Royal Profile: King Mihai I of Romania

King Michai I of Romania was born on 25 October 1921 as the eldest legitimate son of King Carol II & Queen Helen {Source}. He had one older half brother, Prince Mircea Grigore Carol Hohenzollern{Source}.

King Michai (or Michael) reigned in Romania sporadically over the last 60 years. His first reign began at the age of 6, in 1927 after the death of his grandfather, with regency held by his uncle Prince Nicholas{Source}. This reign lasted until 1930, when his father returned to Romania and was proclaimed King{Source}.His second reign began in 1940, and only officially lasted seven years. He was forced to abdicate in 1947 by the Romanian government {Source}.During the War, he would comfort Romanian soldiers who fought for the unification of the country{Source}. In 1944, His Majesty King opposed with all his might instilling communist authorities (royal strike was the culmination of these attempts){Source}.
Eventually, he was forced to abdicate on 30 December 1947, under the threat of killing, in case of refusal, the 1,000 young communist prisoners. Abdication Act signed under threat, is illegal and void. Moreover, the act has never been sanctioned by Parliament{Source}.

He married Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma on 10 June 1948 {Source}. They began their lives together in exile, in Greece{Source}. From 1949-1956, they traveled extensively while expanding their family, mostly living between Switzerland and England {Source}. During their time in exile, they were not receiving any income from the Romanian government, therefore they opened a chicken farm and small carpentry workshop in order to make ends meet {Source}. Upon the family's return to Switzerland in 1956, Prince Michael signed a contract with Lear Jets, and the family remained there from 1956-2001 {Source}. In 1958, King has stopped working with "Lear" and a year later he founded a company for electronics and automatic mechanisms, called METRAVEL, which sold it five years later{Source}. He currently has two official offices, one in Versoix, Switzerland and Bucharest, Romania {Source}.

With his wife Queen Anne, he has five daughters, two sons-in-law, and three former sons-in-law, two grandsons, three granddaughters, two grandchildren-in-law (and another due this summer) as well as three great grandchildren:

1. Crown Princess Margarita (1949)
1. Prince Radu of Romania (1997)
2. Princess Elena (1950)
1. Dr. Robin Medforth-Mills (1942-2002, 1983-1991, div)
1. Mr. Nicholas de Roumanie Medforth-Mills (1985)
2. Miss Elisabeta Karina de Roumanie Medforth-Mills (1989)
2. Alexander Philips Nixon McAteer (m. 1998)
3. Crown Princess Margarita of Romania (1949)
1. Radu, Prince of Romania (1960, m. 1996)
4. Mrs. Irina Walker (1953)
1. John Kreuger (m 1983, div 2003)
1. Michael Torsten de Roumanie Kreuger (1985)
1. Tara Littlefeld (m. 2011)
1. Kohen de Roumanie Kreuger (2012)
2. Angelica Margaretta Bianca de Roumanie Kreuger Knight (1986)
1. Richard Robert Knight (m 2009)
1. Courtney Bianca Knight (2007)
2. Diana Knight (2011)
3. John Westley Walker (m 2003)
5. Princess Maria of Romania (1964)
1. Kazimierz Wieslaw Mystkowsk (m 1995, div 2002)

He shares a birthday with:

1. Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, The Duchess of Brabant (2001)
2. Count Constantin de Limburg-Stirum (2013)

He is the second eldest current living descendants of Queen Victoria, thus is in succession for the British throne. Other current living oldest descendants of Queen Victoria are:

1. Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh (1921, beats Mihai by only a few months)
2. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom (1926)
3. Lady Pamela Carmen Louise Hicks (1929)
4. Anne Mary Sibylla Liddell-Grainger (1932)