Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza (also known as Alexandru A. Cuza, A. A. Cuza, or Sașa Cuza; 1862 or 1864 – April 4, 1890) was a Romanian aristocrat and politician. He was the eldest of the sons adopted by Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza and his consort, Elena Rosetti-Cuza. Public opinion and historians generally agree that both Cuza brothers were Cuza's natural sons from his mistress Maria Catargi-Obrenović, though another hypothesis has them as born to Maria from her liaison with Cezar Librecht, the Postmaster General and spy chief. His biological and his adoptive mother both belonged to the boyar aristocracy of Moldavia. Through Catargi, Alexandru and Dimitrie were half-brothers of Milan I Obrenović, the King of Serbia, and of General Radu Catargi. During his brief political activity, Alexandru was repeatedly described as a Russophile or more specifically an agent of the Russian Empire, resembling in this Maria and her father, Costin Catargi.
Alexandru Ioan's reign marked the first political union between the two Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia), which was to form the Kingdom of Romania in 1881. In the 1860s, his father made a conscious attempt at establishing a Cuza dynasty—this, together with his dissolute lifestyle, helped coalesce the "monstrous coalition", which fought to have him deposed. When Alexandru Ioan was ousted and replaced with Carol of Hohenzollern (February 1866), Alexandru Al. Ioan followed him into exile, graduating from the University of Paris. He settled back in Romania after his father's death, attempting to create a current of opinion against Carol, and being presented, by his partisans and adversaries alike, as a competitor for the throne. He rallied with the opposition Conservatives for the election of January 1888, winning a Third-College seat in the Assembly of Deputies, whereupon he resigned. In mid 1888, he helped journalists Alexandru Beldiman and Grigore Ventura found an anti-Carlist newspaper, Adevărul.
Alexandru stepped back from politics shortly after the peasant riots of 1888, having been identified as their inspiration, and possibly co-instigator. Also that year, when Dimitrie Cuza died, he was the last surviving direct male heir of the Cuzas, and the sole landowner of Ruginoasa. Gravely ill and allegedly incapable of fathering children of his own, he disinherited his adoptive mother, while favoring his young wife, Maria Moruzi. After his death in Madrid, the Cuza estate, including Ruginoasa manor, passed through his widow onto the Moruzis and the Brătianus. The dying out of the Cuza line remained contested into the 20th century, with inaccurate reports that "Cuza's son" was leading the peasants' revolt of March 1907, and with new claimants appearing in both France and Chile.
Biography
Adoption scandal According to most accounts, Sașa Cuza and his younger brother Dimitrie were born from a liaison between the Domnitor and his mistress Maria, the Moldavian boyaress, previously married into the House of Obrenović. Their maternal grandfather was Costin Catargi(u), a great landowner and Moldavian separatist, who had opposed Cuza's arrival to the throne in 1859.Iftimi, pp. 229–232Theodor Rășcanu, "Ex-regina Natalia a Serbiei n'a murit?", in Universul Literar, Issue 21/1938, p. 7 Through Maria, the two Cuza boys were also half-brothers of Milan, the future Serbian King, who was Maria's eldest son.Filitti (2005), p. 5; Kellogg, p. 31 On the Catargi side, their uncle Alexandru and cousin Alexis were noted career diplomats,Filitti (2005), pp. 5–6 while another uncle, George, was Domnitor Cuza's aide-de-camp.Iftimi, pp. 229, 232
Through Alexandru Ioan, Sașa descended from a matrimonial alliance of Moldavian boyars and Phanariotes. His paternal grandmother, Sultana Cozadini, was the niece of Moldavian Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes.Sturdza, pp. 15–16 The Cozadini family was an Italo–Greek branch of the Bolognese Gozzadinis—who had owned parts of Kea under the Duchy of the Archipelago, afterwards merging into the Phanariote community of Istanbul.Sturdza, passim Memoirist and social historian Radu Rosetti, who was also a relative of Cuza's wife Elena "Doamna", claims that there was no actual blood connection between Alexandru Ioan and his purported sons. He believes that their actual father was Maria's other lover—Cezar Librecht, the Belgian-born Postmaster General of Romania.Radu Rosetti, Amintiri. Ce am auzit de la alții. Din copilărie. Din prima tinerețe, pp. 374–375. Bucharest: Humanitas, 2017. By 1864, Librecht was presiding upon a quasi-legal secret service, which ran political errands for Cuza Sr.David, pp. 85–86
Domnitor Cuza's legal marriage, meanwhile, produced no heirs. He and Elena were virtually separated by 1866, and, sources attest, were at best friendly to each other.Chiper, pp. 173–174 Roxana Roseti, "Elena Cuza, minunata și demna principesă", in Jurnalul Național, March 1, 2004 Maria Obrenović was allegedly a Russophile, like her father, and rumors spread that, as part of this political intrigue, she intended to have Cuza divorce her rival.Iftimi, p. 232 Instead, the boys were successively adopted by Elena: Alexandru on (that is, shortly after the Domnitor had effected a coup, deposing his critics in Parliament), Dimitrie on November 17/5, 1865.Chiper, pp. 173, 175; Kellogg, p. 31 As noted by scholar Mihaela Mudure, "Elena never complained about her husband's filandering, nor about her inability to birth a child, who would have consolidated her marital relationship with Alexandru Ioan Cuza. [...] She records the appearance of two children, born to her husband's mistress, as a normal occurrence. In the adoption papers, they are mentioned as 'bereft of parents'".Mudure, p. 359 Both boys were baptized Romanian Orthodox, having as their godfathers the Domnitors associates, Librecht and Iordache Lambrino.Nicoleta Roman, "Copilul și familia în Valahia primei jumătăți a secolului al XIX-lea", in Luminița Dumănescu (ed.), 9 Ipostaze ale copilăriei românești: istorii cu și despre copiii de ieri și de azi, p. 94. Cluj-Napoca: International Book Access, 2008.
