Mistress of the royal game

Marie of Romania (1875–1938), though little known to most readers today, was probably the most dynamic and effective royal consort of the 20th century, and certainly the most glamorous. A granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and the Tsar Alexander II, she was brought up in England by her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Among her many gifts were vitality, courage, leadership and a great sense of duty, as well as of humour.

She was also a prolific author, of novels, short stories, poetry and children’s books. But what brought her literary fame were the first three volumes of The Story of My Life, covering the years down to 1918. When they appeared, in 1934–5, in England as well as America, they were also translated into French, Romanian, German, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Italian and Hungarian. She usually wrote in English, her first language, and she was invited to preside at the 145th anniversary dinner of the Royal Literary Fund. The TLS stated that she had been ‘the heart and soul of Romania’s defence during the bitter and tragic winter of 1916–17’.

The text of the present short volume (only 155 pages) has only lately emerged from the National Archives in Bucharest. Sadly, it contains no details of her personal life, which was as colourful as her public achievements were impressive. But it shows what could be achieved in those days by a determined queen, half Russian and half Anglo-German. The most important chapter describes her time at the Peace Conference in 1919, at which Romania was distinctly suspect, having made terms with the Central Powers early in 1918, and only rejoining the Allies a few days before the Armistice, rather as Russia declared war on Japan in 1945 in order to be in on the subsequent peace conferences — but with considerably more justification.