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| Honor guard soldiers carry the coffin of the late Romanian King Michael during the funeral ceremony in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017. Tens of thousands of Romanians joined the European royals on Saturday to pay their respects to late King Michael as a state funeral got underway. Michael, who ruled Romania twice before being forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947, died at the age of 96 in Switzerland this month. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) |
By ALISON MUTLER, AP
BUCHAREST, Romania
BUCHAREST, Romania
European royalty joined tens of thousands of Romanians who wept and
applauded as they said farewell to Romania’s last monarch, King Michael,
who was buried next to his wife Saturday after a state funeral.
Michael, who ruled Romania twice before being forced to abdicate by the
communists in 1947, was remembered for his dignity and morality. He died
at age 96 in Switzerland on Dec. 5.
Britain’s Prince Charles, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia,
and Spain’s former King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, were among those
at a pre-funeral service at the Royal Palace where Michael’s body had
been laying in state for the past two days. The Swedish king saluted as
Michael’s coffin was placed on a dais.
Non-European royals attending the funeral included Princess Muna al-Hussein, mother of King Abdullah II of Jordan.
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| Honor guard soldiers carry the coffin of the late Romanian King Michael during the funeral ceremony in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017. Tens of thousands of Romanians joined the European royals on Saturday to pay their respects to late King Michael as a state funeral got underway. Michael, who ruled Romania twice before being forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947, died at the age of 96 in Switzerland this month. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) |
Other royals including Henri, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Princess
Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium were joined by Romanian President
Klaus Iohannis for a sung funeral service, led by the head of the
Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel.
Bishops wafted incense in the small cathedral where Michael was crowned
for the second time on Sept. 6, 1940. Michael, who was a great-great
grandson of Queen Victoria, first became king aged 5 after his father
Carol II eloped with his mistress and abdicated.
Michael’s reign is best-remembered for the Aug. 23, 1944 coup he led to
oust pro-Nazi leader Marshal Ion Antonescu, a move that took Romania
into the war on the side of the Allies.
For this, the king was awarded made a Chief Commander of the Legion of
Merit by U.S. President Harry S. Truman and was decorated with the
Soviet Order of Victory by Joseph Stalin.
After his abdication, Michael spent decades in exile working as a
chicken farmer and aircraft pilot, living in Britain and settling in
Switzerland. He finally got his Romanian citizenship back in 1997, eight
years after the collapse of communism.
The Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen dynasty that ruled Romania from 1866 until
Michael’s reign ended in 1947 no longer enjoys special status, but its
heirs enjoy a certain prestige and hand out honors. Successive Romanian
governments have returned castles and other properties that were seized
from the royal family when the communists came to power.
The funeral procession carrying the coffin of Romania’s last king drove
slowly through the capital to a railway station, where, accompanied by a
phalanx of priests, the casket was put on a royal train.
It later arrived in the central town of Curtea de Arges, where priests
performed a service before the late king was buried next to his late
wife, Anne de Bourbon-Parme, who died last year.
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| Honor guard soldiers carry the coffin of the late Romanian King Michael during the funeral ceremony outside the former royal palace in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, Dec.16, 2017. Thousands waited in line to pay their respects to Former King Michael, who ruled Romania during WWII, and died on Dec. 5, 2017, aged 96, in Switzerland. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) |
Earlier, thousands of ordinary Romanians crowded the streets to see the
procession go by, while others threw flowers as the royal train bearing
the coffin passed through railway stations on its way to burial in
central Romania.
In the hours before Michael’s coffin was taken out of the palace, people
gathered silently, many in tears, in Revolution Square. Church bells
tolled around the country and a choir of priests sang as the coffin was
taken out and was laid on a dais in the square.
Mourner Georgeta Anastasiu, 60, said the late king had been “demonized
by the communists, but in the end we found out the truth about him.”
She called the king “the last moral example for Romanians.”
Earlier, the crowd cheered and shouted “King Michael!” as the coffin,
led by Orthodox priests and a guard of honor, was transported by an army
jeep toward the cathedral.
Michael’s five daughters and his estranged grandson, Nicholas
Medforth-Mills, who was stripped of his title for allegedly fathering a
child out of wedlock, walked behind the coffin.
Journalist Vlad Mixich summed up the mood on social media.
“Today Romania is burying what it could have been; today is the funeral of a dream,” he tweeted.
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