King Michael I of Romania — king of romania with roots in the Russian Empire
Michael of Romania was born at Foișor Castle in Sinaia on 25 October 1921, the only son of Crown Prince Carol and Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark. He was born the grandson of two reigning kings, Ferdinand I of Romania and Constantine I of Greece, and the great-grandson of two Russian grand duchesses.
On his father's side, his grandmother was Queen Marie of Romania, whose mother, Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, had been born at Tsarskoye Selo in 1853, the only surviving daughter of Emperor Alexander II. On his mother's side, his grandfather Constantine I was the son of Queen Olga of Greece, born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna at Pavlovsk in 1851. Few monarchs of the twentieth century had a closer double descent from the Russian imperial house.
His reign came twice. After his father renounced his rights, Michael became king in 1927, aged five, under a regency; in 1930 Carol returned and took the throne himself. Michael succeeded again in September 1940, when Carol abdicated, and reigned under the wartime government of Marshal Ion Antonescu, which had allied Romania with Germany.
On 23 August 1944 the king and a group of politicians and officers removed Antonescu, and Romania left the Axis and joined the Allies. On 6 July 1945 Stalin awarded him the Order of Victory, the highest Soviet military order, citing his decision to break with Germany at a moment when its defeat was not yet certain. He was one of only twenty recipients of the order, and his name is inscribed on the memorial to them in the Grand Kremlin Palace.
In March 1945, under Soviet pressure, he had to appoint a government led by Petru Groza, and on 30 December 1947 he abdicated and left the country. He married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma in Athens in 1948; they had five daughters, the eldest of whom, Margareta, is now Custodian of the Crown. He lived in exile, mainly in Switzerland, recovered his Romanian citizenship in 1997, and in 2010, as the last surviving head of state who had commanded forces in the Second World War, he attended the Victory Day parade in Moscow. He died in Aubonne, Switzerland, on 5 December 2017, aged ninety-six.
Tracing the roots — Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk (great-grandmothers)
He descended from the Romanovs on both sides: his father's grandmother was Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Alexander II, and his mother's grandmother was Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna. In 1945 Stalin awarded him the Soviet Order of Victory.
Great-grandson of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna (b. Tsarskoye Selo 1853, daughter of Alexander II) through his father Carol II and grandmother Queen Marie; and of Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna (b. Pavlovsk 1851) through his mother Helen of Greece.
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Tsarskoye Selo and Pavlovsk (great-grandmothers). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.