# Queen Marie and the Baha'i Faith

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Robert Postlethwaite, Queen Marie and the Baha'i Faith, bahai-library.com.
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> Queen Marie and the Bahà’i Faith
> Robert Postlethwaite
> 
> Abstract
> This article focuses on the first monarch to embrace thé Bahďí Faith, Queen Marie of
> Romania. It sets out to convey the stature and the character of this remarkable woman,
> her unique position in the early twentieth century, and, above all, her position in the
> Bahďí Faith. It also sets out to examine two issues. First, it is widely known that Queen
> Marie was a Bahď I. Yet, a number of her own statements seem to contradict this
> affiliation and bring into question her conversion to the Bahďí Faith. Through
> examining her diaries and public statements, this work attempts to clarify the apparent
> contradiction. The second issue concerns Queen Marie’s plan to visit the Bahďí World
> Centre in Haifa in 1929. Shoghi Effendi had made arrangements for a visit that never
> took place. It is well known that she reached Haifa in Palestine (Israel) on March 30,
> 1929, but failed to contact Shoghi Effendi or to visit the places she had deeply desired to
> visit. Information from her unpublished personal diaries sheds new light on her aborted
> pilgrimage. In the process of exploring the above issues, what emerges is the faithful
> friendship of Martha Root, an early Bahďí teacher, from the moment Martha met the
> Queen in 1926. An integral part of that relationship were some deeply touching, loving
> letters from Martha to Marie about the Bahai Faith. Excerpts from these letters are
> included in this article.
> 
> Résumé
> Cet article porte sur la première souveraine à avoir adopté la foi bahaie, la Reine
> Marie de Roumanie. L'auteur tente de démontrer Timportance et la personnalité de cette
> femme remarquable, le rang unique dont elle jouissait au début du XXe siècle et, surtout,
> le rang quelle occupait au sein de la foi bahaie. L’auteur se penche aussi sur deux
> questions. D'une part, il est bien connu que la Reine Marie était bahďíe. Néanmoins,
> nombre de ses propres déclarations semblent contredire ce fait, soulevant ainsi le doute
> quant à sa conversion à la foi bahďíe. En examinant ses journaux intimes et ses
> déclarations publiques l'auteur tente d’éclaircir cette apparente contradiction. D'autre
> part, Tarticle traite de la visite que la Reine Marie se proposait de faire au centre
> mondial bahďí, à Haifa, en 1929. Shoghi Effendi avait fait des préparatifs en vue de
> cette visite, qui n'eut pourtant pas lieu. Il est bien connu que la Reine Marie est arrivée à
> Haifa, en Palestine (Israël), le 30 mars 1929, mais elle n’a ni contacté Shoghi Effendi ni
> visité les lieux qu’elle désirait ardemment voir. Des renseignements tirés de journaux
> intimes inédits de la Reine Marie jettent une lumière nouvelle sur ce pèlerinage avorté.
> Par ailleurs, l’examen de ces deux questions met en relief l'amitié indéfectible que
> Martha Root, Tune des premières enseignantes bahaies, a voué à la Reine Marie depuis
> leur première rencontre, en 1926. Des letters empreintes ď affection et profondément
> touchantes que Martha a adressé à la Reine Marie au sujet de la foi bahďíe étaient au
> coeur même de cette amitié. L’article présente des extraits des lettres en question.
> 56          T HE J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’I S T U D I E S                   6.2.1994
> 
> Resumen
> Esta articulo trata sobre el primer monarca en ceňirse a la Fe Bahd’i, la Reina Maria
> de Rumania. Busca impartir la talia y carácter de tan notable mujer, su lugar ûnico a
> comienzos del siglo veinte y, sobre todo, su posiciém dentro de la Fe Bahai. Procura
> también examinar dos temas. Primera, es ampliamente conocido que la Reina Maria era
> bahâ’i. Sin embargo, muchas de sus propias declaraciones parecen contradecir esto y
> ponen en duda su conversion a la Fe Bahà’i. Mediante examinación de sus diarios y sus
> declaraciones pùblicas, este escrito trata de poner en claro esta aparente contradicción.
> El segundo tema se refiere al inteàto de la Reina Maria de visitor el Centro Mundial
> Bahd’i en Haifa en 1929. Shoghi Effendi habia llevado a cabo los preparativos para una
> visita que al fin no occuriô. Se sabe que ella llegô a Haifa en Palestina (Israel) el 30
> marzo de 1929, pero déjà de ponerse en contacto con Shoghi Effendi o visitor los
> lugares que ella tan hondamente deseaba ver. Extrados de sus diarios personates no
> publicados dan nueva comprensiân respecto al peregrinaje inconcluso. En el transcurso
> de investigar los temas antes mencionados, emerge la fiel amistad de Martha Root, una
> de las primeras maestros Bahà’is, desde el mornento de Martha conocer a la Reina en
> 1926. Forman parte esencial de ese vinculo unas cartas profundamente conmovedoras y
> amorosas de Martha a Maria acerca de la Fe Bahd'i. Pasajes de esteas cartas se
> incluyen en esta disertación.
> 
> ahà’u ’Uàh enjoins his followers to give due regard to the monarchy:
> B    “Regard for the rank of sovereigns is divinely ordained, as is clearly
> attested by the words of the Prophets of God and His chosen ones (quoted in
> Shoghi Effendi, Promised Day 72). And BaháVIláh gives us a vision of a true
> monarch, whom he describes as “the very eye of mankind, the luminous
> ornament on the brow of creation, the fountainhead of blessings unto the whole
> world” (quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 117).
> When one looks at the life and character of Queen Marie, it can easily be
> said that she falls into this category. Marie was a royal’s royal. She could hardly
> have been born into a more exalted position in royal Europe. Her paternal
> grandmother Queen Victoria, and her maternal grandfather Alexander II, the
> Tsar of Russia, were two of the most powerful rulers of their day. An interesting
> fact about this lineage is that when BaháV Iláh wrote to the kings and rulers of
> the world in the second half of the nineteenth century,1 these were the only two
> monarchs BaháV Iláh addressed favorably.
> Queen Marie was a people’s queen as well. She earned a reputation for
> having a deep love and concern for her subjects, as being a woman of action
> and of compassion, and of mixing easily with the people. Few, if any royal in
> Europe in her day, surpassed her devotion and service to her compatriots.
> Before World War I, she established the practice of allowing the public easy
> 
> 1. In the second half of the nineteenth century, BaháVIláh addressed a series of
> letters to the rulers of his day, proclaimiflf the coming of the unification of humanity and
> the emergence of a world civilization.
> Queen Mari e and the B a h a ’i Faith                                     57
> 
> access to her. One of the queen’s governesses said: “All day long people call at
> the palace and if Queen Marie is at home she will see them at once” (Pakula,
> Last Romantic 264).
> Marie was a celebrity in her own right too. She was loved, admired, sought
> after, gifted, and renowned for her beauty, charm, kindness, and humanity as
> well as for her intelligence and political savvy. Contemporary journalists
> described Queen Marie as “the most famous Queen of Europe,” and “the
> world’s first ultra-modern Queen” (“Marie” New Republic 237). One reporter
> described Marie as
> 
> a story-book queen, so variously gifted and so altogether regal in her charm that one
> who writes of her must fear the accusation of flattery. Even a few minutes in her
> presence enable one to understand why all Rumanians [sic], and the foreigners who
> have met her, glow in praise of the simplicity, naturalness, warm-heartedness, and
> talent of this queen who is kinswoman to many other queens and kings, and who has
> lived all her life in the purple. The womanliness of the queen and the queenliness of the
> woman have made her the idol of a kingdom. (Ellis, Roumania’s Soldier Queen 330)
> 
> The Childhood and Youth of a Princess
> Born October 29, 1875, Queen Marie was of Russian and British descent. Her
> mother was the former Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna, the only daughter
> of Russia’s Tsar Alexander II. Her father, the Duke of Edinburgh, was the
> second son of Queen Victoria. This lineage conferred upon her a high rank
> among the royals of Europe in the late nineteenth century.
> Her childhood was “a happy, carefree one, the childhood of rich healthy
> children protected from the buffets and hard realities of life” (Marie, Story 3).
> But, it was a Victorian childhood, which included certain duties and the
> strictness of the era, as well as the discipline of a Russian mother. One of those
> duties was regular visits to “Grandmamma,” Queen Victoria:
> 
> The hush around Grandmamma’s door was awe-inspiring, it was like approaching
> the mystery of some sanctuary. Silent, soft-carpeted corridors led to Grandmamma’s
> apartments . .. those that led the way . .. talked in hushed voices and trod softly. . . .
> One door after another opened noiselessly, it was like passing through the forecourts
> of a temple, before approaching the final mystery to which only the initiated had
> access.. . .
> When finally the door was opened there sat Grandmamma not idol-like at all, not a
> bit frightening, smiling a kind little smile, almost as shy as us children, so that
> conversation was not very fluent on either side. . . . I have the sort of feeling that
> Grandmamma as well as ourselves was secretly relieved when the audience was over.
> (Marie, Story 26)
> 
> Marie, along with her two sisters, grew up in several homes, including
> Clarence House in London and Osborne Cottage on the Isle of Wight. Her
> favorite was a rambling gray mansion known as Eastwell Park in Kent. It was
> 58           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á Í S T U D I E S                  6.2.1994
> 
> set in an English park where, in Marie’s words, “magnificent old trees grew
> well apart in great stretches of grass; where herds of lowing cattle grazed while
> deer scampered away in the woods” (Marie, Story 3).
> Marie was a beauty, even as a young girl, with a vivacious, energetic
> personality to match, a combination that often captured the hearts of young
> boys. In her autobiography The Story o f My Life, she told of one little boy
> completely taken with her. She described him as being
> 
> red-haired, freckled, and impudent, with a fine disdain for authority. We had a
> sneaking liking for each other. At first, we did not dare show it openly, but by
> degrees, our red-haired guest threw away all pretense and brazenly admitted his
> preference for me, declaring before witnesses that when he was grown up, he would
> marry me. (Marie, Story 32)
> 
> This “red-haired, freckled” boy was later to become prime minister of Great
> Britain during one of its darkest hours. That boy was Winston Churchill.
> When Marie turned sixteen, there was talk of marriage. Many thought she
> would marry her cousin “Georgie,” heir to the throne, and become the next
> queen of Great Britain. Even Queen Victoria had encouraged this match, and
> Prince George himself wanted her for his wife.
> However, the Duchess of Edinburgh had other plans for her daughter and
> worked to prevent the marriage. She steered Marie toward the young crown
> prince of Romania, Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad, Prince of Hohenzollem-
> Sigmaringen. In those days, marriages were orchestrated by the royal mothers,
> and daughters were often uninformed about the plans made by their mothers to
> lead them toward' the young men selected for them. This certainly was the case
> with Marie. In 1892, her mother arranged for Marie and Ferdinand to be together
> often in Munich—outings, tours of galleries, parties, and shopping. The plan
> worked wonderfully from the Duchess’s standpoint as Marie and Ferdinand fell
> in love and soon became engaged. To the majority of royals throughout Europe,
> especially the English court, however, sending such a talented and beautiful
> princess to Romania seemed an unfortunate waste.
