Ferdinand of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen was the nephew of King Charles I. He was a constant presence in Romania long before the Romanian Parliament voted a law in 1889 making him the Crown Prince of Romania. Ferdinand took place for instance, together with his father, prince Leopold of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, at the big ceremonies on May 
10th of 1881 when Romania became a kingdom.
Well-educated, with a law diploma at Tubingen University, a pasionate botanist and a paleontologist, Ferdinand was a man of rules and duty, exactly like his uncle. But unlike his uncle, he had a shy personality. That didn’t mean lack of courage. And his first decision as a king proved him a powerful character.
King Charles I had died in September 1914, the year when the world war I begun. Romania was neutral but sigcoronation8ned a secret arrangement with France, Britain and Russia, hoping to gain Transylvania from Habsburg Empire. When the time came, the King didn’t hesitated. He declared war agaist his own country of origin, Germany. Many would be tented to say that was the Queen Mary influence in this decision. And the fact that she was Queen Victoria’s granddaughter by her father 
and Tsar Alexander II’s granddaughter by her mother, so biased in favor of Britain and Russia, can’t be denied. But the King knew that there were negative personal consequences for him in this matter and he still took the right decision for the country.
Ferdinand si Maria (in costum national)The Hohenzollern family in Germany removed the Romanian King and his close family from its register and Pope, under the pressure of Emperor Wilhelm I of Hohenzollern, decided to excommunicate Ferdinand, a painful situation for a fervent catholic as he was. In this moment, the royal family in Romania ceased to name itself Hohenzollern and received the name “of Romania”.
The dedication and passion put by Ferdinand and Maria for Romania during World War I were fabulous. After Romania’s defeat in 1917, with authorities moved in Iasi, as Bucharest was under German occupation, the only chance was diplomacy and hope. Both of them were provided by the two royals. On one hand, King Ferdinand refused to signed the cruel conditions imposed by Germans for the country. And in the same time, he promised troops that they would received land propriety after the war. And on the other hand, Queen Mary was an often presence in military hospitals, proved to be a wonderful leader for both military and civilian population. But more than this, s
he changed the negative perspective on Romania at the peace talks in Paris, in 1919. The prime minister Ionel Bratianu was regele ferdinand 8not considered a pleasant partner in those discussions given his loud tone in expressing demands on behalf of Romania. But the Queen went on that stage, not as am official ambassador, but the most influential ever. The French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau who was fed up with Bratianu’s speeches went to see Queen Mary in her hotel apartments. She met also president Wilson of the USA, the British prime minister Lloyd George and the French president Poincare. At the end of the day, Romania’s new frontiers with all its historic provinces included, were accepted and confirmed by the final treaty. In 1920, Great Romania was a fact and Ferdinand and Maria received their crowns as Great Romania’s king and queen on October 15th of 1922. A big orthodox cathedral was build especially for the occasion.Ferdinand mort
But this splendid victory moment was shadowed by the behavior of prince Charles, the future king, Charles the Second. During the war, he had left the army and had married a Romanian young woman in Odessa. So, he was seriously breaking the Romanian laws, the military ones and the constitutional and royal ones. As a future king, he was not allowed to marry a lower ranked woman and/or a Romanian woman. The dinasty was declining its duty to the nation and this was a huge suffering for the king Ferdinand until he died in 1927. By his will, the heir to the Romanian throne was not Charles the Second, but Ferdinand’s grandson, king Michael.