Magda Lupescu

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Carol II and Magda Lupescu

Magda Lupescu (born September 15, 1896 in Iași as Elena Lupescu ; † June 29, 1977 in Estoril , Portugal ) was the third, morganatic wife of the Romanian King Charles II (Romanian Carol II)

Childhood and origin

She was born as the daughter of Nicolae Lupescu, a pharmacist, and his wife Elise Falk, an Austrian Jew who converted to Catholicism before they were married. Her father was probably also originally Jewish, who converted to the Romanian Orthodox faith and took the name Lupescu (the original family name was "Wolff"; Romanian lupu = wolf). She had a younger brother Constantin Schloim Lupescu.

Elena was raised a Catholic from childhood. She was educated at the “Diaconesele”, a Bucharest elementary school run by Bavarian nuns, at that time one of the best girls' schools in the country.

Her family first moved to Sulina , a town on the Danube, where her father opened a pharmacy, in 1912 they moved back to Jassy (Iași). On February 17, 1919, Elena married Ion Tâmpeanu, a Romanian officer. Elena reportedly had some affairs and the marriage very soon ended in divorce (circa 1924). Elena took her maiden name Lupescu again after the divorce.

Some sources claim that Elena was of royal descent, possibly even an illegitimate daughter of King Carol I , thus a cousin of Carol II . There are three arguments for this: 1) her father owned a pharmacy, which was forbidden for Jews under Romanian law at the time, 2) she attended one of the best schools, and 3) married an officer and officers were not allowed, persons Jewish To marry ancestry. However, there are counter-arguments to this: half of the population of Jassy was Jewish and corruption allowed laws to be circumvented. As a German-speaking Catholic, the choice of school wasn't that unusual. In addition, she and her parents were no longer of Jewish faith at the time of their marriage.

Royal mistress

In March 1923 the first meeting between the red-haired Elena Lupescu and the then Crown Prince Carol is said to have taken place . At this point, Carol was appropriately married to Elena of Greece . Known for his numerous affairs, Carol made no secret of her relationship with Elena Lupescu. Once before, during the war, he entered into an morganatic marriage that was later annulled. In 1925 he appeared in public with Elena Lupescu in Milan, and the pictures went through all the newspapers. In 1926 he was therefore excluded from the line of succession. A year later, Carol's father King Ferdinand died and Carol's son Michael succeeded him to the throne. In 1928 the marriage to Elena of Greece was divorced. Carol went into exile with Elena Lupescu, but returned in 1930 and was made king with a promise to part ways with Elena. Although Carol did not separate from Elena, she did not take part in any public appearance at his side and lived in a villa outside Bucharest.

Second exile

In 1940 Carol had to go into exile again and release the throne for his son, Elena followed him, first to Spain, then to Portugal, Mexico and Brazil. On July 3, 1947, the couple finally married in a hotel room in Rio de Janeiro. From then on she called herself Princess von Hohenzollern . The couple last settled in Estoril, Portugal. Her husband died in 1953, she survived him by 24 years and was buried next to him in the São Vicente de Fora monastery. In 2003 the remains were transferred to Romania and she was buried in the courtyard of the Curtea de Argeș monastery, 450 meters away from Carol II.

literature

Web links

Commons : Magda Lupescu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ “Magda Lupescu” Lemma in the Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed on February 26, 2020.
  2. ↑ Memoriile unei amante celebre din istoria României , Adevărul September 15, 2016
  3. ↑ Boala cumplită a Regelui Carol al II-lea , Adevărul October 27, 2015
  4. ↑ Povestea de dragoste tulburătoare dintre Elena Lupescu şi Regele Carol al II-lea , Adevărul June 15, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Lupescu, Magda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lupescu, Elena; Lupescu, Hélène
BRIEF DESCRIPTION third morganatic wife of the Romanian King Charles II.
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Iași
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1977
Place of death Estoril , Portugal