Marie was born into the British royal family. Marie's early years were spent in Kent, Malta and Coburg. After refusing a proposal from her cousin, the future King George V , she was chosen as the future wife of Ferdinand, then crown prince of Romania, in Marie was crown princess between and , and became immediately popular with the Romanian people.
After the outbreak of World War I , Marie urged Ferdinand to ally himself with the Triple Entente and declare war on Germany , which he eventually did in During the early stages of fighting, the national capital Bucharest was occupied by the Central Powers. Marie, Ferdinand and their five children took refuge in Western Moldavia.
There, she and her three daughters acted as nurses in military hospitals, caring for soldiers who were wounded or afflicted by cholera. After the war, on 1 December , the historical region of Transylvania , following Bessarabia and Bukovina , united with the Old Kingdom. Marie, now queen of Greater Romania , attended the Paris Peace Conference of , where she campaigned for international recognition of the enlarged Romania.
In , she and Ferdinand were crowned in a specially-built cathedral in the ancient city of Alba Iulia , in an elaborate ceremony which mirrored their status as queen and king of a united state. As queen, Marie was very popular, both in Romania and abroad. In , she undertook a diplomatic tour of the United States, alongside her children Nicholas and Ileana. They were received enthusiastically by the people and visited several cities before returning to Romania.
There, Marie found that Ferdinand was gravely ill and he died a few months later. Now queen dowager , Marie refused to be part of the regency council which reigned over the country under the minority of her grandson, King Michael. In , Marie's eldest son Carol , who had waived his rights to succession, deposed his son and usurped the throne, becoming King Carol II.
