Barbu Știrbey

Prince Barbu Alexandru Știrbey (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈbarbu ʃtirˈbej]; 4 November 1872 – 24 March 1946) was 30th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. He was the son of Prince Alexandru Știrbey and his wife Princess Maria Ghika-Comănești, and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei (born Bibescu, adopted Știrbei), who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869. The Știrbey family was one of the more prominent and wealthier boyar (noble) families in Wallachia, and had been so since the 15th century.[1] Știrbey was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was famous in Romania for his work in modernising the vast estates he owned and for "his model farm was recognized for the exceptional quality of its products".[1] Știrbey was a polished, cultivated aristocrat known in Romania as the "White Prince" on the account of his impeccable manners.

Barbu Ştirbey.

He married his second cousin, Princess Nadèje Bibescu in 1895, daughter of Prince Gheorge Bibescu and Marie Henriette Valentine de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay. They had five daughters: Maria, Nadejda, Elena, Eliza and Catharina. The prime minister Ion G. Duca described Știrbey: "In a country of talkative people, I haven’t met a quieter man, in a society concerned with obtaining effect I haven’t seen a man displaying more modesty...Still, behind this banal appearance a tremendously interesting personality was hidden, with penetrating astuteness, exceptional ability and great ambition; a bizarre mixture of wilfulness and laziness, decisiveness and fatalism, indifference and slyness. Brave, at times even daring, even though he preferred shadow to light, a lover of combinations, even though never practising plotting, Ştirbey was the type of the Romanian boyar who knew how to be flexible and sneak by".[2] In 1907, Știrbey's sister, Elisa Știrbey married Ion I. C. Brătianu, a rising politician in the National Liberal Party, forming an alliance between the Știrbey and Brătianu boyar families.

His real significance in Romania history arises from his role as close confidant of Queen Marie, who was herself a highly influential figure in Romanian government circles prior to the accession of her son King Carol II to the throne in 1930. Știrbey was the father of the last of Marie's children, Prince Mircea, and was quite possibly the father of Princess Ileana.[3] Through Știrbey's title was only superintendent of the royal estates, in charge of managing the vast estates owned by the House of Hohenzollern, he served as Marie's principle adviser on Romanian politics and economics.[4] Știrbey used his influence with Marie to favor the National Liberal Party as he was close to Ion I. C. Brătianu.[5] In opposition to King Carol I, Știrbey favored having Romania enter the First World War on the Allied side, seeing this as the best chance to gain Transylvania, a region of the Austrian empire with a Romanian majority, albeit with large Magyar and ethnic German minorities.[5]

Carol greatly resented his mother's relationship with Știrbey, and it was Știrbey who pressed the strongest to have Carol either renounce his relationship with Madame Lupescu or have Carol renounce the throne in favor of his son Prince Michael.[6] Știrbey favored the National Liberal Party (which despite its name was the conservative party, representing the interests of the nobility and the industrialists) as the natural ruling party in Romania, not the least because the leader of the National Liberals, Brătianu, was his brother-in-law.[6] Brătianu and the other National Liberal grandees in turn saw Carol as a "loose cannon", who could not be manipulated like his father King Ferdinand had been, and believed that if Carol came to the throne, he would use the power of the monarchy to advance his own interests against their own.[6]

The Romanian constitution gave the king fairly broad powers, and the tendency of the Crown to favor the National Liberals who usually won elections by rigging them was a key factor in keeping the National Liberals in power despite the party's unpopularity.[7] The National Liberals had a very clientistic style of ruling, engaging in patronage, graft and corruption, through the National Liberals did respect the wishes of the voters in the few elections that they proved unable to rig, handing over power after losing the 1928 election.[8] Știrbey's role in having Carol excluded from the succession in 1925 after he refused to give up Madame Lupescu caused Carol to have a grudge against both him and the National Liberals, whom he vowed to "destroy".[6] Under the guise of maintaining the social order, the National Liberals had passed laws which gave the police sweeping authoritarian powers and weakened civil rights; as the king had the power to name police prefects, such laws placed the king in a strong position to create a dictatorship if he so desired.[8] The National Liberals had failed to provide for any constitutional checks on the powers of the monarchy, and instead used "extra-constitutional" checks such as Știrbey's relationship with Queen Marie.[8] When King Ferdinand died in 1927, he was succeeded by his grandson who came to the throne as King Michael.

