The first act of the new prince was to call a convention to revise the constitution, which was liberalized and gave the Roumanians a free press, free speech, free religion, free compulsory education and other rights and privileges. And its provisions have been recognized consistently in relation to the Jews, whose commercial supremacy and success have aroused the jealousy of the less enterprising and intelligent natives, as in Russia, and has made them the object of the most cruel persecution to which that race has been subjected in recent years. There have been numerous conspiracies and intrigues against the authority of Prince Charles, but he has grown in strength with years, and in 1906 celebrated the fortieth anniversary of his reign amid universal rejoicings and unanimous expressions of confidence.
During his reign he has distinguished himself as a military commander as well as a statesman. He supported the Russian army with great skill and courage in the war with Turkey in 1877-78. On March 26, 1881, Roumania proclaimed herself a kingdom, with the consent of the Powers, and the prince was recrowned King Carol I.
The crown that was placed upon his head was made of iron from the Turkish cannon which he had personally captured at the battle of Plevna. Since that date Roumania has made constant progress in wealth and civilization, and although the king has remained childless, the people have cordially accepted his nephew, Prince Ferdinand, as heir to the throne, and the latter has strengthened his claims for popularity by marrying the Princess Marie, daughter of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Queen Elizabeth of Roumania is probably the most accomplished and intellectual of all the royal women of Europe. She speaks, reads, and writes six languages fluently, and has written poems in four. She is a poetess of no mean ability and her stories and essays have been awarded a high place in European literature. They have been translated into all the modern languages and have been read by the people of every civilized land. A book of maxims, entitled "The Thoughts of a Queen." was granted a medal of honour by the French Academy. She has published more than thirty books and has contributed hundreds of articles to magazines. She has shown unusual skill in literary research in connection with Roumanian legends and folklore. She has written an opera entitled "Master Manole," which has been successfully presented in Munich and other cities of Europe. She is a brilliant pianist and was a favourite pupil of Rubinstein and Clara Schumann. She is equally accomplished as an organist and frequently conducts orchestral concerts in the music hall of the palace at Bukharest. She has composed symphonies and other orchestral pieces. She plays the harp gracefully, and has adapted the gypsy melodies of her country to that instrument, frequently calling attention to their similarity to the ancient melodies for the harp in Ireland.
Queen Elizabeth is also an accomplished artist. She has painted several pictures of recognized merit and has done miniatures of many of her friends on ivory. She is skilful with a needle, in embroidery and in lacemaking, and has introduced both arts among the peasant women of Roumania. She has also introduced the silk worm and has persuaded the government to plant hundreds of thousands of mulberry trees throughout the'country. She has founded schools, opera houses, hospitals, asylums of various sorts, training homes for nurses, and a home for women of education who have lost their money. Much of her time is devoted to charity and in organizing and directing both military and civil hospitals and other institutions.
Although the national religion is the orthodox Greek, and King Carol, her husband, made a public profession of that faith when he was crowned in 1866, Queen Elizabeth was excused from doing so at the time of their marriage in 1869, and has continued to be an earnest and active member of the Lutheran congregation in Bukharest, for which she erected a modest but appropriate house of worship at her own expense. However, she does not intrude her faith upon others and participates in the religious festivals of the people without the slightest reserve. They know that she is a Protestant and that she recognizes the claims of their own faith and always remembers that she is the queen of an orthodox Greek population.