English outcast may revive Romanian crown
ROMANIA: Representing his mother Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain at the funeral in Bucharest yesterday of former King Michael of Romania, the Prince of Wales found himself in the unusual position of being, for many Romanians, only the second most interesting Englishman present.
An impressive array of European royals turned out for ceremonies honouring the late king, who led Romania through World War II but lost his throne to communist rule in 1947. His death in Switzerland aged 96 this month has provided an intriguing twist to an improbable royal saga featuring a former English public schoolboy named Nicholas Medforth-Mills.
The collapse of communism and the arrival of democracy has inspired a revival in the longexiled monarchy’s fortunes - and Medforth-Mills, 32, has emerged as a key figure. His father was the late Robin Medforth-Mills, a geography professor at Durham University who married King Michael’s second daughter, Princess Elena. Their son, a graduate of Royal Holloway, University of London, is the late king’s only grandson.
Formerly known as Prince Nicolae, he was third in line for the (officially non-existent) Romanian throne, and has become, with his fiancee Alina-Maria Binder, Romania’s answer to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
‘‘Nicholas has become very popular,’’ said Marlene Eilers Koenig, an American historian who knew King Michael and has written about his family. ‘‘But there have been signs that other members of the family resented his popularity.’’
In Bucharest yesterday, Medforth-Mills and his glamorous Romanian bride-to-be joined a gathering of family mourners, including former King Juan Carlos of Spain and King Carl Gustaf of Sweden. Yet for much of the past two years, a bitter family feud had in effect excluded him from royal circles and appeared to have cost him his princely title.
A dispute over an illegitimate child that Medforth-Mills was alleged to have fathered in a onenight stand soured his relationship with his grandfather, King Michael, and led to an embarrassing falling-out with his mother. Princess Elena publicly complained that her son had ‘‘shown contempt’’ for the Romanian people after he attempted to break into the king’s Swiss residence last month in order to visit him.
Medforth-Mills, who had lived in Britain since the age of five and attended boarding school at Shiplake College in Henley-onThames, claimed other members of the royal household were attempting to discredit him. ‘‘I will not take part in this ‘dirty game’,’’ he wrote on his Facebook page.
If all this sounds more like comic relief than the serious concerns of modern Romania, local experts note that the royal family has begun to play an increasingly high-profile role. It now controls such royal jewels as Peles Castle, an extravagantly spired neoRenaissance estate in the Carpathian foothills, and the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, home to King Michael’s oldest daughter, Princess Margareta, now known as ‘‘custodian of the Romanian crown’’.
There is currently no serious suggestion that the monarchy will be restored in Romania, but there remains a strong body of monarchist support. ‘‘We need a symbol, to lead by example and offer guidance,’’ argued Emilia Petrita, a Bucharest blogger.
A row over DNA testing has left the issue of Medforth-Mills’s alleged child unresolved, but the scandal was apparently enough to persuade King Michael to strip his grandson’s title and remove him from the succession in 2015. Since then, however, Medforth-Mills met his fiancee, known as Alina, and proposed in Cornwall last July.
A surge of Romanian enthusiasm for the couple, who will marry next summer, appears to have persuaded the rest of the family to welcome him back into the fold. The marriage of Harry and Meghan will not be the only royal union to tantalise the European paparazzi next year. - The Times