"Mayor of the Palace"
Hours late because of floods and washouts the Simplon-Orient Express from Paris drew wheezing into Bucharest last week, with the Royal Salon Car in tow.
A delegation of peasant women, laden with wreaths for their Queen, had fallen asleep in the warm stuffy waiting-room, and, as no one woke them up, they snored on. Marie of Rumania was home.
Anti-Climax. An entire wagonlit full of correspondents who had accompanied the Queen from Paris were vexed by the necessity of reporting that King Ferdinand, who waited on the platform to greet his royal consort, seemed a trifle pale but by no means at Death's door. The correspondents had come in hopes of witnessing:
1) the announcement of King Ferdinand's death and his funeral;
2) a coup d' etat by General Petala and other Fascist Army leaders to seat the abdicated Crown Prince Carol on the throne. As their Royal Majesties drove off down the Boulevard Dinicu-Golescu and proceeded by the Sosea Cotroceni to the Palais de Cotroceni the correspondents scattered through Bucharest determined to learn the real political situation.
Bratiano. Bearded, sleek-vested Rumanian diplomats received the correspondents with reserve, refused to be quoted, uttered however a platitude in which there is much truth: "Gentlemen, now as for many years, the political situation in Rumania is Jon Bratiano."
Apparently it is. That extraordinary man, whose family have supplied the "Mayors of the Palace"* to the present Rumanian dynasty since its inception (1866), is not now Premier, but Premier General Averescu is universally admitted to be his puppet. The Bratiano clan controls the oil and much of the industry of Rumania. More vitally it controls the indescribably corrupt electoral machinery of Rumania by which new parties achieve overwhelming majorities and old ones are wiped out by the figurative pressure of a button: the button connecting the residence of Jon Bratiano by private telephone with the office of the Chief of Police of Bucharest, the activities of whose agents are national.
What did Jon Bratiano do while the eyes of the world were upon Bucharest, to trumpet that he is master there and will oppose either the reinstatement of Carol as Crown Prince or the appointment of Queen Marie as one of the regents for the five-year-old heir apparent Prince Michel?
Bratiano--1) "Advised" the King to issue a proclamation reaffirming Carol's banishment, which the Monarch instantly did; 2) Gave an interview to the press in which he said: "I have not heard of any proposal to appoint Her Majesty a regent," although Bucharest was ringing with the project.
Ferdinand's Proclamation: "Happily I feel my strength is returning to me and believe that with the help of God I may be able, as hitherto, to fulfill my duties toward our beloved country and my dear people. . . .
"Statesmen will know how best to assemble all the national forces. They will build a wall around my throne to impose respect for my decisions and acts, for I have acted according to the laws and supreme interests of the monarchy and State." (Unquestionably this affirms His Majesty's dependence upon Jon Bratiano and his family of whom the next most potent is Vintila Bratiano, sly brother of Jon.) Opposition Squelched. Though the Fascist Army leaders remained an uncertain quantity in the possibility of a coup for Carol, the political (Carolist) Opposition headed by Professor Jorga appeared thoroughly squelched last week. This was definitely made clear in a statement by Professor Jorga to the foreign press:
"I will never support Carol if he seeks to obtain power by force of the army. Carol must ask the King's permission to visit him. He must also leave the woman with whom he lives immorally, free himself from his environment in Paris and return to his legal wife and son. Princess Helene lives only for her child, and is highly respected by the whole people. . . .
"If Carol follows my advice and assures my support the succession question can be easily solved. Otherwise disagreeable incidents are possible."
Magda Lupescu, "the woman with whom he [Carol] lives" in Paris (TIME, March 22) was declared by the Parisian press last week to have every expectation of shortly increasing the number of his illegitimate children, of whom the most notable is the son of Mme. Zizi Lambrino, his one-time morganatic wife. Her suit to establish the legitimacy of her son (TIME, Nov. 29) was thrown out of court last week, in Paris, the judge considering that only Rumanian courts are competent to adjudicate the matter.
--The Major-domos, Hausmeier, or Mayors of the Palace to the early Frankish kings gradually assumed more and more power until Charles Martel (grandfather of Charlemagne) technically a mere Hausmeier, completely eclipsed his king, Childeric III, whom no one remembers.