> Perhaps Ileana, Marie’s youngest daughter, provides the best explanation for
> why the Duchess favored Marie’s union with Ferdinand to that with George:
> 
> It was only because they were first cousins. And my grandmother [the Duchess of
> Edinburgh] disapproved terribly of %usins marrying. . . . She [Marie] did want to
> marry him [George], But she was only sixteen. . . . I don’t think my mother was
> aware of the proposal [from George]. In fact, I’m convinced she wasn’t . . . . (Pakula,
> The Last Romantic 58)
> 
> Ferdinand was a painfully bashful and inarticulate man, who became heir to the
> throne by default. Ferdinand’s uncle. King Carol, had a son, who had died in
> Queen Mar i e and the B a h d ’i Faith                            59
> 
> 1874. So, it fell to Carol’s older brother. Prince Leopold, to provide a successor.
> Leopold’s oldest son, Ferdinand’s older brother, Wilhelm, resided in Romania
> for a year but found it “unrewarding.” He returned to Germany and passed
> down the “honors” to his younger brother, Ferdinand, who could not bear to
> displease his uncle or his father by refusing the post.
> This approach to life was characteristic throughout Ferdinand’s reign and
> often embarrassed his ministers and Marie. Unlike his wife, Ferdinand would
> tremble or be speechless when he met subjects. Although they began their life
> in a naive, romantic state, by the time Marie reached her twenties, she admitted
> she did not love Ferdinand. In her thirties, she told her mother they had become
> very good friends. And later in life, as they mellowed, and, after suffering so
> much together from the war and other burdens of rank, they both appreciated
> each other for their strengths: Marie for her superb handling of people, and
> Ferdinand for his behind-the-scenes coordinating. He told her what points to
> make as she charmed foreign visitors.
> In spite of these social inadequacies, some people who knew Ferdinand well
> commented on his intelligence. In one interview, George Duca, the son of Jean
> Duca, a Romanian Prem ier, described Ferdinand as “a great personality
> intellectually, and practically no one knew it. Those who knew it, like my father,
> were absolutely full of admiration” (quoted in Pakula, Last Romantic 133).
> 
> A Royal Wedding
> As one would expect, a royal wedding was a huge social event, drawing
> members of royalty and prominent people of the day. On the morning of
> January 10, 1893, at Sigmaringen Castle in southwestern Germany, “bells
> pealed outside her window as her maids dressed her in a white silk wedding
> dress” (Marie, Story 264). Three ceremonies were performed—civil. Catholic,
> and Protestant—to accommodate both sets of parents and the civil authorities.
> Afterwards the company of royals, including Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of
> Germany, .and some future subjects celebrated the marriage in a huge glass and
> steel amphitheater built just for the occasion.
> At nine o ’clock the newlyweds left the castle for an evening sleigh ride
> across the moonlit snow to Ferdinand’s father’s hunting castle, Krauchenwies, a
> romantic setting for a honeymoon. Several days later, Marie and Ferdinand left
> by train for the long journey to Romania.
> 
> Early Years in Romania
> Marie’s first years in Romania were sad and painful. Romania was a strange
> country to her, with many unfamiliar customs and ways. And her rather carefree
> life was suddenly confined by the strict habits and rules of the Romanian court
> established by Ferdinand’s uncle, King Carol, a man of German descent and a
> stern disciplinarian.
> 60           TH E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’I S T U D I E S               6.2.1994
> 
> Other than official public royal functions, King Carol forbade the young
> couple outside contact for fear of the heirs allying themselves unintentionally
> with a political party or family. The only human contact Marie had other than
> Ferdinand and the King were her German maids and a tutor sent to teach her
> Romanian. Marie passed endless hours in the stone-silent palace, which was set in
> the middle of a lively city, wandering from room to room trying to fill the time.
> The birth (1893) of her first child, a boy named Carol, made matters worse:
> she felt trapped and used. It was not until several weeks into her pregnancy that
> she first became fully aware of her real function: to produce a future heir. “So
> this is what they wanted me for,” she recalled in her autobiography. “They
> wanted me to give them an heir. But I had only just left home. . . . I was feeling
> so ill, so lonely; there was no one to go to and no one to talk to; there were no
> flowers and no one seemed to care about fresh air and out-door exercise . .
> (Marie, Story 293). Indeed in the English court, pregnancy was never referred to
> directly, the most said was that a “lady” was “in delicate health.” Her mother had
> succeeded in leading Marie to the altar innocent of sex. Years later Marie wrote:
> 
> And in this she succeeded marvelously. . . . A risqué book never reached our hands,
> we blushed when it was mentioned that someone was to have a baby, the classics
> were only allowed in small and well-weeded doses; as for the Bible, although we
> were well up in both Testaments, all the more revealing episodes had been carefully
> circumscribed. (Quoted in Elsberry, Marie of Romania 48)
> 
> Marie resented her new role partly because she was remote from the Romanian
> people and then had absolutely no desire to produce an heir for them and partly
> because pregnancy was so difficult for her. In her day, the only pain killer
> available for a difficult pregnancy was chloroform, but doctors in Romania did
> not give her this relief because the Romanian clergy believed that women
> should suffer for the “sin” of Eve. Nevertheless, over the next twenty years,
> until she was thirty-eight, Marie gave birth to five more children, two boys and
> three girls: Elisabetha (1894), Marie (Mignon) (1900), Nicholas (1903), Ileana
> (1909), and Mircea (1913).
> Her children were the center of her life. She wrote: “As only my two eldest
> children were born in close succession, and there were longer pauses between
> the other four, I was able to prolong it [the joy and pleasure of motherhood]
> indefinitely” (Marie, Story 516). Unlike other royal parents, Marie spent a great
> deal of time with her children and became more of a friend and companion than
> a parent during those years. Disciplining her children was not one of her
> strengths, something she admitted later in life: “I was in fact always inclined to
> be too lenient, as I hated the feeling of any sort of tyranny or coercion, and had
> an insurmountable aversion from scolding. . . . I confess that many of the
> failures, even disasters of my life, can be brought back to this fundamental
> inability to scold or reprove” (Marie, Story 516).
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                          61
> 
> The royal mother was proud of her first-born Carol’s intelligence and natural
> curiosity, and found his resolve in matters preferable to his father’s passivity.
> The queen enjoyed Nicholas for his charm, humor, and independence. She
> appreciated Elisabetha’s “classic look” as a child but had trouble liking her
> because of Elisabetha’s lack of affection. Marie described herself as a lover of
> beauty and certainly took particular pleasure when she found classic beauty in
> one of her own. Mignon’s sweetness, patience, and unjudging manner brought
> Marie a certain satisfaction since this daughter was not demanding or self-
> centered, as her first two children gradually became. The Queen called Ileana,
> her youngest daughter, the child of her soul. These two became close, and
> Marie saw her selflessly serve others as she herself did, and approach life in
> much the same way. This brought her great pleasure and satisfaction too. Her
> youngest child Mircea would not survive past the age of four after having
> contracted typhoid fever.
> Except for Ileana, M arie’s children became a source of sadness as they
> reached adulthood. Carol especially seemed destined to break Marie’s heart. As
> Marie reached her sixties, his cruelty toward her and his siblings was almost
> beyond belief. When he became king in 1930, for example, he appropriated for
> his own use the retirement funds Ferdinand had provided for Marie.
> How a woman as competent and attentive to (although not strict with) her
> children as Marie could produce such a tyrant is easily explained. When Marie
> was still only eighteen and nineteen, King Carol I selected German governesses
> to rear the first two children. They were completely spoiled by the household
> and allowed to do as they pleased. These two children developed a superior
> attitude toward others, as they were treated with excessive deference.
> As she grew older, Marie demanded that she have primary responsibility for
> the other children. Nevertheless, M arie found her two oldest daughters’
> inclination to be overweight and somewhat lazy, even during World War I,
> almost intolerable. This became an obstacle in her efforts to find them suitable
> mates later in life.
> 
> Romania’s Soldier Queen
> Marie’s early aversion to Romania gradually changed to a deep love. As she
> matured and the restrictions of her life slowly lifted, she came to know her
> adopted count ry intimately. W orld W ar I, in particular, gave her that
> opportunity.
> World War I’s immense casualties and losses pale from the perspective of
> the end of a century that has witnessed relatively more devastating wars and
> infinitely more powerful weapons. In its day, however. World War I was
> unprecedented in its devastation. And in its day, it produced what most wars
> produce, victors and vanquished, spoils and losses, and the inevitable heroes
> and heroines. Marie easily fell into the latter category during the war, when her
> 62           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á M S T U D I E S             6 . 2 . 1994
> 
> remarkable nature, her humanity, kindness, and courage became fully evident.
> As one writer, Pauline Astor, said about Marie:
> 
> No woman in all Europe has a better war record than Queen Marie. She showed the
> greatest courage, tenderness, and devotion. Do you know that she went into places
> where nobody else would go—into leprous buildings and villages filled with
> influenza where the dead were piled high and people dying of disease, and others
> were afraid to enter? (“Queen’s” 35)
> 
> Mrs. Astor, as a close friend of the Queen, knew more than most about what
> Marie did during the war, but her statement still only suggests what Marie
> accomplished, suffered, and endured. We see a woman, the queen of a Balkan
> country of 7.5 m illion people, which even in her day was considered a
> secondary power in Europe, but an important one in the web of European
> politics. We see a woman who was, in the course of the war, a wife, a mother, a
> politician, a fighter, a negotiator, a manager, a relief worker, a prisoner, an
> assassin’s target, a victor, and a diplomat.
> At the same time, we see Romania neutral for two years in the early days of
> the war, August, 1914, to August, 1916. We see Romania enter the war on the
> side of the Entente (also known as the Allies: Great Britain, France, Belgium,
> Italy, Russia, Serbia, and later Portugal, the United States, and Greece). Ill-
> prepared and with an ill-equipped army, Romania relied largely on the promise
> of help from her allies. We see, in a matter of months, her defeat by the German
> forces, with the government compelled to flee Bucharest to the provisional
> capital of Jassy. We see a country eventually overcome and forced to surrender
> to the German forces (December 6, 1917), as well as a country occupied and
> completely spoiled by its conquerors (December, 1917 to the Autumn of 1918).
> But when the Central Powers were finally defeated by the Allies, we see a
> country that discovered itself being treated with greater respect and more as an
> equal, largely because of Marie.
