Birth of Helen, Princess of Greece and Denmark
Helen, Princess of Greece and Denmark, wife of King Carol II of Romania, was born on 2 May 1896, in Athens.
Helen was the eldest daughter of King Constantine I of Greece and of Queen Sophie of Prussia.
On her father’s side, Helen was a descendant of Catherine the Great of Russia.
On her mother’s side, Helen was related to Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
Helen’s childhood was spent at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Athens.
The household had some strange habits – lunch was served at 11am while dinner was eaten at 3pm prompt.
Each Tuesday, all of the royal family dined together at the home of Prince Nicholas, while on a Thursday it was the turn of the Crown Prince to act as host.
From a young age, Princess Helen was driven in an open carriage, accompanied by liveried footmen, through the streets of Athens.
Although such excursions may have brought Helen some pleasure, the exercise was also designed to instil a sense of royal duty in the child.
The warm summer months were spent at the royal family’s country residence at Tatoi, a wooded estate some 27 kilometres north of the Greek capital.
Summer afternoons were spent swimming with her siblings and cousins, or learning to ride under the instruction of an English groom.
Helen grew up in a close and happy family, but in the midst of World War I, with outside pressure on neutral Greece, and political plotting from within, King Constantine was forced to abdicate.
The king and and his family went into exile in Switzerland.
In their father’s place, her brother Alexander was made the puppet king of Greece.
After his sudden death in 1920, the Greek people recalled King Constantine to the throne and he and his family returned to Greece.
However, Constantine would be forced, once again, to abdicate, only two years later.
At the age of 24, Helen realised that the time had come to settle down and make a suitable marriage.
As a tall and attractive brunette with an excellent royal pedigree there was no shortage of suitable candidates.
In December 1919, Helen had met her second cousin, Crown Prince Carol of Romania.
Carol was just completing a world tour after his forced divorce from his first wife.
Helen and Carol spent more time together in Romania, during the engagement celebrations, of Helen’s her older brother George to Carol’s sister Elisabeth.
In November of 1920, they became engaged, and in 1921, Helen married Prince Carol.
After their honeymoon, they went to live in Bucharest. Their first and only child, Michael, was born on 25th October 1921.
Born just seven and a half months after the wedding, and at a full nine pounds, there were rumors that Michael was conceived before his parent’s marriage.
Their marriage was happy….at first.
The marriage soon began to deteriorate, and in 1925 Carol began an affair with Elena Lupescu, a relationship that would last the rest of his life.
Later that same year, he renounced his rights to the throne and left Romania.
On 20 July 1927 his father, Ferdinand I, died and five-year-old Michael succeeded as king under a regency of which Helen had no part.
A few months later, from exile, Carol asked for a divorce.
Helen refused at first, but after much government pressure, the marriage was dissolved in June of 1928.
Two years later, Carol returned to Romania and, with the government in disarray, he was once again proclaimed king.
Helen and her son, Michael, continued to live in her own home in Bucharest.
King Carol’s mistress Elena Lupescu had secretly returned to Romania, and they were openly living together.
Because Helen refused the divorce, Carol began a campaign of intimidation and persecution against her.
Guards were placed around her home, and her friends were harassed.
Unable to endure this treatment, she left Romania, visiting London and then going to stay with her mother, in Florence.
With an ongoing argument with Carol about how often and where she could see her son, she returned to Bucharest in 1932.
King Carol, however, started a press campaign against her, accusing her of, among other things, emotional instability.
Eventually the government granted her permission to reside in Romania six months of the year.
Helen returned to Florence, and for the next ten years, was only able to see her son Michael for about two months a year.
King Carol continued his irrational behavior and his mismanagement of his country.
In 1940 he was finally outmaneuvered, and King Carol once again went into exile.
Helen’s son Michael was now eighteen, and made King.
Helen returned to Romania and spent the war years helping with the care of the wounded.
For her involvement in the rescue of Romanian Jews from the Nazi’s, Israel later awarded her with the status of Righteous Among the Nations.
After the war, King Michael was lauded as a hero but, with the rapid Soviet takeover of Romania, he was only able to hold on until 1947, when he was forced – at gunpoint – to abdicate.
Michael lived part of every year in Romania, until his death in 2017
Helen returned to Florence, and the rest of her life was spent there and in Lausanne.
Helen, queen mother of Romania, died on 28th November 1982, aged 86.
She was buried without pomp in the Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery.
In January 2018, it was announced that the remains of King Carol II would be moved to the new Archdiocesan and Royal Cathedral, along with those of Queen Mother Helen.
Queen Mother Helen of Romania was reburied at the New Episcopal and Royal Cathedral in Curtea de Argeș on 19th October 2019.