of war (in
Denmark). As orderly officer to his friend the Crown Prince of
Prussia, Prince Charles took part in the siege and assault of the
Düppel entrenchments, the capture of Fridericia, and the invasion
of Jütland. The experience he gained of war and camp-life during
this period was of inestimable benefit to the young soldier, who was
afterwards called upon to achieve the independence of Roumania on
the battlefields of Bulgaria.

The war of 1864 having come to an end, Prince Charles returned to
the somewhat dreary monotony of garrison life in Berlin. This not
unnaturally soon gave rise to a feeling of _ennui_ and a consequent
longing on his part for more absorbing work than that of mere
subordinate military routine. Nothing then indicated, however, that
in a short time he would step from such comparative obscurity to the
wide field of European politics by the acceptance of a hazardous,
though pre-eminently honourable, position of the utmost importance
in Eastern Europe--the throne of the United Principalities of
Wallachia and Moldavia, which, thanks to his untiring exertions and
devotion to duty, are now known as the Kingdom of Roumania.


III

In starting on his adventurous, not to say perilous, experiment,
Prince Charles already possessed plenty of valuable capital to draw
upon. In the first place, few princes to whose lot it has fallen to
sway the destinies of a nation have received an early training so
well adapted to their future vocation, or have been so auspiciously
endowed by nature with qualities which in this instance may fairly
be said to have been directly inherited from his parents. His early
and most impressionable years had been passed in the bosom of an
ideally happy and plain-living family, and this in itself was one
of the strongest of guarantees for harmonious development and for
future happiness in life. Both his father and mother had earnestly
striven to instil into their children the difference between the
outward aspect and the true inwardness of things--the very essence
of training for princes no less than for those of humbler rank. Also
we find the following significant reference to the Prince and his
feelings on the threshold of his career:

"The stiff and antiquated 'Junker' spirit which in those days
was so prevalent in Prussia and Berlin, and more particularly at
the Prussian Court, was most repugnant to him. His nature was
too simple, too genuine, for him to take kindly to this hollow
assumption, this clinging to old-fashioned empty formula. His
training had been too truly aristocratic for him not to be deeply
imbued with simplicity and spontaneity in all his impulses. His
instincts taught him to value the inwardness of things above their
outward appearance."

Nor was it long before he had ample opportunity of putting
these precepts into practice. Neither as Prince nor as King
has the Sovereign of Roumania ever permitted prosecution for
personal attacks upon himself. The crime of _lèse majesté_ has
no existence--or, to say the least, is in permanent abeyance--in
Roumania.

Anti-dynastic newspapers have for years persisted in their attacks
upon the King, his policy, and his person--sometimes in the most
audacious manner. Although his Ministers have from time to time
strenuously urged his Majesty to authorise the prosecution of these
offenders, he has never consented to this course. He even refused to
prosecute those who