Romanian historian, politician, literary critic and poet

Nicolae Iorga (Romanian pronunciation::; sometimes Neculai Iorga, Nicolas Jorga, Nicolai Jorga or Nicola Jorga, born Nicu N. Iorga; 17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet and playwright. Co-founder (in 1910) of the Democratic Nationalist Party (PND), he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' *embly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly (1931–32) as Prime Minister. A child prodigy, polymath and polyglot, Iorga produced an unusually large body of scholarly works, establishing his international reputation as a medievalist, Byzantinist, Latinist, Slavist, art historian and philosopher of history. Holding teaching positions at the University of Bucharest, the University of Paris and several other academic ins*utions, Iorga was founder of the International Congress of Byzantine Studies and the Ins*ute of South-East European Studies (ISSEE). His activity also included the transformation of Vălenii de Munte town into a cultural and academic center.

In parallel with his academic contributions, Nicolae Iorga was a prominent right-of-centre activist, whose political theory bridged conservatism, Romanian nationalism, and agrarianism. From Marxist beginnings, he switched sides and became a maverick disciple of the Junimea movement. Iorga later became a leadership figure at Sămănătorul, the influential literary magazine with populist leanings, and militated within the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, founding vocally conservative publications such as Neamul Românesc, Drum Drept, Cuget Clar and Floarea Darurilor. His support for the cause of ethnic Romanians in Austria-Hungary made him a prominent figure in the pro-Entente camp by the time of World War I, and ensured him a special political role during the interwar existence of Greater Romania. Initiator of large-scale campaigns to defend Romanian culture in front of perceived threats, Iorga sparked most controversy with his antisemitic rhetoric, and was for long an *ociate of the far-right ideologue A. C. Cuza. He was an adversary of the dominant National Liberals, later involved with the opposition Romanian National Party.

Late in his life, Iorga opposed the radically fascist Iron Guard, and, after much oscillation, came to endorse its rival King Carol II. Involved in a personal dispute with the Guard's leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, and indirectly contributing to his killing, Iorga was also a prominent figure in Carol's corporatist and authoritarian party, the National Renaissance Front. He remained an independent voice of opposition after the Guard inaugurated its own National Legionary dictatorship, but was ultimately **inated by a Guardist commando.

Contents

• 1 Biography
  • 1.1 Child prodigy and Marxist militant
  • 1.2 University of Iași and Junimist episode
  • 1.3 Studies abroad
  • 1.4 Return to Romania
  • 1.5 Opinions sincères and Transylvanian echoes
  • 1.6 Sămănătorul and 1906 riot
  • 1.7 Neamul Românesc, Peasants' Revolt and Vălenii de Munte
  • 1.8 1909 setbacks and PND creation
  • 1.9 Iorga and the Balkan crisis
  • 1.10 Ententist profile
  • 1.11 Iași refuge
  • 1.12 Greater Romania's creation
  • 1.13 Early 1920s politics
  • 1.14 International initiatives and American journey
  • 1.15 Prime Minister
  • 1.16 Mid-1930s conflicts
  • 1.17 1937 retirement and Codreanu trials
  • 1.18 Iorga's murder
• 2 Political outlook
  • 2.1 Conservatism and nationalism
  • 2.2 Antisemitism
  • 2.3 Geopolitics
• 3 Scientific work
  • 3.1 Iorga's reputation for genius
  • 3.2 Method and biases
  • 3.3 Iorga and Romanian ethnogenesis
  • 3.4 Byzantine and Ottoman studies
• 4 Cultural critic
  • 4.1 Beginnings
  • 4.2 Campaigns against modernism
• 5 Literary work
  • 5.1 Narrative style, drama, verse and fiction
  • 5.2 Memoirs
• 6 Legacy
  • 6.1 Scholarly impact, portrayals and landmarks
  • 6.2 Political symbol
  • 6.3 Descendants
• 7 Notes
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Biography

Child prodigy and Marxist militant

Memorial house in Botoșani

Nicolae Iorga was a native of Botoșani, and is generally believed to have been born on 17 January 1871 (although his birth certificate has 6 June). His father Nicu Iorga (a practicing lawyer) and mother Zulnia (née Arghiropol) belonged to the Romanian Orthodox Church. Details on the family's more distant origins remain uncertain: Iorga was widely reputed to be of partial Greek-Romanian descent; the rumour, still credited by some commentators, was rejected by the historian. In his own account: "My father was from a family of Romanian traders from Botoșani, who were later received into the boyar cl*, while my mother is the daughter of Romanian writer Elena Drăghici, the niece of chronicler Manolache Drăghici:... The name Arghiropol notwithstanding, my maternal grandfather from a family that moved in:... from Bessarabia". Elsewhere, however, he acknowledged that the Arghiropols were possibly Byzantine Greeks. Iorga credited the five-generation-boyar status, received from his father's side, and the "old boyar" roots of his mother (the Miclescu family), with having turned him into a political man. His parallel claim of being related to noble families such as the Cantacuzinos and the Craiovești is questioned by other researchers.

In 1876, aged thirty-seven or thirty-eight, Nicu Sr. was incapacitated by an unknown illness and died, leaving Nicolae and his younger brother George orphans—a loss which, the historian would recall in writing, dominated the image he had of his own childhood. In 1878, he was enlisted at the Marchian Folescu School, where, as he took pride in noting, he excelled in most areas, discovering a love for intellectual pursuits and, by age nine, even being allowed by his teachers to lecture his schoolmates in Romanian history. His history teacher, a refugee Pole, sparked his interest in research and his lifelong Polonophilia. Iorga also credited this earliest formative period with having shaped his lifelong views on Romanian language and local culture: "I learned Romanian:... as it was spoken back in the day: plainly, beautifully and above all resolutely and colorfully, without the intrusions of newspapers and best-selling books". He credited the 19th century polymath Mihail Kogălniceanu, whose works he had first been reading as a child, with having shaped this literary preference.

A student at Botoșani's A. T. Laurian gymnasium and high school after 1881, the young Iorga received top honors, and, beginning 1883, began tutoring some of his colleagues to increase his family's main revenue (according to Iorga, a "miserable pension of pittance"). Aged thirteen, while on extended visit to his maternal uncle Emanuel "Manole" Arghiropol, he also made his press debut with paid contributions to Arghiropol's Romanul newspaper, including anecdotes and editorial pieces on European politics. The year 1886 was described by Iorga as "the catastrophe of my school life in Botoșani": on temporary suspension for not having greeted a teacher, Iorga opted to leave the city and apply for the National High School of Iași, being received into the scholarship program and praised by his new principal, the philologist Vasile Burlă. The adolescent was already fluent in French, Italian, Latin and Greek, later referring to Greek studies as "the most refined form of human reasoning".

