She was a commoner, the daughter of an army officer. He was the Crown Prince of Rumania. Nevertheless, in the desperate and melodic tradition of Ruritania, Carol Hohenzollern and Jeanne ("Zizi") Lambrino met, loved, and decided to marry. Risking not only position but honor for the sake of his true love, Carol deserted the regiment that he was commanding on the Eastern front in World War I, bundled Zizi into a staff car, and eloped with her across the Russian border. In a Russian Orthodox church at Odessa they were married on Aug. 31, 1918. After the honeymoon, Carol's...
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