Cantacuzino family - Wallachian Parvu branch

***This branch descends from Table-Servant Parvu, second of the name and title and older brother of Great Ban Matei. Noteworthy are his two great-grandsons, brothers Grigore and Constantin.

***Grand Palatine Grigore Cantacuzino married Luxita Kretzulescu and had three daughters ( Zoe, wife of Gheorghe M. Ghica, Countess Marie de Castillon and Smaranda, wife of Prince Dimitrie Moruzi ) and a son. This son was Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino ( 1833-1913; see picture ), famous for being the wealthiest Romanian of his age, especially because he had oil-rich estates, the industrial exploitation of which began during his lifetime. Among his properties: the Floresti ( Prahova ) estate with the replica of the Trianon which he began ( and didn't finish ) as a gift for his granddaughter Alice ( see picture ); the Zamora Manor in Busteni; the estates at Filipesti and Jilavele; the Cantacuzino Palace ( see picture ), built in Bucharest on Victory Road in 1901-1903, designed by the architect Ion D. Berindey in the Louis XIV style; the impressive family vault in the Bellu Cemetery. Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino ( known as 'the Nabab' for his impressive wealth, 'Nabab' being an administrative title of the Middle East and Persia ) was Mayor of Bucharest ( 1869-1870 ), Justice Minister ( 1870 ), Minister of Agriculture, Trade and Public Works ( 1870; 1873-1875 ), Finance Minister ( 1875-1876 ), President of the Chamber of Deputies ( 1889-1891; 1900-1901 ), President of the Senate ( 1892-1895; 1911-1913 ), President of the Council of Ministers ( 1899-1900; 1904-1907 ), President of the Conservative Party ( 1899-1907 ). The fountain that was built during his time as mayor in what was to become the Carol I Park bears his name ( see picture ). He was married first to Princess Zoe Bibescu ( daughter of Gheorghe Bibescu, Lord of Wallachia 1842-1848 ), who died after only one year of marriage, and then to Ecaterina Baleanu, daughter of Nicolae Baleanu and of Irina Vacarescu. Ecaterina, who always had to live under the shadow of her husband's first wife, founded the Saint Catherine Orphanage, the most important one in Bucharest ( next to the Triumphal Arch, Ion I.C. Bratianu Square ) and gave birth to six children ( two daughters and four sons ):
******- Irina, who married first Radu Kretzulescu and then ( after a nasty divorce ) Nicolae Ghica, son of the famous Ion Ghica;
******- Alexandra, who married Barbu Catargiu, son of diplomat Alexandru C. Catargiu;
******- Mihail G. Cantacuzino ( 1867-1928 ) ( 'Misu' ), Conservative politician, Mayor of Bucharest ( 1904-1907 ) and Justice Minister ( 1910-1914; 1916-1918 ), Ephor of the Civil Hospitals; he married Maria Rosetti-Tescanu ( 1879-1968 ), the famous Maruca Canatcuzino, of broad culture and active presence on the high-class social scene; she was the lover of the great composer George Enescu ( see pictures of them and of their country house in Tescani; they also owned Cantacuzino Palace and lived in a second smaller residence in the palace's courtyard ), whom he married after her husband's death in a car accident. With Mihail she had two children:
*********- Alice, wife of Prince Mihai Sturdza;
*********- Constantin M. Cantacuzino ( 'Bazu'; 1905-1958 ), pioneer of Romanian aviation ( see picture ); between the two Wars he had become so famous that there was even a children's rhyme about him; his daughter is Ms. Maria-Ioana Cantacuzino, writer ( also known under the pen name of Oana Orlea );
******- Nicolae G. Cantacuzino, who married Georgette Ghika-Brigadier, daughter of diplomat Emil I. Ghika and had five children ( Stefan Cantacuzino married a Norwegian or Swede, Margareta Florescu, Senta Bossy, Andrei Cantacuzino who died during WWII and George-Henric Cantacuzino who committed suicide ); Margareta ( Marga or Magda ) married famous genealogist George D. Florescu and they lived in her father's house on General Budisteanu Street, formerly Manea the Baker Street.
******- Serban G. Cantacuzino, who married Ecaterina Sturdza-Miclauseni, daughter of George Sturdza-Miclauseni, and had no children; it seems he had a rare skin disease and committed suicide; they adopted their nephew, son of Serban's sister Irina, who bore the name Matei Ghica-Cantacuzino and married no less than five times;
******- Grigore G. Cantacuzino ( 'Griguta' ), Conservative politician, Mayor of Bucharest ( 1913 ) and Minister of Industry and Trade in the infamous Marghiloman cabinet ( 1918 ); as can be seen, he was in the pro-German branch of the Conservative Party, while his brother Mihail was in the pro-Entente one. He married Alexandrina Pallady ( 1881- 1944 ), more widely known as Didina Cantacuzino, an interesting character of her age, who managed to be both an orthodoxist-nationalist militant and a founding mother of Romanian feminism; they had three sons:
*********- Gheorghe G. Cantacuzino, archaeologist, who married Zoe Grecianu and was father of Mrs. Ileana Dugan and Ms. Ioana Cantacuzino;
*********- Alexandru G. Cantacuzino, Iron Guard militant, who in spite of his high connections was murdered by Police in September 1939, during the wave of killings that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Armand Calinescu; his daughter Smaranda married Radu Rosetti ( of the Raducanu branch, the general's grandson );
*********- Constantin G. Cantacuzino.

