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Known more for his romantic misadventures than for any leadership skills, Carol ( Romanian for "Charles") first married in Odessa, Ukraine, 31 August, 1918Events January January 8 President Woodrow Wilson announces his " Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I. February February 3 The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long)., in contravention of royal law, Joanna Marie Valentina Lambrino, ( "Zizi" Lambrino) (1898-1953), daughter of a Romanian general; they had one son, Mircea Gregor Carol Lambrino , and the marriage was annulled by royal decree in 1919. He next married, in Athens, Greece, ( 10 March, 1921Events January 2 The first religious radio broadcast ( KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) January 2 Spanish liner Santa Isabel sinks off Villa Garcia 244 dead January 2 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens. January 20 Republic of Turke), Princess Helena of Greece and Denmark , but the marriage soon collapsed in the wake of the king's affair with Elena WolffElena Wolff ( 1895 1977), perhaps better known as Magda Lupescu Lupescu is the Romanian equivalent of the German surname Wolff and Elena can be a shortened form of Magdalena was the mistress of king Carol II of Romania and later (after his abdication) his (1895-1977, known as "Magda Lupescu" -- Lupescu is the Romanian equivalen of the German Wolff), a daughter of Nicolas Grünberg, a Jewish pharmacist, who adopted the name Nicolas Wolff, and his wife née Elizei Falk. Elena Wolff had formerly been the wife of Army officer Ion Tampenu . As a result of the scandal, he renounced his right to the throne in DecemberDecember is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 31 days. From the Latin decem for " ten" (it was originally the tenth month of the year, before January and February were inserted). The winter solstice falls in December. 1925 in favour of his son by Helena, Michael, who became King in July 1927. Carol and Helena were divorced in 1928. He had additional illegitimate children by a mistress, Maria Martini.
Through all these adventures, he became known above all as a playboy king. Purported eyewitnesses even claim him to have gone with a famous prostitute, Foamea Neagra, from the Crucea de piatra district. A fictionalized version of the episode is narrated by Petru Dumitriu in his novel Cronica de familie (Family Chronicle).
Returning to the country unexpectedly on 7 June, 1930, Carol was proclaimed King the following day. For the next decade he sought to influence the course of Romanian political life, first through manipulation of the rival Peasant and Liberal parties and anti-Semitic factions, and subsequently ( January 1938) through a ministry of his own choosing, with a constitution ( 27 February) reserving ultimate power to the crown.
An excellent fictionalized account of life in Bucharest in the final years of Carol's reign can be found in Olivia Manning's novels The Great Fortune and The Spoilt City.