1914: When Carol met Olga

June 1914: The Imperial yacht of the Romanovs, escorted by several units of the Russian Navy, departs Odessa to cross the Black Sea.

Upon arrival at the Romanian port of Constanta, Czar Nicholas and his family are greeted effusively by King Ferdinand and Queen Marie. Marie and the Tsarina Alexandra are first cousins; like George V of England and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, they are grandchildren of Queen Victoria.

Ostensibly this is a friendly visit between cousins who happen to rule over -- ahem -- friendly neighboring states. In fact there is another agenda. Marie would very much like to marry off her erratic eldest son Carol, Romania's Crown Prince. Carol is 21 years old; a spoiled and sulky youth, he is growing into an intelligent but extraordinarily self-indulgent young man.

Marie wantsCarol to marry the Grand Duchess Olga Romanov. The oldest daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, Olga is 19 years old that summer. (1) Like mothers since the beginning of time, Marie hopes that marriage will steady her difficult son; unlike most mothers, she is a queen, and there are also dynastic considerations. Czar Nicholas has only one son, and the prince is a feeble hemophiliac. Nicholas and Alexandra are both in their forties and unlikely to produce additional children; the prince, their youngest child, is already ten years old.

If Carol marries Olga and the union proves fertile, their son could be second in line for the throne of Russia. (2) (Could. On one hand, the Romanovs did not accept Salic descent. On the other, the formal rules of descent were subject to being overruled by the Tsar, and both the next male heirs after the Crown Prince had major problems.) So Marie could conceivably find herself, not only Queen of Romania, but grandmother of the next Tsar of Russia.

So. The royal yacht arriveds, the families greet each other. There is a lunch, a reception, a marvellous dinner, a ball, and...

...and: nothing. Carol had decided to have one of his moods. He was sarcastic and unpleasant. Olga was at first nonplussed, then distant and withdrawn. The crown prince and the Grand Duchess were given numerous opportunities to spend time together. It was hopeless. Olga made some stilted small talk, Carol smirked, and then they ignored each other.

The Romanovs were mildly disappointed; Marie, almost frantically so. But there was no getting around it. The Romanovs got back onto their yacht and sailed home. Just a few weeks later, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand went to Sarajevo.

All this is what happened OTL. So the POD, obviously: Carol decides that being a Grand Duke (in addition to being King of Romania, of course) might be amusing.

After all, it will get him out from under his imperious mother. And it's not as if he can't continue his various extracurricular activities; Nicholas may be a prudish old stick, but the Romanovs generally have not been noted for restraint and decorum. And spending an Imperial dowry is sure to be good fun.

So Carol sets out to charm the Grand Duchess. It's universally agreed that he could charm when he wanted to. Olga is thawed by his advances, and one thing leads to another.

Royal courtships could drag on for years back then, but I suspect that the outbreak of war, plus the driving personality of Queen Marie, would close the deal fairly quickly. So the royal couple are married at Christmastime of that year.

Now. Assume for argument's sake that one royal marriage is not enough to derail WWI. For the next four years, things go much as iOTL. Romania joins the war and is swiftly defeated. Russia collapses into Revolution and civil war.

But when the rest of the royal family goes to Ekaterinburg, Olga will be safe in Bucharest.

Assume that the union proves fertile. (3) There's a 50% chance that Olga is carrying the hemophilia gene on one of her X chromosomes, meaning a 25% chance that a son would inherit it. [flips coin] Nope, she's clean. So by 1920 there's probably a little Hohenzollern - Saxe-Coburg - Romanov prince or two.

In the long run, the marriage is likely to prove difficult, if not outright hellish. Surviving accounts describe Olga as intelligent and brave, but also furiously hot tempered. She's not likely to get along well with the feckless, self-indulgent and cowardly Carol. He, in turn, is just the sort who'd begin treating her badly once her family was out of the picture. A royal divorce is by no means out of the question -- after all, Carol divorced Princess Helen of Greece OTL.

Okay, now what?

-- Romania may become a major center for White Russian emigration and activity. (This does nothing for Romanian relations with the new USSR, not that these were great OTL.) Instead of being spread widely and thinly from Manchuria to Edinburgh, Whites may gather in Bucharest. Any results from this?

-- Will the existence of a Romanov heir have any significant effect on interwar politics in Europe? On the Soviet Union? Recognizing the USSR means rejecting the claims of Olga's children; how hard would this be for, say, Great Britain to do?

-- Marie, one suspects, would throw herself quite strongly into the role of Protector of the Last Romanovs. It's entirely possible that she allies with her daughter-in-law against her wretched son; they're cousins, after all, and there's a certain similarity of temperament. Marie-Carol relations may deteriorate even faster than iOTL, with possible odd internal effects on Romania.

-- Assume that WWII plays out much as iOTL. OTL young Prince Mihai, Carol's teenage son, waited out the Soviet invasion and tried to keep a coalition government going until 1947. TTL, Olga and her children will certainly flee if they can. Where, and what effect might this have?