***Constantin Cantacuzino, brother of the Grand Palatine Grigore, was Grand Chamberlain and then Regent of Wallachia ( 1848-1849 ), installed by Turkey and Russia after the 1848 Revolution was crushed; he married Zoe Slatineanu and had four children:
******- Alexandrina, wife of General Gheorghe Manu.
******- Ioan C. Cantacuzino, Minister of Religious Faiths of Wallachia ( 1859; 1861 ), Justice Minister of Wallachia ( 1859; 1861 ) and of Romania ( 1866-1867 ), president of the Court of Cassation, he married Maria Mavros, daughter of General Nicolae Mavros and of Princess Sevastia Sutu and had the following children:
*********- Zoe, wife of Dimitrie A. Sturdza-Miclauseni ( D.A. Sturdza );
*********- Sevastia, wife of Petre P. Carp;
*********- Alina, wife of Ioan ( Jean ) Miclescu;
*********- Olga, wife of George Miclescu, brother of the previous;
*********- Elena Sturdza;
*********- Constanta Romalo;
*********- Maria, married to Prince Mihail C. Sutzu, pioneer of numismatics in Romania;
*********- dr. Ioan I. Cantacuzino ( 1863-1934 ), founder of the Romanian school of bacteriology and of the institute that bears his name ( see website with picture ); also member of the Romanian delegation at Versailles ( 1919 ) and minister without portfolio ( 1919-1920 ); he married Elena Bals, daughter of Alexandru Bals ( Brosteni branch ) and Ruxandra Sturdza-Miclauseni.
*********D.A. Sturdza and Petre P. Carp were both leaders of the Conservative and Liberal parties, respectively. The only place where they would speak to each other was the house of their mother-in-law ( on Lady's Street, on the corner with Victory Road ). Another residence of the family was the country house in Calinesti, Prahova county.
******- Grigore C. Cantacuzino ( 'Grigri' ), politician, General Director of the Theatres ( 1884 - 1898 ), Ephor of the Civil Hospitals; he married Elena, daughter of dr. Apostol Arsaki, politician and head of government under Alexandru Ioan Cuza; they had a daughter Alexandrina, while from her previous marriage to Dimitrie Manescu-Filitti, Elena had two daughters, the second of whom, also named Elena, is widely supposed to have been Cantacuzino's biological daughter. Alexandrina married first Prince Ferdinand Ghika ( son of Grigore V Alexandru Ghika, Lord of Moldavia 1849-1856 ) and then General Iacob ( Jacques ) Lahovary. Elena married Constantin Balaceanu-Stolnici. Grigore Cantacuzino's will left a lot of property to ( or even favoured ) Elena, although she wasn't officially his daughter; this was the cause of a rift between the two husbands ( Lahovary and Balaceanu-Stolnici ), ending in a duel ( no victim ). Among the properties left to Elena was Cantacuzino's own house in Bucharest ( Orlando Street, next to Victory Road ), designed by Johannes Schultz from Vienna, the architect that also designed Peles Castle itself. The house ( in fact only half of it ) is now owned by Elena's grandson, Mr. Constantin Balaceanu-Stolnici, a famous figure in Romania.
******- Adolf Cantacuzino, magistrate, father of Scarlat ( 'Charles-Adolphe', poet and diplomat, died in Communist prison; he lived in a house on Berthelot Street ) and Adolf A. Cantacuzino.

