Pacea din București (1918) chestiunea dinastică în România
The Bucharest Peace Treaty (1918) and the Dynastic Question in Romania

Summary/Abstract: In April 1917, while in retreat in Iaşi, king Ferdinand confessed, in a tone visibly filled with pathos: “Obviously, the path I have started on has taken me away from everything I held dear – my family, my friends, my interests, my childhood. One cannot forget one’s birthplace. I have loved my family very much. It has been tough and unjust towards me, but I am sure that any of my family would have acted exactly the same, had they been in my place!” One year later, in Bucharest, Romania was signing a separate peace with the Central Powers. Naturally, an event that caused new and heated debates regarding the future of the dynasty. King Ferdinand appeared before the enemy as a renegade “Hohenzollern”. His presence on the throne of a defeated country (with a substantially reduced territory) remained, at least for a while, problematic. The peace negotiations are, from this point of view, a mix of pragmatism and historical payback. The fate of the dynasty depended, on the one hand, on the skill of Romanian negotiators, who managed to obtain a sort of “ceasefire” on the dynastic question, transferring the topic from the priority agenda of peace talks (where it was listed alongside topics such as territory issues, economic relations, military administration) into an area of compromise and accepted concessions. On the other hand, the entire “dynastic affair” also depended on the fluctuating willingness (and even on the disputes between the Austro-Hungarian and German delegates) of the Central Powers coalition members to issue definitive conditions (sine qua non propositions) on the controversies of the topic, also fuelled by the radical attitude of part of the Germanophile group remaining in Bucharest. The paper will attempt to clarify the convoluted path of the peace negotiations (which in parts touched upon the dynastic question), the solution of which, eventually favourable to Romania’s aspirations, meant, in those circumstances of history, a certain success in the advantage of the national cause.

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