Queen Helen of Romania was among the royals who stepped up to save Romanian Jews when they were persecuted by the Nazis. She lived a troubled life but she came out as a supportive mother to her embattled son.
Helen of Greece and Denmark was born on May 2, 1896 in Athens, Greece, the eldest daughter and third of the six children of Crown Prince Constantine of Greece and his wife, Princess Sophie of Prussia. Helen was affectionately referred to as “Sitta” by her family, a nickname that originated from her brother Alexander’s difficulty in pronouncing the word “sister”. The princess was raised in an extremely anglophile environment and she was educated by British governesses and tutors.
Helen’s father succeeded to the throne of Greece following the assassination of her grandfather, King George I, in March 1913. Constantine, however, would be forced out of power four years later, with the Triple Entente and the Venizelos installing his son, Prince Alexander, as the new king. This turn of events prodded Helen’s family to go into exile and settle in Switzerland, where they lived in the cities of St. Moritz, Zürich and Lucerne. It also marked the last time Helen would be seeing his favorite brother, now King Alexander I.
Helen was engaged to Crown Prince Carol, the heir to the throne of Romania, in November 1920 despite her parents’ opposition. The Greek monarchy would also be restored that year. The couple were married at the Mētrópolis in Athens, Greece, on March 10, 1921. The union produced one son, Prince Michael, who was born seven months after their wedding.
Carol and Helen had a tumultuous marriage. On December 28, 1925, Carol abandoned Helen and officially renounced his rights to the throne to freely live out his relationship with his mistress, Magda Lupescu. Helen was then conferred the title Princess of Romania. The two were officially divorced on June 21, 1928. Following the death of her father-in-law, King Ferdinand of Romania, her son who was only five years old, ascended to the throne in July 1927. Helen, however, was not part of the regency council and did not hold any official position. Three years later, after the failure of the regency council, Carol staged a comeback in Romania. With the support of the population and the political class, Carol proclaimed himself King of Romania. Michael was demoted to being heir to the throne.
Giving into the pressure from the Romanian Orthodox Church and politicians, Helen agreed to resume her conjugal life and be crowned alongside Carol on September 21, 1930 in Alba Iulia on the condition that she would be living separately from Carol. The ceremony, however, was postponed after Carol heavily campaigned for her new title “Her Majesty, the Queen of Romania” to be changed into just “Her Majesty Helen”.
It was initially planned that Helen would be crowned as Queen of Romania but any prospects of reconciliation ended when Carol refused to sign the decree that granted Helen the title and style "Her Majesty the Queen of Romania." He, instead, proclaimed her to be Her Majesty Helen, a style Helen refused outright. With what happened, the proposed coronation of the two former spouses came to nothing.
Feeling harassed by Carol’s treatment of her, Helen travelled to Italy in November 1931 and took up residence at her mother’s home in Tuscany. If there was one thing that Helen benefited from this conflict with Carol, it was the substantial monetary compensation that she received. Helen was granted a sum of thirty million lei to buy a home abroad and in addition she obtained an annual pension of seven million lei. At the time, her mother, the Dowager Queen Sophia of Greece, was already ill with cancer and would die a year later. Helen later bought her house in Fiesole and she renamed it Villa Sparta.
Helen enraged Carol even further in September 1932 after she disobeyed his orders, letting their son wear shorts and allowing her and Michael to be photographed together in the newspapers while visiting London.
A new separation agreement signed on November 1932 forbade Helen from entering Romania and forced her to go into exile in Italy. From then on, her son Michael would only see her whenever he visited her for two months each year in Florence.
A Nazi-backed fascist party called the Iron Guard forced Carol to abdicate in September 1940, and chose his 18-year-old son to be the next king. In accordance to this, Helen was summoned back to Romania and was conferred the title “Her Majesty, the Queen Mother of Romania”. Helen would be the one to always support his son, the king, who often suffered bouts of depression, to be more active and stand up to dictator, General Ion Antonescu.
Helen and Michael left Romania on January 1948 after the latter was threatened that thousands of young monarchists would be killed if he did not abdicate. They settled in Switzerland, and found themselves in deep financial struggle after the Romanian government confiscated their assets and properties. After carol's wedding to Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, Helen returned to Villa Sparta, where she would host Michael and his growing family twice a year.
Sharing a love for plants and the arts, Helen was in a romantic relationship with twice-widower King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden from 1968 until 1973. At one point, the Scandinavian monarch asked for her hand, but Helen refused to marry him.
Helen's financial difficulties did not hinder her from continually supporting her son and his family. She used her connections to help him land jobs, first, as a pilot, then as a Wall Street broker. She also supported the studies of Margareta, her eldest granddaughter. In order to make ends meet, she had to sell her two Greco paintings she brought from Romania, and had to mortgage and eventually sell her beloved Villa Sparta. She finally settled on a tiny apartment in Lausanne, Switzerland before moving into her son’s home in Versoix.
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