Cantacuzino family - Wallachian branch (1)

***This branch was founded by the Grand Chamberlain Constantin Cantacuzino, the most influential noble of his time. He was assassinated in 1663 at the orders of Grigore Gheorghe Ghica, Lord of Wallachia. He built country residences in Mărgineni and Filipeștii de Târg and founded the monastery in Mărgineni, now gone. From his marriage with Damsel Elina, daughter of Radu Șerban, Lord of Wallachia ( 1602-1611; 1612 ), he had 6 sons and several daughters. Since his eldest son, High Steward Drăghici, died a bit prematurely, it was his second son, Grand Chancellor Șerban, who obtained the throne when the family attained power ( Lord of Wallachia 1678-1688 ). His other sons were Princely Table-Servant Constantin ( perhaps the most famous intellectual of the so-called 'Cantacuzine Renaissance' in Wallachia, author of History of Wallachia father of Ștefan Cantacuzino, Lord of Wallachia 1714-1716 ) and of High Chancellor Radu ( see his tombstone, formerly in the Cotroceni Convent ), High Steward Mihail Cantacuzino ( famous founder of the Colțea Establishments in Bucharest, nowadays hospital, of the Sinaia Monastery, of the church in Fundeni etc. ), Sheriff Matei ( see his tombstone in Cotroceni; his son, Steward Toma, joined the Russians with his soldiers in the battle of Stanilesti 1711, one of the causes of Brâncoveanu's fall ) and Steward Iordache ( see his tombstone, formerly in the Cotroceni Convent ). One of the daughters was the mother of Constantin Brâncoveanu, one of the most important Lords of Wallachia ever ( reigned 1688-1714 ). Regarding Ștefan Cantacuzino, he was deposed by the Turks after the Sultan had grown tired of the inter-Cantacuzene intrigues. More precisely, Princely Table-Servant Constantin and High Steward Mihail had been to a great extent the power behind the throne during the reign of their nephew Constantin Brancoveanu, but they began to grow apart, especially on the subject of Brancoveanu's foreign policy. The two uncles apparently brought about his deposition by the Sultan ( followed by execution ) and Ștefan's appointment in 1714. Two years later, Mihail himself became discontented and tried to cause his nephew's deposition. The Sultan not only deposed Stefan but had all three Cantacuzino men arrested, brought to Istanbul and assassinated/executed. His wife wandered through Europe and found refuge in Saint Petersburg, where her son Constantin was a Russian general, whereas her other son Radu settled in Austria ( as 'Rudolf Kantakuzen' ) and distributed membership in fictitious orders of chivalry.

***The Wallachian branch is further subdivided into the Drăghici branch and the Princely ( or Râfoveanu ) branch. High Steward Drăghici had a son, Princely Table-Servant Pârvu Cantacuzino; from his marriage with Ilinca, daughter of Mareș Băjescu, Great Ban of Craiova, he had two sons ( Great Ban Matei and Table-Servant Pârvu ), who gave birth to two further sub-branches ( the former also known as the Măgureanu branch, from their estate, where Drăghici had a palace built, now in ruins ).

