I came upon a interesting tidbit in the wikipedia article about Ferdinand I, crown prince and later King of Romania.
"Ferdinand, a complete stranger in his new home, started to get close to one of Queen Elisabeth's ladies in waiting, Elena Văcărescu. Elisabeth, very close to Elena herself, encouraged the romance, although she was perfectly aware of the fact that a marriage between the two was forbidden by the Romanian constitution (according to the 1866 Constitution of Romania, the heir-presumptive to the throne was not allowed to marry a Romanian)."
I am well aware that certain Royal houses has established house laws that forbid its members to marry non-dynasts. Yet it is passing strange to me that the Romanian constitution at the time would actually forbid marriage based on the bride being Romanian (rather than on the basis of royal status, religion, etc.).
Could anyone offer enlightenment as to why? Or if the Wikipedia article misstated the facts and the opposition was simply due to it being a mésalliance?
Moldova and Muntenia, the two original principalities that later united to form Romania, were founded by members of two families: Basarab (in Muntenia) and Bogdan/Musat (in Moldova). Unlike the other European realms, the rules of succession were extremly loose: while it was understood that only members of the two dynasties could rule, every male barely related to it was eligible for the throne. And I mean EVERY MALE. Until the 17th century, you had armenian, german, cossack, gipsy, even jewish rulers just because of their mothers' affairs with the ruling Prince. From 1432 to 1457, Moldova had a period of anarchy because 5 children and 3 grandchildren of Alexander I the Good fought for the throne.
The situation got even crazier by the 17th century when the original dynasties died out. For a while, the throne was disputed by boyars (nobles) related to the old families through maternal blood. Even that was thrown out of the window and the seat of power began to be the objective of basically anyone who could afford the cost.
We now reach the 19th century when Romania became one single entity and its supporters began to ask for a foreign Prince (Domnitor). Why? Well, because most nobles still living in the new state were in some degree related to some older ruler, thus making them potential pretenders to the new throne. Moreover, there were still 3 or 4 ex-Princes still living in Europe that could have created problems down the way. For the new foreign Prince, even taking a bride from among the noble daughters was risky: alienating noble families with a history of ruling parts of Romania.
The other reason for the Constitution of 1866 to forbid such marriages is that the political class wanted a western form of government, devoid of any historical bias towards other families or other powers in the area. They wanted a reasonable government that would not favor one family over the other.