Prince Nicholas of Romania (; 5 August 1903 – 9 June 1978), later known as Prince Nicholas of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was the fourth child and second son of King Ferdinand I of Romania and his wife Queen Marie.

In 1927 after the death of his father, Nicholas was appointed as one of the three regents for his minor nephew King Michael I. His position as regent ended in 1930 with the return of his older brother Prince Carol to Romania to take over as King of Romania.

In later 1930 he was stripped of his titles and privileges and exiled from the Royal Court, due to King Carol II's disapproval of his marriage. In 1942 after the removal of King Carol II from the throne and King Michael's second reign, Nicholas had also been stripped of his Romanian honours and therefore started using the title of Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen of the house to which he belonged.

He died in exile on 9 July 1978 in Madrid, Spain.

Early life
Nicholas was born on 5 August 1903 in Peleș Castle, Sinaia as the second son of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania and his wife Princess Marie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Edinburgh. His siblings were Carol II of Romania, Elisabeth of Romania, Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, Princess Ileana of Romania and Prince Mircea of Romania. Nicholas was named after his mother’s first cousin, Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia.

In her memoirs, his mother wrote: "He  was  exceedingly  independent,  and  always  funny.  He  never  could be  still  for  a second ; he  was  for  ever  “up  and  doing.”  Although  far from  good  or  obedient,  he  had  a way  of  getting  people  to  do  what  he wanted.  Wherever  Nicky  went,  he  went  to  rule  and  order  about,  not because  he  was  imperious  and  aggressive,  but  because  he  was  funny. His  funniness  was  of  the  good-humoured,  irresistible  kind  which  amuses even  the  dullest.  Even  as  a tiny  tot,  his  repartees  were  so  comic  that, instead  of  receiving  the  scolding  he  deserved  he  roused  instead  fun  and laughter.  Comically  sly,  he  always  had  his  own  way,  breaking  down every  defence  or  restriction." He had a long nose, piercing blue eyes and silvery hair. His mother recalled him often tugging his sister Mignon's hair.

Biography 

Nicholas was the younger brother of Carol, heir apparent, who renounced his rights of succession on 12 December 1925. When Ferdinand died in 1927, he was succeeded as King by Carol's five-year-old son, Michael; Nicholas himself had been proposed as heir-apparent when Carol married the commoner Zizi Lambrino in 1918 (a marriage later annulled). Given Michael's youth, a regency council had to be formed (20 July), and Prince Nicholas was forced to abandon his career in the British Royal Navy—in which he held the honorary rank of sub-lieutenant—in order to return home to serve on the council, alongside Gheorghe Buzdugan and Patriarch Miron Cristea.

Although unofficially referred to as "the first-ranking regent", Nicholas resented having to abandon his naval career and had no interest in politics. He tried to continue his father's cooperation with the National Liberals (PNL), and to contain the opposition of the National Peasants' Party (PNŢ) to the regency by appointing a national government under Ion I. C. Brătianu. Refused by Brătianu, he witnessed a change in Carol's stance in mid-1927, when the latter argued that he had been forced to give up his throne. The cooperation between Carol and the PNŢ was successfully neutralized by the PNL, but Brătianu's death in 1927 restored contacts and increased the appeal of the PNŢ. By then, the regency was widely perceived as consisting of figureheads, and, after Constantin Sărăţeanu (an appointee of PNŢ leader Iuliu Maniu) succeeded the deceased Buzdugan in 1929, it was believed to be torn apart by contrasting political ambitions. According to Nicolae Iorga, Miron Cristea himself had said:
"The Regency does not work because it has no head. The Prince smokes his cigarettes, Sărăţeanu looks through his books, and I, as a priest, can only try to reconcile."

Nicholas was at first delighted when Carol returned home to Romania on 8 June 1930 (becoming King Carol II and thus putting an end to the regency arrangement). He welcomed the Parliament session that voted to repeal the 1926 legislation, and accompanied his newly arrived brother from Băneasa Airfield to Cotroceni Palace.

However, the cordial relations between Nicholas and Carol were short-lived. Nicholas wanted to marry Ioana Dumitrescu-Doletti, a divorced woman belonging to a Tohani landowning family, but was aware it might prove embarrassing for the king to authorize such a marriage. Carol himself suggested that the couple should marry without first seeking his consent (even though members of the royal family were required to obtain the king's consent before marrying). Carol had intimated that under these circumstances he would accept the marriage as a fait accompli, but after the wedding Carol promptly used it as an excuse to deprive Nicholas of his royal privileges and titles and to exile him from Romania. He left for Spain, and ultimately settled in Switzerland.

Nicholas was married twice. His first marriage took place in Tohani, Romania, on 7 November 1931, the bride being Ioana Dumitrescu-Doletti (24 September 1910 in Bucharest – 19 February 1963 in Lausanne). Dumitrescu-Doletti's first husband had been Romanian politician Radu Săveanu (son of Nicolae Săveanu), whom she married on 11 December 1924. Nicholas' second marriage took place on 13 July 1967 in Lausanne to Brazilian Maria Thereza Lisboa Figueira de Mello (10 June 1913 in Rome – 30 March 1997 in Madrid), daughter of Col. Jerónimo de Ávila Figueira de Melo and his wife, Cândida Ribeiro Lisboa, and the sister of Francisco Lisboa Figueira de Melo, former ambassador of Portugal to Germany (born 12 March 1912 in Vienna). Figueira de Mello's first husband was Venezuelian heir Andrés Boulton Pietri (1910 in Caracas – 1998), whom she married in Caracas on 2 July 1936, a union that produced four children: Roger (born 1937), Maria Thereza (born 1939), Andres (born 1943) and William (born 1945).

The Prince also took an interest in motor racing, competing in the 1933 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 1935 24 Hours of Le Mans driving his own Duesenberg Model SJ.

Archives
Prince Nicholas's personal papers (including family correspondence and photographs) are preserved in the "Nicolas, Prince of Romania Papers" collection in the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, California, USA). There is also correspondence of Prince Nicholas preserved in the "Mother Alexandra Papers" collection, also in the Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, California, USA).

Honours

National
 : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Carol I - Revoked
 : Knight of the Order of Michael the Brave, 3rd Class
 : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Romania - Revoked
 : Knight Officer of the Order of the Crown - Revoked
 : Knight Officer of the Order of Faithful Service - Revoked
  House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen: Knight Grand Cross of the House Order of Hohenzollern
 : Air marshal Badge of the Romanian Air Force - Post Revoked

Foreign
 : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion
 : Knight Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
 : Knight Grand Cross in Obedience of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
 : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle
  Yugoslavian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle
 : Great Cross of the Order of St Alexander (Grand Necklace) (1934)
Honorary Military Rank and other awards
 : Honorary Lieutenant Badge of British Royal Navy
 : 1'st President of the Romanian kennel club

Ancestry

References

External links 

 Young Nicholas as seen by an American visitor
 "Speed-Fiend Nicholas", in Time Magazine, 1929
 Prince Nicholas photo archive

1903 births
1978 deaths
People from Sinaia
Romanian expatriates in Spain
Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Regents of Romania
Members of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian princes
Royal Navy officers
24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Honorary members of the Romanian Academy
Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave
Grand Crosses of the Order of the White Lion
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
Presidents of the Romanian Athletics Federation
Sons of kings