Thursday, December 18, 2008

Scandal shakes Carol's crown

Embed from Getty Images 

 
 

December 18, 1934

There is now a movement in Roumania to oust King Carol II's mistress, Elena Lupescu, commonly known as Magda. In Bucharest, "the acrid debate raging about Mme. Lupescu's plump figure was rigidly suppressed," but diplomats in Vienna have been privy to "stenographic copies of speeches about her," according to a report in the Chicago Daily Tribune and other newspapers.

 However, King Carol has no plans to dump the daughter of a "Jewish junk dealer." [Note: Lupescu's parents converted to Roman Catholicism, and Elena was raised Roman Catholic.) 

From her self-imposed exile in Belgrade, where she is staying with her daughter, Queen Marie of Roumania has made it clear to her son that he should not "put Lupescu's love above the safety of the dynasty." Former premier Nikolai Jorga, who was once Carol's tutor, "defended him passionately" in a speech from the Senate. "If the king sinned," he said, "it is because he only human. Those who do not sin usually do not because they are not able."

No comments: