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Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author.
Background
Take Ionescu was born on October 25, 1858, in Ploiești into a family of lower middle class origins, the eldest of four male children. During Take's childhood, the family moved to Bucharest and later to Giurgiu, where his father began to accumulate a fortune after leasing a segment of the customs in the city.
Education
Take Ionescu studied at the Saint Sava High School. After entering the Saint Sava High School with a scholarship and graduating with honors, he entered the University of Paris and took a PhD in Law, attending courses together with among others. During his high school years, he began contributing to literary magazines and authoring works of verse and especially short stories influenced by the style of Gérard de Nerval.
Career
In 1884, when he was only twenty-six, Take Ionescu was already a deputy registered on the governing Liberal Party’s election lists. He soon left the Liberal Party and joined the Conservatives. In 1891, when he was thirty-three, he became Minister of Education. During the next two decades, Take Ionescu was an irreplaceable presence in all the Conservative governments of Romania. A populist and very good organizer, Take Ionescu became a serious candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party. However, his modest origins put him at a disadvantage, as his background was regarded as an insurmountable obstacle by a party that represented the interests of the Romanian aristocracy. In January 1908 he left the Conservative camp and founded the Democratic Conservative Party.
When the First World War broke out, Take Ionescu’s party was part of the parliamentary opposition in the Kingdom of Romania. While on holiday traveling around Europe, he was urgently called home to attend the Crown Council on August 3, 1914 in Sinaia. Though he initially favoured Romania’s neutrality, he soon changed his mind. Some of his political opponents interpreted his decision as a means of coming to power by clashing with the premier, Ion I. C. Brătianu (1864-1927). Together with his former political opponent, Nicolae Filipescu (1862-1916), Take Ionescu manoeuvred Romania’s rapid entry into the war on the Entente’s side. A very good agitator, he held rallies throughout the country and coordinated a virulent press campaign.
The most significant achievements in Ionescu’s political career were fulfilled during the two years of Romanian neutrality. After Romania’s entry into the war on the Entente’s side and the disastrous military campaign in the autumn of 1916, Take Ionescu agreed to join a national union government led by Brătianu. He first acted as a Minister Without Portfolio (December 1916-July 1917) and later as Vice-President of the Council of Ministers (July 1917-February 1918). He did not want to be at the mercy of the German and new Romanian authorities after Romania had capitulated. Unlike Brătianu, who ran the risk of staying in the country, Take Ionescu left Romania. In July 1918 he settled in Paris, where he was involved in diplomatic activity as president of the National Council of Romanian Unity. In the autumn of 1918, the National Council, officially recognized by the Entente governments, represented defeated Romania.
Through his activities and connections, Take Ionescu, along with Premier I. C. Brătianu, would have best represented Romania’s interests at the Paris Peace Conference. Unfortunately, as Liberal minister Ion G. Duca (1879-1933) 1933) noticed, “intransigent pride” prevented the two Romanian politicians from working together while they both lived in Paris for a few months. Some diplomats who attended the Paris Peace Conference felt that Ionescu’s diplomatic and conciliatory spirit would have served Romania’s interests better than Brătianu’s irritating intransigence. Both Romanian politicians made a grievous mistake by not working together. After the 1919 parliamentary elections, Take Ionescu’s party lost its political influence. He became foreign minister (June 1920-December 1921) in the cabinet led by the former General Alexandru Averescu (1859-1938). His main achievement was the creation of the Little Entente, a mutual defence agreement between Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, whereby the countries agreed to respect the status quo established during the Paris Peace Conference. In December 1921 Ionescu was finally appointed Prime Minister of Romania. His term lasted only three weeks, as he fell prey to the political intrigues hatched by Brătianu and Averescu. Disappointed, he set out on a journey across Europe. He died unexpectedly on June 2, 1922, in Rome, before having had a chance to edit his memoirs about the origins of the First World War.
In Paris, Ionescu fell in love with an Englishwoman named Bessie Richards. They sealed their union in a common law marriage in Brighton, and later through an Eastern Orthodox religious ceremony in London (November 1881). The couple were to settle in Bucharest, but made frequent visits to Bessie's native country for the rest of her life.
Following Bessie Ionescu's death in a horse-riding accident, Ionescu married Alexandrina Ecaterina Woroniecki in 1919 (she was also known as Adina Olmazu).