King Carol: The Playboy Prince's Gold-Plated Walther PP

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July 10, 2023

King Carol: The Playboy Prince's Gold-Plated Walther PP

By Kurt Allemeier

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King Carol II of Romania was known as the “Playboy Prince” for his wandering eye and trying to play footsie with both sides in the lead-up to World War 2 only to be dethroned.

Born in 1893, his great-grandmother was Queen Victoria of Great Britain. A womanizer, his behavior was disapproved by his great uncle, King Carol I, who believed he lacked discipline. He renounced the throne as crown prince in 1925, only to retake the throne from his 5-year-old son in a coup d’etat before being dethroned for good in 1940.

King Carol II, despite his complicated history, ruled a country that had valuable oil fields wanted by German leadership. He sought to balance Germany’s influence by courting France first, then Great Britain. As war broke out, Romania declared its neutrality. A pre-war factory engraved presentation Walther PP was commissioned by German leaders to present to King Carol II and is available in Rock Island Auction Company’s August Premier Auction. The gold-plated pistol has complete coverage with English scroll engraving on the slide, frame, barrel, trigger, and trigger guard highlighted with numerous Edelweiss flowers. The grips have an inset on the left side that features the Romanian crown over the initials “CC.”

This the the earliest known factory engraved Walther Model PP, displaying early features like the fat safety lever, split firing pin, large ring hammer, 90 degree safety, and early style magazine. The gun is profusely embellished with very tight fancy English scrolling and numerous edelweiss flowers. The gun was likely given to King Carol II of Romania by Adolph Hitler.

King Carol and His Early Philandering Ways

It should say something that in 1957, four years after the death of King Carol II, author Barbara Cartland, best known for her bodice-ripping romance novels, penned a biography of him. The Playboy Prince had an eye for the ladies from an early age and was accused of fathering two illegitimate children before he was 19. His great uncle, King Carol I had him commissioned in the 1st Prussian Guards in 1913 in hopes that it would plant some discipline in Crown Prince Carol.

King Carol I died in September, 1914 and Ferdinand I ascended to the throne. His son Carol II visited the Russian court in 1914 for the possibility of an arranged marriage to Grand Duchess Olga, but there was no romantic spark between the two. Carol preferred commoners for their spontaneity, informality, humor, and passion.

In 1918 after deserting the Prussian Guards, Carol spirited away Joanna Marie Valentina “Zizi” Lambrino, the daughter of a Romanian general and a commoner, and secretly married her in Odessa, Russia. The marriage was annulled the following year though the couple continued to live together and had a child in 1920. Pressured by the royal family to give up the relationship he went on an around-the-world tour.

This view of King Carol II's gold-plated Walther PP shows the grip with a Romanian crown and the King's initials.

King Carol Marries a Princess

In 1921, Carol married Princess Helena of Greece and Denmark. They proved to be a mismatched pair. The couple had a son, Michael, who was scandalously born seven months after the wedding. She disapproved of his cheating ways, while he found her stiff and formal.

Being married with a legitimate heir didn’t stop Carol from his libertine ways. He also believed she had taken up with another royal, Prince Amedeo of Savoy, Duke of Aosta. The couple split when Carol found the woman he would be with for the rest of his life, divorcee Elena “Magda” Lupescu.

King Carol II of Romania and his mistress, Elena "Magda" Lupescu, who he married in 1947 in Rio de Janeiro.

King Carol Renounces the Throne but Returns

As Crown Prince, he renounced the throne in 1925 and moved to Paris where he lived openly with Magda. He and Princess Helena divorced in 1928. His father died in July 1927, making 5-year-old Michael king and a regency was installed.

Tired of the footloose life in Paris, Carol returned to Romania in 1930 and reclaimed the throne to the pleasure of Romanian political leaders, effectively committing a coup d’état of his son. Michael, now 9, took the demotion to crown prince in stride. He is quoted by The New York Times as saying “I have been terribly tired of wearing long trousers and a stiff hat and going to places I don’t want to go at all.”

Now King Carol II, he ignored the constitution in creating a royal dictatorship and became personally involved in governing Romania. He strengthened ties with France as a way to offset territorial threats from Hungary.

A closeup of King Carol II's Walther PP revolver shows the beautiful English scroll engraving and gold-plated finish.

King Carol Faces Fascist Machinations

In the mid-1930s, Nazis started organizing ethnic Germans within Romania and increased relations with right-wing political parties like the National Christian Party and Iron Guard. By 1936, King Carol recognized that France was unable to respond effectively to German re-militarization so he worked to improve relations with Germany and received an assurance of neutrality in territorial disputes with Hungary.

To curry favor with Germany, King Carol installed Octavian Goga, a right-wing Christian nationalist, as prime minster. He also signed a treaty with Germany bringing Romania into Germany’s sphere of economic influence. King Carol believed Goga would be easy to control and ignored Goga’s persecution of Romanian Jews.

About this time, King Carol likely received this pre-war, gold-plated, factory-engraved Walther PP from Adolph Hitler himself as he grudgingly accepted Germany’s protection while trying to keep fascist elements at bay within Romania. This eye-catching firearm features Zella-Mehlis Guild/Walther engraving of tight English scrolling over its near entirety and has numerous Edelweiss blossoms on it that highlight the pistol’s gold finish. The grip on the left features the Romanian crown and the initials “CC.” The earliest known factory engraved Walther PP, it has a low serial number, fat safety lever, a split firing pin, large ring hammer, 90 degree safety, and early magazine style.

This is another closeup view of the fine scroll engraving and gold-plated finish of this Walther PP given to King Carol II of Romania by Adolph Hitler.

