Prince Barbu Alexandru Știrbey (; 4 November 1872 – 24 March 1946) was a Romanian aristocrat, politician, businessman and agriculturalist. He briefly served as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in June 1927.
Early life and ancestry Born into the prestigious House of Știrbey, he was the son of Prince Alexandru B. Știrbei and his wife, Princess Maria Ghika-Comănești (1851–1885), and grandson of another Barbu Știrbei (born Bibescu, adopted Știrbei), who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869. The Știrbey family was one of the more prominent and wealthier boyar (noble) families in Wallachia, and had been so since the 15th century.
Boyar Știrbey was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was famous in Romania for his work in modernising the vast estates he owned, and "his model farm was recognized for the exceptional quality of its products". Știrbey was a polished, cultivated aristocrat known in Romania as the "White Prince" on the account of his impeccable manners and the "strange hypnotic quality" of his eyes. In common with other members of Romania's Francophile elite who wanted to emulate France, Romania's "big Latin sister", Știrbey spoke immaculate French and was always dressed in a dapper style that followed the latest fashions of Paris.
He married his second cousin, Princess Nadèje Bibescu in 1895, daughter of Prince Gheorge Bibescu and Marie Henriette Valentine de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay. They had five daughters: Maria, Nadejda, Elena, Eliza and Catharina. As a scion of one of the oldest boyar families of Wallachia while also being a descendant of the well known Bibescu boyar family, which had provided several voivodes and hospodars over the centuries, Știrbey had a somewhat patronising attitude towards the Romanian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Romanian Hohenzollerns were a Catholic Swabian cadet branch of the Prussian Protestant branch of the Hohenzollerns; Știrbey noted that his ancestors had been ruling Wallachia while the ancestors of King Carol I were mere petty Swabian nobility.
Știrbey was one of Romania's richest men while also being one of its largest landowners. At Buftea, he owned 225 hectares of farmland and another 225 hectares of forestland; in the Olt County, he owned 325 hectares of farmland and another 2, 500 hectares of forestland; in Plugari, he owned 5, 200 hectares of farmland, and at Plopii-Slăvești, he owned 345 hectares of farmland. In addition, Știrbey sat on the board of directors of several of Romania's largest corporations, insurance companies and banks such as the Franco-Romanian Railway Materials Company, the General Insurance Company of Bucharest, and the Steaua Română oil company. Amongst his lands included 200 hectares of vineyards. Reflecting his interest in the Romanian community of Transylvania, which at the time was part of the Austrian empire, Știrbey was member of the board of directors for the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People. Keenly interested in agrarian modernization, Știrbey founded an American style vine nursery at his Buftea estate, using the latest in Californian viticulture techniques to make his famous Știrbey wine. In a successful experiment, Știrbey was able to attach Romanian grapes to American rootstocks. He was the first to grow cotton and rice within Romania. Știrbey also set up on his Buftea estate a dairy farm, a mill and in 1902 founded a cotton factory. The "White Prince" was well known in Bucharest high society for the huge wine cellars under his house in Bucharest, from which he served the wines from his lands.
The wines that Știrbey produced on his estate were well known in the 20th century, with the Orient Express carrying 'Dining Car Stirbey' and 'Muscat Ottonel Stirbey' wines. Baron Jakob Kripp, the husband of Știrbey's granddaughter, Ileana Stirbey, stated: "Barbu Stirbey carried on this legacy into the 20th century. He was an entrepreneur and very modern in his marketing, establishing a high-value brand for his wines. Putting the esteemed family name on the wine labels gave a guarantee of quality. He even hired a couple of young, creative Romanian artists to make a series of funny adverts for his wines." The British oenophilist Caroline Gilby described the Știrbey wines as becoming a very "strong brand" under the management of the "White Prince" who worked relentlessly from 1904 onward to promote his wines into becoming the best known wines of Romania.
The National Liberal politician Ion G. Duca described Știrbey: "In a country of talkative people, I haven't met a quieter man, in a society concerned with obtaining effect I haven't seen a man displaying more modesty...Still, behind this banal appearance a tremendously interesting personality was hidden, with penetrating astuteness, exceptional ability and great ambition; a bizarre mixture of willfulness and laziness, decisiveness and fatalism, indifference and slyness. Brave, at times even daring, even though he preferred shadow to light, a lover of combinations, even though never practising plotting, Ştirbey was the type of the Romanian boyar who knew how to be flexible and sneak by". Princess Ann-Marie Callimachi described him: "His manner was unassuming, but full of charm. He spoke little, but had a gift of persuasion and an instinctive psychological insight made him rarely miss his aim whenever he set himself one. Extraordinary was the way he always struck the right note". In 1907, Știrbey's sister, Elisa Știrbey married Ion I. C. Brătianu, a rising politician in the National Liberal Party, forming an alliance between the Știrbey and Brătianu boyar families. Like her brother, Elisa was described as having a "powerful personal magnetism", but unlike him with his love of secrecy and the indirect approach, her methods were blunt and direct.