***Great Ban Matei was the father of three eminently pro-Russian brothers who were very active during the Russian occupation of 1769-1774: Great Ban Mihai Cantacuzino followed the Russians when they left; in Russia he finished his History of Wallachia ( Istoría tis Vlachías ) and wrote his Cantacuzenes' Genealogy ( Ghenealoghia Cantacuzinilor ); his wife Elena was the daughter of High Treasurer Ianache Văcărescu and her dowry included Văcărescu's Orchard in Bucharest, where Cantacuzino had a small monastery built, namely the Daughter-House of the Bishopric of Râmnic, demolished in 1876 ( the Romanian Athenaeum was built in its place ). Another son, Radu ( or 'Rodion' in Russian ) was colonel of a regiment of Wallachian volunteers in Russia in the 1768 - 1774 War and was married to Ecaterina, daughter of Ioan Mavrocordat, Lord of Moldavia; some of his Russian descendants married Orlovs and Naryshkins and his grandson Rodion, owner of the Kantakuzenska estate, was the son-in-law of Count Mikhail Speransky, the 'father of Russian liberalism', and his descendants were themselves not only princes Kantakuzen, but also counts Speransky; among them, Prince Mikhail, Rodion's grandson, married Julia Dent Grant, the eldest of General Ulysses Grant's grandchildren ( and the only one born at the White House, in 1876 ). Another son, Great Ban Parvu, founded Măgureanu's Church in Bucharest ( demolished in 1895 ) and died fighting the Turks in the battle of Comana in 1769, during the Russo-Turkish War, as head of a corps of Wallachian volunteers ). A fourth brother, Constantin, married Safta, of the Moldavian Deleanu branch of the family. His descendants, living in Moldavia, were called the Măgureanu-Deleanu branch. Among these descendants:
******- Maria Cantacuzino, whose second husband was the French Impressionist painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes ( see );
******- Ioan Cantacuzino, her brother, briefly Interior Minister of Moldavia ( 1861-1862 ), married to Ecaterina Cantacuzino-Pascanu;
******- Vasile Cantacuzino, her other brother, revolutionary in 1848;
******- Matei B. Cantacuzino ( 1854-1925 ), his son ( 'B' coming from a Latinised version of Vasile ), jurist, Rector of the University of Jassy, Minister of Religious Faiths and Public Education ( 1918 ), Justice Minister ( 1920 ); his daughters Ioana and Elisabeta Cantacuzino married politician Grigore Filipescu and aviator Radu Beller respectively. See Grigore Filipescu's and his wife's grave and Elisabeta Beller's, both in Bucharest's Bellu Cemetery. The two sisters' niece, Lucia Cantacuzino, married dr. Matei Bals;
******- Elena, the latter's sister, married the painter Eugen Ghika-Budesti and was the mother of the architect Nicolae Ghika-Budesti;
******- Ioan, their brother, see his grave in Bucharest's Bellu Cemetery;
******- Nicolae B. Cantacuzino, their other brother, diplomat, ambassador to Switzerland ( 1911-1912 ) and Austria ( 1920-1922 ); he married Princess Marcela Bibescu, daughter of Prince George Bibescu and of Countess Valentine of Caraman-Chimay;
******- Emanuel N.B. Cantacuzino, their son, married Stefania Bellu, granddaughter of Alexandru S. Bellu;
******- George Matei N.B. Cantacuzino ( or simply G.M. Cantacuzino 1899-1960 ), Nicolae's other son, architect; he coordinated the vital refurbishing works at the Mogosoaia Palace, owned by his uncle and aunt, Prince George-Valentin and Princess Martha Bibescu; he designed Hotel Rex in Mamaia, Hotel Bellona in Eforie and in Bucharest Elisabeta Palace, the building of the Industrial Credit Company, Chrissoveloni Bank, Carlton Building; he married Princess Alexandra ( Sanda ) Stirbey; her sister Marina and her husband were arrested at the end of the '40's together with G.M. after attempting to leave the country illegally. Unlike his relatives, G.M. didn't leave the country after being released; see picture
******- Mr. Serban Cantacuzino, their son, also architect, involved in conservation projects; he is linked with both Romania and the UK ( I think he left the country before WWII ); see picture
******- Marina and Ilinca, his daughters, live in London ( I believe the former is a journalist and the latter an artist ).

Cantacuzino family

This family presumably descends from John VI Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor ( 1347 - 1353 ). It is also known as Cantacuzene. Andronikos Cantacuzene was a wealthy Greek who supported Michael the Brave, Lord of Wallachia ( 1593 - 1600 ), in obtaining his throne. Of his four sons, Constantin, Gheorghe and Toma settled in the two Romanian Principalities, while Mihai remained in Constantinople and was the father of Dumitrașcu Cantacuzene, Lord of Moldavia ( 1674 - 1676; 1684 - 1685 ). Constantin was head of the Wallachian branch of the family and Gheorghe of the Moldavian one.
- Wallachian branch
- Moldavian branch

Introduction

This blog is dedicated to Romanian aristocratic families, especially of the 19th and 20th centuries. It doesn't pretend to be exhaustive, it's more like a collection of electronic notes designed to help me put my information in order. Comments and especially additional information are welcome in English, Romanian, French etc.