Romania Order of Queen Maria

[Claire Redsull]

Can anyone identify this cross please, as would love some more information on its history? I have taken the ribbon off, for the photo, but its a long black thin ribbon (however, it may not be the original ribbon, in fact I don't know if it is supposed to have a ribbon, at all?) I have had many suggestions from Romanian to Hungarian to Masonic? Please help.

Many thanks

Claire

[Gordon Craig]

Claire,

I can not point you to a country of origin but I can tell you that it is not Hungarian. If it were Hungarian the crown in the centre would be for St Stephan with the bent cross on the top. The cross on this crown is straight so you can rule out Hungary.

Regards,

Gordon

[Claire Redsull]

Thank you so much for getting back to me Gordon. I am truly amazed that there is so much knowledge on this site.....such tiny detail, that is lost on me....but can tell so much.

Thanks again

Claire x

[Kev in Deva]

This piece is connected to the Romanian Order of Queen Maria Crosses of 1917, awarded in three Classes,

the order was awarded to medical staff who displayed merit in WW1, your cross is associated with the Medical Order

from the period of WW1, yours displays the same Queens Cipher/cypher and it is very likely an unofficial item,

worn from a chain or ribbon as a daily display by the the receipient of the Order itself.

I have added this here, because you have a second thread on the forum with regards this item

and I have posted pictures of your item on a Romanian Military Forum and await some response.

Kevin in Deva. :D

[Claire Redsull]

Kevin, you are a star..............thank you for all your help x Hope it isn't taking up to much of your time. Thanks again, Claire x

I can't even remember how I came across it, would be nice to reunite it with its place in history (official or not) ....maybe with the Queen Maria society for little lost crosses (if there is one??) .

Claire xx

[Kev in Deva]

With regards Queen Maria of Romania, there is an English connection:-

She was born on 29 October 1875 at Eastwell Park in Kent, the eldest daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia.

Her father was the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was the only surviving daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Maria Alexandrovna of Hesse.

She was baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on 15 December 1875 and her godparents were the Empress and Tsarevitch of Russia (her maternal grandmother and uncle), the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (her paternal grandaunt), the Princess of Wales (her paternal aunt) and the Duke of Connaught (her paternal uncle).

As her father was in the Royal Navy, she spent much of her early childhood abroad, particularly in Malta.^[1]

In her youth, Princess Marie was considered a suitable match for marriage to the Royalty of Europe. Her first cousin, Prince George of Wales, later King George V of the United Kingdom, fell in love with her and proposed marriage. Marie's father and George's father approved of the marriage, but their mothers did not. Marie's mother did not like the British Royal family and George's mother did not like Germans so the idea of a marriage was mixed.

Before Marie could find someone else suitable to marry, her mother found Ferdinand of Romania. He was the German-raised nephew of the King of Romania (and a distant cousin of the rulers of Prussia).

Princess Marie married Prince Ferdinand of Romania, nephew of King Carol I of Romania in Sigmaringen, Germany, on 10 January 1893. The bride was 17 years old and the groom was 10 years her senior. (Marie's father did not become Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until a few months later.)

The marriage, which produced three daughters and three sons, was not a happy one.^[2] Her correspondence with her longtime secret confidante, the American dancer Loie Fuller, revealed "the distaste, which grew to revulsion" that Marie felt for her husband.^[3]

The couple's two youngest children, Ileana and Mircea, were born after Marie met her long-time lover, Barbu Ştirbey. Historians generally agree that Ştirbey was the father of Prince Mircea, who had brown eyes like Ştirbey, unlike Marie and Ferdinand.^[4]

The paternity of Ileana is uncertain, as is the paternity of Marie's second daughter, Maria (known as Mignon), the future Queen of Yugoslavia.^[2]

Ferdinand's paternity of the three other children, Carol, Nicholas and Elisabeth, has not been disputed.

