Queen Maria of Romania: Russian Jewels for a Romanian Queen

Why would you put up a picture of this woman?  She is most certainly not from Romania, or Transylvania, so what does she have to do with either place?  She is looks like she is from a royal house with all the jewels.  She has a demenor which would be simple to think she was born into wealth.

It does not seem that she would have anything to do with Romania.  It certainly would not be a link to Transylvania.

She seems very British, and a bit Russian- no, still no describable link to Transylvania.  Her name was Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, and her father was Czar of Russia.  She was born into riches, and would die in near poverty in 1920- or as much as you could call it poverty.

 In fact she was married to a Prince Alfred of Britain, the second son of Queen Victoria.  Still there is not direct link to Romania, or even to Transylvania, yet correct?

Not entirely.

Many of her jewels are found in the possession of the Romanian royal family.  How did this come to be if there wasn't some sort of link with each royal house?

This might seem hard if you did not know that she would have several children-  most of them daughters.  One of these daughters became Queen Marie of Romania.  Her only son would die before his father, but her other daughters would marry into royal houses of their own.

After this Marie's death many of her jewels were passed to her daughters- Marie, the oldest Queen of Romania, Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Russia, Alexandra a duchess Germany, and Beatrice an Infanta in Spain.  These jewels were given to Grand Duchess Marie at the time of her marriage and after, but they were of Russia origin. Marie herself would wear many of them in photos on Romania.

The crown placed upon Queen Marie's head in 1922 however, has its links with Transylvania.  It was crafted from gold from Transylvanian mines and King Ferdinand was crowned King of Greater Romania in 1922, in Alba Iulia.


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