After Carol returned from his exile and became king in 1930, deposing his own son, King Michael, he started to use the vast powers of the monarchy to harass Știrbey in various ways.[9] In 1934, Carol banished Știrbey from Romania, causing him to go into exile in Switzerland.[9] In 1938, when Marie was dying, Carol refused permission to allow Știrbey to return, leading him to write her a letter in French saying: "My thoughts are always near you. I am inconsolable at being so far, incapable of helping you, living in the memory of the past with no hope for the future...Never doubt the boundlessness of my devotion".[9] In her reply, Marie wrote back to declare her sadness at "so much unsaid, which would so lighten my heart to say: all my longing, all my sadness, all the dear memories which flood into my heart...The woods with the little yellow crocuses, the smell of the oaks when we rode through the same woods in early summer-and oh! so many, many things which are gone...God bless you and keep you safe".[10] Știrbey was denied permission to attend Marie's funeral.

In 1940, after the abdication of King Carol, Știrbey returned to Romania. Știrbey's son-in-law, Edwin Boxshall, was a British businessman long resident in Romania who married Elena "Maddie" Știrbey in 1920.[11] In 1940, Boxshall left Bucharest and upon his return to London became an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in charge of encouraging anti-Axis resistance in Romania.[11] Through Boxshall, Știrbey was in contact with the SOE throughout World War Two.[11] Știrbey disapproved of the genocidal politics of the government of General Ion Antonescu, which in June 1941 joined with Germany in invading the Soviet Union. In the recovered regions of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina together with a part of the Soviet Union that was annexed to Romania that the Romanians called Transnistra, the Antonescu regime carried out genocide against the Jews living there, accusing them of having supported the Soviet Union. Știrbey donated money to assist the Jews in Transnistra as a police report from 1942 stated: "As a result of our investigation, we have learned that Barbu Știrbey, owner of the Buftea lands, factories, and castle once sent 200, 000 lei in cash to help poor Jewish deportees in Transnistra".[12] After exterminating the Jewish communities in Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and Transnistra, the Antonescu government opened up talks with Germany in 1942 to deport the Jews of the Regat to the death camps in Poland. Știrbey protested against these plans and against the anti-Semitic laws that had been passed since 1938.[13]

On 22 December 1943, in Operation Autonomous, three SOE agents, Alfred Gardyne de Chastelain, Ivor Porter and Silviu Mețianu were parachuted into Romania.[14] Through promptly captured by the Romanian gendarmerie, the three SOE agents were able to make contact with leading figures in the government of Marshal Ion Antonescu, warning him that to continue the alliance with Germany would result in disaster for Romania and offered the possibility of an armistice with Great Britain.[14] In response, in March 1944 Știrbey travelled via Turkey to Egypt where he opened up talks for an armistice with Britain.[15] Through Știrbey was supposed to be representing Antonescu in Cairo, before leaving Romania, he made contact with Iuliu Maniu of the National Peasant Party to discuss possible armistice terms that might be reached if Maniu was heading the government.[16] Antonescu had became too closely identified with pro-German policies for the Allies to seriously consider signing an armistice with a government headed by him, and Maniu by contrast was the Romanian politician held in the best regard in London and Washington.[16] In effect Știrbey was in the ambiguous position of representing both Antonescu and Maniu in Cairo.[16]

Shortly after his arrival in Istanbul to take the train to Cairo, Știrbey's trip was leaked to the Turkish press, making his mission more difficult.[17] At his first meeting in Cairo on 17 March 1944 with Allied diplomats, Știrbey declared that everyone in Romania from King Michael on downward were tired of the war and the alliance with Germany, and were looking for a chance to change sides.[16] Știrbey stated that Antonescu knew the war was lost for the Axis side and if the Allies were unwilling to sign an armistice with a Romanian government headed by him, Maniu was willing to stage a coup in order to sign an armistice.[16] Știrbey stated that the one non-negotiable condition for Romania to switch sides was that Allies had to promise that the northern part of Transylvania lost to Hungary under the Second Vienna Accord of 1940 be returned to Romania.[16] The Soviet government took part in the meetings in Cairo, but made it clear its skepticism about Știrbey's offer, but British and American diplomats were more inclined to take up his offer.[18]

Upon his return to Bucharest, the elder statesman Știrbey advised King Michael that Romania would get better armistice terms if Antonescu was not prime minister. Știrbey was involved in the plans by King Michael to depose Antonescu and have Romania switch sides.[19] Recognizing the Soviet Union would treat a post-Antonescu government better that included the Communists, Știrbey together with Maniu negotiated with Iosif Șraier, a Bucharest lawyer who was a member of the underground Romanian Communist Party, about how the Communists could have a member in the cabinet of the new government.[20] It was agreed that Știrbey would return to Cairo to sign the armistice as soon as the king dismissed Antonescu.[19] Shortly after the Royal coup of August 23, 1944, he traveled to Moscow with the Romanian delegation that signed on September 12 the Armistice Agreement between Romania and the Soviet Union. Știrbey was one of the plenipotentiary signatories of Agreement; the other signatories were Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu, Dumitru Dămăceanu, and Ghiță Popp on the Romanian side, and Rodion Malinovsky on the Soviet side.