Queen Anne of Romania - Wedding

Wedding

As a Bourbon, Anne was bound by the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, which required that she receive a dispensation to marry a non-Catholic Christian (Michael is Orthodox). At the time, such a dispensation was normally only given if the non-Roman Catholic partner promised to allow the children of the marriage to be raised as Roman Catholics. Michael refused to make this promise since it would have violated Romania's monarchical constitution, and would be likely to have a detrimental impact upon any possible restoration. The Holy See (which handled the matter directly since Michael was a member of a reigning dynasty) refused to grant the dispensation unless Michael made the required promise.

Queen Helen and the Duchess of Aosta (an Orthodox married to a Catholic Prince) met with the fiancée's parents in Paris, where the two families resolved to take their case to the Vatican in person. In early March, the couple's mothers met with Pope Pius XII who, despite the entreaties of the former Queen Regent and the fact that Princess Margrethe of Bourbon-Parma pounded her fist on the table in anger, refused permission for Anne to marry Michael.

It has been surmised that the Pope's refusal was, in part, motivated by the fact that when Princess Giovanna of Savoy wed King Boris III of Bulgaria in 1930, the couple had undertaken to raise their future children as Roman Catholics, but had baptized them in the Orthodox faith in deference to Bulgaria's state religion. However, Michael declined to make a promise he could not keep politically, while Anne's mother was herself the daughter of a mixed marriage between a Catholic Princess (Marie d'Orléans) and a Protestant (Prince Valdemar of Denmark), who had abided by their pre ne temere compromise to raise their sons as Protestant and their daughter, Margrethe, as Catholic.

The engaged couple resolved to proceed. Anne's paternal uncle, Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, issued a statement objecting to any marriage conducted against the will of the Pope and the bride's family. It was he, not the Pontiff, who forbade Anne's parents to attend the wedding. Michael's spokesman declared on 9 June that the parents had been asked and had given their consent, and that the bride's family would be represented at the nuptials by her maternal uncle, Prince Eric of Denmark, who was to give the bride away.

The wedding was held in Athens, in the throne room of the Royal Palace, where the ceremony was performed by Archbishop Damaskinos, and King Paul of the Hellenes served as koumbaros. Michael's father, ex-King Carol II of Romania, and his sisters, Princesses Ileana and Elisabeta were notified, but not invited. One of the bridesmaids was Sofia of Greece, a princess who would later convert to Catholicism to marry Juan Carlos of Spain, later becoming Queen Consort of Spain.

As no papal dispensation was given for the marriage, when it was celebrated according to the rites of the Eastern Orthodox Church on 10 June 1948 in Athens, Greece, it was deemed invalid by the Roman Catholic Church. But the couple would eventually wed again, on 9 November 1966 at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Charles in Monaco, thus fulfilling obligations to both faiths.