Another Royal Visitor

Queen Marie of Romania and her two youngest children, Prince Nicholas and Princess Ileana, traveled across the U.S. in 1926 with a stop in the capital to call on the President on their way to the State of Washington. Queen Marie was the consort of King Ferdinand and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

Her father was Prince Alfred, Victoria and Albert’s second son. Her mother was Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of the Russian czar, Alexander II. Marie's father chose a naval career, and the family lived in Malta for many years so she grew up away from English court life.

At age 17, she married a man ten years her senior. She went to live in a country ruled by her husband’s uncle, King Carol who was very unsure how to use the talents of this worldly young woman. Marie’s marriage was unhappy, but she was able to use the media to bring attention to this country which had only recently gained freedom from the Ottoman Empire. She wrote books and articles for the English speaking world, and she mothered six children.

The Queen of Romania had become renown after World War I when she argued personally and passionately at the peace talks in Paris for an increase to Romania’s territory to include all areas where people spoke Romanian. She was successful in expanding her country’s footprint by more than 60 percent.

The Chief Usher at the White House remembered the October 19^th visit this way:

“Of course all eyes were on the Queen, especially during her efforts to engage the President in conversation. In this she was not any more successful than others who had tried it before. Before the dinner was over, the Queen realized that most of the published reports of the President's uncommunicative disposition were true. She also seemed to appreciate that the President was paying more attention to the Princess than he was to her, for she was heard to remark to the Princess, upon leaving the White House, that the latter had made more impression during the evening than she had herself.”

Source: Hoover, Irwin H. (Ike). 42 Years in the White House. Cambridge, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press, 1934, Chapter XVI, We Entertain Queen Marie.

The Prince of Wales and Other Royal Visitors

In the 1920s, the President was expected to entertain on a demanding schedule steeped in tradition. Royals and foreign heads of state came to meet the President, even when the purpose of their trip took them primarily to other parts of the country. When compared with the annual receptions for the diplomatic corps, the Senate, the House and the Supreme Court when about 2000 guests were invited each time, the Coolidges’ parties for royalty were smaller and more intimate.

Calvin and Grace’s most famous royal guest was the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) who spent less than two hours in the capital for an informal reception on August 30, 1924, just after death of Calvin Coolidge, Jr. According to a newspaper account, both the Prince and the Coolidges were happy to keep the event low key. The Prince was often in the popular press, a celebrity in his era. He was the great-grandson of Queen Victoria, and later royal visitors were also descendants of the venerable monarch.

In 1926, the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden came to the United States to promote their country’s interests. Prince Gustaf Adolph became king in 1950 at age 67 and reigned until his death in 1973. His wife, Crown Princess Louise was a great granddaughter of Queen Victoria, born Princess Louise of Battenberg (now Mountbattan). She was Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh’s aunt.

During a trip across the country from New York to San Francisco with a stop in Washington, D.C., public interest was great, and the Swedish couple acquired a reputation for having the common touch. On May 28, 1926, the President and First Lady entertained 52 people at an 8 p.m. dinner. The table was decorated with pink roses, snapdragons and maidenhair fern. The White House staff kept good records of these details.

The Princess expressed her strong ideas about the equality of women during the trip, because of her experience as a nurse before her marriage and her work with the Red Cross later. She and Grace Coolidge might have had an interesting chat.

The Queen of Romania and two of her children visited in the same year, 1926. Queen Marie was a celebrity in the 1920s so her visit will be described in our next blog post.