BBC Online :
Romania’s former King Michael I has died in Switzerland at the age of 96, officials say.
He was diagnosed with cancer last year. King Michael ruled Romania twice: first in the 1920s, when he was just five years old, and then again in the 1940s.
He was one of the last people alive to have served as a head of state during World War Two.
After the conflict, he was forced to abdicate by the
ountry’s communists, who ruled until the revolution of 1989.
In a BBC interview in 2011, the former monarch described how the authorities had blackmailed him: “If you don’t sign this thing now, we’re going to have to shoot or kill 1,000 people that are already in prison.”
Romania’s former King Michael I has died in Switzerland at the age of 96, officials say.
He was diagnosed with cancer last year. King Michael ruled Romania twice: first in the 1920s, when he was just five years old, and then again in the 1940s.
He was one of the last people alive to have served as a head of state during World War Two.
After the conflict, he was forced to abdicate by the
ountry’s communists, who ruled until the revolution of 1989.
In a BBC interview in 2011, the former monarch described how the authorities had blackmailed him: “If you don’t sign this thing now, we’re going to have to shoot or kill 1,000 people that are already in prison.”
