Prince Paul doubts the deoxyribonucleic acid of King Mihai

Prince Paul will request the opening of the succession, following the ruling issued by the Romanian court last week, by which Carol Mircea Grigore, father to Prince Paul, was acknowledged as first legitimate son and rightful heir of Carol the Second, as sources close to Prince Paul told us. They said that it is not out of question that Prince Paul would ask his uncle King Mihai to take a DNA test (which contains deoxyribonucleic acid).

On the other hand, it would seem it was not the first request of this type made by the family of Prince Paul, as the quoted sources said.

On the other hand. The Royal House does not acknowledge the decision of the High Court which established the belonging of Carol Mircea Grigore to the Royal Family.

Last week, in a press release, the Romanian Royal House said that the decision "does not create any dynastic right, nor does it establish the belonging of the individual in question, Mircea Grigore Lambrino, nowadays deceased, to the Royal Family. This is also valid for its descendents, regardless of who they may be, and in his position as Head of the Romanian Royal Family, His Majesty King Mihai I is the only one who can decide on dynastic matters".

Prince Paul can not request the making of such a paternity test, because such a test can only be requested by the parents of the person in question, in this case those of King Mihai, lawyer Gheorghe Piperea considers: "Even if it were found that the DNA of his majesty King Mihai does not match that of Carol the IInd, that would have no effect at all, neither from a monarchic point of view, nor in terms of assets, because things of a civic nature have been set up for a long time, and as for the monarchic aspect, ties don't necessarily have to be blood ties; what matters is that King Mihai is recognized as such all over Europe".

• The marriage between Carol the IInd and Zizi Lambrino

Lawyer Piperea does not agree with the decision recently passed by the Romanian courts either. Among other things, he claims that the marriage between Carol the IInd and Ioana Valentina (Zizi) Lambrino was annulled through an irrevocable court ruling, as the marriage between the two was morganatic anyway (ed. note: a marriage between a man in a royal or princely family and a woman of a different social status, which will only be considered his wife from a legal point of view, without being elevated to his social status): "From a civil law standpoint, it is a null marriage".

"A marriage which has been declared null and void will produce no legal effects. It is as if it had never existed, it has no effects in terms of estate, paternity or dynasty".

In other words, neither Carol Mircea, born from this marriage, nor his son Prince Paul would have any right to the royal fortune, in the opinion of lawyer Gheorghe Piperea.

Historians however, have a different opinion.

Historian Alex Mihai Stoenescu said: "The marriage of Carol the IInd to Zizi Lambrino was perfectly legal. It was transcribed as an official act in the documents of our country and was never annulled legally. Even though at the time, politicians have issued some documents in this regard, they can be annulled at anytime, because they have no legal value. This is not a divorce. They were married in Odessa, in the Russian territory, in the official presence of the Romanian representative, and a Romanian court couldn't have annulled a marriage which occurred in Russia. In order for it to be annullable, a dispensation from the Russian Church is required, given the fact that it was a religious marriage, but such a document never existed".

Mihai Stoenescu said that "there are no doubts that Paul is the nephew of Carol the IInd. The latter acknowledged Carol Mircea in various official letters as well. The family of Prince Paul also won the lawsuits which confirm the fact that Mircea Grigore is the son of Carol the IInd in France and in Portugal and therefore, part of what King Mihai inherited through succession also belongs to Paul, except for the properties of Săvârşin, which King Mihai acquired with his own money".

Historian Stoenescu said that His Royal Highness Prince Paul bought part of the succession rights from Elena Lupescu, his step mother. He is convinced there will be a lawsuit concerning the inheritance of rights between his Royal Highness King Mihai and Prince Paul.

• The inheritance of Carol the 2nd

One of the issues which many of us are raising is whether King Carol the IInd and, respectively, his son Carol Mircea Grigore have inherited any part of the fortune of the royal family, considering the fact that King Ferdinand, the father of Carol the IInd, has disinherited the latter, through a codicil to his will of 1925.

On this subject, the opinions are divided as well.

Historian Mihai Stoenescu says that, from a historical point of view, in 1926 Prince Carol the IInd lost all the succession rights and of membership and of belonging to the Royal House, as he was removed from the will through a Parliament's bill. At the time, it was decided that the fortune of Ferdinand would go to Mihai, as he became a king in 1927, when he was only six years old, in sub-regency: "In 1930, Iuliu Maniu and PNŢ, which had a majority of over 70% in the Parliament, issued all kinds of documents through which they dethroned Mihai and put Carol on the throne, through a coup d'etat. Carol the IInd and the Parliament subsequently issued a document which legalized his rule and restored all his rights, including those to the estate, by annulling the three year reign of Mihai".

Gheorghe Piperea claims that this law "only solves the issue of the succession to the throne, but does not annul in any way the codicil to the will of Ferdinand, because a will can not be annulled through any law, only through a legal decision".

He stressed however, that Ferdinand could not have stripped Carol the IInd of all his inheritance rights: "There exists a forced heirship, in other words part set by the law which belongs to the descendants. This only amounts to 1/4 of the inheritance. The only thing that can be left through the will is the remaining quota, that is the remaining 3/4 of the inheritance".

In this case, if Carol the 2nd only earned 25% of the fortune of Ferdinand, Carol Mircea would be supposed to receive half of that 1/4, in other words, 1/8 of the fortune of Ferdinand, with the other 1/8 belonging to King Mihai, brother of Carol Mircea. In the opinion of lawyer Gheorghe Piperea, this would be the quota of the royal fortune that would devolve to Prince Paul.

In this context, the representatives of the Family of Prince Paul remind that King Mihai abdicated, and after December 30th, 1947 (between 1940 and 1947 Mihai was once again the King of Romania), he took on the name of Argeşeanu and forewent all his rights and deeds as well as those of his heirs.