44 Facts About Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen debuted in France as a public lecturer and author of several books on political history, then returned to Romania as a judge and member of the University of Bucharest faculty.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was a National Liberal and close to that party's leadership, before embarking on a full-time diplomatic career, originally as Romania's envoy to Switzerland and to the League of Nations.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's activity centered on debilitating Hungarian irredentism, and, progressively, on the easing of tensions between Romania and the Soviet Union.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen tacitly gave the Soviet Air Forces access to Romania's airspace, and refused to participate in a partition of Carpathian Ruthenia.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen never returned home, but remained in Florence, a supporter of the Allies and agent of the Romanian National Committee.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen Petrescu was born in Bucharest on August 24,1884, the son of a public servant and his schoolteacher wife.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen worked as a lawyer from 1911 to 1916, while teaching economics at Bucharest University.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was at the center of political life from his Paris years, when he joined the Romanian Students' Circle.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen lectured with the latter at Voltaire Coffeehouse, appearing alongside some of the country's future statesmen and scholars: Nicolae Titulescu, Ion G Duca, Dimitrie Draghicescu, and Toma Dragu.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen is known to have published, as Petresco-Comnene, the collection.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen described both as "my friends", "sensible, unpretentious kids".

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's career took an upward turn after Romania entered World War I, initially as a noted campaigner for the cause of Greater Romania; he was tasked with explaining Romania's capitulation.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen cultivated the friendship of Transylvanians in exile, in particular Aurel Popovici and Iosif Schiopu, who became his trusted advisers.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen approached the Czechoslovak National Council and established a working relationship with Edvard Benes.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's input was valued by the Transylvanian delegate, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, who kept him as an adviser during meetings with Robert Lansing.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen soon joined the National Liberal Party, and, in the November 1919 election, he won a Durostor County seat in the Assembly of Deputies.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was noted for proposing legislation that made striking illegal, pressuring the Vaida-Voevod cabinet to look into allegations of Bolshevik influence inside the Socialist Party of Romania.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen worked with representatives of both Poland and Lithuania against a hostile Soviet Union, which they viewed as a rogue state.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen adamantly refused, noting that America was "radically incompatible" with his character; he asked instead to be moved to Rome.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen served there between February 9,1927 and May 1937, interrupted by a mandate to the Holy See.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen dismissed the claim, and reassured Lithuania that Romania wanted to act as a mediator in the territorial conflict.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen reported that, with backing from Gustav Stresemann, he could solve another major dispute, surrounding the Romanian Treasure, but that his government overseers never let him.

Comnen's stint in Vatican City was prompted by the government reshuffle ordered by Prime Minister Maniu, and disappointed Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen: he was negotiating an economic treaty with Germany and, moreover, preferred the post of ambassador to Italy.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was responsible for obtaining from Pope Pius XI a quick recognition of Carol II as King of Romania, following the latter's coup, and for ending a long-standing dispute surrounding the corporate status of Romanian Roman Catholic churches.

The latter part of his term coincided with Iorga's premiership: Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen advised the cabinet not to engage in "violent and hasty" actions against the Hungarian Catholic clergy, while personally ensuring cooperation between the state and the Greek-Rite Catholics.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's dealings with the Holy See were opposed by rival Onisifor Ghibu, who claimed that Petrescu-Comnen was a disgrace to his office.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was prudent in his contacts with the Nazis, and his diplomatic notes of the time were ambivalent.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's advancement was supposed to placate Germany, which had been unpleasantly surprised by the PNC's downfall; it was greeted by the Italian ambassador, Ugo Sola.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was described in the Journal des Debats as primarily a Francophile, but continued to be seen by the Auswartiges Amt as a friend of Germany in the cabinet, on par with Alexandru Averescu and Constantin Argetoianu.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's term coincided with the major developments in Carol's feud with the Iron Guard; Prime Minister Miron Cristea served Carol's own authoritarian regime, which consolidated a single-party National Renaissance Front.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was subject to increasing pressures from the Germans to reorient his country's foreign policy towards the Tripartite Pact.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen was reserved about the Soviets' intervention on Czechoslovakia's side; he insisted that Romanian cooperation with the Red Army would only come with a recognition of Bessarabia as Romanian territory.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen represented it at the League of Nations, where he recognized the Italian annexation of Ethiopia as irreversible.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen managed to sign accords to that effect, despite German pressures on Yugoslavia.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen then refused Polish offers for Romania to annex parts of that region, in Northern Maramures.

In parallel to his purely political work, Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen worked with George Oprescu and Marie of Romania, organizing the exhibit of German old master prints.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen took up his new office in Rome on January 20,1939, visiting Pacelli, now Pope Pius XII, at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo to present him with works of Romanian ethnography and assess his views on international politics.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen remained in Rome after the outbreak of World War II a week later.

In September 1940, King Carol was ousted and an Axis-aligned Iron Guard government took over in Bucharest; Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen, identified as a pillar of the old system, was sacked within days.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen's office was unofficially taken over by Guardist Ioan Victor Vojen, who, upon his arrival, prevented Comnen from attending any official function; the aging diplomat withdrew to Fiesole, on a vineyard which had once belonged to Niccolo Machiavelli.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen found a backer in the government secretary, Alexandru Cretzianu, but was denied full reemployment.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen joined Gafencu in cooperating with the European Movement International, while maintaining links with the RNC, now an anti-communist organization, building bridges between the latter and the Holy See.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen resumed his publishing in 1957, with the memoirs of his 1919 trip to Hungary and the historical review.

Nicolae Petrescu-Comnen later married and took the name Irene Bie.