Relationship with Queen Marie His real significance in Romanian history arises from his role as close confidant of Queen Marie, who was herself a highly influential figure in Romanian government circles prior to the accession of her son King Carol II to the throne in 1930. The American historian Paul Quinlan described Marie as: "...the classic fairy-tale princess. Highly intelligent, charming, outgoing, fluent in several languages, along with a gorgeous figure, golden hair, the bluest of eyes, and a beautiful face, the Crown Princess was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world." Marie was very charismatic and by the time she was 17 had already attracted several marriage proposals from various infatuated young men. Marie was on the verge of accepting a marriage proposal from Prince George (the future George V), the third in line to the succession in the British throne at the time, but her mother, who was desperate for her daughter to become a queen, hastily had her married off at the age of 17 to Crown Prince Ferdinand in 1892. Marie, who had a passionate and romantic personality, wrote in her diary shortly after marrying Ferdinand that he "was not the man to awaken interest in a young girl".
Știrbey first met Marie in 1907, and spent time in her company. Marie liked Știrbey because as one contemporary remembered "he treated her more like his equal" and was "never obsequious", behavior very much unlike most of the other boyars who wanted to ingratiate themselves with the royal family. To impress the British-born Marie, known to her friends as "Missy", Știrbey started to dress in the style of an "English gentleman". From 1907 onward, Marie frequently stayed at Știrbey's estate at Buftea, where the two were often seen riding horses together out in the countryside, leading to rumors about them in Bucharest. Știrbey was the reputed father of the last of Marie's children, Prince Mircea, and was quite possibly the father of Princess Ileana. It was often noted that Princess Ileana bore a marked resemblance to Știrbey, to such an extent that King Boris III of Bulgaria rejected her as a potential bride under the grounds that she was probably a Știrbey rather than a Hohenzollern.
Quinlan wrote: "Marie had her own private suite at Buftea, Ştirbey's estate, and he had his own apartment at both the Cotroceni and the royal palace in Bucharest. Their lengthy affair was so well known among the palace staff that Marie and Ştirbey hardly bothered to hide their feelings for each other within the confines of the royal palaces." Marie wrote in her 1935 memoirs The Story of My Life about the "White Prince": "No one had ever guessed what passions lay beneath his unbending pride". A secretive man, Știrbey preferred to stay out of the limelight, and to operate in the shadows, always pressing for someone else to carry out the policies he favored. When Știrbey's brother-in-law, Brătianu, was prime minister, his sister Elisa saw herself as the first lady of Romania. Elisa Brătianu had a longstanding feud with Queen Marie, forcing Știrbey into the uncomfortable role of the peacemaker as he sought to mediate between his sister and his lover.
Though Știrbey's title was only superintendent of the royal estates, which he held from 1913 onward, in charge of managing the vast estates owned by the House of Hohenzollern, he served as Marie's principal adviser on Romanian politics and economics. The Romanian Crown Domain as the lands owned by the House of Hohenzollern were known were profitable under Știrbey's management as he went about modernizing the agricultural and sylvicultural techniques on the farmlands and forestlands of the Crown Domain. The Crown Domain was divided into 11 districts, each one had a chief agronomist and a sylviculturist, who was reported directly to the superintendent of the Crown Domain based in Bucharest. Știrbey used his influence with Marie to favor the National Liberal Party as he was close to his brother-in-law Ion I. C. Brătianu, whose career benefitted greatly from his friendship. In opposition to King Carol I, Știrbey favored having Romania enter the First World War on the Allied side, seeing this as the best chance to gain Transylvania, a region of the Austrian empire with a Romanian majority, albeit with large Magyar and ethnic German minorities. "
On 27 September 1914, King Carol I died, and his nephew Ferdinand came to the throne, Marie's political influence increased as she dominated her husband. Marie once stated: "it had been the throne's salvation that I had taken the fiddle out of Ferdinand's hands-a habit I could never break once I had tried it". Charles de Beaupoil, comte de Saint-Aulaire, the French minister in Bucharest noted: "There is only man in Romania and that is the Queen". The half-British, half-Russian Marie tended to naturally favor the Allies. Marie was an outspoken champion of her "beloved England", and the German legation in Bucharest called her "the Entente in Bucharest".