Paul-Philippe al României (born 13 August 1948), also known as Prince Paul of Romania, Paul-Philippe Hohenzollern and Paul Lambrino,
is the son of
Carol Lambrino and Hélène Henriette Nagavitzine. His father was the elder son of King
Carol II of Romania
Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...
and
Zizi Lambrino
Joanna Marie Valentina "Zizi" Lambrino (3 October 1898 – 11 March 1953) was the first wife of the later King Carol II of Romania. They had one son, Carol, born in 1920, in Bucharest.
Life
Born in the former Byzantine, Phanariot Rangabe-Lambr ...
. Paul-Philippe claims that he, and not
Margareta of Romania
Margareta, Custodian of the Crown of Romania (; born 26 March 1949) is the eldest daughter of King Michael I and Queen Anne of Romania. She assumed her father's duties in March 2016, upon his retirement, and has claimed the headship of the House ...
, is the rightful head of the royal house of Romania.
In 2020 he was convicted, along with businessman Remus Truică and several other businessmen, for influence peddling,
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
and complicated bribery cases between the years of 2006 and 2013. He became an internationally wanted fugitive until his arrest in 2022.
Family and education
In 1918, the
crown prince
A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...
of Romania (the future King
Carol II
Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...
) married
Zizi Lambrino
Joanna Marie Valentina "Zizi" Lambrino (3 October 1898 – 11 March 1953) was the first wife of the later King Carol II of Romania. They had one son, Carol, born in 1920, in Bucharest.
Life
Born in the former Byzantine, Phanariot Rangabe-Lambr ...
. The wedding was annulled the following year because it contravened the royal house's statute—Lambrino was both a Romanian and a commoner, and the marriage took place without the consent of the king. The couple had one son,
Carol Lambrino, the father of Paul Hohenzollern. In 1921, Crown Prince Carol married Princess
Helen of Greece and Denmark
Helen of Greece and Denmark ( el, Ελένη, ''Eleni''; ; 2 May 1896 – 28 November 1982) was the queen mother of Romania during the reign of her son King Michael I (1940–1947). She was noted for her humanitarian efforts to save Romanian Je ...
, and they had a son who became King
Michael I of Romania
Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.
Shortly after Michael's ...
.
[ Ionuț Fantaziu]
"Şocul care ar putea bulversa Casa Regală" ("The Shock That Could Overturn the Royal House")
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 8 November 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012
Born in Paris, Paul Hohenzollern attended a
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
school. He was thirteen years old when his father married an American woman and the family moved to London to be nearer to European royalty.
[ He started school at ]Gordonstoun
Gordonstoun School is a co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils in Moray, Scotland. It is named after the estate owned by Sir Robert Gordon in the 17th century; the school now uses this estate as its campus. It is located ...
while Charles, Prince of Wales
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
, was attending, then moving on to Millfield
Millfield is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located in Street, Somerset, England. It was founded in 1935.
Millfield is a registered charity and is the largest co-educational boarding schoo ...
.[ He has worked as an art dealer and property developer.][ Horia Tabacu, Vlad Teodorescu]
"ASR Prinţul Paul: 'Vom dona 62,5 % din Castelul Peleş statului român'" ("HRH Prince Paul: 'We Will Give 62.5% of Peleş Castle to the Romanian State'")
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 1 September 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2012
In 1996, at Cașin Church, Hohenzollern married Lia Georgia Triff, a native of Dearborn, Michigan
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...
, who had previously divorced lawyer Melvin Belli
Melvin Mouron Belli (July 29, 1907 – July 9, 1996) was a prominent United States lawyer, writer, and actor known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gab ...
.[Daniel Simpson]
"The King's Heir? Hum, That's Not Fully Apparent"
''The New York Times'', 19 June 2002. Retrieved 27 January 2012[ The couple have one child, Carol Ferdinand; the infant was baptised in 2010, with President ]Traian Băsescu
Traian Băsescu (; born 4 November 1951) is a conservatism, conservative Romanian politician who served as President of Romania from 2004 to 2014. Prior to his presidency, Băsescu served as Romanian Minister of Transport on multiple occasions ...
taking on the role of godfather.["Traian Băsescu l-a botezat pe 'moştenitorul' Carol Ferdinand. Paul de România: 'Gest istoric'" ("Traian Băsescu Baptizes 'Heir' Carol Ferdinand. Paul of Romania: 'Historic Gesture'")]
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 22 May 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2012
Criminal conviction
On 17 December 2020, the High Court of Cassation and Justice
The High Court of Cassation and Justice ( ro, Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție) is Romania's supreme court, and the court of last resort. It is the equivalent of France's Cour de Cassation and serves a similar function to other courts of ...
sentenced him to 3 years and 4 months of prison, in the Băneasa Farm trial.
On the evening of the charge, police visited his home in Bucharest, however, according to his wife, Lia, he was in Portugal. The police arrived at his house at 8:30 p.m. The American-born Lia did not speak to the press. Bucharest Police were in the process of obtaining a European arrest warrant and released a statement: "Regarding the person sentenced to imprisonment, given that he was not found at home, the prosecution procedure begins. The activity of obtaining the European arrest warrant and implicitly of the international pursuit is starting."
He was arrested in France in June 2022. He has been temporarily released from prison, awaiting extradition trial.
