Word: stirbey
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...Cairo-bound Taurus Express rocked and clattered through the harsh, moonlit mountains of southern Turkey. In a latched compartment of the wagons-lits rode an elderly intriguer, Prince Barbu Stirbey of Rumania, and his elegant daughter, Princess Elise, wife of a British major. When control officers at the Levantine frontier saw the special British laissez-passer, they moved on quickly to the next compartment. Chained to Prince Stirbey's wrist as he slept that night was a small, red dispatch case containing, so it was said, Rumania's terms for quitting...
...marriage, Princess Marie was not long in mastering the arts of Balkan intrigue. She quickly allied herself with the powerful bourgeois Bratianu family which had founded the modern Kingdom of Rumania by revolting against Turkish rule in 1877. Princess Marie's favorite soon became Prince Barbu Stirbey, Chamberlain of the King's Household and, more important, brother-in-law of Ion Bratianu. Prince Ferdinand came to the throne in 1914, a weakling from the start, and thereafter the real power in Rumania was lodged in the hands of the Bratianus, Prince Stirbey and Queen Marie...
...children figured largely in her scheme to gain more power. One daughter (Marie) she married to Yugoslavia; another (Elizabeth) to Greece. She hoped that a third (Ileana) would marry Bulgaria, but King Boris did not press his suit when it was gossiped about that Ileana was Prince Stirbey's, and not King Ferdinand's, daughter. Through her daughters Queen Marie hoped to exert powerful influence throughout the Balkans; through her eldest son she planned on ruling Rumania...
...notwithstanding Rumania's notorious balloting methods, a peasant leader named Juliu Maniu eventually won the premiership in 1929. When his reforms were further blocked by the Bratianu court clique, he conceived a plan to dethrone Mihai, crown Carol and get rid of Dowager Queen Marie and Prince Stirbey for good...
...work out as Premier Maniu foresaw. Marie went into eclipse and Prince Stirbey into exile, but Magda turned up one day in Bucharest and took up residence in a swanky villa presented by the King. Helen departed after getting a settlement of some $80,000 annually and a promise to be allowed to see Mihai one month a year...