Born in the German town of Gotha,the future Queen of Yugoslavia was the second daughter of Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Great Britain. She was educated in Romania and in England ; she was fluent in Romanian,French,English,German and Serbian.

In 1922, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was still unmarried. Before the Great War,the Tsar gave his approval to Alexander, Crown Prince of Serbia at the time, to propose his oldest daughter,Grand Duchess Olga,but the Imperial family was killed in the revolution,and Alexander could never get over the death of his fiancee-to-be,and that was oneof the reasons he refused to recognize the new regime of the Soviet Russia. Educated in Russia, godson of Tsar Alexander III.,nephew of the Grand Duchesses and brother-in-law of an Imperial Prince Ioann, he was disgusted by the Communists who took control over Russia and he generously accepted the Russian emigrants who came to Yugoslavia.

Because of the Ekaterinburg murders,a new bride had to be found for the King,and the courtiers noticed beautiful young Princess Marie from the neighbouring  Romania,Olga's second cousin. The alliance between the Houses would also be important for political reasons,and the couple engaged in the beginning of 1922.The magnificent wedding took place in Belgrade on 8th of June the same year.Two royal palaces in the center of the capital,renovated after the war,were the stage for the festivities,and accepted guests from many European Dynysties.
The Romanian royal couple,Princes Charles and Nicolae and Princesses Ileana and Elena of Romania,Grand Duchess Kira and Princess Jekaterina and Prince Vsevolod of Russia, Prince Alfonso and Princess Beatrice de Orleans,Irene of Greece and Duke of Genova were present.The Duke of York came as a representative of King George V.,who was the best man.

On September 6th year,the young Queen gave birth to a boy,who was christened in the Royal Chapel and received name Peter. His Godfather was George V.,as he was the best man at the wedding of his parents,and,by Serbian Orthodox tradition,also had to be a godfather of the children born from the same marriage.The Duke of York came to Belgrade again to represent his father,this time with his wife,Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,the present Queen Mother of Britain,a good friend of Prince Paul,Alexander's cousin. Day after the christening,Prince Paul married Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark,and the celebrations continued.

Although Marie was raised on the Romanian Royal Court,she was not quite pleased with the role of a Queen. The British Minister in Belgrade wrote in his annual report to the Foreign Office for year 1925,in the section "The Royal House":
"The Queen,unfortunately,still shows little understanding for the duties of her position; regarding the fact,that there are no ladies-in -waiting in her attendance,who could have a positive influence on her in that direction,and  regarding that she often visits her mother,the Queen of Romania,she  gives somewhat pathetic impression of a monarch who enjoys no sympathies in her new homeland".

But soon,she began to fulfil her duties,and became a popular figure in Yugoslavia,and even nowadays,older people remember her with admiration and respect. The power of the Sovereign of the Yugoslav State was big and after the abolition of the Constitution in 1929 it became enormous,and Queen Marie had a considerable influence in the politics of the
country until the death of her husband. Political opponents of King Alexander's regime were accusing the Royal couple of some unsolved murders of notable opposition leaders.In 1928,a Montenegrin MP shot the president of the Croatian Peasant's Party in the National Assembly,and another MP said that the assassination was planned on the Court. Allegedly,it was quite clear  in the political circles that the Queen herself was behind the plot.
While on Bled,where the Royal Family had its summer palace,mother and daughter,Queens of  Romania and Yugoslavia and their guests were talking about the situation in Romania,which was on the edge of  revolution,because of the congress  of the Peasant's Party.The Yugoslav Queen said that the situation in Yugoslavia is not that bad,because one of the oppositon leaders was already eliminated,and the other one will be in the near future.Or, as one of the Yugoslav ladies-in-waiting wrote in her diary: "Der eine ist erledigt,nur noch den anderen,und alles wird gut".

Today,it is hard to say whether anything of this is true.Undoubtably,Marie was a powerful person in her country,but it can't be proved that she really had anything to do with the murders.The only evidence,the words she said on Bled, proove nothing; they simply illustrate the Queen's opinion- in any case,she would not say anything in front of her guests if she would be involved in the plot.

After her husband's assassination,his cousin,Prince Paul became the Regent for Marie's son, 11-years old King Peter II.,and little was left of her political power. But she continued to involve herself,as,besides the King,senior member of the House, in public life and charitable work - she was a patron of many hospitals,orphanages and schools. She gave birth to two more sons-Princes Tomislav (1928) and Andrej (1929),and was a good,dedicated mother.
Rather than receptions and balls at Court,she prefered intimate evenings in the circle of her family.The Queen was a simple person,she was wearing the same winter coat for years and rather  walked in the capital than riding in a car. 

When she came to Yugoslavia,then styled as the Kingdom of Serbs,Croats and Slovenes,the main Royal residences were Old and New Palace,standing one opposite to another,in the heart of Belgrade.Although much smaller than Winter Palace in St. Petersburg or Buckingham Palace,they were luxurious and spacious,but too big for a pleasant family life and surrounded with the city,and there were no possibilities for the Royals to get away from Court life and courtiers. Therefore,King Alexander decided to built a new palace,outside the capital,and he did choose a hill,or more a plateau than a hill, on the outskirts of Belgrade where the new house should stands.The hill,called Dedinje,was not included in the town at the time,and only a few villas stood there.The construction began in the mid-twenties and  was finished in 1929.
The palace was built in Serbo-Byzanthine style,and the interior was inspired by Renaissance and Russian medieval art. Beautiful furniture and precious paintings were set in it,some from the Royal collections and other bought or made specially for the new residence.
It was a charming,comfortable new home,completely private;premises of the Marshalate of the Court , Guards , Mews ,kitchens ,etc. ,were all separated from this small palace.
The park was vast,with pavillions and colonnades, and on one side of the house, terraces, planned by the manager of  chateau de Versailles, were descending down the hill. 
The family moved in in 1929; the palaces in the town were still used for larger receptions and celebrations and courtiers and senior servants of the Household continued to live in it.

After the death of her husband,Marie,who became the Queen Mother, spent less time in Belgrade.She loved Slovenia,country in the northwest of Yugoslavia,where she had two residencies,the summer palace on Bled and a private resort complex on an Alpine plateau.She also had a palace and a yacht in the Montenegrin Littoral.In this houses,and on the family estate of Oplenac,she spent most of her time. She also traveled a lot,and after 1938,she mostly lived in England. That's where she was when she heard that Yugoslavia was attacked by Germany,on April 6th  1941.

During the war,she was the Deputy President of the Yugoslav Red Cross ( her son Prince Andrej was President), and  was active in humanitarian work. The war came to an end,but the monarchy was abolished on 29th November 1945,six months after the liberation of Yugoslavia,by the Communist Government of Marshal Josip Broz Tito. On 8th March 1947,the Yugoslav Government seized  the property and the citizenship of all the members of the House of Karageorgevitch,including Queen Maries. Marie continued to live in England,where she had an estate,and she died there in 1961.She was buried on the grounds of the Frogmore Mausoleum in Windsor,by the resting place of her great-grandmother,Queen Victoria.

Source: Mitja Cosic