Romanian dynastic honours in today’s Republic: a historical perspective

On 10 May 2008, King Michael, the former sovereign of Romania, created two dynastic medals and awarded them to a group of loyalists during a public ceremony. Since then, the Romanian Royal Family’s decorations (consisting today of four medals and two dynastic orders) were bestowed upon a total close to 500 individuals and 100 organisations. National and foreign dignitaries, active military officers and public institutions accepted royal honours while the state proved perfectly tolerant and the national press entertained the idea of “royal decorations” being equally valuable, from a symbolic standpoint, as those conferred by the state. In our study we will examine Romania’s contemporary royal honours, providing a comparative perspective with other royal “fontes honorum” in Europe’s former monarchies.