The Twitter platform @MarieQueenOfR was developed in relation to a larger project dealing with the historiography of World War One.
The aim is to make public crude material (primary sources) related to specific historical events, characters or debates.
Marie, Queen of Romania
Princess Marie of Edinburgh (29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the eldest daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Her father was the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. At 17 she married Prince Ferdinand, the son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern, brother of King Carol I of Romania. She was queen Queen consort of Romania from 1914 (after the death of Carol I) to 1927 (death of her husband, King Ferdinand).
The myth developed around Queen Marie is analyzed by Romanian historian Lucian Boia in the book History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness. The author cares however to point at the undeniable consistency of the Queen accomplishments during World War I. He records the “testimony of a cynic”, politician Constantin Argetoianu, normally “anything but affectionate” towards the Queen:
“We find her in the trenches among combatants, in the front lines; we find her in hospitals and in all sanitary stations; among the wounded, among the sick; we find her present at all gatherings which tried to do some good. She had no fear of bullets or bombs, just as she had no fear or disgust of contagion, or anxiousness while efforts originated in her wish to do good often proved futile. Queen Marie fulfilled her duty on all the fronts of her numerous activities”. (Lucian Boia, Istorie si mit in constiinta romaneasca, Bucharest: Humanitas, p.312).
Queen Marie wrote and published a lot. For historians, particularly significant are the Daily notes, a collection of 102 notebooks of 150-250 pages each, compiled in the period 1916-1938.
In 1935, based on the notes and while the Queen was still alive, the 3 volume book The story of my life was published.
Volumes I and II were conceived as a narration, while in the third (dealing with the war years, 1916-1918) the Queen early on announces: ”And from now onwards I shall allow my diary to relate what came to us. I have described every single day”.
It is this third volume which constitutes the source of the entries posted on the @MarieQueenOfR Twitter page. They are samples of either letters or day-to-day accounts or reflections.
The Queen wrote in English, so no translation or other modification was made. The material came from:
Marie, Queen of Roumania, The story of my life, London: Cassel, 1935, vol. III.