Paul Philippe of Romania

In 1918, the crown prince of Romania (the future King Carol II) married Zizi Lambrino. The wedding was annulled the following year because it contravened the royal house's statute. Although Lambrino was from a Phanariot Greek, former Byzantine noble family (Rangabe-Lambrino), and her father Constantin Lambrino, was a general in the Romanian army, she was still considered a commoner. The marriage took place without the consent of the king. The couple had one son, Carol Lambrino, the father of Paul Hohenzollern. In 1921, Crown Prince Carol married Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark, and they had a son who became King Michael I of Romania. Born in Paris, Paul Hohenzollern attended a Jesuit school. He was thirteen years old when his father married an American woman and the family moved to London to be nearer to European royalty. He has worked as an art dealer and property developer. In 1996, at Cașin Church, Hohenzollern married Lia Georgia Triff, a native of Dearborn, Michigan, who had previously divorced lawyer Melvin Belli. The couple have one child, Carol Ferdinand; the infant was baptised in 2010, with President Traian Băsescu taking on the role of godfather. ==Criminal conviction==

On 17 December 2020, the High Court of Cassation and Justice sentenced him to 3 years and 4 months of prison, in the Băneasa Farm trial. On the evening of the charge, police visited his home in Bucharest, however, according to his wife, Lia, he was in Portugal. The police arrived at his house at 8:30 p.m. The American-born Lia did not speak to the press. and released pending an extradition trial. In late November 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal denied the request for extradition, labeling it politically motivated. After being arrested in Malta, the Maltese authorities ordered his extradition to Romania. In first instance, his extradition was denied, but this has been appealed by the prosecution, and a retrial has been ordered. In July 2024 he has been granted bail till the trial ends. He is not allowed to leave the country, and has to report to the Police daily. The extradition demand was rejected, due to Romanian prisons being severely overcrowded. On 7 April 2025, Paul was arrested in France on the basis of a European arrest warrant. His extradition to Romania was refused again in July 2025. ==Succession claim==

Hohenzollern claims to be the rightful head of Romania's royal house on the grounds that Prince Carol's marriage to Zizi Lambrino, carried out in a religious ceremony in Odessa, was never annulled in an Orthodox Church, thus rendering his subsequent marriages bigamous. The ruling has unclear implications with regard to both throne and property succession. The leadership of the royal house remains contested, while Hohenzollern's claim to 62.5% of royal property—the share of his father plus that of King Carol II's widow Elena Lupescu, which she granted to him—remains undefined and may refer either to the king's personal property or to that of the royal house, the boundary between which is not clearly drawn. Hohenzollern greeted the decision "with enthusiasm and responsibility", In the 2000 Romanian presidential election, Hohenzollern was an unsuccessful independent candidate. In 2005, Hohenzollern claimed that King Michael created and ran a Nazi state between 1940 and 1944, encouraging and approving the deportation and murder of Romanian Jews; as a result, he called for Michael's execution. Writing in The Jerusalem Post, historian Jean Ancel dismissed Hohenzollern's claims and praised the wartime actions of the king and his mother, Queen Helen. In 2011, when Michael broke off ties with the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen to form the House of Romania, Paul objected, labelling the move "an inexplicable gesture" severing "historical and dynastic ties" to the German house. In December 2011, Hohenzollern was named "Ambassador of Romanian-Chinese Friendship" in Beijing. After the 2012 final verdict of the Romanian Supreme Court of Justice recognising Paul as one of King Carol II's heirs, his uncle, King Michael I, reportedly invited Paul to reconciliation talks. In Romanian law dynastic rights, titles of nobility and the institution of the Royal House do not exist. == Notable published works ==

Presidential elections ==Notes==