By age seventeen, Iorga was becoming more rebellious. This was the time when he first grew interested in political activities, but displaying convictions which he later strongly disavowed: a self-confessed Marxist, Iorga promoted the left-wing magazine Viața Socială, and lectured on Das Kapital. Seeing himself confined in the National College's "ugly and disgusting" boarding school, he defied its rules and was suspended a second time, losing scholarship privileges. Before readmission, he decided not to fall back on his family's financial support, and instead returned to tutoring others. Again expelled for reading during a teacher's lesson, Iorga still graduated in the top "first prize" category (with a 9.24 average) and subsequently took his Baccalaureate with honors.

University of Iași and Junimist episode

In 1888, Nicolae Iorga p*ed his entry examination for the University of Iași Faculty of Letters, becoming eligible for a scholarship soon after. Upon the completion of his second term, he also received a special dispensation from the Kingdom of Romania's Education Ministry, and, as a result, applied for and p*ed his third term examinations, effectively graduating one year ahead of his cl*. Before the end of the year, he also p*ed his license examination magna * laude, with a thesis on Greek literature, an achievement which consecrated his reputation inside both academia and the public sphere. Hailed as a "morning star" by the local press and deemed a "wonder of a man" by his teacher A. D. Xenopol, Iorga was honored by the faculty with a special banquet. Three academics (Xenopol, Nicolae Culianu, Ioan Caragiani) formally brought Iorga to the attention of the Education Ministry, proposing him for the state-sponsored program which allowed academic achievers to study abroad.

The interval witnessed Iorga's brief affiliation with Junimea, a literary club with conservative leanings, whose informal leader was literary and political theorist *u Maiorescu. In 1890, literary critic Ștefan Vârgolici and cultural promoter Iacob Negruzzi published Iorga's essay on poet Veronica Micle in the Junimist tribune Convorbiri Literare. Having earlier attended the funeral of writer Ion Creangă, a dissident Junimist and Romanian literature cl*ic, he took a public stand against the defamation of another such figure, the dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale, groundlessly accused of plagiarism by journalist Constantin Al. Ionescu-Caion. He expanded his contribution as an opinion journalist, publishing with some regularity in various local or national periodicals of various leanings, from the socialist Contemporanul and Era Nouă to Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's Revista Nouă. This period saw his debut as a socialist poet (in Contemporanul) and critic (in both Lupta and Literatură și Știință).

Also in 1890, Iorga married Maria Tasu, whom he was to divorce in 1900. He had previously been in love with an Ecaterina C. Botez, but, after some hesitation, decided to marry into the family of Junimea man Vasile Tasu, much better situated in the social circles. Xenopol, who was Iorga's matchmaker, also tried to obtain for Iorga a teaching position at Iași University. The attempt was opposed by other professors, on grounds of Iorga's youth and politics. Instead, Iorga was briefly a high school professor of Latin in the southern city of Ploiești, following a public compe*ion overseen by writer Alexandru Odobescu. The time he spent there allowed him to expand his circle of acquaintances and personal friends, meeting writers Caragiale and Alexandru Vlahuță, historians Hasdeu and Grigore Tocilescu, and Marxist theorist Constantin Dobrogeanu-Gherea.

Studies abroad

*le page of Thomas III, marquis de Saluces, 1893 *le page of Iorga's Philippe de Mézières, in its 1896 edition

Having received the scholarship early in the year, he made his first study trips to Italy (April and June 1890), and subsequently left for a longer stay in France, enlisting at the École pratique des hautes études. He was a contributor for the Encyclopédie française, personally recommended there by Slavist Louis Léger. Reflecting back on this time, he stated: "I never had as much time at my disposal, as much freedom of spirit, as much joy of learning from those great figures of mankind:... than back then, in that summer of 1890". While preparing for his second diploma, Iorga also pursued his interest in philology, learning English, German, and rudiments of other Germanic languages. In 1892, he was in England and in Italy, researching historical sources for his French-language thesis on Philippe de Mézières, a Frenchman in the Crusade of 1365. In tandem, he became a contributor to Revue Historique, a leading French academic journal.

Somewhat dissatisfied with French education, Iorga presented his dissertation and, in 1893, left for the German Empire, attempting to enlist in the University of Berlin's PhD program. His working paper, on Thomas III of Saluzzo, was not received, because Iorga had not spent three years in training, as required. As an alternative, he gave formal pledge that the paper in question was entirely his own work, but his statement was invalidated by technicality: Iorga's work had been redacted by a more proficient speaker of German, whose intervention did not touch the substance of Iorga's research. The ensuing controversy led him to apply for a University of Leipzig PhD: his text, once reviewed by a commission grouping three prominent German scholars (Adolf Birch-Hirschfeld, Karl Gotthard Lamprecht, Charles Wach*h), earned him the needed diploma in August. On 25 July, Iorga had also received his École pratique diploma for the earlier work on de Mézières, following its review by Gaston Paris and Charles Bémont. He spent his time further investigating the historical sources, at archives in Berlin, Leipzig and Dresden. Between 1890 and the end of 1893, he had published three works: his debut in poetry (Poezii, "Poems"), the first volume of Schițe din literatura română ("Sketches on Romanian Literature", 1893; second volume 1894), and his Leipzig thesis, printed in Paris as Thomas III, marquis �de Saluces. Étude historique et littéraire ("Thomas, Margrave of Saluzzo. Historical and Literary Study").

Living in poor conditions (as reported by visiting scholar Teohari Antonescu), the four-year engagement of his scholarship still applicable, Nicolae Iorga decided to spend his remaining time abroad, researching more city archives in Germany (Munich), Austria (Innsbruck) and Italy (Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome, Venice etc.) In this instance, his primordial focus was on historical figures from his Romanian homeland, the defunct Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia: the Moldavian Prince Peter the Lame, his son Ștefăniță, and Romania's national hero, the Wallachian Prince Michael the Brave. He also met, befriended and often collaborated with fellow historians from European countries other than Romania: the editors of Revue de l'Orient Latin, who first published studies Iorga later grouped in the six volumes of Notes et extraits ("Notices and Excerpts") and Frantz Funck-Brentano, who enlisted his parallel contribution for Revue Critique. Iorga's articles were also featured in two magazines for ethnic Romanian communities in Austria-Hungary: Familia and Vatra.