In 1897, while still Crown Princess, Marie began a romantic liaison with Lieutenant Zizi Cantacuzene.^[2] The affair and subsequent scandal became widely known and was quickly terminated by King Carol I. However by autumn 1897, during the height of the scandal, Marie became pregnant. After fleeing to her mother in Coburg, Marie apparently gave birth to a child who has disappeared from history.^[2] It has been suggested that the child was either stillborn or quickly placed in an orphanage. Whatever the truth, 'the story of this mysterious child of Marie of Romania was one secret "she took to the grave.

In 1899 Marie, pregnant with Mignon, pleaded with King Carol I to allow her to give birth in Coburg, where her father was Duke. Upon the king's refusal of this request, Marie declared 'right to his face' that the child she was carrying was in fact Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia's.^[2] The horrified King relented and Marie gave birth to her daughter, also called Marie but always known as Mignon, in the peaceful surroundings of Coburg. Following this, whether in earnest or merely to deflect criticism from the dynasty, Crown Prince Ferdinand officially recognised the child as his.

Marie's fourth child and second son, Prince Nicolas, was born in August 1903. The appearance of Pauline Astor, the sister of Marie's close friend and confidant Waldorf Astor, along with an Astor family doctor during the birth fanned speculation that the father of Prince Nicolas was in fact Astor and not Crown Prince Ferdinand. As with Mignon, Ferdinand accepted the child as his own and as he grew up Nicolas came to resemble his Hohenzollern relatives rather than the Astors

In 1914, Carol I died and Ferdinand ascended the throne of Romania. Crown Princess Marie then became styled Her Majesty The Queen of Romania. Due to World War I, they were not crowned as King and Queen until 1922.

Marie had become a Romanian patriot, and her influence in the country was large. A.L. Easterman writes that King Ferdinand was "a quiet, easy-going man, of no significant character… It was not he, but Marie who ruled in Romania." He credits Marie's sympathies for the Allies as being "the major influence in bringing her country to their side" in the war.^[5]

During the war, she volunteered as a Red Cross nurse to help the sick and wounded and wrote a book titled My Country to raise funds for the Red Cross, but these were by no means her most notable contributions to the war effort. With the country half-overrun by the German Army, she and a group of military advisers devised the plan by which the Romanian Army, rather than retreating into Russia, would choose a triangle of the country in which to stand and fight; and through a letter to Loïe Fuller she set in motion the series of events that brought a timely American loan to Romania, providing the necessary funds to carry out the plan. (Fortuitously, the young woman from the US embassy who delivered the letter to Fuller was the former ward of Newton D. Baker, by this time serving as U.S. Secretary of War. Fuller and the young woman travelled from Paris to Washington, DC and secured an audience with Baker who, along with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Carter Glass, arranged the loan).

After the war ended, the Great Powers decided to settle affairs at the Paris Peace Conference. The Romanian objective was to secure the Romanian-inhabited territories from the now-defunct Austria-Hungary and Russian Empire, thereby uniting all Romanian-speakers in a single state. Romanian diplomats at the peace conference sought to achieve recognition by the Allies of the Unions of Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania with Romania, proclaimed during 1918.

With the Romanian delegation losing ground in the negotiations, Prime Minister Ionel Bratianu called upon the Queen to travel to France. Marie famously declared that "Romania needs a face, and I will be that face," astutely calculating that the international press was growing tired of the endless negotiations and would be unable to resist the glamour of a Royal visit. The arrival of the so-called Soldier Queen was an international media sensation and she argued passionately that the Western powers should honour their debt to Romania (which had suffered a casualty rate proportionately far greater than Britain, France or the USA). Behind the scenes, she alternately charmed and bullied the Allied leaders into backing the Romanian cause.^[2] As a direct result of her charismatic intervention, Romania won back the initiative and successfully achieved all its pre-conference aims, eventually expanding its territory by 60%, gaining Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transylvania, as well as parts of the Banat, Crişana and Maramureş.

