Abel Douay, Gérard Hertault: Napoléon III et la Roumanie (Napoleon III and Roumania)

“Each Romanian has two homelands; the second of these is France”. declared Ion Bratianu, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in the late nineteenth century. Indeed, from 1840, young Romanians were emigrating to Paris and, as part of Masonic Lodges of the French capital, preparing with enthusiasm the revolution of 1848. Later they would become great politicians and great statesmen and, with the help of Napoleon III, work towards building modern Romania. Romanian history books remember the 1856 Paris Congress, desired and organized by Napoleon III and Alexandre Walewski, and indeed the Osborne interview of 1857, which allowed the union of Moldavia and Wallachia, and the double election of Prince Cuza in 1859. The action of the Masonic lodges and the solicitude of the emperor towards this country were constant throughout this period. Romania must have been grateful for the commitment of a number of their sons alongside the French in 1870 and 1914. This book includes maps, and the genealogical tables of two Romanian families closely linked to the history of their country, the Ghika, and Bibescu (including a table of links to the marshals of the First Empire), lists of members of the Romanian Masonic lodges, and a detailed chronology (1798-1881).

Paris: Editions of the Fondation Napoléon – Nouveau Monde Editions, 2009, Series Études, 535 pages.

To order visit the website Nouveau Monde Éditions.