Return to Romania

Making his comeback to Romania in October 1894, Iorga settled in the capital city of Bucharest. He changed residence several times, until eventually settling in Grădina Icoanei area. He agreed to compete in a sort of debating society, with lectures which only saw print in 1944. He applied for the Medieval History Chair at the University of Bucharest, submitting a dissertation in front of an examination commission comprising historians and philosophers (Caragiani, Odobescu, Xenopol, alongside Aron Densușianu, Constantin Leonardescu and Petre Râșcanu), but totaled a 7 average which only en*led him to a subs*ute professor's position. The achievement, at age 23, was still remarkable in its context.

The first of his lectures came later that year as personal insight on the historical method, Despre concepția actuală a istoriei și geneza ei ("On the Present-day Concept of History and Its Genesis"). He was again out of the country in 1895, visiting the Netherlands and, again, Italy, in search of do*ents, publishing the first section of his extended historical records' collection Acte și fragmente cu privire la istoria românilor ("Acts and Excerpts Regarding the History of Romanians"), his Romanian Atheneum conference on Michael the Brave's rivalry with condottiero Giorgio Basta, and his debut in travel literature (Amintiri din Italia, "Recollections from Italy"). The next year came Iorga's official appointment as curator and publisher of the Hurmuzachi brothers collection of historical do*ents, the position being granted to him by the Romanian Academy. The appointment, first proposed to the ins*ution by Xenopol, overlapped with disputes over the Hurmuzachi inheritance, and came only after Iorga's formal pledge that he would renounce all potential copyrights resulting from his contribution. He also published the second part of Acte și fragmente and the printed rendition of the de Mézières study (Philippe de Mézières, 1337–1405). Following an October 1895 reexamination, he was granted full professorship with a 9.19 average.

1895 was also the year when Iorga began his collaboration with the Iași-based academic and political agitator A. C. Cuza, making his earliest steps in antisemitic politics, founding with him a group known as the Universal ()and Romanian Antisemitic Alliance. In 1897, the year when he was elected a corresponding member of the academy, Iorga traveled back to Italy and spent time researching more do*ents in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, at Dubrovnik. He also oversaw the publication of the 10th Hurmuzachi volume, grouping diplomatic reports aut*d by Kingdom of Prussia diplomats in the two Danubian Principalities (covering the interval between 1703 and 1844). After spending most of 1898 on researching various subjects and presenting the results as reports for the academy, Iorga was in Transylvania, the largely Romanian-inhabited subregion of Austria-Hungary. Concentrating his efforts on the city archives of Bistrița, Brașov and Sibiu, he made a major breakthrough by establishing that Stolnic Cantacuzino, a 17th-century man of letters and political intriguer, was the real author of an unsigned Wallachian chronicle that had for long been used as a historical source. He published several new books in 1899: M*crise din biblioteci străine ("M*cripts from Foreign Libraries", 2 vols.), Do*ente românești din arhivele Bistriței ("Romanian Do*ents from the Bistrița Archives") and a French-language book on the Crusades, *led Notes et extraits pour servir à l'histoire des croisades ("Notes and Excerpts Covering the History of the Crusades", 2 vols.). Xenopol proposed his pupil for a Romanian Academy membership, to replace the suicidal Odobescu, but his proposition could not gather support.

Also in 1899, Nicolae Iorga inaugurated his contribution to the Bucharest-based French-language newspaper L'Indépendance Roumaine, publishing polemical articles on the activity of his various colleagues and, as a consequence, provoking a lengthy scandal. The pieces often targeted senior scholars who, as favorites or activists of the National Liberal Party, opposed both Junimea and the Maiorescu-endorsed Conservative Party: his estranged friends Hasdeu and Tocilescu, as well as V. A. Urechia and Dimitrie Sturdza. The episode, described by Iorga himself as a stormy but patriotic debut in public affairs, prompted his adversaries at the academy to demand the termination of his membership for undignified behavior. Tocilescu felt insulted by the allegations, challenged Iorga to a duel, but his friends intervened to mediate. Another scientist who encountered Iorga's wrath was George Ionescu-Gion, against whom Iorga enlisted negative arguments that, as he later admitted, were exaggerated. Among Iorga's main defenders were academics Dimitrie Onciul, N. Petrașcu, and, outside Romania, Gustav Weigand.

Opinions sincères and Transylvanian echoes

The young polemicist persevered in supporting this anti-establishment cause, moving on from L'Indépendance Roumaine to the newly established publication România Jună, interrupting himself for trips to Italy, the Netherlands and Galicia-Lodomeria. In 1900, he collected the scattered polemical articles into the French-language books Opinions sincères. La vie intellectuelle des roumains en 1899 ("Honest Opinions. The Romanians' Intellectual Life in 1899") and Opinions pérnicieuses d'un mauvais patriote ("The Pernicious Opinions of a Bad Patriot"). His scholarly activities resulted in a second trip into Transylvania, a second portion of his Bistrița archives collection, the 11th Hurmuzachi volume, and two works on Early Modern Romanian history: Acte din secolul al XVI-lea relative la Petru Șchiopul ("16th Century Acts Relating to Peter the Lame") and Scurtă istorie a lui Mihai Viteazul ("A Short History of Michael the Brave"). His controversial public at*ude had nevertheless attracted an official ban on his Academy reports, and also meant that he was ruled out from the national Academy prize (for which distinction he had submitted Do*ente românești din arhivele Bistriței). The period also witnessed a chill in the Iorga's relationship with Xenopol.

In 1901, shortly after his divorce from Maria, Iorga married Ecaterina (Catinca), the sister of his friend and colleague Ioan Bogdan. Her other brother was cultural historian Gheorghe Bogdan-Duică, whose son, painter Catul Bogdan, Iorga would help achieve recognition. Soon after their wedding, the couple were in Venice, where Iorga received Karl Gotthard Lamprecht's offer to write a history of the Romanians to be featured as a section in a collective treatise of world history. Iorga, who had convinced Lamprecht not to *ign this task to Xenopol, also completed Istoria literaturii române în secolul al XVIII-lea ("The History of Romanian Literature in the 18th Century"). It was presented to the academy's consideration, but rejected, prompting the scholar to resign in protest. To receive his imprimatur later in the year, Iorga appealed to fellow intellectuals, earning pledges and a sizable grant from the aristocratic Callimachi family.

