Michael

/muy"keuhl/, n.

1. a militant archangel. Dan. 10:13.

2. Rumanian, Mihai /mee huy"/. born 1921, king of Rumania 1927-30, 1940-47 (son of Carol II).

3. (italics) a narrative poem (1800) by Wordsworth.

4. a male given name.

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I

In the Bible and the Qurān, one of the archangels.

The captain of the heavenly hosts, he was invoked by early Christian armies against the heathen. In Christian tradition he is thought to escort the soul into the presence of God at the time of death. In art he is depicted as a warrior, sword in hand, in triumph over a dragon. His feast day, known in England as Michaelmas, is September 29. See also Mīkāīl.

II

born Oct. 25, 1921, Sinaia, Rom.

King of Romania.

After his father, the future king Carol II, had been excluded from the royal succession (1926), Michael was proclaimed king under a three-member regency. Carol reclaimed the throne in 1930, and Michael was reduced to crown prince. With Carol's abdication in 1940, Michael again became king but was in effect a prisoner of the military dictator Ion Antonescu. In 1944 he helped lead the coup that overthrew the military regime and severed Romania's ties with the Axis powers. He strongly opposed the communists' subsequent rise to power, but was forced to abdicate in 1947. He went into exile in Switzerland and became an executive with a U.S. brokerage firm. In 1997 his Romanian citizenship was restored; he subsequently visited the country and sought the return of property holdings that were confiscated.

III

or Michael Romanov Russian Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov

born July 22, 1596

died July 23, 1645, Moscow

Tsar of Russia (1613–45) and founder of the Romanov dynasty.

A young nobleman elected as tsar after the chaotic Time of Troubles, he allowed his mother's relatives to direct the government early in his reign. They restored order to Russia and made peace with Sweden (1617) and Poland (1618). In 1619 his father, released from captivity in Poland, returned to Russia and became coruler. Michael's father dominated the government, increasing contact with western Europe and strengthening central authority and serfdom. After his death in 1633, Michael's maternal relatives once again held sway.

IV

(as used in expressions)

Michael Romanov

Bennett Michael

Michael Bennett Difiglia

Bishop John Michael

Coetzee John Michael

Cohan George Michael

Collins Michael

Curley James Michael

Curtiz Michael

DeBakey Michael Ellis

Douglas Michael

Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley

Eisner Michael Dammann

Faraday Michael

Faulhaber Michael von

Foot Michael

Graves Michael

Gross Michael

Harnett William Michael

Healy Timothy Michael

Jackson Michael Joseph

Johnson Michael Duane

Jordan Michael Jeffrey

Kidd Michael

Michael Leigh

Manley Michael Norman

Mansfield Michael Joseph

Michael Cerularius

Michael VIII Palaeologus

Maria Ludwig Michael Mies

Milken Michael R.

Michael Igor Peschkowsky

Michael O'Donovan

Ondaatje Philip Michael

Stephen Michael Ovett

Pacher Michael

Powell Michael Latham

Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore

Stephen Michael Reich

Richter Conrad Michael

Michael Royko

Schwab Charles Michael

Michael Sinnott

Servetus Michael

Spence A. Michael

Thonet Michael

Tippett Sir Michael Kemp

Michael Gerald Tyson

Ventris Michael George Francis

Marion Michael Morrison

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▪ archangel

Hebrew  Mikhaʾel,  Arabic  Mīkāʾil, or Mīkhāʾil,  

      in the Bible and the Qurʾān, one of the archangels. He is repeatedly depicted as the “great captain,” the leader of the heavenly hosts, the warrior helping the children of Israel; and early in the history of the Christian church he came to be regarded as helper of the church's armies against the heathen. He holds the secret of the mighty “word” by the utterance of which God created heaven and earth and was “the angel who spoke to [Moses] on Mount Sinai” (Acts 7:38). The numerous representations of Michael in art reflect his character as a warrior: he is shown with a sword, in combat with or triumph over a dragon, from the story in the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse).

