Princess Ileana of Romania
Encyclopedia
Princess Ileana of Romania (5 January 1909 – 21 January 1991) was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand I of Romania
, King of the Romanians, and his consort Queen Marie of Romania
. She was born Her Royal Highness Ileana, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern. After marriage she was known as Her Imperial and Royal Highness, Ileana, Archduchess of Austria, Princess Imperial of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern.
Later Princess Ileana was involved in Guiding in Austria and served as president of the Austrian Girl Guides
from 1935 until Girl Guiding and Scouting were banned in 1938 after the Anschluss
She was an avid sailor: she earned her navigator's papers, and owned and sailed the "Isprava" for many years.
on 26 July 1931, Ileana married the Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
. This marriage was encouraged by Ileana's brother, King Carol II
, who was jealous of Ileana's popularity in Romania and wanted to get her out of the country. After the wedding, Carol claimed that the Romanian people would never tolerate a Habsburg
living on Romanian soil, and on these grounds refused Ileana and Anton permission to live in Romania.
After her husband was conscripted into the Luftwaffe
, Ileana established a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers at their castle, Sonneburg, outside Vienna, Austria. She was assisted in this task by her friend Sheila Kaul
. In 1944, she and the children moved back to Romania, where they lived at Bran Castle
, near Brasov. Archduke Anton joined them but was placed under house arrest by the Red Army
. Princess Ileana established and worked in another hospital in Bran village, which she named the Hospital of the Queen's Heart in the beloved memory of her mother Queen Maria of Romania.
abdicated, Ileana and her family were exiled from the newly Communist Romania
. They escaped by train to the Russian sector of Vienna, then divided into three parts. After that they settled in Switzerland, then moved to Argentina
and in 1950, she and the children moved to the United States
, where she bought a house in Newton, Massachusetts
.
The years from 1950 to 1961 were spent lecturing against communism, working with the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States
, writing two books: I Live Again, a memoir of her last years in Romania, and Hospital of the Queen's Heart, describing the establishment and running the hospital.
In 29 May 1954 Ileana and Anton officially divorced and she married secondly in Newton
, Massachusetts
, on 20 June 1954 Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu (Turnu-Severin, 5 October 1906 – Providence
, 21 December 2002), without issue.
In 1961, Princess Ileana entered the Orthodox Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God, in Bussy, France. Her second marriage ended in divorce in 1965. On her tonsuring
as a monastic, in 1967, Sister Ileana was given the name Mother Alexandra. She moved back to the United States and founded the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
, serving as abbess until her retirement in 1981. She remained at the monastery until her death.
She visited Romania again in 1990, at the age of 81 in the company of her daughter, Sandi.
In January 1991, she suffered a broken hip in a fall on the evening before her eighty-second birthday, and while in hospital, suffered two major heart attacks. She died four days after the foundations had been laid for the expansion of the monastery.
, but this, according to Hannah Pakula's biography of her mother, Queen Marie (The Last Romantic) appears to be simply rumour.
Ferdinand I of Romania
Ferdinand was the King of Romania from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Leopold, Prince of...
, King of the Romanians, and his consort Queen Marie of Romania
Marie of Edinburgh
Marie of Romania was Queen consort of Romania from 1914 to 1927, as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania.-Early life:...
. She was born Her Royal Highness Ileana, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern. After marriage she was known as Her Imperial and Royal Highness, Ileana, Archduchess of Austria, Princess Imperial of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern.
Girl Guiding
Before her marriage, Ileana was the organizer and Chief of the Romanian Girl Guide MovementAsociatia Ghidelor si Ghizilor din România
The Asociaţia Ghidelor şi Ghizilor din România is the national Guiding organization of Romania. Guiding in Romania began in 1928, was restarted in 1990 and became a member of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in 1993. The coeducational organization has 1,000 members .- History...
Later Princess Ileana was involved in Guiding in Austria and served as president of the Austrian Girl Guides
from 1935 until Girl Guiding and Scouting were banned in 1938 after the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
Other achievements
Ileana was the organizer of the Girl Reserves of the Red Cross, and of the first school of Social Work in Romania.She was an avid sailor: she earned her navigator's papers, and owned and sailed the "Isprava" for many years.