Goga, the prime minister, realized his weak position within the government and built ties with the right-wing Iron Guard. King Carol seized emergency powers and fired Goga, naming a completely loyal follower as new prime minister. He also imprisoned the head of the Iron Guard and several other high-ranking party members. As the Iron Guard started terrorizing Romania, Carol ordered the execution of jailed Iron Guard leaders in November, 1938.

At the same time, he reached out to Great Britain, knowing France was too weak to offset Germany. He also began courting Poland as an ally. Germany pressured Romania to give it control of Romanian oil fields, but Carol denied the demand with the support of Great Britain.

Alarmed by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the ensuing invasion of Poland in 1939, Carol declared his nation’s neutrality. At Germany’s urging, the Iron Guard assassinated the current Romanian prime minister on Sept. 21, 1939. Royal supporters rounded up nine Iron Guard members and executed them, followed by the execution of 242 more Iron Guard members a short time later. None of the Iron Guard members stood trial.

King Carol II gave up his claim to the throne as crown prince as he chased women but took the throne back from his 9-year-old son, Michael. He ruled from June 1930 to September 1940 when he was pushed out by pro-Fascist forces.

King Carol gets Out-Maneuvered

King Carol thought he had the Iron Guard under his thumb, and as Germany gained control of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, Carol started leaning toward supporting Germany. Meanwhile, that same success was emboldening the outlawed Iron Guard.

As the political maneuvering was going on and the Great Depression continued, Magda was the most hated woman in Romania with her extravagant purchases of clothes and jewelry. The Romanian fascist party, the Iron Guard, partly financed by the Nazis, called the king weak and dominated by Magda.

In June 1940, the Soviets demanded control of the same oilfields Germany wanted. The next month, Carol leaned into his relationship with Germany and appointed an Iron Guard member, Ion Gigurtu as the new prime minister. He also accepted territorial concessions to Hungary negotiated by Germany and Italy. With these latest actions, King Carol was losing favor with Romanians as the summer wore on.

As a last ditch effort to regain popularity as September approached, King Carol appointed a new prime minister, Ion Antonescu, an opposition leader who was tied to the Romanian elite and believed wouldn’t turn on the king. Carol had miscalculated. Antonescu demanded Carol’s abdication on Sept. 6, 1940, only days after the new prime minister took office. King Carol and Magda fled the country by train, lying on the floor of their carriage to dodge Iron Guard gunfire as they neared the border. The couple fled with three poodles, two Pekinese, King Carol’s stamp collection, and their servants.

The many dalliances of King Carol II received a romance novel treatment in the biography by author Barbara Cartland released in 1957, four years after the king's death.

King Carol in Exile

King Carol and Magda traveled to Mexico where they lived in Mexico City. He sold part of his stamp collection to raise funds. He tried to set up a free Romanian government but was so unpopular he couldn’t spur interest.

The altitude in Mexico City affected Magda’s health so the couple moved to Rio de Janeiro where they married in 1947 before moving to Portugal where he died in 1953 at age 59. Magda lived until 1977. King Michael didn’t attend his father’s funeral in Portugal nor the re-interring of his remains in Romania in 2003.

Cartland’s book came out in 1957. Usually her books featured handsome cads who find true love in the arms of beautiful, young, virginal women. The tagline for the biography, titled “The Scandalous Life of King Carol,” had the tagline “The intriguing story of a modern monarch who chose a bizarre path to love.”

Even The New York Times noted King Carol’s many self-inflicted scandals in his obituary, noting “Carol suffered from a romantic weakness which made it impossible for him to accept cheerfully the daughter of royalty assigned to him by protocol.”

King Michael of Romania both preceded and succeded his father, King Carol II. He is credited with firing the Nazi-leaning prime minister and renouncing Romania's alliance with Germany in 1944. He was forced to abdicate in 1947 by the Soviets. After the fall of communism, King Michael who was still immensely popular in Romania wasn't allowed to return except for a few brief visits until his citizenship was restored in 1997. He died in 2017 at the age of 97. The photo on the left is King Michael in 2007. The photo on the right is Time magazine from 1927 when he was first crowned king.

Michael, Son of King Carol

Following the abdication of King Carol, Michael was king once again at the age of 18. He was given few royal duties but as he matured, he planned, secretly meeting with anti-government forces that were gaining momentum as the German war machine began to stall.

In the summer of 1944, he publicly spoke against Antonescu and demanded he surrender to the Soviets. The prime minister refused, and when summoned to the palace Michael again demanded the prime minister surrender to the Soviets. After declining again, Michael had him arrested. The prime minister was held in the vault that once held the stamp collection of King Carol.

When German pilots bombed the palace in an attempted assassination, King Michael immediately renounced his country’s alliance with Germany resulting in vague threats from the Germans, which he promptly dismissed. Loyal Romanian forces attacked German forces inflicting serious losses.

King Michael received the Legion of Merit from the United States and the Order of Victory from the Soviet Union. He was forced to abdicate under pressure from Moscow in 1947. He lived in exile in Switzerland. He returned in 1990, welcomed by adoring crowds, but the elected government banished him again. He returned in 1992 and still found to be immensely popular but not allowed to return again for five years. During that 1997 visit his citizenship and his castle were returned. King Michael died in 2017 at the age of 96.

The gold-plated and factory engraved Walther Model PP of King Carol II of Romania.

King Carol and a Gold-Plated Walther PP

Known as “the Playboy Prince” for his footloose ways in his youth, King Carol II embraced authoritarian tendencies as he tried to manipulate allies and enemies alike in an effort to maintain a power that wouldn’t last. This Walther PP is an amazing piece that recalls the intricate diplomatic maneuvers of the inter-war period and the history of a ruler who scandalized his country before taking the throne then was forced to abdicate as World War 2 flared around him.