Before the end of that year, the Iorgas were in the Austro-Hungarian city of Budapest. While there, the historian set up tight contacts with Romanian intellectuals who originated from Transylvania and who, in the wake of the Transylvanian Memorandum affair, supported ethnic nationalism while objecting to the intermediary Cisleithanian (Hungarian Crown) rule and the threat of Magyarization. Interested in recovering the Romanian contributions to Transylvanian history, in particular Michael the Brave's precursory role in Romanian unionism, Iorga spent his time reviewing, copying and translating Hungarian-language historical texts with much *istance from his wife. During the 300th commemoration of Prince Michael's death, which ethnic Romanian students transformed into a rally against Austro-Hungarian educational restrictions, Iorga addressed the crowds and was openly greeted by the protest's leaders, poet Octavian Goga and Orthodox priest Ioan Lupaș. In 1902, he published new tracts on Transylvanian or Wallachian topics: Legăturile Principatelor române cu Ardealul ("The Romanian Principalities' Links with Transylvania"), Sate și preoți din Ardeal ("Priests and Villages of Transylvania"), Despre Cantacuzini ("On the Cantacuzinos"), Istoriile domnilor Țării Românești ("The Histories of Wallachian Princes").

Iorga was by then making known his newly found interest in cultural nationalism and national didacticism, as expressed by him in an open letter to Goga's Budapest-based Luceafărul magazine. After further interventions from Goga and linguist Sextil Pușcariu, Luceafărul became Iorga's main mouthpiece outside Romania. Returning to Bucharest in 1903, Iorga followed Lamprecht's suggestion and focused on writing his first overview of Romanian national history, known in Romanian as Istoria românilor ("The History of the Romanians"). He was also involved in a new project of researching the content of archives throughout Moldavia and Wallachia, and, having re*essed the nationalist politics of Junimist poet Mihai Eminescu, helped collect and publish a companion to Eminescu's work.

Sămănătorul and 1906 riot

Cover of Sămănătorul, March 1905. The table of contents credits Iorga as an editorialist and political columnist

Also in 1903, Nicolae Iorga became one of the managers of Sămănătorul review. The moment brought Iorga's emancipation from Maiorescu's influence, his break with mainstream Junimism, and his affiliation to the traditionalist, ethno-nationalist and neoromantic current encouraged by the magazine. The Sămănătorist school was by then also grouping other former or active Junimists, and Maiorescu's progressive withdrawal from literary life also created a bridge with Convorbiri Literare: its new editor, Simion Mehedinți, was himself a theorist of traditionalism. A circle of Junimists more sympathetic to Maiorescu's version of conservatism reacted against this realignment by founding its own venue, Convorbiri Critice, edited by Mihail Dragomirescu.

In tandem with his full return to cultural and political journalism, which included prolonged debates with both the "old" historians and the Junimists, Iorga was still active at the forefront of historical research. In 1904, he published the historical geography work Drumuri și orașe din România ("Roads and Towns of Romania") and, upon the special request of National Liberal Education Minister Spiru Haret, a work dedicated to the celebrated Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great, published upon the 400th anniversary of the monarch's death as Istoria lui Ștefan cel Mare ("The History of Stephen the Great"). Iorga later confessed that the book was an integral part of his and Haret's didacticist agenda, supposed to be "spread to the very bottom of the country in thousands of copies". During those months, Iorga also helped discover novelist Mihail Sadoveanu, who was for a while the leading figure of Sămănătorist literature.

In 1905, the year when historian Onisifor Ghibu became his close friend and disciple, he followed up with over 23 individual *les, among them the two German-language volumes of Geschichte des Rümanischen Volkes im Rahmen seiner Staatsbildungen ("A History of the Romanian People within the Context of Its National Formation"), Istoria românilor în chipuri și icoane ("The History of the Romanians in Faces and Icons"), Sate și mănăstiri din România ("Villages and Monasteries of Romania") and the essay Gânduri și sfaturi ale unui om ca oricare altul ("Thoughts and Advices from a Man Just like Any Other"). He also paid a visit to the Romanians of Bukovina region, in Austrian territory, as well as to those of Bessarabia, who were subjects of the Russian Empire, and wrote about their cultural struggles in his 1905 accounts Neamul romănesc' în Bucovina ("The Romanian People of Bukovina"), Neamul romănesc în Basarabia ("...of Bessarabia"). These referred to Tsarist autocracy as a source of "darkness and slavery", whereas the more liberal regime of Bukovina offered its subjects "golden chains".

Nicolae Iorga ran in the 1905 election and won a seat in Parliament's lower chamber. He remained politically independent until 1906, when he attached himself to the Conservative Party, making one final attempt to change the course of Junimism. His move was contrasted by the group of left-nationalists from the Poporanist faction, who were allied to the National Liberals and, soon after, in open conflict with Iorga. Although from the same cultural family as Sămănătorul, the Poporanist theorist Constantin Stere was dismissed by Iorga's articles, despite Sadoveanu's attempts to settle the matter.

A peak in Nicolae Iorga's own nationalist campaigning occurred that year: profiting from a wave of Francophobia among young urbanites, Iorga boycotted the National Theater, punishing its staff for staging a play entirely in French, and disturbing public order. According to one of Iorga's young disciples, the future journalist Pamfil Șeicaru, the mood was such that Iorga could have led a successful coup d'état. These events had several political consequences. The Siguranța Statului intelligence agency soon opened a file on the historian, informing Romanian Premier Sturdza about nationalist agitation. The perception that Iorga was a xenophobe also drew condemnation from more moderate traditionalist circles, in particular the Viața Literară weekly. Its panelists, Ilarie Chendi and young Eugen Lovinescu, ridiculed Iorga's claim of superiority; Chendi in particular criticized the rejection of writers based on their ethnic origin and not their ultimate merit (while alleging, to Iorga's annoyance, that Iorga himself was a Greek).

Neamul Românesc, Peasants' Revolt and Vălenii de Munte

Cover of Neamul Românesc, November 1907Istoria bisericii românești, original edition

Iorga eventually parted with Sămănătorul in late 1906, moving on to set up his own tribune, Neamul Românesc. The schism was allegedly a direct result of his conflicts with other literary venues, and inaugurated a brief collaboration between Iorga and Făt Frumos journalist Emil Gârleanu. The newer magazine, illustrated with idealized portraits of the Romanian peasant, was widely popular with Romania's rural intelligentsia (among which it was freely distributed), promoting antisemitic theories and raising opprobrium from the authorities and the urban-oriented press.

