Elena Vacarescu

Author, Politician. She published numerous works in her native land and in France. Born into wealth, she was well educated at her family's estate and in Paris, where Victor Hugo was an early influence. Her first published work was "Chants d'Aurore" in 1886, which was a collection of poems about the Russo-Turkish war. In 1888 she met Queen Elisabeth of Romania, who essentially treated her as a substitute for a daughter lost to illness. Having no heirs, King Carol I adopted his nephew, Ferdinand of Hohenzollern, in 1889; a romance between her and Ferdinand developed, which the Queen encouraged. However, the 1866 constitution made it unlawful for the heir to the throne to marry a Romanian. At that point, Queen Elisabeth was exiled for two years, and she was banished to Paris for life. In France her literary career flourished. Over the years she authored two novels, "Amor Vincit" in 1908 and "Le Sortilege" in 1914, as well as five volumes of poetry, three of Romanian folklore, two memo