Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of both Moldavia and Wallachia in January 1859 — two separate votes, two nominally distinct thrones — effectively unifying the Romanian principalities through a constitutional loophole the Great Powers had not anticipated and could not easily reverse. The act forced diplomatic recognition of a de facto unified Romanian state years before formal independence from Ottoman suzerainty was achieved in 1877.
Cuza was deposed in 1866 by a coalition of political opponents who smuggled themselves into his bedroom at three in the morning and forced his abdication at gunpoint.
Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of both Moldavia and Wallachia in January 1859 — two separate votes, two nominally distinct thrones — effectively unifying the Romanian principalities through a constitutional loophole the Great Powers had not anticipated and could not easily reverse. The act forced diplomatic recognition of a de facto unified Romanian state years before formal independence from Ottoman suzerainty was achieved in 1877.
Cuza was deposed in 1866 by a coalition of political opponents who smuggled themselves into his bedroom at three in the morning and forced his abdication at gunpoint.