Also in 1906, Iorga traveled into the Ottoman Empire, visiting Istanbul, and published another set of volumes—Contribuții la istoria literară ("Contributions to Literary History"), Neamul românesc în Ardeal și Țara Ungurească ("The Romanian Nation in Transylvania and the Hungarian Land"), Negoțul și meșteșugurile în trecutul românesc ("Trade and Crafts of the Romanian Past") etc. In 1907, he began issuing a second periodical, the cultural magazine Floarea Darurilor, and published with Editura Minerva an early installment of his companion to Romanian literature (second volume 1908, third volume 1909). His published scientific contributions for that year include, among others, an English-language study on the Byzantine Empire. At home, he and pupil Vasile Pârvan were involved in a conflict with fellow historian Orest Tafrali, officially over archeological theory, but also because of a regional conflict in academia: Bucharest and Transylvania against Tafrali's Iași.

A seminal moment in Iorga's political career took place during the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, erupting under a Conservative cabinet and repressed with much violence by a National Liberal one. The bloody outcome prompted the historian to author and make public a piece of social critique, the Neamul Românesc pamphlet Dumnezeu să-i ierte ("God Forgive Them"). The text, together with his program of agrarian conferences and his subscription lists for the benefit of victims' relatives again made him an adversary of the National Liberals, who referred to Iorga as an instigator. The historian did however struck a chord with Stere, who had been made prefect of Iași County, and who, going against his party's wishes, inaugurated an informal collaboration between Iorga and the Poporanists. The political cl* as a whole was particularly apprehensive of Iorga's contacts with the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians and their common irredentist agenda, which risked undermining relations with the Austrians over Transylvania and Bukovina. However, Iorga's popularity was still increasing, and, carried by this sentiment, he was first elected to Chamber during the elections of that same year.

Iorga and his new family had relocated several times, renting a home in Bucharest's Gara de Nord (Buzești) quarter. After renewed but failed attempts to become an Iași University professor, he decided, in 1908, to set his base away from the urban centers, at a villa in Vălenii de Munte town (nestled in the remote hilly area of Prahova County). Although branded an agitator by Sturdza, he received support in this venture from Education Minister Haret. Once settled, Iorga set up a specialized summer school, his own publishing house, a printing press and the literary supplement of Neamul Românesc, as well as an asylum managed by writer Constanța Marino-Moscu. He published some 25 new works for that year, such as the introductory volumes for his German-language companion to Ottoman history (Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, "History of the Ottoman Empire"), a study on Romanian Orthodox ins*utions (Istoria bisericii românești, "The History of the Romanian Church"), and an anthology on Romanian Romanticism. He followed up in 1909 with a volume of parliamentary speeches, În era reformelor ("In the Age of Reforms"), a book on the 1859 Moldo–Wallachian Union (Unirea principatelor, "The Principalities' Union"), and a critical edition of poems by Eminescu. Visiting Iași for the Union Jubilee, Iorga issued a public and emotional apology to Xenopol for having criticized him in the previous decade.

1909 setbacks and PND creation

At that stage in his life, Iorga became an honorary member of the Romanian Writers' Society. He had militated for its creation in both Sămănătorul and Neamul Românesc, but also wrote against its system of fees. Once liberated from government restriction in 1909, his Vălenii school grew into a hub of student activity, self-financed through the sale of postcards. Its success caused alarm in Austria-Hungary: Budapesti Hírlap newspaper described Iorga's school as an instrument for radicalizing Romanian Transylvanians. Iorga also alienated the main Romanian organizations in Transylvania: the Romanian National Party (PNR) dreaded his proposal to boycott the Diet of Hungary, particularly since PNR leaders were contemplating a loyalist "Greater Austria" devolution project.

The consequences hit Iorga in May 1909, when he was stopped from visiting Bukovina, officially branded a persona non grata, and expelled from Austrian soil (in June, it was made illegal for Bukovinian schoolteachers to attend Iorga's lectures). A month later, Iorga greeted in Bucharest the English scholar R.W. Seton-Watson. This noted critic of Austria-Hungary became Iorga's admiring friend, and helped popularize his ideas in the English-speaking world.

In 1910, the year when he toured the Old Kingdom's conference circuit, Nicolae Iorga again rallied with Cuza to establish the explicitly antisemitic Democratic Nationalist Party. Partly building on the antisemitic component of the 1907 revolts, its doctrines depicted the Jewish-Romanian community and Jews in general as a danger for Romania's development. During its early decades, it used as its symbol the right-facing swastika (卐), promoted by Cuza as the symbol of worldwide antisemitism and, later, of the "Aryans". Also known as PND, this was Romania's first political group to represent the petty bourgeoisie, using its votes to challenge the tri-decennial two-party system.

Also in 1910, Iorga published some thirty new works, covering gender history (Viața femeilor în trecutul românesc, "The Early Life of Romanian Women"), Romanian military history (Istoria armatei românești, "The History of the Romanian Military") and Stephen the Great's Orthodox profile (Ștefan cel Mare și mănăstirea Neamțului, "Stephen the Great and Neamț Monastery"). His academic activity also resulted in a lengthy conflict with art historian Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș, his godfather and former friend, sparked when Iorga, defending his own academic postings, objected to making Art History a separate subject at University.

Reinstated into the academy and made a full member, he gave his May 1911 reception speech with a philosophy of history subject (Două concepții istorice, "Two Historical Outlooks") and was introduced on the occasion by Xenopol. In August of that year, he was again in Transylvania, at Blaj, where he paid homage to the Romanian-run ASTRA Cultural Society. He made his first contribution to Romanian drama with the play centered on, and named after, Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), one of around twenty new *les for that year—alongside his collected aphorisms (Cugetări, "Musings") and a memoir of his life in culture (Oameni cari au fost, "People Who Are Gone"). In 1912, he published, among other works, Trei drame ("Three Dramatic Plays"), grouping Mihai Viteazul, Învierea lui Ștefan cel Mare ("Stephen the Great's Resurrection") and Un domn pribeag ("An Outcast Prince"). Additionally, Iorga produced the first of several studies dealing with Balkan geopolitics in the charged context leading up to the Balkan Wars (România, vecinii săi și chestia Orientală, "Romania, Her Neighbors and the Eastern Question"). He also made a noted contribution to ethnography, with Portul popular românesc ("Romanian Folk Dress").