> The queen was in the center of these events from the very beginning. During
> her country’s neutrality, Marie, with the assistance of R om ania’s Prime
> Minister Bratianu, laid out the terms for Romania’s entry on the side of the
> Entente. Among other things, she wrote lengthy letters to her first cousins,
> Great Britain’s King George and Russia’s Tsar Nicholas. Indeed, even in these
> early days, Marie was recognized as a powerful woman. Germany and Austria
> sent representatives to her to persuade her to enter the war on their side. They
> knew the influence she had over King Ferdinand, who being of German
> ancestry was naturally inclined to enter the war on the side of the Germans.
> Once Romania picked sides and was faced with the superior German forces
> and lessening support from its allies (mostly Russia, which was internally
> crumbling and on the verge of revolution), Marie actively and increasingly
> involved herself in the war effort. Her primary work initially focused on the
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                 63
> 
> hospitals, where she visited the sick and dying soldiers. These were hospitals in
> the Bucharest area that were a prime target for German bombers. As one war
> correspondent reported:
> 
> But no hospital was too hard for her to visit. Where the railroad did not run, or the
> royal automobile could not go, she went on horseback. Even also right to the front
> and under shrapnel fire she insisted upon going to inspect the troops and cheer the
> men in the trenches. Through the plague, pestilence, and death that now swept the
> country, she the Queen went everywhere undaunted. Alike fearless of the bullets
> falling at the front and the terrible filth and disease she faced in the overcrowded
> hospitals, she went indefatigably on with her war work. (“Maria Regina” 323)
> 
> Her connections with the royal houses of Europe, particularly the allied ones,
> were invaluable for Romania. Marie would write frequently apprising them of
> Romania’s situation and requesting more support.
> In Jassy, the temporary seat of government, Marie established hospitals and
> bakeries to help feed the more than 230,000 refugees during the coldest winter
> in Jassy in fifty years. She organized a means to transport fuel into the city and
> provide sanitation. At one point, she cleaned up the triage at the Jassy rail
> station— a filthy, dark, stench-filled place where soldiers lay on the floor,
> covered with lice. She continued to visit hospitals and, against doctor’s advice,
> touched soldiers without her rubber gloves, “insisting that the touch of her hand
> was soot hi ng to the pat i ent s and that the gl oves w ere cl ammy and
> disconcerting” (“The Queen” 90). Of course, this put her at risk of catching a
> deadly disease. In Jassy, too, one of the most tragic moments for her came when
> her three-year-old son Mircea succumbed to typhus and meningitis.
> Under occupation, a situation that was a complete anathema to her, she
> defied as best as she could the occupier’s demands. She endured not only
> German propaganda against the royal family but also a constant threat of
> assassination from Bolsheviks, the revolutionaries who had already killed her
> cousin Tsar Nicholas and his family.
> She endured her son Carol’s elopement with a commoner. Carol’s action
> brought the King and Marie “almost insurmountable grief,” and they viewed it as
> “a staggering family tragedy.” Personally, Marie would not begrudge a son the one
> he loved, commoner or not. She was sufficiently liberal to advocate that people
> marry for love and have the right of choice. But Carol, who was heir to the throne,
> had horrendous timing. With Romania still occupied by the Germans, his action
> was considered the height of irresponsibility. Not only did he desert his military
> post as a soldier, an act of treason punishable by death, he also completely
> disregarded the Romanian constitution, which required princes to marry foreign
> princesses of equivalent rank, a provision designed to prevent a faction or a family
> from gaining undue political influence. The king and queen were sensitive to such
> issues, too, because the trend of the time was to dethrone monarchs, some brutally
> so, and such acts gave enemies a pretext to advocate their overthrow.
> 64           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ I S T U D I E S                6.2.1994
> 
> With Allied victory, Romania was faced with com pletely rebuilding a
> nation. Marie plunged into this work as well. She began her prewar practice of
> being available to the public again, meeting with her subjects daily. Afternoons
> she reserved for visits to the devastated villages around Bucharest to which she
> led a small convoy of cars filled with food and clothing. It was on one visit that
> Alice Rohn, a reporter for Good Housekeeping, described a touching moment
> during Marie’s busy relief work:
> 
> In one village, an old woman, sick in rags miserable came forward to Queen Marie
> when she was handing out clothing in her village. The old wom an’s eyes were
> dimmed with tears and her body bent with disease. Pellagra, a disease caused by
> malnutrition, had claimed her. She lifted her rags to show Marie the ugly marks of
> the disease. The two dressed in peasant clothes, Marie in her fresh ones, and the old
> woman in her old, worn ones, looked at each other. Someone tried to pull the lady
> away. Instantly, Marie stepped forward and drew her back to herself.
> “Majesty!” the old woman said, and the elderly lady pulled from beneath her skirt
> a soldier’s cap. “I have brought it to you.”
> Close by a boy of fourteen watched, and laughed. “A battered old soldier’s cap, a
> gift fitting for a Queen? Surely the old lady was mad.”
> Again Marie leaned forward and drevwthe old woman to her. They sat there, the
> aged head on the bright blouse o f the Queen, Marie’s arm around her. The Queen
> took the battered cap as if it were the most precious gift she had ever received. Marie
> talked to the woman of the woman’s boy and her country, and gave her back the cap
> to keep as a memory o f him and o f her Majesty. She then placed a huge bundle of
> clothes in the woman’s arms and dismissed her with a smile. (15)
> 
> With Allied victory came recognition of Romania and one last “war” effort
> by Marie on behalf of Romania— to represent Romania at the Paris Peace
> Conference in the Spring of 1919. Her mission was to persuade the Allies to
> honor their commitments toward Romania and ensure that it gained the territory
> it felt was its due. Her role brought her into contact with all the principal players
> there: Georges Clemenceau, France’s premier; Woodrow Wilson, president of
> the United States; David Lloyd George, Great Britain’s prime minister; and
> others. Her mission included a visit to England, where she met with King
> George and Queen Mary, as well as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lord
> Curzon and the then Secretary for War and Air Winston Churchill.
> In both France and England, Marie was wildly popular and drew very
> favorable publicity for Romania. In England, the Times ran an editorial outlining
> Romania’s suffering and bravery, in particular the country’s “heroic but hopeless
> struggle, the abandonment by Russia, and the rape of Romania by the Germans.”
> The editorial further argued that because the Romanians were committed to land
> reform and demonstrated their loyalty to the monarchy, they deserved Britain’s
> aid. The editorial described Marie as “not only a niece of King Edward VII, but a
> Queen of an Allied State, who has done her full woman’s part in sharing the
> Queen Mar i e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                 65
> 
> sorrows and the sufferings of her adopted country” (“Resurrection,” Times 11).
> Marie’s efforts that Spring of 1919 helped make Romania the fifth largest
> country in Europe, after France, Spain, Germany, and Poland.
> 
> A Spiritual Journey for the Queen
> Seven years later, in 1926, Queen Marie learned of the existence of the Bahà’i
> Faith. Martha Root, a journalist and a famous Bahà’i teacher, introduced her.
> Miss Root traveled extensively between 1919 and 1939 promoting the Bahà’i
> teachings, and Marie was one of many royals and distinguished figures she
> interviewed in the course of her travels. In the Balkans that year, Miss Root’s
> schedule was packed with daily lectures and barely enough time to rest. She
> wrote to Shoghi Effendi: “I am speaking each day or evening in Bukarest [s/c],
> everything is going just like a miracle. . . . I have just strength enough to do the
> daily work and the correspondence is utterly neglected— I cannot do more”
> (Garis, Martha Root 240).
> On this trip, Martha set her heart on an audience with Queen Marie, at the
> very least hoping for an interview with Marie’s lady-in-waiting:
> 
> I shall leave here Feb. first or second or third, [as] soon as I can have [an]
> interview with the Lady in Waiting to the Queen of Rumania [jj'c], she had promised
> to see me, but she has grippe these few days, o f course 1 should be happy if I can
> meet the Queen, but if 1 cannot this Lady in Waiting will convey to her my messages
> and Bahà’i books. (Quoted in Garis, Martha Root 241)
> 
> It must have seemed quite difficult to see the Queen of Romania. Indeed, the
> American Minister to Romania flatly told Martha she could not see Queen
> Marie. Martha had other plans:
> 
> . . . I wrote her a letter & sent her ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s picture and Dr. Esslemont’s book.
> Next day came a letter from the Palace inviting me to visit her the next day at noon.
> Next to. my visit to the Greatest Holy Leaf, this visit to Queen Marie was one of the
> most splendid events o f my life. I took her the Greatest Name and “Seven Valleys”—
> and two Esperanto books and my Esperanto pin, a little bottle o f perfume, a little box
> o f candy, a branch o f white lilacs, and a report o f the Education Congress in
> Edinburgh.2 (Quoted in Garis, Martha Root 241 —42)
> 
> That day at the queen’s beautiful Cotroceni Palace outside Bucharest, Marie
> warmly welcomed Martha. Among her first words were: “I believe these
> Teachings are the solution for the world’s problems today!” (Qtd. in Root,
> “Queen” 580). She asked Martha to tell her about the Bahà’i Faith and told her
> she had been reading Dr. John E. Esslemont’s book Bahà’u’llâh and the New
> 
> 2. Before her marriage, Marie was Princess of Edinburgh.
> 66           T H E J O U R N A L O F B A H A ’I S T U D I E S                6.2.1994
> 
> Era until 3 a.m. and was very interested in the principles. Later, Queen Marie
> recorded in her diary for that day:
> 
> Real thaw today which makes everything dull and ugly. Received a kind modest
> American, a Miss Root who goes about trying to spread good will amongst nations.
> She is a great upholder o f Esperanto believing that a universal language learnt by all
> would promote good feelings and understanding among all Nations and there is
> certainly something in the idea.
> Curiously enough she is interested in the same teaching as Roxo and has brought
> me the very book Roxo always keeps near her bed with the teachings o f a certain old
> Baha’u’llah now dead but who was one o f the wise ones of this earth. She seemed
> terribly moved by our grief about Carol [Marie’s oldest son] and liked to believe that
> there was some devine [x/c] trial in it which would ultimately turn out for the good of
> all of us, even of the Prodigal Son. (Marie, Personal Diaries, Jan. 30, 1926)
> 
> Marie’s friend, Roxo Weingartner, had already exposed Marie to the Bahà’i
> Faith, at least to the extent that Marie had seen Roxo’s copy of Bahà’u’llàh and
> the New Era. Ms. Weingartner was an obsessive admirer of Marie, but a friend
> that Marie said she had a real feeling of affection for and one Marie considered
> wiser in spiritual things. In a letter to Roxo a week after Martha’s visit, Marie
> wrote:
> 
> Through the books I am reading I am getting also very near your venerable old
> master Baha’u’llah. I know all about him now and love him profoundly, Vandyne
> [Ileana, M arie’s youngest daughter] shares my discovery o f him. His universal
> kindness to all men is what makes him feel so neOT me. — No creeds, but God.
