Present Situation
Michael of Romania has no male children, nor are there any undisputed legitimate male-line male descendants of the previous Kings of Romania, there is at present no one from the Romanian Royal Family in the line of succession to the throne, if the succession follows the defunct 1923 constitution.
There are male line descendants of King Carol II: Prince Paul of Romania (b. 1948), his son Prince Carol Ferdinand of Romania (b. 2010) and Alexandru Hohenzollern (b. 1961). Paul and Alexandru are the sons of Carol Mircea Hohenzollern, also known as Carol Mircea Grigore of Romania according to his Romanian birth certificate, issue of King Carol's first marriage to Zizi Lambrino. Their grandparents' marriage had been declared null and void by the Parliament of the Kingdom of Romania. In 1955, however, a Portuguese court declared Carol Mircea as former King Carol II's legitimate son, a ruling later confirmed by a Parisian court. The court rulings allowed him to bear the surname Hohenzollern and inherit a portion of his father's properties, but did not confer him any dynastic rights to the defunct Romanian throne or rights to bear a princely title and style, despite his use of both. In October 1995, a similar Romanian court ruling recognized that he was legitimate son of Carol II, allowing him the right to bear the surname "al României" and calling into question the status of Michael. The court ruling was used by Paul to claim the title Prince. The argument which appears prevalent is that Mircea Carol's sons are not entitled to succession rights, due to the non-dynastic nature of their grandparents' marriage. Moreover, Carol Mircea never claimed any right to the Romanian throne, unlike his son, Paul.
Following King Michael's abdication, the line of succession was discussed during a meeting between Michael, his uncle Prince Nicholas of Romania, and Frederick, Prince of Hohenzollern (1891-1965). Shortly after this meeting, the spokesman of Carol II, in an interview with the French paper Le Figaro, expressed his strong support for Prince Frederick, additionally asserting that Michael would never regain the throne. Michael refused to ever again see his father, Carol II, after Carol's abdication in 1940. Michael even refused to come to his father's funeral in Portugal or the reinterment of his remains in Romania, at Curtea de Arges.
According to the succession provisions of the kingdom's last democratic Constitution, that of 1923, agnatic primogeniture (also known as "Salic law") determines who inherits the throne. After two intervening changes of regime, that constitution no longer carries legal weight, but it retains the weight of a tradition. It must also be said that the German Hohenzollerns in the succession line descend from the previously mentioned Prince Frederick, the oldest son of Prince Wilhelm. Prince Wilhelm, along with his father, Prince Leopold, renounced his rights to the Romanian throne in favor of his younger brother, the future king Ferdinand of Romania.
Read more about this topic: Line Of Succession To The Former Romanian Throne
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