Succession claim
Hohenzollern claims to be the rightful head of Romania's royal house on the grounds that Prince Carol's marriage to Zizi Lambrino, carried out in a religious ceremony in Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
, was never annulled in an Orthodox Church
Orthodox Church may refer to:
* Eastern Orthodox Church
* Oriental Orthodox Churches
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church
* Orthodox Presbyterian Church of New Zealand
* State church of the Roman Empire
* True Orthodox church
See also
* Orthodox (di ...
, thus rendering his subsequent marriages bigamous
In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. I ...
.[ Nevertheless, he states that he accepts Romania's republican form of government and does not wish to see the monarchy restored. He also points to a 1955 decision by a court in Lisbon recognising Carol Lambrino as King Carol II's first son and granting him full succession rights, a decision upheld in 1957 and 1963 in France and the following year in the United Kingdom. The latter ruling entitled Carol Lambrino to a British passport under the name "Prince of Hohenzollern, Prince of Romania".][
He filed suit in Romania in 1991 against King Michael I. The case reached its conclusion in February 2012, when the ]High Court of Cassation and Justice
The High Court of Cassation and Justice ( ro, Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție) is Romania's supreme court, and the court of last resort. It is the equivalent of France's Cour de Cassation and serves a similar function to other courts of ...
extended to Romania the Lisbon court's decision recognising Carol Lambrino as the son of King Carol II. The ruling has unclear implications with regard to both throne and property succession. The leadership of the royal house remains contested, while Hohenzollern's claim to 62.5% of royal property—the share of his father plus that of King Carol II's widow Elena Lupescu
Magda Lupescu (born Elena Lupescu; 3/15 September 1899 – 29 June 1977), later officially known as Princess Elena of Romania, was the mistress and later wife of King Carol II of Romania.
Early life and family
Many of the facts relating to he ...
, which she granted to him—remains undefined and may refer either to the king's personal property or to that of the royal house, the boundary between which is not clearly drawn.[ Horia Tabacu]
"ASR Prinţul Paul al României: 'S-a făcut dreptate pentru tata şi pentru mine'" ("HRH Prince Paul: Justice Has Been Granted to My Father and to Me")
''Evenimentul Zilei'', 15 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012[ Raluca Dan, Florin Marin]
''Adevărul'', 14 February 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2012 Hohenzollern greeted the decision "with enthusiasm and responsibility", promising "many trials" to sort out inheritance issues and vowing to donate his share of Peleș Castle
Peleș Castle ( ro, Castelul Peleș ) is a Neo-Renaissance castle in the Carpathian Mountains, near Sinaia, in Prahova County, Romania, on an existing medieval route linking Transylvania and Wallachia, built between 1873 and 1914. Its inaugura ...
to the Romanian government, should he obtain it. King Michael's office issued a statement saying the decision creates no dynastic rights, that only he can determine the membership of the royal house, and that no Romanian king has ever recognised or granted a title to Carol Lambrino or to his descendants.
In the 2000 Romanian presidential election, Hohenzollern was an unsuccessful independent candidate. In 2005, Hohenzollern claimed that King Michael created and ran a Nazi state between 1940 and 1944, encouraging and approving the deportation and murder of Romanian Jews
The history of the Jews in Romania concerns the Jews both of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after ...
; as a result, he called for Michael's execution
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the State (polity), state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to ...
. Writing in ''The Jerusalem Post
''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...
'', historian Jean Ancel
Jean Ancel (1940 – 30 April 2008) was a Romanian-born Israeli author and historian; with specialty in the history of the Jews in Romania between the two World wars, and the Holocaust of the Jews of Romania.
Biography
Jean Ancel was born to Je ...
dismissed Hohenzollern's claims and praised the wartime actions of the king and his mother, Queen Helen. In 2011, when Michael broke off ties with the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
( en, Nothing without God)
, national_anthem =
, common_languages = German
, religion = Roman Catholic
, currency =
, title_leader = Prince
, leader1 ...
to form the House of Romania
The Romanian royal family ( ro, Familia regală a României) was the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Romania, a constitutional monarchy in Central and Eastern Europe, Central-Eastern Europe. The kingdom existed from 1881, when Carol I of Romania ...
, Paul objected, labelling the move "an inexplicable gesture" severing "historical and dynastic ties" to the German house.
In December 2011, Hohenzollern was named "Ambassador of Romanian-Chinese Friendship" in Beijing.
After the 2012 final verdict of the Romanian Supreme Court of Justice recognising Paul as one of King Carol II
Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of t ...
's heirs, his uncle, King Michael I
Michael I ( ro, Mihai I ; 25 October 1921 – 5 December 2017) was the last King of Romania, reigning from 20 July 1927 to 8 June 1930 and again from 6 September 1940 until his forced abdication on 30 December 1947.
Shortly after Michael's ...
, reportedly invited Paul to reconciliation talks.[Historical reconciliation in the Royal Family. King Michael invited Prince Paul to talks]
Romania TV
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and t ...
site, 4 March 2013
Notable published works
*
Electoral history
Presidential elections
Notes
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
1948 births
Living people
Candidates for President of Romania
Fugitives wanted by Romania
People educated at Gordonstoun
People educated at Millfield
Pretenders to the Romanian throne
Romanian princes
Romanian white-collar criminals