-- Finally, assume for argument's sake that Olga's son is generally accepted as a legitimate Romanov heir. (Perhaps Czar Nicholas names him as such, either instead of or in addition to Duke Michael.) I don't for a moment think that a Romanov restoration after 1991 is likely, but would his existence have any other impact on post-Soviet Russia?

There's more, but that should do for now. Thoughts?

Doug M.

(1) http://www.alexanderpalace.org/palace/gds.html. Olga is thought to have been the most intelligent of the Romanov princesses, but also the hottest-tempered.

(2) Officially, the Romanovs followed the Pauline Law of 1796, which insisted on strict male primogeniture. But Peter III, among others, inherited the crown from his grandfather through his mother. And the Orthodox Church did not insist on strict male primogeniture; and then OTL, Nicholas would violate the Pauline Law by appointing his younger brother, the Grand Duke Michael, as heir even though son Alexy was still alive.

(3) It probably would. Olga came from a family of five children, and Carol one of six, and OTL Carol was certainly fertile.

There is the issue that they're second cousins... actually somewhat closer than that, because their mutual great-grandparents, Victoria and Albert, were also first cousins to each other. (Phew.) But the relationship probably wasn't too close to affect cofertility.
 
Fascinating ! I have often played with a marriage, but had never considered the potential impact on the RUSSIAN succession before, but as you say Michael Alexandrovitch had married morganatically and been exiled from Russia, and Kyril Vladimirovitch had married a divorcee, both of which would exclude IIRC their children (rather, I think, than them) under Tsar Paul's succession laws. Of course, these laws also exclude female descent, but skipping everyone and going to Dmitri Pavlovich if Alexei died would be very extreme, so I agree some compromise would be attempted

From what I've read I would have said Anastasia was as intelligent as any of her sisters, but being the younger probably never had the shine so much

- - -

Oops, real life intervenes - more in a bit

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Crown prince Ferdinand, actually. King Carol I still had a few months to live by this point. I think it's very likely that the Bolsheviks will invade Romania in the aftermath of the Great War, as they almost did in OTL. If not (or if the monarchy survives the invasion, which is possible given how many enemies Lenin was fighting back then), expect assassination attempts once they've got their intelligence services in order. Think Trotsky in Mexico, but more brutal.

Edit: Less brutal if the couple have one or more kids. Killing children where everybody can see you is lousy PR, so they'd have to find a way to make his/her/their death(s) look like accidents.
 
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What releation would Olga be to George in England, because i can honestly see her sending one of her children to British "cousins" for their own protection.
 
I've read that Olga and her sister Maria both showed signs and symptoms consistant with carriers of Hemophilia. The chances of her having a son w/hemophilia was significantly greater than 50%. That said, I like the TL and find its implications fascinating.
 
I've read that Olga and her sister Maria both showed signs and symptoms consistant with carriers of Hemophilia. The chances of her having a son w/hemophilia was significantly greater than 50%. That said, I like the TL and find its implications fascinating.

On the other hand if, like Alphonso in Spain they have enough sons then some of them will be free of it

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Crown prince Ferdinand, actually. King Carol I still had a few months to live by this point.

Right, true -- good point.


I think it's very likely that the Bolsheviks will invade Romania in the aftermath of the Great War, as they almost did in OTL. .

Well, there was the Tatar-Bunar business, but that was more a trial balloon than a serious invasion attempt.


expect assassination attempts once they've got their intelligence services in order. Think Trotsky in Mexico, but more brutal.

Really? Did they bother Grand Duke Cyril in France OTL?


Doug M.
 
What about a Romanian intervention in the Russian Civil War? Perhaps Olga could unite the various White Factions and lead them to victory against the Bolsheviks?
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Was just thinking; Kerenskyi always had problems getting the Romanovs out of Russia, since no one wanted them. However, if Olga is married to a Romanian prince, Romania might just have to welcome them. Well, Romania was just defeated and the Central Powers had a great influence so it's of course not clear. Let's just say the Romanian court agrees to welcome Olga's sisters and mother, since they'd probably not dare to invite the Czar and the prince. That would be one interesting butterfly.
 
Was just thinking; Kerenskyi always had problems getting the Romanovs out of Russia, since no one wanted them. However, if Olga is married to a Romanian prince, Romania might just have to welcome them. Well, Romania was just defeated and the Central Powers had a great influence so it's of course not clear.

Romania wasn't defeated yet. There's a generous window of opportunity between the February Revolution and the armistice between Romania and the CP.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
The Romanovs flee to Romania! They are never capturef by the Bolsheviks!! Oh, the butterflies!!:eek:

Still, I doubt Romania would welcome the Czar, his family however... they would now be seen as relatives of the Romanian royal family, and I think not inviting the queen's family to Bucharest could have been seen as very wrong.
 
Still, I doubt Romania would welcome the Czar, his family however... they would now be seen as relatives of the Romanian royal family, and I think not inviting the queen's family to Bucharest could have been seen as very wrong.

Since Bucharest was under German occupation I think they'd rather invite him to Iasi.
 
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