> (Marie, Letters to Roxo, Feb. 9, 1926)
> 
> The “g rief’ that “moved” Martha was the king and queen’s grief over their
> eldest son’s abdication of the throne just a month earlier. Since the war, Carol
> had created numerous serious difficulties for Marie and Ferdinand. The first
> blow cam e with his elopem ent in 1918. The m arriag e, whi ch was
> unconstitutional, was annulled by the Church and State, and Carol returned to
> Romania. Then, C arol’s infidelity after his marriage to Princess Helen of
> Greece in 1921 compounded problems. Finally, in December, 1925, he fled to
> Paris, abandoning the succession and deserting his wife for another woman.
> These actions greatly embarrassed his parents and also damaged the prestige
> and authority of the monarchy. Marie was deeply hurt.
> This event was the catalyst for several months of intense soul searching by
> the queen, something only alluded to in her public statements. As she wrote to
> Roxo: “Roxo dear, I have been having a curious inner life lately. In the life of
> this world I have perhaps been through the hardest times of my whole 32 years
> in this country” (Letters to Roxo Weingartner, March 3, 1926).
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                     67
> 
> During most of February, 1926, Marie immersed herself in the Bahà’i
> writings, beginning every morning for awhile with the . . reading of some of
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Bahà’u ’ilàh’s teachings and wisdome [sic]. It does me a great
> deal of good, consoles me and makes me think” (Marie, Personal Diaries, Feb.
> 23, 1926). The Bahà’i Faith moved her at the depth of her being. At one point,
> she said that the BaháT Faith “at last has brought God quite near—for the first
> time I have felt religion” (Feb. 22).
> Later, for most of March, her inner search included work with Dr. Frank
> Buchman, an American evangelist and founder of the Oxford Group. This
> m ovement set out to strengthen the spiritual lives of individuals, while
> encouraging participants to continue as members of their own churches. Marie’s
> American friends in Turkey had sent this self-styled “soul surgeon” to her in her
> “hour of need.” During his month in the palace, he acted as her spiritual guide
> and psychologist, her confidant and family mediator. To Marie, her crisis was a
> purification, a way to greater self-realization, and Buchman helped her in that
> journey. He acted as a “mirror” to herself, she said, and helped her understand
> her weaknesses and limitations:
> 
> I have liberated my own spirit, my own personality, but a Buchman makes me see,
> holding a mirror up to myself. I am something o f a heathen for all that. My spirit is
> not all Christian— I’m too sure o f my own rights— too dominating, not out o f want of
> heart, but have freed m yself o f the fetters o f timidity, ill will, suspiciousness and
> diffidence. I am too impatient and uncompromising with those still bound by their
> own selves.
> I see it all and it is certainly most healthy, if not always quite pleasant to have an
> over-clear mirror held up to one’s own face. (Personal Diaries, Feb. 26, 1926)
> 
> At the same time, her spiritual path took her occasionally to the Catholic
> Church for Holy Communion and to the Anglican Church, the emptiness of
> which reminded her of how much the BaháT Faith brought God close. It was all
> part of a healing process. She did not rely on any one persuasion, but all. She
> saw all of the religions as one great process and put this belief into practice.
> From her p ersp ectiv e, if t hey w ere all from God, then there was no
> contradiction in turning to them all when the need was so great. About her
> taking of Holy Communion with her children, which she described as a solemn
> and happy moment, Marie wrote: “I was living up to my soul creed, the unity
> before God. Here we were of different confessions, kneeling before God’s
> table— some would condemn me for it— but I felt G od’s hand over us in
> blessing” (Personal Diaries, March 27).
> She practiced this “soul creed” for the next twelve years and boldly expressed it
> through her public testimonies about the BaháT' Faith. She never actually publicly
> called herself a BaháT until the end of her life, which was both in keeping with this
> “soul creed" and a practical matter since she was bound by her position to uphold
> 68           T H E J O U R N A L O F B A H À ’Î S T U D I E S                 6.2.1994
> 
> the State religion, the Romanian Orthodox Church. Any outward alliance with a
> religion other than the official one would have created untold political
> complications within the country. Indeed, on one occasion when pressed by
> reporters as to whether she was a BaháT, she stated that she was not. But during
> these years, it was an act of courage to support enthusiastically through her
> testimonies a seemingly obscure and non-traditional religion. It was the act of one
> who deeply believed, felt, and appreciated “the beautiful truth of Baha’u’llah.”
> 
> Queen Marie’s Open Letters
> As a result of her first contact with Martha Root, Marie spontaneously wrote her
> first article in support of the BaháT Faith. The queen wrote her own syndicated
> columns for Hearst and the North American Newspaper Alliance in 1926. By this
> time in her life, she was developing into a literary talent. Reporters saw in Marie a
> kindred spirit, and called her . . a thoroughly modem journalist and the first
> queen-joumalist of modem Europe” (“Queen’s” 35). Already she had published
> several books, some to support the war efforts in Romania, and some fairy tales.
> By the mid-1930s she had written over fifteen books, ^he most popular and
> famous of which was her two-volume autobiography The Story o f My Life.
> Her open letter about the BaháT Faith appeared in her column entitled
> “Queen’s Counsel,” first in Canada in the Toronto Star on May 4, 1926, and
> later in nearly 200 newspapers in the United States and in several newspapers
> around the world. She wrote in part:
> 
> A woman brought me the other day a Book. I spell it with a capital letter because it
> is a glorious Book of love and goodness, strength and beauty. . ..
> It teaches that all hatreds, intrigues, suspicions, ev il words, all aggressive
> patriotism even, are outside the one essential law o f God, and that special beliefs are
> but surface things whereas the heart that beats with divine love knows no tribe nor
> race.. . .
> It is Christ’s Message taken up anew, in the same words almost, but adapted to the
> thousand years and more difference that lies between the year one and today.
> . . . If ever the name o f Bahà’uTlàh or ‘AbduT-Bahá comes to your attention, do
> not put their writings from you. Search out their Books, and let their glorious, peace-
> bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into
> mine. (Bahai World 2: 174)
> 
> Her spontaneous public testimony was astounding and completely unexpected.
> When Shoghi Effendi read the first of the Queen’s “open letters,” he wrote
> Martha Root that this was “a well deserved testimony of your remarkable and
> exemplary endeavours for the spread of our beloved Cause. It has thrilled me
> and greatly reinforced my spirit and strength, yours is a memorable triumph,
> hardly surpassed in its significance in the annals of the Cause” (quoted in
> Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 109).
> Queen Mari e and the B a h a ’i Faith                                      69
> 
> There could hardly have been a better or more well-known supporter of the
> BaháT Faith in 1926 than Queen Marie, or a better time. Her popularity and
> fame were at their peak after 1925. Journalism students at Northwestern
> University voted Queen Marie the most important woman in the news (from a
> newspaper clipping found in Marie’s diaries 1927). The religion she promoted,
> however, was young and relatively unknown. The Heroic Age3 had just come to
> a close with the death of ‘AbduT-Bahá, and the Formative Age4 had been under
> way only five years. The BaháT' Faith could claim a scattering of local Spiritual
> Assemblies and BaháT Centers, and only five National Spiritual Assemblies
> worldwide. The first formal teaching plan, the first Seven Year Plan,5 was still
> over ten years away. A young Shoghi Effendi, twenty-eight years old in early
> 1926, had barely assumed his weighty duties in Haifa. So, the queen’s action
> boosted the BaháT' Faith enormously .
> Shoghi Effendi, “moved by an irresistible impulse” (quoted in Rabbani,
> Priceless Pearl 108), wrote to Queen Marie thanking her for her testimony and
> describing how it had relieved the suffering of the BaháTs in Iran, who had
> been under severe persecution that year.6 Marie responded in what Shoghi
> Effendi described as a “deeply touching letter”:
> 
> I was deeply moved on reception o f your letter. Indeed a great light came to me
> with the message o f Bahà’u’Uàh and Abdu’l-Baha. It came as all great messages
> come at an hour o f dire grief and inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply.
> . . . .We pass on the message from mouth to mouth and all those we give it to see a
> light suddenly lighting before them and much that was obscure and perplexing
> becomes simple, luminous and full o f hope as never before.
> That my open letter was balm to those suffering for the cause, is indeed a great
> happiness to me, and I take it as a sign that God accepted my humble tribute.
> The occasion given me to be able to express myself publically [sic], was also His Work,
> for indeed it was a chain o f circumstances o f which each link led me unwittingly one step
> further, till suddenly all was clear before my eyes and I understood why it had been.
> 
> 3. The Heroic Age, 1844-1921, included the ministries o f the Báb, B aháV lláh, and
> ‘AbduT-Bahá, and was a period o f revelation, martyrdom, and persecution.
> 4. The Formative Age, is a period that began in 1921 under the leadership o f Shoghi
> E ffendi, appointed Guardian and great-grandson o f Bahà’uTlàh, and a period o f
> expansion and the maturing of BaháT' institutions that is still occurring.
> 5. The Seven Year Plan (1937-1944) was the first systematic plan in the BaháT'
> world, launched in the United States and Canada, involving specific goals for the growth
> o f the Bahá’1 Faith in North and Latin America. It was followed by a second Seven Year
> Plan in 1946 intended to carry the work o f the first one a stage further and involving
> Western Europe.
> 6.   T w elve Baha’is had been martyred in Jahrum, Iran, April 11, 1926, causing
> widespread sympathy for them and their fam ilies, and concern that this persecution
> might spread throughout the country.
> 70           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ’ I S T U D I E S                 6.2.1994
> 
> Thus does He lead us finally to our ultimate destiny.
> Some of those of my caste wonder at and disapprove my courage to step forward
> pronouncing words not habitual for Crowned Heads to pronounce, but I advance by an
> inner urge I cannot resist.
> With bowed head I recognize that I too am but an instrument in greater Hands and
> rejoice in the knowledge. (Quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 108)
> 
> From her standpoint, her open letters were a relatively simple matter. Marie did
> what she felt moved to do. About the letter from Shoghi Effendi, she wrote to
> her friend Roxo Weingartner:
> 
> I am enclosing a letter that w ill interest you— when read you w ill send it back.
> Amongst the Queen's Counsels, I once wrote of the wonderful message of ‘Abdu’l-
> Baha that had come to me at an hour o f grief. This gave the Bahà’is tremendous joy,
> they consider it as a sign that the great of this world are opening their ears to truth,
> but the letter speaks for itself. O f course, I never thought whilst writing that small
> little article that it would be read by so many. But I am pleased though that my words
> were a consolation of peace to those oppressed. (Aug. 27, 1926)
> 
> In the 1920s, Ileana studied the BaháT Faith and shared her mother’s interest.
> In Ileana’s later years, she developed an interest in Christian Science and tried to
> interest her mother in it. In her final years, she became a nun in the Orthodox
> Church and founded a convent in Pennsylvania. Why Ileana’s interest in the
> BaháT Faith did not blossom is not clear, although it seems reasonable to suspect
> that she had little support for an allegiance to the BaháT Faith other than her
> mother, and that life simply overwhelmed her. Ileana had six children and lived
> with her Austrian-born husband near Vienna when the Germans captured it at the
> outset of World War II. She tried to assist Romania after the War but had to flee
> because the country came under Communist rule. So, her initial spark of interest
> must have been overcome by events and life’s concerns. In later years, she
> turned to the religion and way of life closest to her heart. None of the other
> children expressed interest in the BaháT Faith to our knowledge.
