SHE drove an ambulance in a war, worked as a shop assistant at Macy’s while studying art in New York and even helped run a market garden farm in Hertfordshire. So it is fair to say that the late Queen Anne of Romania was no ordinary royal.

Anne, who died this week in Switzerland, was the wife of King Mihai I, or Michael, of Romania, although she never actually ruled the country. Her husband was ousted by the communists before the couple married in 1948. Anne didn’t speak the language of her subjects and didn’t set foot in Romania until 1992.

Although the story of their meeting at Princess Elizabeth’s wedding in London in 1947 has a whiff of modern royal fairy tale about it, but they had some obstacles on their way to the altar.

Anne was born Princess Anne Antoinette Françoise Charlotte Zita Marquerite of Bourbon-Parma in Paris in 1923, the daughter of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma (son of the Duke of Parma, Italy) and Princess Margaret of Denmark. She was related to the British Royal Family through her great-aunt who was Queen Alexandria, wife of Edward VII.

Most of her early years were spent in Paris, with holidays at Villa Pianore, her grandmother’s home in Lucca, Italy, where European royalty often came to stay. When war broke out with Germany the family left France and headed for Spain, then Portugal before ending up in the US.

media_camera King Michael of Romania with his bride-to-be Princess Anne in Davos, Switzerland.

Anne enjoyed her time in New York, working at Macy’s and her mother’s fashionable hat shop while also studying art at the Parsons School of Design. In 1943, feeling the need to help Europe in its darkest days, she joined the French Red Cross driving an ambulance in North Africa and later Europe for the Free French Forces. Her efforts earned her a French Croix de Guerre.

When King Michael I of Romania was looking for a wife, Anne was a possible match. He saw pictures of her but plans to invite her and her family to Bucharest didn’t come to fruition. However, they were both invited to the wedding of Princess Elizabeth (Michael’s distant cousin) and he planned to make her acquaintance then.

Nervous about having to meet the Romanian king in official surroundings, Anne was reluctant to go to London for the wedding. She thought, instead, she would have a look at Michael in Paris as he boarded a train bound for London. A cousin convinced her not to be so coy, so she made the trip to London.

media_camera Ousted King Mihai (Michael) of Romania and Queen Anne on their wedding day in Athens in 1948.

Michael invited her to a party and nerves got the better of her when they were introduced; she clicked her heels together rather than curtsying. But the gaffe endeared her to the king, he asked her to accompany him on outings around London and then invited her to fly with him and his aunt to Lausanne in Switzerland, aboard a plane he would pilot. In Lausanne he proposed while they were on a drive together. She accepted. It was just over two weeks since they had met.

But there were some problems with the Catholic princess marrying the Orthodox king. The Bourbon princess needed permission from the Vatican to marry a non-Catholic. The pope would only agree if the king promised to raise his children as Catholics, which he couldn’t do as head of an Orthodox royal line.

Another problem loomed, in December 1947, the king was forced, at gunpoint, to abdicate by Romania’s communist government. He was allowed to leave the country and travelled to Switzerland where he reunited with Anne in January 1948.

media_camera King Michael I of Romania and Queen Anne at their home in England in 1952.

He later denounced his abdication as forced and still claimed to be the rightful king of Romania. The couple married in an Orthodox ceremony in a royal palace in Athens. The Vatican issued a statement that Anne could no longer receive communion in a Catholic church.

They went to live for a time on a market garden farm in Hertfordshire in England before moving to Switzerland where they lived for most of their lives.

media_camera King Michael and Queen Anne on the return visit to Romania in 2008.

The fall of the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 opened the way for Michael to return, visiting in 1990 and Anne, for the first time, in 1992. While there was no talk of a restoration of the monarchy, Romanians enthusiastically celebrated the couple’s diamond anniversary in 2008.

Earlier this year King Michael was forced to retire from public duties due to illness. Anne died on August 1, and is survived by her husband and their daughters the Crown Princess Margareta, Princess Elena, Princess Irina, Princess Sophie and Princess Maria.