Tens of thousands of Romanians joined European royals on Saturday to pay their respects to late King Michael as a state funeral got under way in Bucharest.
Michael, who ruled Romania twice before being forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947, died in Switzerland this month at the age of 96.
Britain’s Prince of Wales, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, and Spain’s former King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, were among those at a pre-funeral service at the Royal Palace where Michael’s body had been lying in state for the past two days.
Prince Charles among the royals at the funeral (Vadim Ghirda/AP)
Among non-European royals attending the funeral was Princess Muna al-Hussein, mother of King Abdullah II of Jordan.
In the hours before Michael’s coffin was taken out of the palace, Romanians gathered silently, many in tears, in Revolution Square. Church bells tolled around the country and a choir of priests sang as the coffin was taken out and laid on a dais in the square.
The crowd cheered and shouted “King Michael!” as the coffin, led by Orthodox priests and a guard of honour, was transported by an army jeep towards the cathedral where the funeral was taking place.
Honour guard soldiers carry the coffin of the late Romanian King Michael (Vadim Ghirda/AP)
Michael’s five daughters and his estranged grandson, Nicholas Medforth-Mills, who was stripped of his title for allegedly fathering a child out of wedlock, walked behind the coffin.
Mourner Georgeta Anastasiu, 60, said the late king had been “demonised by the communists, but in the end we found out the truth about him”.
She called the king “the last moral example for Romanians”, and said many people had finally learned the truth about him since his death on December 5.
After the funeral service, his body will be taken by royal train to the central Romanian city of Curtea de Arges, where he will be buried next to his wife, Anne de Bourbon-Parme, who died last year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here