Fairy-tale prince or voivode? Royalist propaganda and theories of monarchy under Carol II of Romania

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article discusses the self-portrayal of the ‘Royal Dictatorship’ of Carol II of Romania and analyses four theories of monarchy produced or published under his regime. It shows that the Romanian ‘Royal Dictatorship’ relied on leitmotifs targeting the multiparty system, territorial revisionism, and the Iron Guard, but that it lacked a coherent official doctrine. The article argues that this void allowed for Romanian theorists of monarchy to draw divergent, Western or (pseudo-)autochthonous genealogies for the regime. To this effect, it examines theories of monarchy by Mihail Fărcășanu, Paul Negulescu, Cezar Petrescu, and Theodor Vlădescu.