Marriage
In SinaiaSinaia
Sinaia is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. The town was named after Sinaia Monastery, around which it was built; the monastery in turn is named after the Biblical Mount Sinai...
on 26 July 1931, Ileana married the Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany
Archduke Anton of Austria Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Prince of Tuscany; .Anton was the seventh of ten children born to Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany...
. This marriage was encouraged by Ileana's brother, King Carol II
Carol II of Romania
Carol II reigned as King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until 6 September 1940. Eldest son of Ferdinand, King of Romania, and his wife, Queen Marie, a daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second eldest son of Queen Victoria...
, who was jealous of Ileana's popularity in Romania and wanted to get her out of the country. After the wedding, Carol claimed that the Romanian people would never tolerate a Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
living on Romanian soil, and on these grounds refused Ileana and Anton permission to live in Romania.
After her husband was conscripted into the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, Ileana established a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers at their castle, Sonneburg, outside Vienna, Austria. She was assisted in this task by her friend Sheila Kaul
Sheila Kaul
Sheila Kaul is a social democratic leader of the Indian National Congress and a former union cabinet minister and provincial Governor in India. She was also an educationist, social worker, and social reformer in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, and an independence activist in British India...
. In 1944, she and the children moved back to Romania, where they lived at Bran Castle
Bran Castle
Bran Castle , situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73...
, near Brasov. Archduke Anton joined them but was placed under house arrest by the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. Princess Ileana established and worked in another hospital in Bran village, which she named the Hospital of the Queen's Heart in the beloved memory of her mother Queen Maria of Romania.
After exile
After Michael I of RomaniaMichael I of Romania
Michael was the last King of Romania. He reigned from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930, and again from 6 September 1940 until 30 December 1947 when he was forced, by the Communist Party of Romania , to abdicate to the Soviet armies of occupation...
abdicated, Ileana and her family were exiled from the newly Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. They escaped by train to the Russian sector of Vienna, then divided into three parts. After that they settled in Switzerland, then moved to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and in 1950, she and the children moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where she bought a house in Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
.
The years from 1950 to 1961 were spent lecturing against communism, working with the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States
Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Canada
The Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas is an autonomous Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Archdiocese currently covers all of the Americas under the leadership of Nicolae Condrea, with the diocesan center located in Chicago, Illinois.-External links:*...
, writing two books: I Live Again, a memoir of her last years in Romania, and Hospital of the Queen's Heart, describing the establishment and running the hospital.
In 29 May 1954 Ileana and Anton officially divorced and she married secondly in Newton
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, on 20 June 1954 Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu (Turnu-Severin, 5 October 1906 – Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
, 21 December 2002), without issue.
In 1961, Princess Ileana entered the Orthodox Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God, in Bussy, France. Her second marriage ended in divorce in 1965. On her tonsuring
Tonsure
Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...
as a monastic, in 1967, Sister Ileana was given the name Mother Alexandra. She moved back to the United States and founded the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
Ellwood City is a borough in Beaver and Lawrence counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Ellwood City is 30 miles northwest of Pittsburgh and some 8 miles south by southeast of New Castle...
, serving as abbess until her retirement in 1981. She remained at the monastery until her death.
She visited Romania again in 1990, at the age of 81 in the company of her daughter, Sandi.
In January 1991, she suffered a broken hip in a fall on the evening before her eighty-second birthday, and while in hospital, suffered two major heart attacks. She died four days after the foundations had been laid for the expansion of the monastery.
Doubts about paternity
There is some doubt about Ileana's true paternity. It has been suggested that Ileana's biological father was actually Prince Barbu ŞtirbeyBarbu Stirbey
Prince Barbu Ştirbey was briefly Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. He was the son of Prince Alexandru Ştirbey and his wife Maria Ghika-Comăneşti, and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbey , who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869.He married Princess Nadèje Bibescu about...
, but this, according to Hannah Pakula's biography of her mother, Queen Marie (The Last Romantic) appears to be simply rumour.
Children
Ileana and Anton had six children:- Stefan of AustriaArchduke Stefan of AustriaArchduke Stefan of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and Archduke and Prince of Austria, Prince of Hungary, Bohemia, and Tuscany by birth...
(5 August 1932 – 12 November 1998) - Maria Ileana of Austria (18 December 1933 – 11 January 1959); married Franz Josef Kottulinsky (3 January 1917 – 11 January 1959). Their child:
- Maria Ileana Kottulinsky (born 25 August 1958)
- Alexandra of Austria (born 21 May 1935); married Duke Eugen Eberhard, son of Princess Nadezhda of BulgariaPrincess Nadezhda of BulgariaPrincess Nadezhda Klementine Maria Pia Majella of Bulgaria was a member of the Bulgarian Royal Family.-Life:...
