Michael of Romania (original) (raw)

King Michael (Romanian Mihai) of Romania (born October 25, 1921) was the son of King Carol II and reigned from July 20, 1927 to June 8, 1930, and again from September 6, 1940 until December 30, 1947.

Michael became King for the first time on the death of his grandfather Ferdinand following Carol's renunciation of the throne (December 1925). Deposed by his father after only three years on the throne, he resumed the crown on Carol's abdication a decade later, reigning over a country governed in practice by the pro-German regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu.

Dismissing Antonescu as Soviet forces entered Romania in August 1944 following the country's ill-fated intervention on Germany's side in World War II, Michael subsequently (March 1945) was forced to appoint a pro-Soviet communist-dominated government, whose subsequent leaders decreed his deposition and exile from the country. He was not allowed to return until 1997.