> As far as we know, Ferdinand had no interest in the BaháT Faith, although
> he must have known of his wife’s interest, at least in 1926 when the whole
> family was a part of her spiritual growth. Even if he had an interest, it would
> have been unlikely that he would act on it in any way. He was a cautious,
> reserved, traditional man. For example, once Marie took her the children to
> Communion. When he discovered this, he became upset, since Communion was
> not within the Orthodox church; it was a Catholic rite. M arie said that
> Ferdinand was “upset at her unorthodoxy, at our admission of all confessions
> equally” (Personal Diaries, April 28, 1926). So, if he would be upset by a
> relatively minor thing as taking of Communion by his family, to consider the
> BaháT Faith for himself would have been unthinkable in this context.
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                    71
> 
> Queen Marie in North America
> In the summer of 1926, Shoghi Effendi, upon learning that Marie might visit
> North America, wrote to the American National Spiritual Assembly through his
> secretary with the following instructions:
> 
> We read in The Times that Queen Marie o f Rumania is coming to America. She
> seems to have obtained a great interest in the Cause. So we must be on our guard lest
> we do an act which may prejudice her and set her back. Shoghi Effendi desires, that
> in case she takes this trip, the friends will behave with great reserve and wisdom, and
> that no initiative be taken on the part o f the friends except after consulting the
> National Assembly. (Quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 107)
> 
> Queen Marie felt deeply drawn to the United States. It was not only a matter
> of friendship and curiosity for her, or the benefits that might accrue for her
> country from such a visit, but something much deeper, something a part of the
> personal development she began early in the year. A week before her departure
> from Romania on October 2, 1926, she wrote in her diary:
> 
> I cannot say that I am anxious to off so far for so long, only I have such a [.vie ]—
> instinctive feeling that I ought to go to America, that I will make a good thing o f it
> for the country. It is a real urge, as though something hidden within me knows that it
> is good that I should go. It is not a selfish desire to see, do, and amuse myself. It is
> something much deeper, a sort o f feeling that I have to have this experience, it is in a
> way a final step in my development, for my own personality.
> The Americans want me. Of course this may be a complete illusion, but I have
> strongly that feeling. There is some bond between us I cannot quite explain, some
> attraction towards each other from over the seas. (Personal Diaries, Sept. 26)
> 
> It promised to be an extraordinary trip, far beyond what she envisioned herself.
> What she would encounter were throngs of admiring people of all strata of
> society and, as one would expect, great demands on her time and for her
> attention,'as well as a relentless press that would report her every move.
> After a train trip from Romania, Marie and her youngest children, Prince
> Nicholas and Princess Ileana, set sail from France on the luxury liner S. S.
> Leviathan, one of the premier ships of her day. Correspondents covered her
> cruise across the Atlantic and sent detailed reports back to the United States
> describing her voyage. What impressed them most were Marie’s democratic
> ways. She would stroll freely among the passengers and dined often in the main
> dining room. They reported how she entertained the four-year-old son of a New
> York garment manufacturer in her suite and swam mornings in the ship’s pool.
> On her arrival in New York Harbor (October 18, 1926), her first words in the
> United States echoed the words of ‘AbduT-Bahá about wom en’s role in
> bringing about world peace: “I am interested in the position of women in
> America and their work for world peace. W e’ve all had enough wars, haven’t
> 72         T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H À ’Î S T U D I E S           6.2.1994
> 
> we? I am confident that women will end all wars!” Then after a pause she
> added, “If they do not quarrel among themselves first” (“New York” 1).
> This official state visit to the United States, the third by a reigning queen
> (the others being Elizabeth of Belgium and Liliuokalani of Hawaii) was to last
> over a month and take her on an 8,750-mile journey from New York and
> Washington, D.C., to Washington State and back. Along the way, she would
> attend an endless stream of banquets, receptions, dinners, luncheons, and
> dedications. She also granted numerous newspaper and radio interviews and
> gave countless speeches. Coverage of her trip was exhaustive. From October 4,
> before M arie’s arrival in the United States, front-page articles about her
> appeared daily in the New York Times, except for two days. The Times said that
> she faced “probably the most relentless camera bombardment that anyone has
> ever been called on to face in the world’s history” (Times 2).
> What disarmed everyone and reinforced their respect and admiration,
> especially reporters, were her openness and candor. In those days, questions
> usually asked of royalty by the press were limited to those about health, but
> Marie fielded questions about her life as an author, persecutions of Jews in
> Romania, and her son’s position in regard to the throne, among others.
> In spite of the rather rainy fall weather, Marie’s arrival in New York was
> spectacular. Mayor Jimmy Walker and his official welcoming committee met
> the queen first at her ship. Waiting on shore were two specially selected
> battalions from the army and the navy, three batteries of coast artillery, an
> infantry war unit, a company of Marines, and 750 New York police. Once
> ashore, her twenty-car motorcade set out at noon (a move planned by the mayor
> to ensure the largest possible crowd). Marie was greeted by tens of thousands of
> New Yorkers who showered her with ticker-tape and torn paper. “1 was not
> prepared for the American custom of throwing papers of every size, shape and
> description from the thousands of windows of the extraordinary buildings,
> whose tops I could hardly see. The air seemed alive with fluttering wings, as
> though swarms of birds had been let loose in the streets” (quoted in Pakula, Last
> Romantic 345). Front-page headlines read “New York Gives Hearty Welcome
> to Queen Marie” and “Ovation in Fog Stirs Royal Visitor.”
> The next day, Marie arrived in Washington, D.C. for her official visit with
> President Calvin Coolidge. After a formal reception during the day, Coolidge
> hosted a formal state dinner in her honor at the White House. About this dinner
> the American humorist Will Rogers said, “I can just imagine when the President
> and Queen Marie sat down to the dinner table. I don’t know, but, I bet they sat
> there a long time and then Cal said: ‘What country are you from Marie?” ’
> Actually, Rogers was not too far off the mark. It was a rather stiff affair due in
> large part to President Coolidge’s excessive formality and his well-known
> frugality with words. Even with her charm, M arie could not engage the
> President for the evening.
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                73
> 
> This aspect of his personality and his dry Yankee humor were legendary. A
> young woman who once sat next to the President at a dinner party told Coolidge
> she made a bet she could get at least three words of conversation out of him.
> Without looking at her, he quietly replied, “You lose” (Freidel, “America Enters
> the Modern Era” 570).
> Characteristically, Marie soon tired of formal affairs and officials, although
> she never showed it. As she journeyed westward through New York (Albany,
> Utica, Syracuse) and up through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Winnipeg,
> toward Washington State, she increasingly expressed a desire to meet “real
> Americans.” And indeed she did. She met with North Dakota farmers, cowboys,
> and American Indians. The Sioux and Blackfoot inducted her into their tribes.
> The Sioux gave her the name Winyan Kipanpi Win, which means “The Woman
> Who Was Waited For.”
> There is no record of her having met with any BaháTs. They apparently
> remained in the background. However, during her audience with Martha Root a
> year later in 1927, the queen did lovingly recall and wanted to thank
> 
> all those BaháT friends in America who sent me the lovely bouquets in all the cities
> through which I passed. How it touched my heart! Wherever I came, those nosegays
> always on my table, nothing personal, never saying who had brought them, never
> able to thank anyone, just sent with the love of the BaháTs o f those cities, went
> straight to my heart! No one ever understood how much those bouquets meant to me!
> (Quoted in Garis, Martha Root 287)
> 
> Marie’s tour came quickly to a halt when she received news of her husband’s
> sudden illness in Romania. She left the United States on November 23, 1926, to
> return home to be with him. But in the days prior to her departure, her pace did
> not slacken.
> 
> Queen Marie and Martha Root: 1926-1931
> The day in 1926 when Martha and Marie’s paths first crossed was three months
> after Marie’s fifty-first birthday. Over the next twelve years, until Marie’s death
> in 1938, Martha kept in close touch with her “spiritual child,” showering her
> with love and the spirit of the BaháT Faith. Including her first visit, Martha
> visited Marie eight times from 1926 to 1936.
> Each audience was eventful. In 1927, for example, after the passing of King
> Ferdinand, when the family was receiving few people because they were “still
> in deep mourning,” Marie told Martha how she had been reading the BaháT
> teachings about life after death. During this second audience, she gave Martha
> an appreciation of the BaháT Faith in her own handwriting for the fourth
> volume of The B ahď í World. Marie would write two additional appreciations of
> the BaháT' Faith for The B ahď í World in the coming years.
> 74           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á ’ Í S T U D I E S                   6 . 2 . 1994
> 
> Earlier that year, Martha had received a precious gift from the BaháTs of
> Mashad. Martha described it as “a Prayer of BaháV lláh. It was adorned and
> blessed in the center with a lock of Bahà’u’ilàh’s own shining hair” (quoted in
> Star 370). Martha wrote her friend Harry Randall, an early American Bahà’i
> and co-worker, about how this gift would be a worthy gift for Her Majesty
> Queen Marie— “if I could give them up,” she explained. During this second
> audience, Martha presented her gift to Marie. The Queen was deeply touched.
> Struck by the polished gold calligraphy, she observed: “It is in the most perfect
> taste of all the Orient! I know how rare and beautiful it is!” (Quoted in Star
> 370). She also told Martha that she planned to have a frame specially designed
> for it and in the frame also place a small photograph of ‘AbduT-Bahá.
> Also during this meeting, Ileana invited Martha to her room, where she
> asked her, “How does one become a BaháT?” During their conversation,
> Martha noticed the BaháT books, nearly all the writings of B aháV lláh and
> ‘AbduT-Bahá then in print, and a photo of ‘AbduT-Bahá there. Ileana, touched
> by the beauty of the BaháT' Faith, offered to translate some BaháT' booklets into
> Romanian, which she did at a later date.
> Of this 1927 meeting. Queen Marie wrote in her diary:
> 
> Had no time to go out as had several people to see. Miss Root the Baha’i adept came
> with a heart full of love, with books and an ardent desire to carry on her message.
> Ileana and I received her with affection and listened with interest to all she had to tell
> us about ‘AbduT-Bahá whose teachings we are so profoundly in sympathy with.
> Nicky [Marie’s youngest son] came to listen. (Personal Diaries, Oct. 9, 1927)
> 
> January, 1928, saw Martha in Greece and Yugoslavia, where she gave a
> number of lectures and published newspaper articles. Queen Marie and Ileana
> had traveled to Yugoslavia to help Marie Mignon, Mane’s second daughter, now
> Queen of Yugoslavia, at the birth of Mignon’s son. Marie and Ileana, learning
> that Martha was in Belgrade, sent her an invitation to tea at the royal palace.
