This account on x did an AI color version of the wel known blac and white portrait of Princess Ileana of Romania wearing the tiara left to her by her mother, Queen Marie, as recounted below.
As we all know, after many travails, Princess Ileana became Abbess Alexandra of an OCA convent she founded in 1967 in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, the Orthodox Convent of the Transfiguration
"Here's the story about that tiara :
Princess Ileana had got word that her mother was dying, so she and her Habsburg husband, Archduke Anton, legged it to Bucarest. They motored overnight, had to get a visa to enter Romania in Hungary, the consulate was closed, their car broke down. Finally they took a train. Whew.
When she got off the train, who were there to greet her but her two sisters, the Queens.
You all know Stabby Eyes, Queen Elizabeth of Greece.
And middle sis, Queen Marie of Yugoslavia, who was nice but avaricious"
As they were hugging their baby sister, with tears in their eyes, they whisper in her ear:
"Mummy left you money, Bran Castle, and her best tiara.
You can keep the tiara and the Castle
We are taking the money."
Ileana was too stunned to reply.
That's their eldest brother, King Carol II of Romania, looking on as Ileana greets Mignon of Yugoslavia in an earlier occasion.
The reason Ileana had to get a visa to enter her own country is that he had barred his sister from living in Romania. He was jealous of her popularity.
Queen Marie and King Ferdinand of Romania had 6 kids.
But except for Ileana and the baby Mircea, who died, they were like snakes to each other.
https://x.com/vbspurs/status/2053892109950980329
It's little known that Princess Ileana and her Habsburg husband spent 2 years in Argentina, from 1948 to 1950
AI summary, edited :
"Following her exile from Romania in 1948, Princess Ileana lived in Buenos Aires with her husband, Archduke Anton of Austria-Tuscany, and their six children, she supported the local Romanian exile community before moving to the United States.
After the communist takeover of Romania, Ileana was forced to leave in 1948, traveling through Switzerland before settling in Argentina.
In Buenos Aires, her home became a meeting point for European aristocrats exiled after World War II.
During her stay, she worked to support other Romanian refugees fleeing the Soviet bloc.
Due to economic instability and personal challenges, she moved to the United States in 1950, eventually becoming a nun (Mother Alexandra).
Later, her eldest daughter, Marie Ileana, and her husband died in a plane crash in Brazil.
Princess Ileana of Romania
Princess Ileana of Romania
Re: Princess Ileana of Romania
The family in Argentina
"Princess Ileana (and the entire Royal Family) was deported by the Soviets from the land of her birth because they had taken over after the Iron Curtain fell.
She was lucky to escape with her life, considering how some royalties fared at the hands of Communists."[i.e. the Tsar and his relatives in Russia]
She had spent WWII as a field hospital nurse and had been so good at it that she even become a surgeon in her own hospital! She had somehow managed to open up her own hospital (named for her mother, Queen Marie) by cajoling, begging, demanding supplies fr Generals and politicians
Because modern people hear "royalty", some folks think these Princes and Princesses and Kings are simply rolling in wealth.
What I need you to understand is that it is true that they have land and some possessions, but these folks are usually cash poor.
That was Ileana's case.
I have had conflicting information from several sources as to how much Ileana got for the tiara when she sold it to Cartier. This includes from her own children!
But the conservative estimate is that she got 100k US dollars for it.
She used about 40k of that to purchase a house
And this folks, is the house Princess Ileana bought with the tiara money.
This is just one estimate.
Others put the estimate for this rambling home in Newton at 5m US dollars today.
The Princess who grew up surrounded by dozens of servants suddenly had to cook supper on her own.
This is Ileana in her 1950s kitchen.
She had bought some of the furniture and pans at Goodwill and Filene's basement.
Doesn't that put a smile on your faces?
The Princess greeting her neighbourhood postman, who usually had some deliveries for "The Habsburgs". Heh
Princess Ileana holds her oldest son's gift to her that Christmas: pots and pans he bought at Woolworth's.
Were they poor? Of course not.
But money was tight.
The Princess didn't buy herself a Mercedes. But she did buy a German car -- a little Volkswagen Beetle, because Stefan, the oldest, could fix it easily if it broke down.
That's why Princess Ileana of Romania had to sell her mother's precious historic tiara. To live again.
Remember I told you she had also taken a bit of Romanian soil with her alongside the tiara? [We missed that, somehow]
She kept that. She called it "her greatest treasure."
Some things aren't for sale."
Re: Princess Ileana of Romania
Queen Marie of Romania's tiara, the real name of which is the vladimir Sapphire Kokoshnik Tiara. Kokoshnik is the name of the traditional Russian women's headdress
"The sapphire on her crown weighed more than 137 carats… and carried the fading glory of an empire already doomed to disappear.
Queen Marie of Romania knew how to command a room long before she ever wore a crown. Born Princess Marie of Edinburgh and granddaughter of Queen Victoria, she possessed the beauty, confidence, and charisma that made European newspapers obsessed with her. But among all the jewels she wore, few carried as much mystery and imperial drama as the breathtaking Vladimir Sapphire Kokoshnik Tiara — a masterpiece born in the final glittering years of Imperial Russia.
The spectacular tiara had first been commissioned in 1909 by Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia from the legendary house of Cartier. Designed in the traditional kokoshnik style inspired by ancient Russian court headdresses, the jewel blazed with diamonds surrounding an enormous 137.2-carat cushion-cut sapphire.
The stone itself seemed almost unreal, glowing with a deep royal blue that symbolized both luxury and power. At the time of its creation, the Romanov dynasty still appeared untouchable, their palaces overflowing with unimaginable wealth and ceremony. Yet beneath the diamonds, revolution was already quietly approaching.
When Queen Marie later appeared wearing the tiara, it represented far more than beauty alone. Marie herself had become one of the most admired royal women of the twentieth century — elegant, intelligent, and politically influential during one of Europe’s darkest eras.
As Queen of Romania beside King Ferdinand I, she played a critical diplomatic role after World War I, fighting fiercely for Romania’s interests while many male politicians underestimated her. Foreign leaders who expected a decorative queen instead encountered a woman with determination, charm, and remarkable political instinct.
But royal jewels often survive longer than the worlds that created them.
The Russian Empire that produced the sapphire tiara collapsed into violence only a few years after the jewel’s creation.
Thrones vanished, dynasties fell, and countless Romanov treasures disappeared forever into exile, theft, or revolution. Yet this extraordinary tiara endured, carrying with it echoes of candlelit palaces, imperial ceremonies, and the final years of Europe’s old monarchies.
To many observers, Queen Marie wearing the Vladimir Sapphire Kokoshnik Tiara symbolized more than royal fashion.
It was the meeting of two royal worlds: the fading splendor of Imperial Russia and the rising influence of modern Romania. Behind every diamond stood ambition, survival, and the haunting beauty of a vanished age"