Iorga and the Balkan crisis

Cover of Drum Drept, issue no. 48–52, dated 31 December 1915

In 1913, Iorga was in London for an International Congress of History, presenting a proposal for a new approach to medievalism and a paper discussing the sociocultural effects of the fall of Constantinople on Moldavia and Wallachia. He was later in the Kingdom of Serbia, invited by the Belgrade Academy and presenting dissertations on Romania–Serbia relations and the Ottoman decline. Iorga was even called under arms in the Second Balkan War, during which Romania fought alongside Serbia and against the Kingdom of Bulgaria. The subsequent taking of Southern Dobruja, supported by Maiorescu and the Conservatives, was seen by Iorga as callous and imperialistic.

Iorga's interest in the Balkan crisis was illustrated by two of the forty books he put out that year: Istoria statelor balcanice ("The History of Balkan States") and Notele unui istoric cu privire la evenimentele din Balcani ("A Historian's Notes on the Balkan Events"). Noted among the others is the study focusing on the early 18th century reign of Wallachian Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu (Viața și domnia lui Constantin vodă Brâncoveanu, "The Life and Rule of Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu"). That same year, Iorga issued the first series of his Drum Drept monthly, later merged with the Sămănătorist magazine Ramuri. Iorga managed to publish roughly as many new *les in 1914, the year when he received a Romanian Bene Merenti distinction, and inaugurated the international Ins*ute of South-East European Studies or ISSEE (founded through his efforts), with a lecture on Albanian history.

Again invited to Italy, he spoke at the Ateneo Veneto on the relations between the Republic of Venice and the Balkans, and again about Settecento culture. His attention was focused on the Albanians and Arbëreshë—Iorga soon discovered the oldest record of written Albanian, the 1462 Formula e pagëzimit. In 1916, he founded the Bucharest-based academic journal Revista Istorică ("The Historical Review"), a Romanian equivalent for Historische Zeitschrift and The English Historical Review.

Ententist profile

Nicolae Iorga's involvement in political disputes and the cause of Romanian irredentism became a leading characteristic of his biography during World War I. In 1915, while Romania was still keeping neutral, he sided with the dominant nationalist, Francophile and pro-Entente camp, urging for Romania to wage war on the Central Powers as a means of obtaining Transylvania, Bukovina and other regions held by Austria-Hungary; to this goal, he became an active member of the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians, and personally organized the large pro-Entente rallies in Bucharest. A prudent anti-Austrian, Iorga adopted the interventionist agenda with noted delay. His hesitation was ridiculed by hawkish Eugen Lovinescu as pro-Transylvanian but anti-war, costing Iorga his office in the Cultural League. The historian later confessed that, like Premier Ion I. C. Brătianu and the National Liberal cabinet, he had been waiting for a better moment to strike. In the end, his "Ententist" efforts were closely supported by public figures such as Alexandru I. Lapedatu and Ion Petrovici, as well as by Take Ionescu's National Action advocacy group. Iorga was also introduced to the private circle of Romania's young King, Ferdinand I, whom he found well-intentioned but weak-willed. Iorga is sometimes credited as a tutor to Crown Prince Carol (future King Carol II), who reportedly attended the Vălenii school.

In his October 1915 polemic with Vasile Sion, a Germanophile physician, Iorga at once justified suspicion of the German Romanians and praised those Romanians who were deserting the Austrian Army. The Ententists' focus on Transylvania pitted them against the Poporanists, who deplored the Romanians of Bessarabia. That region, the Poporanist lobby argued, was being actively oppressed by the Russian Empire with the acquiescence of other Entente powers. Poporanist theorist Garabet Ibrăileanu, editor of Viața Românească review, later accused Iorga of not ever speaking in support of the Bessarabians.

Political themes were again reflected in Nicolae Iorga's 1915 report to the academy (Dreptul la viață al statelor mici, "The Small States' Right to Exist") and in various of the 37 books he published that year: Istoria românilor din Ardeal și Ungaria ("The History of the Romanians in Transylvania and Hungary"), Politica austriacă față de Serbia ("The Austrian Policy on Serbia") etc. Also in 1915, Iorga completed his economic history treatise, Istoria comerțului la români ("The History of Commerce among the Romanians"), as well as a volume on literary history and Romanian philosophy, Faze sufletești și cărți reprezentative la români ("Spiritual Phases and Relevant Books of the Romanians"). Before spring 1916, he was commuting between Bucharest and Iași, subs*uting the ailing Xenopol at Iași University. He also gave a final touch to the collection Studii și do*ente ("Studies and Do*ents"), comprising his commentary on 30,000 individual do*ents and spread over 31 tomes.

Iași refuge

Iorga's essay on Romania–Russia relations, published in Iași, 1917

In late summer 1916, as Brătianu's government sealed an alliance with the Entente, Iorga expressed his joy in a piece named Ceasul ("The Hour"): "the hour we have been expecting for over two centuries, for which we have been living our entire national life, for which we have been working and writing, fighting and thinking, has at long last arrived." Nevertheless, the Romanian campaign ended in m*ive defeat, forcing the Romanian Army and the entire administration to evacuate the southern areas, Bucharest included, in front of a German-led occupation. Iorga's home in Vălenii de Munte was among the property items left behind and seized by the occupiers, and, according to Iorga's own claim, was vandalized by the Deutsches Heer.

Still a member of Parliament, Iorga joined the authorities in the provisional capital of Iași, but opposed the plans of relocating government out of besieged Moldavia and into the Russian Republic. The argument was made in one of his parliamentary speeches, printed as a pamphlet and circulated among the military: "May the dogs of this world feast on us sooner than to find our happiness, tranquility and prosperity granted by the hostile foreigner." He did however allow some of his notebooks to be stored in Moscow, along with the Romanian Treasure, and sheltered his own family in Odessa.

Iorga, who reissued Neamul Românesc in Iași, resumed his activity at Iași University and began working on the war propaganda daily România, while contributing to R.W. Seton-Watson's international sheet The New Europe. His contribution for that year included a number of brochures dedicated to maintaining morale among soldiers and civilians: Războiul actual și urmările lui în viața morală a omenirii ("The Current War and Its Effects on the Moral Life of Mankind"), Rolul inițiativei private în viața publică ("The Role of Private Initiative in Public Life"), Sfaturi și învățături pentru ostașii României ("Advices and Teachings for Romania's Soldiers") etc. He also translated from English and printed My Country, a patriotic essay by Ferdinand's wife Marie of Edinburgh.

