Peleș Castle
This looks like an idyllic castle doesn’t it?
The modern Romanian State was created through the unification of the so-called principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia after the Paris Convention of 1858. Later Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected as ruler by both of those states. However, soon after he was elected, he was ousted from power by a broad coalition that went by the interesting name of the “monstrous coalition.” He abdicated and left the country for more congenial places.
A German prince, Carol, was the son of a Hohenzollerns one of the grandest families of Europe. He was educated in Dresden and Bonn. His cousin, Napoleon III of France helped to have him appointed to the throne of Romania after the abdication of Alexandru Cuza. He was elected prince by plebiscite in 1869 and in the same year married the love of his life Elizbeth of Wied, who gained fame as a poetess. He lived in the castle we just visited called But his German ways, not always well-received, caused him to be domestically unpopular and even for a time led to political unrest during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. However, he gained popularity at the Battle of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Romania finally gained independence from the hated Turks and then he was crowned King in May of 1881, and lived in the castle we had just seen, Peleș Castle.
In 1883 he secretly concluded an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Many Romanian citizens would not have approved of that alliance, but they really had no choice. Their rulers made the deal and the people were stuck with it. That alliance remained a secret until the outbreak of World War when the nations of Europe attacked each other for no good reasons. The world order broke down and the system of secret alliances nearly guaranteed that war would result and it would be a so-called world war. And of course, that is exactly what happened. Another Austro-Hungarian prince was shot in the Balkans, not far from where we were sailing, and a large part of the world went to war. It was madness. And at times that is what happened in the Balkans. Madness. Sometimes the world really is mad. This was one of them.
People claim to be intelligent. Sometimes you really have to wonder though how true that is.