> During this audience, Marie’s comment about the BaháT Faith delighted Martha:
> “The ultimate dream which we shall realize is that the BaháT channel of thought
> has such strength, it will serve little by little to become a light to all those
> searching for the real expression of Truth” (qtd. in Garis, Martha Root 296-97).
> On this visit, too, Marie gave Martha a precious gift. Many years earlier one
> of her royal relatives in Russia had given Marie a beautiful brooch consisting of
> two tiny wings of gold and silver, set with little diamond chips and a large pearl
> between the wings. Marie looked at Martha and said: “Always you are giving
> gifts to others and I am going to give you a gift from me.” Smiling, she pinned it
> on Martha’s dress. Martha remarked how the wings and pearl made it appear
> “Lightbearing” [BaháT'], and she proceeded to send it to Chicago as a gift to the
> BaháT House of Worship under construction. Later that spring, at the National
> Convention, the delegates consulted about the appropriateness of selling the gift
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                 75
> 
> from a queen who had promoted the Bahà’i Faith so eloquently and widely.
> However, the brooch was sold and the money went to finance the Temple.
> Willard Hatch, a Los Angeles BaháT, purchased this precious piece and carried it
> to Haifa in 1931 to be placed in the BaháT archives, where it remains on display.
> Over a year later on October 29, 1929, Martha’s fourth audience took place
> at the queen’s favorite castle. Modest by comparison to her other palaces, this
> handsome home had been designed by the queen herself, who had it built in the
> small, quiet town of Balcic on the Black Sea. She named it “Tehna-Yuva,” a
> Turkish name that means “A Solitary Nest.” At this meeting, Marie spoke of her
> plans to visit the Holy Land soon.
> Martha attended a luncheon that day, a birthday party for the queen. The
> guests, including Martha, received a unique welcome at the gate of the palace.
> Speaking of herself in the third person, Martha described the “welcome”:
> 
> She [Martha] sat alone in the motor car halted at the royal entrance gate while her
> card was being sent on to the palace in the distance.
> Suddenly a bugler comes out on the cliffs far above and to the right and began to
> play a welcome. Yodelers on still higher rocks echoed the sweet sounds. (Quoted in
> Garis, Martha Root 323-24)
> 
> After the lunch, Queen Marie led only one guest, Martha, upstairs to a spacious
> drawing room overlooking the sea. On this occasion, Marie gave Martha some
> autographed photos for Shoghi Effendi and the holy family. On this occasion,
> too, Marie expressed her plan to visit Haifa, Shoghi Effendi, and the BaháT
> holy places on her upcoming tour of the Middle East.
> 
> The World Centre Anticipates A Queen’s Pilgrimage
> When Shoghi Effendi learned of Queen Marie’s possible visit, he wrote a letter
> thanking her for the photos, and extending to her “a most cordial welcome
> should Your Majesty ever purpose to visit the Holy Land to ‘AbduT-Bahà’s
> home in Haifa as well as to those scenes rendered so hallowed and memorable
> by the heroic lives and deeds of Bahà’u ’üàh and ‘AbduT-Bahá” (quoted in
> Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 113).
> Several days later, Martha Root wrote to Marie from Haifa. As always, it
> was a loving, moving message, but this long letter made it almost impossible for
> the queen not to visit Haifa (Root, Letters, Dec. 7, 1929). Martha spoke to the
> heart and soul of the queen, beginning the letter, “O beloved Queen of all our
> hearts and precious Princess [Ilieana], Alla-o-Abha!7 We all send you tenderest
> love and every day we think of you and pray for you.”
> Martha goes on to paint for Marie a moving portrait of Shoghi Effendi and to
> describe Marie’s station as the first BaháT queen. Martha compares Marie to
> 
> 7. A greeting and invocation to God in Persian sometimes used by Baha’is which can
> be translated as “O Glory of Glories” or “O Glory o f the All-Glorious.”
> 76            T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á Í S T U D I E S                     6.2.1994
> 
> Constantine, saying that “her name will go down forever. People today still
> honor Constantine that he was the first King to accept Jesus Christ, so Queen
> Marie will be remembered with love all down the ages as the first Bahà’i Queen
> of this Universal Epoch.” She tells Marie of BaháTs in Haifa and of the new
> pilgrim house. Above all, Martha Root describes how this visit will be a balm to
> the queen’s soul. For, Martha said, she will have come “home, and at last to the
> House of your Lord!”
> 
> And when you rest your head at the Holy Threshold o f Bahà’u’ilàh’s Sacred Shrine
> you will know you are in paradise and the cares, the hurts, the sorrows will all vanish
> away and only the Reality, the Love o f God will remain. At This Threshold with your
> head bowed amid the jasmines you will hear with His Ear, see with His Eye, inhale
> the Fragrance o f His Nearness, and drink His Cup. Such a peace will possess your
> heart, such a courage will come, such a joy to live and serve! And beloved Queen
> and Princess when you lift your head from that dear threshold perhaps you will find
> yourselves “crowned” for the jasmine flowers may cling to your tresses!
> Also, you will feel ‘Abdu'l-Baha taking your hand and speaking to you. He will
> always be with you when you kneel at His Great Shrine.8
> At the Shrine of the Báb you will feel His Purity and His Sacrifice and the great longing
> to be worthy of all this Spiritual Heritage. (Quoted in Root, Letters, Dec. 7,1929)
> 
> The prospect of such a prominent figure in the world visiting the BaháT World
> Centre and meeting the head of the Bahá’1 Faith was one full of significance for
> the religion and for Marie.
> Queen Marie and Princess Ileana set out on their journey on February 21,
> 1930, apparently fully intending to visit Haifa. She had told Martha at their
> meeting in October 1929, “We shall surely go to Haifa.” The royal yacht, “The
> Dacia,” took them from Romania to Constantinople, then to Athens, and finally
> to Alexandria, Egypt, where they boarded a ship, “The Mayflower,” provided
> by the Egyptian government.
> In anticipation of her impending visit, Shoghi Effendi on February 21 cabled
> the BaháTs of Tehran, requesting that the tablet B ahà’uTlàh revealed for
> Marie’s grandmother Queen Victoria be copied in fine Persian calligraphy and
> illuminated. Furthermore, he instructed that it should arrive in Haifa no later
> than March 10. It was to have been a special gift for Queen Marie.
> As the likely date approached for Marie’s arrival, Shoghi Effendi cabled her
> twice, extending a “loving and heartfelt invitation . . . to visit His home in
> Haifa” and cordially apprising her of the historical significance of such a visit,
> and the strength and joy it would bring the persecuted BaháTs in Iran. No reply
> came to his first cable on March 8 (Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 114).
> 
> 8. The Shrine o f ‘AbduT-Bahá, the resting place of ‘AbduM-Bahá, and located in the
> same structure as the Shrine o f the Báb, is sacred to BaháTs. Both are places o f
> pilgrimage, prayer, and meditation.
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                  77
> 
> The day Shoghi E ffendi’s telegram arrived in Egypt, though, it was
> beginning to look as if the queen’s visit to the Holy Land might need to be
> canceled. Politics in Romania and Palestine were making it increasingly
> difficult for her to visit there. In her diary on March 8, Marie lamented how her
> connection with the Bahà’i Faith had become a “political complication.”
> 
> But everything in this world is complication. O f all things my sympathy for the
> BaháTs is also being brought up as a political complication. . . . Who would ever
> have imagined such a thing. They consider it political propaganda!
> It is really som etim es a curse to be a Queen. And one meets with almost no
> comprehension. The world wishes to rule everything on hard-cut lines, there is to be
> no enthusiasm, no deeper thought, no privacy, no poetry, no idea, only try reason and
> selfish calculation. How discouraging it is— I would never have thought that even
> this would be made a question. . . .
> 
> In the winter and spring of 1930, the possible return of Carol, M arie’s
> prodigal son, to Romania was a burning political issue in the nation. He had
> been in exile for five years, with little hope of ever being restored to the throne.
> But, by 1930, conditions in the country had changed dramatically, and a
> political crisis had developed. This crisis had been building since King
> Ferdinand’s death in 1927, when C arol’s then four-year-old son Michael
> ascended to the throne. In 1926, Michael had been made nominal head of the
> country, backed by a three-person Regency Council established to administer
> the country’s affairs until Michael was older.
> But by 1930, the Regency had lost much of its authority and prestige, not to
> mention public confidence. The Liberal Party, the political party associated with
> Queen Marie that had established the Regency and had ruled Romania for sixty
> years, had lost control of the government. A new political party, the National
> Peasant Party, came into power. This party and like-minded people, all known as
> Carolists, increasingly called for Carol’s return. Contributing to the political
> storm were the depressed economic conditions in Romania brought on by the
> Depression in Europe. Many Romanians longed for a strong hand, and many
> believed that Carol might restore the nation to stability. To create favorable
> public opinion for his return, the Carolists began discrediting the queen in the
> news media. Along with the Liberals, Queen Marie was not in favor of Carol’s
> return. Marie described the tense political conditions to a friend:
> 
> I frankly don’t see how w e’re going to labor through another ten-and-a-half years of
> such an unnatural state o f affairs [referring to the boy King and the Regency]. No
> head, no one responsible, no confidence, no prestige, the dynasty falling to pieces. I,
> the only efficient member o f it, put on one side, insulted, calumniated, denied and
> rejected so that I can’t be of any help. We can’t hold on like this. . . . (Quoted in
> Elsberry, Marie 226)
> 78          T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ’ I S T U D I E S                  6.2.1994
> 
> Above and beyond all political considerations, Marie also had to think of the trip
> in terms of its impact on the person closest to her, her daughter Ileana. A few
> months before the trip, Ileana fell deeply in love with Lexel of Pless, a young
> German prince. They planned to marry and had already picked out a house.
> Marie had high hopes for this marriage and was extremely pleased with her
> daughter’s choice. However, upon investigation of Lexel, a standard practice for
> a prospective spouse of a princess, a “black spot” in Lexel’s past— alleged
> homosexual involvement—was discovered. This discovery made it impossible
> for the marriage to take place. For Marie, the grief from such bad news was
> such that it was almost physical pain. They undertook the trip in part to help
> Ileana recover from this devastating experience (Pakula, Last Romantic 374).
> One of Marie’s leading critics was Gregori Filipescu, whom the New York
> Times called a “new Carolist” and a “well-known politician and particular critic
> of the Dowager Queen Marie . . . who will use his newspaper, Epoca, in behalf
> of the exiled Prince” (“General,” The New York Times 2). As Marie toured
> Egypt that spring, Filipescu attacked her for an interview she gave to a Greek
> newspaper and for her handling of Ileana’s engagement. It is highly likely that
> he and his allies made Marie’s sympathy for the Bahà’is a political issue as
> well, all to sway public opinion against her and the Liberals. There is little
> question that someone was using this for political gain, and the Carolist camp
> led by Filipescu would be the most likely group to make it a political liability to
> their rivals.