The heightened sense of crisis prompted Iorga to issue appeals against defeatism and reissue Neamul Românesc from Iași, explaining: "I realized at once what moral use could come out of this for the thousands of discouraged and disillusioned people and against the traitors who were creeping up all over the place." The goal was again reflected in his complementary lectures (where he discussed the "national principle") and a new set of works; these featured musings on the Allied commitment (Relations des Roumains avec les Alliès, "The Romanians' Relations with the Allies"; Histoire des relations entre la France et les roumains, "The History of Relations between France and the Romanians"), the national character (Sufletul românesc, "The Romanian Soul") or columns against the loss of morale (Armistițiul, "The Armistice"). His ideal of moral regeneration through the war effort came with an endor*t of land reform projects. Brătianu did not object to the idea, being however concerned that landowners would rebel. Iorga purportedly gave him a sarcastic reply: "just like you've been shooting the peasants to benefit the landowners, you'll then be shooting the landowners to benefit the peasants."

In May 1918, Romania yielded to German demands and negotiated the Bucharest Treaty, an effective armistice. The conditions were judged humiliating by Iorga ("Our ancestors would have preferred death"); he refused to regain his University of Bucharest chair. The German authorities in Bucharest reacted by blacklisting the historian.

Greater Romania's creation

Iorga only returned to Bucharest as Romania resumed its contacts with the Allies and the Deutsches Heer left the country. The political uncertainty ended by late autumn, when the Allied victory on the Western Front sealed Germany's defeat. Celebrating the Compiègne Armistice, Iorga wrote: "There can be no greater day for the entire world". Iorga however found that Bucharest had become "a filthy hell under lead skies." His celebrated return also included the premiere of Învierea lui Ștefan cel Mare at the National Theater, which continued to host productions of his dramatic texts on a regular basis, until ca. 1936.

He was reelected to the lower chamber in the June 1918 election, becoming President of the body and, due to the rapid political developments, the first person to hold this office in the history of Greater Romania. The year also brought his participation alongside Allied envoys in the 360th anniversary of Michael the Brave's birth. On 1 December, later celebrated as Great Union Day, Iorga was participant in a seminal event of the union with Transylvania, as one of several thousand Romanians who gathered in Alba Iulia to demand union on the basis of self-determination. Despite these successes, Iorga was reportedly snubbed by King Ferdinand, and only left to rely on Brătianu for support. Although he was not invited to attend the Paris Peace Conference, he supported Queen Marie in her role of informal negotiator for Romania, and cemented his friendship with her.

Shortly after the creation of Greater Romania, Iorga was focusing his public activity on exposing collaborators of the wartime occupiers. The subject was central to a 1919 speech he held in front of the academy, where he obtained the public condemnation of actively Germanophile academicians, having earlier vetoed the membership of Poporanist Constantin Stere. He failed at enlisting support for the purge of Germanophile professors from University, but the attempt rekindled the feud between him and Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș, who had served in the German-appointed administration. The two scholars later took their battle to court and, until Iorga's death, presented mutually exclusive takes on recent political history. Although very much opposed to the imprisoned Germanophile poet Tudor Arghezi, Iorga intervened on his behalf with Ferdinand.

Following November 1919 elections, Iorga became a member of the Senate, representing the Democratic Nationalists. Although he resented the universal male suffrage and viewed the adoption of electoral symbols as promoting political illiteracy, his PND came to use a logo representing two hands grasping (later replaced with a black-flag-and-sickle). The elections seemed to do away with the old political system: Iorga's party was third, trailing behind two newcomers, the Transylvanian PNR and the Poporanist Peasants' Party (PȚ), with whom it formed a parliamentary bloc supporting an Alexandru Vaida-Voevod cabinet. This union of former rivals also showed Iorga's growing suspicion of Brătianu, whom he feared intended to absorb the PND into the National Liberal Party, and accused of creating a political machine. He and his disciples were circulating the term politicianism ("politicking"), expressing their disappointment for the new political context.

Also in 1919, Iorga was elected chairman of the Cultural League, where he gave a speech on "the Romanians' rights to their national territory", was appointed head of the Historical Monuments' Commission, and met the French academic mission to Romania (Henri Mathias Berthelot, Charles Diehl, Emmanuel de Martonne and Raymond Poincaré, whom he greeted with a speech about the Romanians and the Romance peoples). Together with French war hero Septime Gorceix, he also compiled Anthologie de la littérature roumaine ("An Anthology of Romanian Literature"). That year, the French state granted Iorga its Legion of Honor.

A founding president of the *ociation of Romanian Public Libraries, Iorga was also tightening his links with young Transylvanian intellectuals: he took part in reorganizing the Cluj Franz Joseph University into a Romanian-speaking ins*ution, meeting scholars Vasile Pârvan and Vasile Bogrea (who welcomed him as "our protective genius"), and published a praise of the young traditionalist poet Lucian Blaga. He was in correspondence with intellectuals of all backgrounds, and, reportedly, the Romanian who was addressed the most letters in postal history. Touring the larger conference circuit, he also wrote some 30 new books, among them: Histoire des roumains de la Peninsule des Balcans ("The History of Romanians from the Balkan Peninsula": Aromanians, Istro-Romanians and Megleno-Romanians), Istoria poporului francez ("The History of the French people"), Pentru sufletele celor ce muncesc ("For The Souls of Working Men"), and Istoria lui Mihai Viteazul ("The History of Michael the Brave"). Iorga was awarded the *le of doctor honoris causa by the University of Strasbourg, while his lectures on Albania, collected by poet Lasgush Poradeci, became Brève histoire de l'Albanie ("Concise History of Albania"). In Bucharest, Iorga received as a gift from his admirers a new Bucharest home on Bonaparte Highway (Iancu de Hunedoara Boulevard).

Early 1920s politics

Iorga's parliamentary bloc crumbled in late March 1920, when Ferdinand dissolved Parliament. During the spring 1920 election, Iorga was invited by journalist Sever Dan to run for a deputy seat in Transylvania, but eventually participated in and won the election of his earlier cons*uency, Covurlui County. At that stage, Iorga was resenting the PNR for holding onto its regional government of Transylvania, and criticizing the PȚ for its claim to represent all Romanian peasants. In March 1921, Iorga again turned on Stere. The latter had since been forgiven for his wartime stance, decorated for negotiating the Bessarabian union, and elected on PȚ lists in Soroca County. Iorga's speech, "Stere's Betrayal", turned attention back to Stere's Germanophilia (with quotes that were supposedly taken out of context) and demanded his invalidation—the subsequent debate was tense and emotional, but a new vote in Chamber confirmed Stere as Soroca deputy.

