Post date: May 13, 2013 4:45:56 PM
Prince Paul Philippe of Romania presents a book 'clarifying' Romanian royal family history to pupils at a school in Bucharest.
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA ( MAY 10, 2013) (REUTERS) - Romania's Prince Paul promoted his latest book about the royal family at aBucharest school, dealing a further blow to members of the family who oppose his claims to being first in line to the throne.
Pupils and staff at the Matei Basarab school in the Romanian capital turned out to greet the prince, whom a Romanian court officially recognised as a member of the royal household in February 2012."Very few of you know that the royal family has a branch that started in 1919, a branch His Majesty is part of," the school's director and professor of history, Teofil Vultur, told pupils before the prince himself took to the stage.
Entitled "A Royal Tribute to Romania", the book comprises photos, documents and letters from the personal archives of many of the prince's royal ancestors.
It seeks to strengthen the initially self-titled prince's claims to succession rights. Also known as Paul Lambrino and Paul-Philippe Hohenzollern, he is the older half-brother of former King Michael I and the grandson of playboy King Carol II and socialite Ioana Zoe "Zizi" Lambrino. The couple eloped while Carol was still crown prince and secretly wed in 1918. However, their marriage was annulled before Lambrino was born.
King Michael I is Carol's son from his later marriage to Princess Helen of Greeceand was forced to abdicate his throne in 1947 by the communists who ruledRomania until dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed in a violent 1989 revolution.
Prince Paul's promotion of the book as an historical keytext follows a lavish launch event at his house in February. There he gave further details on the documents it includes.
"These documents that I use in this book come from the collection of my grandfather, King Carol. In Portugal he left over 10,000 documents, maybe 10,000 photos," he said. "Prince Nicholas, his brother, who was the prince regent (...) also left me his library, plus many, many, over 5,000 letters. And the letters, combined between King Carol and Prince Nicolas, is a collection very important for Romanian history."
The prince added that many of the over 900 photos have never been seen before.
His lawyer, Veronel Radulescu, hinted at the book's contemporary impact.
"The goal of this book is to bring more historical information, to clarify some moments that remain unclear, and to repair historical truth," he said, at the same launch event.
Prince Paul has close connections with Romania's president Traian Basescu. In 2011, Basescu criticised King Michael in public and declined to attend a speech he delivered in parliament for his 90th birthday.