> Shoghi Effendi w ired Queen M arie again on M arch 26 at the Hotel
> Semiramis in Cairo, renewing his invitation:
> 
> Fearing my former letter and telegram in which Family o f ‘Abdu'1-Bahá joined me in
> extending invitation to Your Majesty and Her Royal Highness Princess Ileana may
> have miscarried, we are pleased to express anew the pleasure it would give us all
> should Your Majesty find it feasible to visit Bahà’u’ilàh’s and ‘Abdu’l-Bahà’s
> Shrines and the prison-city o f ‘Akká. Deeply regret unauthorized publicity given by
> the Press. (Quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 114)
> 
> On March 28, a day before Marie had planned to arrive in Haifa, Shoghi
> Effendi received a cable from the Romanian Minister in Cairo: “Her Majesty
> regrets that not passing through Palestine she will not be able to visit you”
> (quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 114). However, the next day, the royal
> party departed from Egypt for Palestine, where they traveled incognito for a few
> days. Her diary entry for that day, March 29, partially explains the secrecy:
> 
> I was to avoid Palestine as much as possible only skirt it so to say which is a great
> disapointment [sic]. To be so near & not to go either to Jerusalem or Akker [sic] is
> indeed hard.
> But authorities were afraid the visit of a queen might stir up passions & the state o f
> the spirits is excited & unsettled. Besides some stupid press campaign started that I
> Queen Mari e and the B a h d ’ i Faith                                  79
> 
> had become a Bahà’i . . . . I even had worry from at home on the subject. Unjustifiable
> nonsense, but food to that curr [sic] Filipescu. Everything is disagreeable for me at
> home just now. They have got their knife into me and behave like ungrateful servants.
> 
> Palestine was a tinderbox at this time, and British authorities feared that
> Marie, a well-known cousin of George V, King of Great Britain, and a direct
> descendant of the British monarchy, might be the spark that set off protests. The
> New York Times, reporting on the ro y als’ tour, wrote            . . their trip is
> understood to have been shortened at the request of the British Government
> which feared that a longer stay might provoke unpleasant demonstrations”
> (“Queen Marie,” The New York Times, 17 March 1930, 8). Two highly visible
> events were then taking place concerning the Holy Land: a Palestinian Arab
> delegation had traveled to London to plead before Parliament for equal rights
> for all inhabitants in Palestine and the abandonment of British rule there. Also
> the British government was to issue the Shaw Commission’s report, which
> attempted to fix blame for the summer 1929 Palestinian racial disorders. It is
> reported that 133 Jews were killed and 339 wounded during these conflicts
> (Sears, Horizon History 451). The Arab delegation planned to be present when
> the report was released. Officials in Palestine were so concerned about the
> inflammatory conditions in Palestine that British troops were sent from Malta,
> and British warships moved into Palestinian waters.
> On March 30, Marie and Ileana reached Haifa by train and proceeded
> through northern Palestine by car, visiting Nazareth, Capernaum, and Tiberias.
> But to her great disappointment, she barely saw Haifa and completely missed
> the Baha’i holy shrines, as well as Jerusalem and ‘Akká. In her personal diaries,
> she described her feeling about not attaining her heart’s desire on that day:
> 
> On March 30th we arrived at Haifa, early in the morning incognito as I was not
> supposed to travel through Palestine, but I could not reach Syria except through part
> of Palestine unless I took a ship which would have been more complicated. My heart
> ached at Haifa not to be able to stop and greet Shoghi Effendi now head o f the
> Baha’is who had sent me a warm invitation to be their guest because although I am
> not a B a h a i I am deeply interested by ‘AbduT-Bahà’s teachings and I would have
> loved going to his grave. (Emphasis added.]
> The stupid fuss the papers raised made this alas impossible and I felt like a coward
> creeping past their holy shrines without giving sign of life. No one understood this
> except Ileana. Those who look at you principally as Queen, a representative,
> understand very little and care less for what you feel . . . or what are your inner
> loyalties. They protect your outward prestige, so to say guard you from making
> foolish mistakes but know none o f the inner ache their reasonableness leaves in your
> heart. I do not blame them, they are there for that, their conscience is at rest, they
> have civilized their rash & im pulsive Queen’s impulses, have spared her future
> trouble so they have done their duty, there with all is well.
> It is no good expecting Roumanians to understand any subversive religious
> aspirations or even quite plausible ones, religion plays a small part in their plan of
> 80           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H À ’Î S T U D I E S                6.2.1994
> 
> life & religious thoughts seldome (sp.) trouble them, but I am their Queen, I have no
> right according to them to compromise them through my ununderstandable ideas &
> ideally I belong to them and they are there to protect me against myself. I honour
> their intentions.. . . I bow my head & submit, keeping my disappointment to myself.
> 
> Given the state of affairs back home and the negative press from the Carolists, a
> visit to the BaháT World Centre would only appear to confirm reports that Marie
> had become a BaháT. Obviously, those who were close to her and wanted to protect
> her advised her not to visit the shrines. Marie was also duty bound, as a Romanian
> monarch, to uphold the official religion, the Romanian Orthodox Church.
> In a letter to Martha Root over a year later, Marie acknowledges that part of
> the decision not to visit Shoghi Effendi in Haifa was related to Ileana:
> 
> Both Ileana and I were cruelly disappointed at having been prevented going to the
> holy shrines and of meeting Shoghi Effendi, but at that time were going through a
> cruel crisis and every movement I made was being turned against me and being
> politically exploited in an unkind way. It caused me a good deal of suffering and
> curtailed my liberty most unkindly. There are periods however when one must
> submit to persecution, nevertheless, however high-hearted one may be, it ever again
> fills one with pained astonishment when people are mean and spiteful. I had my child
> to defend at the time; she was going through a bitter experience and so I could not
> stand up and defte [sic] the world. (Quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 115)
> 
> Marie’s arrival in Syria four days later was in stark contrast to her low-key
> entry into Haifa. At the Syrian frontier, she said, “. . . the English handed us
> over to the French authorities who came in numbers as here I am quite officially
> myself although there is nothing official about my journey. There was even a
> detachment of cavalry and an officer has been attached to us. The French
> Governor of Damascus came to meet us” (Marie, Diaries, April 3, 1930). She
> reached Damascus on April 4.
> March 30th passed and Shoghi Effendi had no indication at the time of
> Marie’s arrival in Haifa. He and Bahiyyih KMnum, Bahà’uTlàh’s daughter, had
> expected her any day. For Bahiyyih Khânum’s part, she waited patiently for hours
> in ‘Abdu’l-Bahà’s house to receive the royals. By April 2, though, when Marie
> still had not arrived, Shoghi Effendi feared the opportunity had passed and wrote
> Martha Root to have her communicate to Marie what transpired on his end and to
> ensure that there was no misunderstanding because of the media. He wrote: “I am
> now writing to you quite confidentially regarding the projected visit of the Queen
> to Haifa. Unfortunately it did not materialize. The reason, I absolutely ignore”
> (quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 114). He explains to Martha how he had
> cabled the queen twice (which he quoted) and how he had extended a written
> invitation, but that the only reply he had received was a telegram from the
> Romanian Minister (which he also quoted). He went on to express his concern
> Queen Mari e and the B a h a ’i Faith                                     81
> 
> about the apparent widespread, unauthorized publicity in the media and the
> misunderstanding this might have created. He then tells Martha that
> 
> reporters who called on me representing the United Press o f America telegraphed to
> their newspapers just the opposite I told them. They perverted the truth. I wish we
> could make sure that she would at least know the real situation! But how can we
> ensure that our letters to her Majesty will henceforth reach her. I feel that you should
> write to her, explain the whole situation, assure her of my great disappointment. (114)
> 
> Shoghi Effendi asked Martha to keep this matter confidential and reassured her:
> 
> I cherish the hope that these unfortunate developments will serve only to intensify the
> faith and love of the Queen and will reinforce her determination to arise and spread the
> C ause.. . . Be not sad or distressed, dearest Martha. The seeds you have so lovingly, so
> devotedly and so assiduously sown will germinate. . . . (Quoted in Rabbani, Priceless
> Pearl 114-15)
> 
> The reply from the queen delighted them both. She wrote: . . the beauty of
> truth remains and I cling to it through all the vicissitudes of a life become rather
> s ad. . . . I am glad to hear that your traveling has been so fruitful and I wish you
> continual success knowing what a beautiful message you are carrying from land
> to land.” Significantly, she added: “I enclose a few words which may be used in
> your Year Book” (quoted in Rabbani, Priceless Pearl 115).9
> 
> The Final Years
> After 1929, Martha did not see Queen Marie for three years. Then, in 1932 and
> 1933, Martha called on Marie in Austria. Both years the queen traveled there to
> be with Ileana, who had married Archduke Anton of Austria and was living in
> her new home just outside Vienna on an estate known as Sonneberg. Of their
> meeting in 1933, Marie wrote in her diary for January 31, 1933:
> 
> Suddenly thaw, later even rain. Eager little Martha Root of the BaháT came to lunch.
> Wonderful how that thin inconspicuous little middle-aged woman manages to spread
> the teaching, to publish books and get into touch with so many . . . to make her quiet
> way and in many ways to succeed. It is admirable. She is a touching person and
> today we had her to ourselves.. . .
> 
> The last two audiences with the queen took place in Romania at the queen’s
> Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest. Martha’s notes and Marie’s diary entries suggest
> a warmth and intimacy about these meetings not present in the previous ones.
> Martha described in detail their afternoon tea in 1934:
> 
> 9. The Yearbook referred to here is The B ahď í World, which in the early years o f its
> publication was produced on an annual basis.
> 82           T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H A ’ I S T U D I E S                 6.2.1994
> 
> How beautiful she looked that afternoon— as always— for her loving eyes mirror
> her mighty spirit; a most unusual Queen is she, a consummate artist, a lover of beauty
> and wherever she is there is glory. . . . She received me in her private library where a
> cheerful fire glowed in the quaint, built-in fireplace; tea was served on a low table,
> the gold service set being wrought in flowers. There were flowers everywhere, and
> when she invited me into her bedroom where she went to get the photograph which I
> like so much, as I saw the noble, majestic proportions o f this great chamber with its
> arched ceiling in Gothic design, 1 exclaimed in joy, “Your room is truly a temple, a
> MashriquT-Adhkár!” (Root, “Queen” 581)
> 
> The last audience, two years before the queen’s death in 1938, was a highly
> significant one. In a real sense, from this meeting, Marie gave the world her
> final spiritual legacy: an article written by Martha and approved by Queen
> Marie, and her final appreciation written for Bahà’i World, volume six. When
> Martha arrived in Bucharest in early February, she wrote to the palace asking
> permission for an audience with the queen. In the same letter, she proposed the
> article for World Order Magazine about Marie’s spiritual life, and on behalf of
> Shoghi Effendi, she asked for another appreciation in the queen’s own
> handwriting for volume six of B ahď í World.