Marie's son, the Crown Prince Carol (later King Carol II of Romania), was never close to his father, Ferdinand—by the time Carol was an adult, their antagonism became an "open breach"^[5]—but there continued to be a "deep bond of affection and sympathy" between Carol and Marie.^[5] Their relationship, however, deteriorated. The initial conflict came over Carol's objections to Marie's relationship with Prince Ştirbey; the breach was exacerbated as Marie attempted to steer Carol toward a dynastic marriage rather than allow him to choose his own bride.^[5]

During Carol's exile in Paris, Loïe Fuller had befriended Carol and his mistress Magda Lupescu; they were unaware of Fuller's connection to Marie. Fuller initially advocated to Marie on their behalf, but later schemed unsuccessfully with Marie to separate Carol from Lupescu.^[3] Eventually, when Carol became King and did not seek her counsel, the breach between mother and son became complete.^[6]

After the death of her husband in 1927, Queen Marie remained in Romania, writing books and her memoirs, The Story of My Life.

She died in Peleş Castle on 18 July 1938, and was buried next to her husband in the Monastery of Curtea de Argeş. In accordance with her will, her heart was kept in a cloister at the Balchik Palace which she had built.

In 1940, when Balchik and the rest of Southern Dobrudja were returned to Bulgaria in accordance with the Treaty of Craiova, Queen Marie's heart was transferred to Bran Castle. This had been her principal home for much of the early 20th century, and the artefacts with which she chose to surround herself (traditional furniture and tapestries, for example) can be seen by visitors today.

Many of her other personal effects can be seen at the Maryhill Museum, formerly the home of Samuel Hill, an American railroad businessman with whom Queen Marie corresponded much of her life. The famous museum, which lies in Washington State (U.S.A.) on the north side of the Columbia River, displays much of Queen Marie's regalia, furniture, and other possessions, including her crown.

She was the 1,007th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa.

Source:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_of_Romania

Kevin in Deva.

[Gordon Craig]

Kevin,

Interesting history lesson.

Claire,

Here is some info on the Order of Queen Marie Cross of 1917. I hope someday we can fill in the history of your particular cross.

Regards,

Gordon

ORDER OF THE QUEEN MARIA CROSS (1917)

Auction XIII

ID:452

Category:ROMANIA

Commander's Cross, 1st Class, 1st model, neck badge, silver gilt, on the obverse the cipher of Queen Maria, Red Cross on reverse, original ribbon. A very rare first model from World War I! Instituted by King Ferdinand on March 17th, 1917 to reward the merits of civil and military medical personnel, during war and in time of peace. There are three classes of which this is the highest.

I- RR!

[Claire Redsull]

You guys are amazing!!!!!! Thank you so much.....Queen M sounds quite the rebel !!! The cross I have is quite fancy in comparison to the offical ones, i think it must of been owned by a bit of a 'show off' hee hee...... Thanks again guys.

I've got another little badge, better post it on a new post...... Would dearly love your opinions/knowledge please guys x

[Northman]

Queen Marie had an affair with a Canadian Lt. Col. Joseph Whiteside Boyle in 1918/1919. You should google his name to see more. Boyle was decorated three times from Romania with one of these awards being this order. He did allot of work and negotiations for Romania after the war. This is but a tip in the iceberg of stuff he did. He was also awarded with three awards from Russia (for services in Russia), DSO from Britian, Croix de Geurre from France but nothing, not even service medals, from his home country Canada. Marie loved him so much that when Boyle died she placed a special Romania cross on his grave. She also placed a huge slab covering the grave engraved with his name and this cross and her sigil in one corner. Marie also put an granite urn in which she potted orange lillies. Each year at the anniversary of Boyle's death, a woman dressed in black was always seen at the graveside replacing the lillies. After Marie's death, the lady in black stopped coming. It is wonder that a full length movie was never done about him. No surprise there because he was a Canadian. He is a true Canadian hero.

[new world]

Marie, Queen of Rumania (left), Joe Boyle (centre) and Ileana, Princess of Rumania (right), summer 1918, Bicaz, Rumania.

[Northman]

Bolye was buried in England and in 1983 his family managed to convince authorities to have his remains exhumed and reburied in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada. The original Romanian cross, urn and engraved grave slab cover were also brought back and placed over the new grave. But in time these were replaced with newer granite items. At least two biographies were written about Joe Boyle and with his adventures, as I said, a movie should be done about him. I will try to add an image of his grave on another post but I am still trying to figure it out.