Princess Ileana of Romania
Princess Ileana of Romania, also known as Mother Alexandra, was the youngest daughter of King Ferdinand I of Romania and his consort, Queen Marie of Romania. She was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Tsar Alexander II and Queen Maria II of Portugal. She was born as Her Royal Highness Ileana, Princess of Romania, Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.
Birth and early life
Ileana was born in Bucharest on 5 January 1909, the youngest daughter of Queen Marie of Romania and King Ferdinand I of Romania. Although it was rumored that Ileana's true father was her mother's lover, Prince Barbu Ştirbey, the king admitted paternity. Ileana had four older siblings: Carol, Elisabeth – later Queen of Greece, Princess Maria – later Queen of Yugoslavia – and Nicholas. Her younger brother Mircea was also claimed to be the child of Prince Ştirbey even though the king also claimed to be his father.Girl Guiding
Before her marriage, Ileana was the organizer and Chief of the Romanian Girl Guide Movement.Later, Princess Ileana was involved in Guiding in Austria and served as president of the Austrian Girl Guides
from 1935 until Girl Guiding and Scouting were banned in 1938 after the Anschluss.
Other achievements
Ileana was the organizer of the Girl Reserves of the Red Cross, and of the first school of Social Work in Romania.She was an avid sailor: she earned her navigator's papers, and she owned and sailed the "Isprava" for many years.
Before King Michael's abdication
Marriage
In Sinaia on 26 July 1931, Ileana married the Archduke Anton of Austria, Prince of Tuscany at Peles Castle, Sinaia. This marriage was encouraged by Ileana's brother, King Carol II, who was jealous of Ileana's popularity in Romania and wanted to get her out of the country. After the wedding, Carol claimed that the Romanian people would never tolerate a Habsburg living on Romanian soil, and on these grounds refused Ileana and Anton permission to live in Romania.After her husband was conscripted into the Luftwaffe, Ileana established a hospital for wounded Romanian soldiers at their castle, Sonnburg, outside Vienna, Austria. She was assisted in this task by her friend Sheila Kaul. In 1944, she and the children moved back to Romania, where they lived at Bran Castle, near Brasov. Archduke Anton joined them but was placed under house arrest by the Red Army. Ileana established and worked in another hospital in Bran village, which she named "The Hospital of the Queen's Heart" in memory of her beloved mother, Queen Marie of Romania.
After exile
After Michael I of Romania abdicated, Ileana and her family were exiled from the newly Communist Romania. They escaped by train to the Russian sector of Vienna, at that time divided into three sectors. After that they settled in Switzerland, then moved to Argentina and in 1950, she and the children moved to the United States, where she bought a house in Newton, Massachusetts.The years from 1950 to 1961 were spent lecturing against communism, working with the Romanian Orthodox Church in the United States, writing two books: I Live Again, a memoir of her last years in Romania, and Hospital of the Queen's Heart, describing the establishment and running of the hospital.
Ileana and Anton officially divorced on 29 May 1954. Then on 19 June 1954 in Newton, Mass., she married to Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu. Her second marriage ended in divorce in 1965.
In 1961, Ileana entered the Orthodox Monastery of Our Lady of All Protection/ Notre Dame de Toute Protection, in Bussy-en-Othe, France. On her tonsuring as a monastic, in 1967, Sister Ileana was given the name Mother Alexandra. She moved back to the United States and founded the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, the first English language Orthodox monastery in North America. She was the third female descendant of Queen Victoria to become a Mother Superior in a convent of her own foundation along with Princess Alice of Battenberg and Princess Elizabeth of Hesse. She served as abbess until her retirement in 1981, remaining at the monastery until her death.
She visited Romania again in 1990, at the age of 81, in the company of her daughter, Sandi.
In January 1991, she suffered a broken hip in a fall on the evening before her eighty-second birthday, and while in hospital, suffered two major heart attacks. She died four days after the foundations had been laid for the expansion of the monastery.
Family history
Issue
Ileana and Anton had six children; they were raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her husband and of the country:- Archduke Stefan of Austria ; married morganatically Mary Jerrine Soper, and had five children, who received in 1990 the title of Count/Countess von Habsburg for them and their descendants in male lineage:
- *Christopher Habsburg-Lothringen.