- Dominic of Austria (born 4 July 1937)
- Maria Magdalena of Austria (born 2 October 1939); married Hans Ulrich von Holzhausen (born 1 September 1929), and had three children:
- Johannes Friedrich Anton von Holzhausen (born 29 July 1960 in Salzburg, Austria), married Brunilda Castejon-Schneider (born 14 July 1962 in Madrid, Spain) on 23 September 2001 in Wartberg, Germany, and had one son:
- Laurenz von Holzhaussen (born 21 June 2001 in Vienna, Austria)
- Georg Ferdinand von Holzhausen (born 16 February 1962 in Salzburg, Austria), married Elena von und zu Hoensbroech (born 1 May 1965) on 30 April 1993 in Vienna, Austria, and had three children:
- Alexander von Holzhausen (born 28 November 1994 in Vienna, Austria)
- Tassilo von Holzhausen (born 4 May 1997 in Vienna, Austria)
- Clemens von Holzhausen (born 26 April 2003 in Vienna, Austria)
- Alexandra Maria von Holzhausen (born 22 January 1963 in Salzburg, Austria), married Christian Ferch (born 4 August 1959 in Salzburg, Austria) on 2 July 1985 in Salzburg, Austria, and had three children:
- Ferdinand Georg Botho Ferch (born 17 October 1986 in Salzburg, Austria)
- Leopold Anton David Ferch (born 18 August 1988)
- Benedikt Peter Ferch (born 22 March 1993)
- Johannes Friedrich Anton von Holzhausen (born 29 July 1960 in Salzburg, Austria), married Brunilda Castejon-Schneider (born 14 July 1962 in Madrid, Spain) on 23 September 2001 in Wartberg, Germany, and had one son:
- Elisabeth of Austria (born 15 January 1942), married Dr. Friedrich Josef Sandhofer (born 1 August 1934 in Salzburg, Austria) on 3 August 1964 in Mondsee, Austria, and had four children:
- Anton Dominic Sandhofer (born 26 October 1966 in Salzburg, Austria), married Katarzyna Marta Wojkowska (born 23 November 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) on 29 May 1983, and had one son:
- Dominik Alexander Sandhofer (born 7 January 1994 in Innsbruck, Austria)
- Margareta Elisabeth Sandhofer (born 10 September 1968 in Innsbruck, Austria), married Ernst Helmut Klaus Lux (born 13 September 1954 in Graz, Austria) on 20 June 1992, and had two sons:
- Maurito Maria Ernst Lux (born 29 April 1999 in Vienna, Austria)
- Dorian Augustinius Maria Lux (born 12 May 2001 in Vienna, Austria)
- Andrea Alexandra Sandhofer (born 13 December 1969 in Innsbruck, Austria), married Jörg Michael Zarbl (born 25 September 1970 in Vienna, Austria) on 30 August 1996 and had two sons:
- Ferdinand Hans Friedrich Konstantin Maria Zarbl (born 8 December 1996 in Salzburg, Austria)
- Benedikt Bonifatius Maria Manfred Rainer Zarbl (born 19 February 1999)
- Elisabeth Victoria Madgalena Sandhofer (born 16 November 1971 in Innsbruck, Austria), unmarried and without issue.
- Anton Dominic Sandhofer (born 26 October 1966 in Salzburg, Austria), married Katarzyna Marta Wojkowska (born 23 November 1962 in Warsaw, Poland) on 29 May 1983, and had one son:
Major family events
- In 1954, her marriage to Anton ended in divorce. Later that year, she married Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu in Newton, Massachusetts.
- Eldest son Stefan suffered a debilitating illness in 1959 which required extensive nursing, which his wife and his mother provided.
- Eldest daughter Marie Ileana and her husband were killed in a plane crash in Brazil, along with their unborn second child. They left an orphaned daughter.
- Son Dominic was awarded retroactive rights to Bran CastleBran CastleBran Castle , situated near Bran and in the immediate vicinity of Braşov, is a national monument and landmark in Romania. The fortress is situated on the border between Transylvania and Wallachia, on DN73...
in May 2006 by the Romanian authorities as inheritance from his mother Ileana.