The overall election victory belonged to the radical, eclectic and anti-PNR People's Party, led by war hero Alexandru Averescu. Iorga, whose PND had formed the Federation of National Democracy with the PȚ and other parties, was perplexed by Averescu's sui generis appeal and personality cult, writing: "Everything was about Averescu." His partner Cuza and a portion of the PND were however supportive of this force, which threatened the stability of their vote. Progressively after that moment, Iorga also began toning down his antisemitism, a process of the end of which Cuza left the Democratic Nationalists to establish the more militant National-Christian Defense League (1923). Iorga's suggestions that new arrivals from Transylvania and Bessarabia were becoming a clique also resulted in collisions with former friend Octavian Goga, who had joined up with Averescu's party.

His publishing activity continued at a steady pace during that year, when he first presided over the Romanian School of Fontenay-aux-Roses; he issued the two volumes of Histoire des roumains et de leur civilisation ("The History of the Romanians and Their Civilization") and the three tomes of Istoria românilor prin călătorii ("The History of the Romanians in Travels"), alongside Ideea Daciei românești ("The Idea of a Romanian Dacia"), Istoria Evului Mediu ("The History of the Middle Ages") and some other scholarly works. His biographical studies were mainly focused on his nationalist predecessor Mihail Kogălniceanu. Iorga also resumed his writing for the stage, with two new drama plays: one centered on the Moldavian ruler Constantin Cantemir (Cantemir bătrânul, "Cantemir the Elder"), the other dedicated to, and named after, Brâncoveanu. Centering his activity as a public speaker in Transylvanian cities, Iorga was also involved in projects to organize folk theaters throughout the country, through which he intended to spread a unified cultural message. The year also brought his presence at the funeral of A. D. Xenopol.

In 1921 and 1922, the Romanian scholar began lecturing abroad, most notably at the University of Paris, while setting up a Romanian School in the French capital and the Accademia di Romania of Rome. In 1921, when his 50th birthday was celebrated at a national level, Iorga published a large number of volumes, including a bibliographic study on the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and its leader Tudor Vladimirescu, an essay on political history (Dezvoltarea așezămintelor politice, "The Development of Political Ins*utions"), Secretul culturii franceze ("The Secret of French culture"), Războiul nostru în note zilnice ("Our War as Depicted in Daily Records") and the French-language Les Latins de l'Orient ("The Oriental Latins"). His interest in Vladimirescu and his historical role was also apparent in an eponymous play, published with a volume of Iorga's selected lyric poetry.

In politics, Iorga began objecting to the National Liberals' hold on power, denouncing the 1922 election as a fraud. He resumed his close cooperation with the PNR, briefly joining the party ranks in an attempt to counter this monopoly. In 1923, he donated his Bonaparte Highway residence and its collection to the Ministry of Education, to be used by a cultural foundation and benefit university students. Receiving another honoris causa doctorate, from the University of Lyon, Iorga went through an episode of reconciliation with Tudor Arghezi, who addressed him public praise. The two worked together on Cuget Românesc newspaper, but were again at odds when Iorga began criticizing modernist literature and "the world's spiritual crisis".

Among his published works for that year were Formes byzantines et réalités balcaniques ("Byzantine Forms and Balkan Realities"), Istoria presei românești ("The History of the Romanian Press"), L'Art populaire en Roumanie ("Folk Art in Romania"), Istoria artei medievale ("The History of Medieval art") and Neamul românesc din Ardeal ("The Romanian Nation in Transylvania"). Iorga had by then finished several new theatrical plays: Moartea lui Dante ("The Death of Dante"), Molière se răzbună ("Molière Gets His Revenge"), Omul care ni trebuie ("The Man We Need") and Sărmală, amicul poporului ("Sărmală, Friend of the People").

International initiatives and American journey

*le page of Iorga's Histoire des états balcaniques jusqu'a 1924 (1925) Iorga in Versailles, 1928 photograph

A major moment in Iorga's European career took place in 1924, when he convened in Bucharest the first-ever International Congress of Byzantine Studies, attended by some of the leading experts in the field. He also began lecturing at Ramiro Ortiz's Italian Ins*ute in Bucharest. Also then, Iorga was appointed Aggregate Professor by the University of Paris, received the honor of having foreign scholars lecturing at the Vălenii de Munte school, and published a number of scientific works and essays, such as: Brève histoire des croissades ("A Short History of the Crusades"), Cărți reprezentative din viața omenirii ("Books Significant for Mankind's Existence"), România pitorească ("Picturesque Romania") and a volume of addresses to the Romanian American community. In 1925, when he was elected a member of the Kraków Academy of Learning in Poland, Iorga gave conferences in various European countries, including Switzerland (where he spoke at a League of Nations *embly on the state of Romania's minorities). His bibliography for 1925 includes some 50 *les. Iorga also increased his personal fortune, constructing villas in two resort towns: in Sinaia (designer: Toma T. Socolescu) and, later, Mangalia. More controversial still was his decision to use excess funds from the International Congress to improve his Vălenii printing press.

Iorga was again abroad in 1926 and 1927, lecturing on various subjects at reunions in France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, many of his works being by then translated into French, English, German and Italian. His work for 1926 centered on the first of four volumes in his series Essai de synthèse de l'histoire de l'humanité ("Essay on the Synthesis of World History"), followed in 1927 by Istoria industriei la români ("The History of Industry among the Romanians"), Originea și sensul democrației ("The Origin and Sense of Democracy"), a study of Romanian contributions to the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War (Războiul de independență, "The War of Independence") etc. At home, the PND's merge into the PNR, accepted by Iorga, was stopped once the historian asked to become the resulting union's chief. Acting PNR leader Iuliu Maniu successfully resisted this move, and the two parties split over the issue.

For a while in 1927, Iorga was also local leader of the Pan-European movement, created internationally by Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi. A honoris causa doctor of Genoa University, he opened his course at the University of Paris with lectures on France's Levantine policy (1927) and, during 1928, was again invited to lecture in Spain, Sweden and Norway. His published works for that time grouped the political essay Evoluția ideii de libertate ("The Evolution of Liberty as an Idea"), new historical studies and printed versions of his conferences: Istoria învățământului ("The History of Education"), Patru conferințe despre istoria Angliei ("Four Conferences on the History of England"), Țara latină cea mai îndepărtată din Europa: Portugalia ("The Remotest Latin Country in Europe: Portugal"). In addition to his Bucharest Faculty of History chair, Iorga also took over the History of Literature course hosted by the same ins*ution (1928).

Appointed the university's Rector in 1929, he followed up with new sets of conference