> All was granted. The two met in Marie’s “softly lighted library” at the palace
> at 6 o ’clock in the evening. Martha records later how Marie spoke of several
> Bahà’i books, “the depths of ‘íqán’ and especially of ‘Gleanings from the
> Writings of Bahà’uTlàh’ which she said was a wonderful book!” And that
> “even doubters would find a powerful strength in it, if they would read it alone
> and would give their souls time to expand” (Root, “Queen” 582).
> The queen told Martha that she had met Lady Blomfield, a prominent early
> BaháT in London, who showed her the original message Bahà’u’ilàh had sent to
> her grandmother Queen Victoria. Also, Marie spoke fondly to Martha of a
> childhood friend, Mrs. Lilian McNeill who was then living near ‘Akká at
> B ahà’u ’Uàh’s home of M azra‘ih. They both had recognized B ahà’uTlàh
> separately and independently. Mrs. McNeill had sent Marie pictures of ‘Akká
> and Haifa, and the two had corresponded. That Marie considered herself a
> BaháT is evident from one letter she sent to her old friend. Queen Marie wrote;
> 
> . . . indeed nice to hear from you and to think that you are o f all things living near
> Haifa and are, like me, a follower o f the BaháT' teachings. It interests me that you are
> living in that special house . . . so incredibly attractive and made precious by its
> associations with the Man we all venerate. (Quoted in M cN eill, “Treasured
> Memories” 278)
> 
> Her Majesty promised to write a special appreciation and send it in four days.
> Martha drafted notes based on the audience for the article and sent them to
> Marie the next day (February 5, 1936) for approval, along with a touching and
> powerful letter:
> Queen Mar i e and the B a h d ’i Faith                                    83
> 
> Most beloved Majesty Queen Marie:
> 
> Alláh-u-Abhá! Deepest love to you precious Queen! I was so happy to see you
> yesterday. Every time seems the best time yet. You are so lovable, so great, you are a
> Queen! I believe always this servant will be more kind, more thoughtful to every one
> whom she ever meets, because she saw how charming you are. Thanks with all my
> heart for the dear audience yesterday, I shall remember it always. A lw ays too,
> beloved Queen Marie, I pray for you.
> Shoghi Effendi prays for you everyday, and how happy he will be to have your
> beautiful greeting. He will be so delighted too, about the ‘Appreciation’ for Vol. VI,
> and the audience and the article will be good news to him.
> I shall write to him every word you said, for I know he thirsts to hear from you, for
> just you are the soul who can understand Shoghi Effendi. I am sure that when you
> two meet, you will be close friends all your lives. You will admire his spirit, his
> intellect, understanding, his courage. Life is so short and not many people can be a
> companion to your soul— nor to his— you fly too high in the spiritual realms, but he
> will he. When you meet him, you will be sorry you did not go to Haifa sooner. Some
> day you two will meet— and Bahà’uTlàh will do the rest. I do not mean just outer
> friendship, pleasant as they are, but I mean soul friends, who see life and eternity and
> act to bring again tranquility to humanity. . . .
> Here are the notes o f the audience yesterday, but I shall rewrite them and “polish
> them like diamonds” if I can, but I shall not say anything that is not in these notes. If
> there are any changes in these two sheets, would you please correct & resend them
> when you send the “Appreciation” before I leave Saturday.. . .
> With dearest love to you and again thanks, most beloved Queen Marie, “Our
> Queen” (When I left you, I glanced to be sure no one was in the hall, and I left a little
> kiss on your door)
> 
> Yours most humbly
> In His Covenant
> Martha L. Root
> (Root, Letters, Feb. 5, 1936)
> 
> Queen Marie did make a few changes in the article. Most significantly, though,
> in this piece she expressed how in her heart she was “entirely Bahà’i.” Martha
> wrote in this article, . . she mentioned an incident in Hamburg when she was
> en route to Iceland in the summer of 1933. As she passed through the street, a
> charming girl tossed a little note to her into the motor car. It was: ‘I am so happy
> to see you in Hamburg, because you are a Bahà’i.’ . . . Her Majesty said to me
> [Martha], ‘In my heart I am entirely B a h á T ... ” (qtd. in Root, “Queen” 582).
> It was as if this was Marie’s final confession of faith. Never before had she
> stated so explicitly that she was a Bahà’i, although she had, as we have seen,
> expressed profound sympathy with the Bahà’i teachings and a deep love for
> B aháV lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. At the same time, Martha said, it showed that
> Marie stood "strong for the highest Truth, and as an historical record . . . of
> 84           T H E J O U R N A L O F B A H À ’Î S T U D I E S                6.2.1994
> 
> what the first Queen did for the Faith of Bahà’uTlàh” (Zinky, Martha Root
> 112). The seeds Martha had sown, as promised by Shoghi Effendi in 1931, had
> germinated. The appreciation Marie offered for B ahď í World read:
> 
> More than ever today when the world is facing such a crisis o f bewilderment and
> unrest, must we stand firm in Faith seeking that which binds together instead of
> tearing asunder.
> To those searching for light, the Baha’i Teachings offer a star which will lead them
> to deeper understanding, to assurance, peace and good w ill with all men. (6:
> frontispiece)
> 
> Queen Marie died July 18, 1938, at the age of sixty-three. Of her death,
> Lilian McNeill wrote, “The world is poorer for the passing of such a noble lady,
> and a blank, impossible to fill, is left in the lives of those who knew her
> personally” (277-78).
> Hand of the Cause of God, George Townshend later wrote eloquently of her
> passing:
> 
> Her death and obsequies were attended with all the ceremonial that befits the passing
> of a Queen. But who can tell what was the greeting that awaited her on the other side
> where she learned in an instant how true had been her intuitions o f the manifestation
> o f God and where she saw unobscured now by any mortal veil the white eternal
> splendour of the Truth that she, alone among the earth’s queens, had risen to acclaim.
> (“Queen” 275)
> 
> Shoghi Effendi gives us a glimpse of the blessing that was Queen Marie’s when
> he wrote:
> 
> Queen Marie’s acknowledgement of the Divine Message stands as the first fruits
> o f the vision which Bahà’u’ilàh had seen long before in His captivity, and had
> announced in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas. “How great, . . . the blessedness that awaits the
> King who will arise to aid My Cause in My Kingdom, who will detach himselffrom
> all else but Me ! . . . ” (God Passes By 395)
> Q u e e n M a r i e a n d t h e B a h d ’i F a i t h                 85
> 
> Works Cited
> 
> Braun, Eunice. From Strength to Strength: The First H alf Century o f the Formative Age
> o f the Baha’i Era. Wilmette: Bahà’i Publishing Trust, 1978.
> Ellis, William T. “Roumania’s Soldier Queen.” Century 96 (July, 1918): 330-38.
> Elsberry, Terence. Marie o f Roumania: The Intimate Life o f a Twentieth Century Queen.
> New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1972.
> Freidel, Frank. “America Enters the Modern Era: Profiles of the Presidents: Part IV.”
> National Geographic 128 (October, 1965): 537-77.
> Garis, M. R. Martha Root: Lioness at the Threshold. Wilmette, 111.: Bahá’1 Publishing
> Trust, 1983.
> “General Averescu and Gregori Filipescu Join Nicholas in Seeking Return of Carol.”
> New York Times, 11 May 1930: 2.
> “Maria Regina.” Good Housekeeping (Oct., 1926): 38-39, 315-16, 319-20, 323-27.
> “Marie of Roumania.” New Republic (20 Oct. 1926): 237-39.
> Marie, Queen o f Romania. Letters to Loie Fuller. Archivele Statului Bucure§ti. Romania
> Fond Casa Regalia. Roll 536.
> ----------. Letters to Roxo Weingartner. Archivele Statului Bucure§ti. Romania Fond Casa
> Regalia. Roll 547.
> ----------. Personal Diaries. Archivele Statului Bucure§ti, Romania Fond Casa Regalia:
> Bucharest, Romania.
> ----------. The Story o f My Life. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934.
> McNeill, Lilian. “Treasured Memories.” In The Bahd’i World: A Biennial International
> Record. Vol. 8, 1938-1940. Comp. National Spiritual Assembly o f the Bahà’fs o f
> the United States and Canada, 276-78.
> “New York Gives Hearty Welcome To Queen Marie.” New York Times, 19 Oct. 1926: 1.
> Pakula, Hannah. The Last Romantic, A Biography o f Queen Marie o f Romania. New
> York: Simon and Shuster, 1984.
> “A Queen’s among Us Taking Notes.” Literary Digest (2 Nov. 1926): 35-40.
> “Queen Marie Plans to Return Home.” New York Times, 17 March 1930: 8.
> “The Queen Who Will Pay Us a Visit Soon.” Current Opinion (Aug., 1926): 90-91.
> Rabbaní, Rúhíyyih. The Priceless Pearl. London: Bahd’i Publishing Trust, 1969.
> “The Resurrection of Roumania.” Times (London), 10 March 1919.
> Rohn, Alice. “Queen Santa Claus.” Good Housekeeping 69 (Dec., 1919): 15-16, 121-25.
> Root, Martha. “Her Majesty Queen Marie o f Rumania; Her Royal Highness Princess
> Ileana.” Bahd’i Magazine: Star o f the West 18 (March, 1928): 366.
> ----------. Letters to Queen Marie. Archivele Statului Bucuresti. Romania Fond Casa
> Regalia: Bucharest, Romania. Roll 542.
> -— —- . “Queen of Rumania.” In The Bahd'i World: A Biennial International Record.
> Vol. 6. 1934-1936. Comp. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahà’is the United
> States and Canada. New York: BaháT Publishing Committee, 1937: 580-83.
> Sears, W. Stephen. The Horizon History o f the British Empire. New York: American
> Heritage Publishing, 1972.
> 86         T H E J O U R N A L OF B A H Á T S T U D I E S             6.2.1994
> 
> Toronto Daily Star, 4 May 1926. Reprinted in Marie, Queen o f Rumania, “Open Letters
> o f Queen Marie o f Rumania.” In The B ahď í World (Formerly: Baha’i Year Book):
> A Biennial International Record. Vol. 2, 1926-1928. Comp. National Spiritual
> A ssem bly o f the Bahà’is o f the United States and Canada. N ew York: Bahá’1
> Publishing Committee, 1928: 174.
> Townshend, George. “Queen Marie and the Bahà’i Faith.” In The Baha’i World: A
> Biennial International Record. Vol. 8, 1938-1940. Comp. National Spiritual
> Assembly o f the Baha’is of the United States and Canada: 271-76
> Zinky, Kay, comp. A. Baram, ed. Martha Root, Herald o f the Kingdom. New Delhi:
> Bahďí Publishing Trust, 1983.
>
> — *Queen Marie and the Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)*