- *Ileana Habsburg-Lothringen.
- *Peter Habsburg-Lothringen.
- *Constanza Habsburg-Lothringen
- *Anton Habsburg-Lothringen
- Archduchess Maria Ileana of Austria ; married Count Jaroslaw Kottulinsky, Baron von Kottulin , and had one daughter:
- *Countess Maria Ileana Kottulinska, Baroness von Kottulin ; married Jonkheer Noel van Innis on 10 October 1997.
- Archduchess Alexandra of Austria ; married Duke Eugen Eberhard of Württemberg, son of Princess Nadezhda of Bulgaria on 3 September 1962 and had no issue. They divorced in 1972 and she married Victor, Baron von Baillou on 22 August 1973.
- *Son von Baillou.
- Archduke Dominic of Austria , inheritor of Bran Castle; married Engel von Voss on 11 June 1960, and had two sons. He divorced her in 1999 and married Emmanuella Mlynarski on 14 August 1999.
- *Count Sandor von Habsburg ; married Priska Vilcsek on 15 May 2000 and were divorced on 22 December 2009. They had one son. He remarried Herta Öfferl on 24 December 2010.
- **Count Constantin von Habsburg
- *Count Gregor von Habsburg ; married Jacquelyn Frisco on 13 August 2011.
- Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria ; married Hans Ulrich, Baron von Holzhausen on 27 August 1959, and had three children:
- *Johann Friedrich Anton, Baron von Holzhausen, married Brunilda Castejón-Schneider on 23 September 2001 in Wartberg, Germany, and had one son:
- **Laurenz, Baron von Holzhausen
- *Georg Ferdinand, Baron von Holzhausen, married Elena, Countess von und zu Hoensbroech on 30 April 1993 in Vienna, Austria, and had three children:
- **Alexander von Holzhausen
- **Tassilo von Holzhausen
- **Clemens von Holzhausen
- *Alexandra Maria, Baroness von Holzhausen, married Christian Ferch on 2 July 1985 in Salzburg, Austria, and had four children:
- **Ferdinand Georg Botho Ferch
- **Leopold Anton David Ferch
- **Benedikt Peter Nikolaus Ferch
- **Elisabeth Patricia Katharina Ferch
- Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria , married Dr. Friedrich Josef Sandhofer on 3 August 1964 in Mondsee, Austria, and had four children:
- *Anton Dominic Sandhofer, married Katarzyna Marta Wojkowska on 29 May 1983, and had one son:
- **Dominik Alexander Sandhofer
- *Margareta Elisabeth Sandhofer, married Ernst Helmut Klaus Lux on 20 June 1992, and had two sons:
- **Maurito Maria Ernst Lux
- **Dorian Augustinius Maria Lux
- *Andrea Alexandra Sandhofer, married Jörg Michael Zarbl on 30 August 1996 and had two sons:
- **Ferdinand Hans Friedrich Konstantin Maria Zarbl
- **Benedikt Bonifatius Maria Manfred Rainer Zarbl
- *Elisabeth Victoria Madgalena Sandhofer, unmarried and without issue.
Major family events
- In 1954, her marriage to Anton ended in divorce. Later that year, she married Dr. Stefan Nikolas Issarescu in Newton, Massachusetts.
- Eldest son Stefan suffered a debilitating illness in 1961 which required extensive nursing, which his wife and his mother provided.
- Eldest daughter Marie Ileana and her husband were killed in a plane crash in Brazil, along with their unborn second child. They left an infant daughter.
- Son Dominic was awarded retroactive rights to Bran Castle in May 2006 by the Romanian authorities as inheritance from his mother Ileana.
Award
- International Sailing Federation: Navigation Award
Ranks
Military
- :
- * Romanian Naval Forces:
- ** Vice admiral
Scouting/Guides
National
- * Romanian Girl Guide Movement:
- ** Chief and Organiser
- * Girl Reserves of the Romanian Red Cross:
- ** Organiser
- * :
- ** Founder and Organiser
Foreign
- :
- * Austrian Girl Guides:
- ** President
- :
- * Girl Guides:
- ** Honorary Member
Ancestry