Their acceptance into the family came just as Cuza's authoritarian reign descended into administrative chaos, and as the monarch himself was calming his nervous states with alcohol and womanizing.Kellogg, pp. 12–13 The adoption act was especially alarming for the growing camp of anti-Cuzists, many of whom were dedicated supporters of rule by a foreign prince. As noted by scholar Frederick Kellogg: "On some Romanian palates, Cuza's amorous affair smacked of a scheme to establish a native dynasty with bastards as heirs to the crown."Kellogg, p. 13 The fledgling Romanian state was still under tutelage by a consortium of European powers—of these, the Ottoman and Russian Empires strongly objected when the Domnitor issued documents formally addressing the newly adopted Sașa as Principe or Beizadea ("Prince")."Iașiĭ 5 Iunie. Revistâ Politicâ ", in Progresul, Vol. III, Issue 61, June 1865, p. 1 Among those who suggest that Cuza intended to make Sașa his successor is researcher Alexandru Lapedatu, who also concluded that, at the time, Cuza was overreaching, isolated, "surrounded and adored by his favorites".Dan Mircea Mazălu, "Aspecte ale domniei lui Al. I. Cuza în opera istoricului Alexandru Lapedatu", in Annales. Series Historica, Vol. 13, 2009, p. 149 According to historian Barbara Jelavich, while some in Cuza's party did look to Maria Obrenović's sons as the natural successors to the throne, "there was so much opposition to the idea of a native prince, as well as to Cuza himself, that this alternative had little chance of success."Barbara Jelavich, Russia and the Formation of the Romanian National State, 1821-1878, p. 147. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press, 2004. She continues: "By 1865 Cuza had won a formidable array of opponents on both the right and left."
Gender historian Nicoleta Roman uses the Cuza family as a study case of illegitimacy and adultery in the two principalities. She notes that the adoption was probably accepted by Elena after her husband's pressures. This is also reported by military historian Constantin Chiper, according to whom Elena Cuza was at first "revolted" by the monarch's requests, and remained "profoundly depressed" by his affair.Chiper, p. 174 The truth concerning Sașa's birth was a matter of public record, and a subject of great irritation for Elena's clan, the Rosettis. According to Roman: "Contemporaries knew about [the liaison] and did not refrain from condemning the great prince's immoral behavior, nor from turning the subject into a scandal where the mother was the main culprit." Nevertheless, both Alexandru and Dimitrie were still being introduced as orphans. In one such version of events, they were presented as Bucharest children, rescued from the 1864 flood.Chiper, pp. 173–174; Filitti (2005), p. 5 Cuza remained adamant that the boys had "no known parents"—this definition is preserved in his testament of January 1873, whereby Elena and the two male heirs are each granted a third of the Cuza family estate.Filitti (2006), pp. 7–8 The document nominated Metropolitan-Primate Calinic Miclescu and Efrem Ghermani as, respectively, caretaker of the estate and tutor of the Cuza boys.Filitti (2006), p. 8
Claimant With Elena's acquiescence, Maria had been by Alexandru Ioan's side during much of his career, and was found with him when, in February 1866, a "monstrous coalition" conspiracy deposed and exiled Cuza. Sorin Semeniuc, "Cuza a ieșit prin budoar din istorie", in Ieșeanul, January 4, 2005Filitti (2006), p. 7; Kellogg, p. 13 By contrast, George Catargi was involved in the conspiracy on its Masonic side, having joined the Wise Men of Heliopolis Lodge.Dan Berindei, "Societăți secrete și loji francmasonice (III)", in Magazin Istoric, July 1992, p. 53 During Cuza's arrest, the conspirators separated Cuza and Maria from Elena, who was left with the two boys.Chiper, p. 175 Seen as especially dangerous, Librecht was imprisoned by the 1st Chasseurs Battalion. He was subject to several quick trials over charges of embezzlement, and, though eventually acquitted, was asked to leave the country.David, pp. 86–91 In parallel, the deposed monarch was also pressured into exile. Elena decided to join him, even as the Rosettis (some of whom had participated in the coup), asked her to sue for a divorce.
The Cuzas moved periodically, from Austria-Hungary to the Kingdom of Italy, then to the German Empire, at Heidelberg.Chiper, pp. 175–176 Later in 1866, Romanian representatives had selected Carol I as the Domnitor, and had agreed to a dynastic rule under his House of Hohenzollern. Although Cuza Sr was no longer welcomed in Romania, his wife and the two boys made occasional returns to their domain at Ruginoasa.Grigoraș, p. 14 In mid-1867, Carol visited Elena in Ruginoasa, reportedly informing her that he did not oppose Alexandru Ioan's return as a loyal subject."Ce e nou? Domnitorulu Romaniei", in Familia, Vol. III, Issue 28, July 1867, p. 338 Maria Obrenović followed the Cuzas into exile, accompanied by her nephew Efrem Ghermani.Filitti (2006), p. 7 In Vienna, she gave birth to another son, Radu. Purportedly fathered by a Russian officer (Konstantinovich), he was given the family name Catargi, and grew up to become a Romanian Land Forces general.