Nicolae Titulescu
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Nicolae Titulescu (March 4, 1882, Craiova - March 17, 1941, Cannes) was a well-known Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, and President of the League of Nations. He served as president of the League of Nations for two terms. He was a member of the Freemasonry.
Born in Craiova to a solicitor, he passed through his childhood at his father's estate in Tituleşti, Olt County. Upon graduating with honours in 1900 from the Carol I High School in Craiova, he studied law in Paris, obtaining his doctorate with the thesis Essai sur une théorie des droits éventuels.
In 1905 he returned to Romania as a professor of law at the University of Iaşi, and in 1907 he moved to Bucharest. Following the Romanian elections of 1912, he became a parliamentarian with the Conservative-Democrat Party led by Take Ionescu, and five years later he became a member of the government of Ion I. C. Brătianu as Minister of Finance.
In the summer of 1918, together with other prominent Romanians (Take Ionescu, Octavian Goga, Traian Vuia, Constantin Mille) he formed, in Paris, the National Romanian Committee, with the purpose of promoting in international public opinion the right of the Romanian people to national unity, the committee being officially recognised as the plenipotentiary de facto organ of the Romanian nation.
From 1927 to 1936, Nicolae Titulescu was at various times the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Beginning in 1921 he functioned as the permanent representative of Romania to the League of Nations in Geneva, being chosen twice (in 1930 and 1931) President of that organization. In this capacity he fought for the preservation of stable borders through the maintenance of peace, for good relations between both large and small neighbouring states, for the respect of the sovereignty and equality of all nations in the international community, for collective security, and the prevention of aggression.
In 1936, King Carol II removed Titulescu from all official positions, asking him to leave the country. Settling first in Switzerland, he later moved to France. While in exile, Nicolae Titulescu continued through conferences and newspaper articles to propagate the idea of the preservation of peace, perceiving the danger of a war that was to come all too soon after. He returned to Romania in November, 1937, partly through the efforts of Iuliu Maniu.
Nicolae Titulescu died, following a long illness, in 1941. He is buried in the cemetery next to St. Nicholas Church, in Braşov.
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