Background
Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was born in Sigmaringen, the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and his wife, Princess Josephine of Baden.
Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was born in Sigmaringen, the second son of Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and his wife, Princess Josephine of Baden.
After finishing his elementary studies, Karl entered the Cadet School in Münster. In 1857 he was attending the courses of the Artillery School in Berlin. Up to 1866, when he accepted the crown of Romania, he was a Prussian officer. He took part in the Second Schleswig War, including the assault of the Fredericia citadel and Dybbøl, an experience which would be very useful to him later in the Russo-Turkish war.
With the tacit approval of his cousin, the French emperor Napoleon III, he was offered the throne of Romania after the deposition of the reigning prince, Alexandru Cuza (February 1866), and in April 1866 was elected prince by plebiscite. In 1869 he married the princess Elizabeth of Wied, who later gained fame as the poetess Carmen Sylva. His Germanophile sentiments caused him to be domestically unpopular during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), and in 1871 unrest almost forced his abdication; but he regained popular support for his military leadership at the Battle of Plevna during the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), and, with Romania’s complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, he was finally crowned king (May 1881).
In 1883 he concluded an alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, which remained a closely guarded state secret until the outbreak of World War I. He fostered the development of urban industrial and financial interests with a large measure of success and significantly built the national military establishment; but his neglect of rural problems—especially peasant land hunger—found its issue in the bloody peasant rebellion of 1907, which claimed perhaps several thousand lives. His rule brought a great measure of dignity and stability to the administration of government, but his manipulation of political parties also perpetuated some of the worst features of Romanian public life. He favoured entrance into World War I on the side of the Central Powers but accepted the decision of the Crown Council to declare neutrality.
Although he was quite frail and not very tall, prince Karl was reported to be the perfect soldier, healthy and disciplined, and also a very good politician with liberal ideas. He was familiar with several European languages. His family was closely related to the Bonaparte family (one of his grandmothers was a Beauharnais, Joséphine's niece-in-law, and the other a Murat, Joachim's niece Marie Antoinette Murat), and they enjoyed very good relations with Napoleon III of France.
When he was elected prince of Romania, Carol was unmarried. In 1869, the prince started a trip around Europe and mainly Germany, to find a bride. During this trip he met and married Princess Elizabeth of Wied at Neuwied on 15 November 1869. Their marriage was one of the most unfit matches in history, with Carol being a cold and calculating man while Elizabeth was a notorious dreamer. They had one child, Princess Maria, born in 1870, who died 9 April (N.S.) 1874. She had no prospect of inheriting her father's throne; as mentioned above, the Constitution limited succession to the male line. This led to the further estrangement of the royal couple, Elizabeth never completely recovering from the trauma of losing her only child.