      The feast of St. Michael, which originated in Phrygia, is kept in both East and West on September 29. In the Roman Catholic Church the feast of the Appearing (or Apparition) of St. Michael the Archangel is kept on May 8. According to legend, this appearance took place on Mt. Gargano, in Apulia, c. 492, and the mountain became an important medieval pilgrimage site.

▪ king of Portugal

born Oct. 26, 1802, Queluz, Port.

died Nov. 14, 1866, Brombach, Baden

      younger son of King John VI of Portugal, regent of Portugal from February 1828 and self-proclaimed king from July 1828 to 1834, though his royal title was not everywhere recognized.

      Michael went with the rest of the royal family to Brazil in 1807, escaping from Napoleon's armies, but returned with them in 1821 to Portugal. He was then—and remained—much under the influence of his Spanish mother, Queen Carlota Joaquina. On his return, King John VI accepted the liberal constitution of 1821, but Queen Carlota refused to take the oath. When in 1823 the French overthrew the radical regime in Spain, Michael led a military rebellion that dissolved the discredited Cortes in Portugal. His father promised an amended constitution but appointed liberal ministers, and on April 30, 1824, Michael again led a military rebellion. When it faltered, his father reluctantly exiled him to Vienna (June 1824). When John VI died (March 10, 1826), his elder son, Peter, emperor of Brazil, became Peter IV of Portugal (Pedro I) but constitutionally abdicated in favour of his daughter Maria, then seven years of age. She was to marry Michael, who was to accept Peter's constitutional Charter. Michael swore to accept the Charter, returned to Portugal, and assumed the regency (Feb. 22, 1828); however, he promptly fell under his mother's influence, settled old scores, and had himself proclaimed king (July 7, 1828). He was so recognized by the Holy See, Spain, the United States, and Russia but not by the liberal monarchies. In 1830 the Duke of Wellington's government in Britain was about to recognize him, but it fell. In 1831 Peter abdicated in Brazil, returned to Europe, and initiated a civil war. Michael lost Porto, but the struggle was protracted; he was finally forced by foreign intervention to leave Lisbon and surrendered at Évora-Monte on May 26, 1834. He renounced the throne, departed for Genoa (where he cancelled his renunciation), and settled in Italy and Germany.

▪ king of Romania

born Oct. 25, 1921, Sinaia, Rom.

 

 king of Romania and, during World War II, a principal leader of the coup d'etat of August 1944, which severed Romania's connection with the Axis powers.

      After his father—the future king Carol II— had been formally excluded from the royal succession by an act of state (January 1926), Michael was proclaimed king of Romania under a three-member regency on the death of his grandfather, King Ferdinand (July 20, 1927). But upon the return of Carol from exile (June 1930), the regency was dissolved, and Michael was reduced to the rank of crown prince. With Carol's abdication in September 1940, Michael again became king but was in effect a prisoner of the newly established military dictatorship of Gen. Ion Antonescu. Michael was strongly influenced by his mother, Queen Helen, who at this time was recalled from a 10-year exile. Becoming the focus of opposition against the Antonescu regime, he arrested the dictator on Aug. 23, 1944, signalling the overthrow of the military government. From the end of World War II in 1945, he strenuously opposed the communists' accession to power in Romania but was ultimately forced to abdicate on Dec. 30, 1947, and go into exile. Finally settling near Geneva (with his wife, Anne de Bourbon-Parma), Michael became an executive for a U.S. brokerage firm. After the overthrow of the communist regime in 1989, he made a number of visits to Romania, and in 2000 he was given back part of the royal family's property, and he decided to return to the country to live.

▪ prince of Walachia

byname  Michael the Brave,  Romanian  Mihai Viteazul,  original name  Mihai Basarab 

born 1558

died Aug. 19, 1601, Torda, Walachia

      Romanian national hero, prince of Walachia, who briefly united much of the future national patrimony under his rule.

      Acceding to the princely throne of Walachia in 1593, Michael submitted in May 1595 to the suzerainty of the prince of Transylvania, Sigismund Báthory, in order to secure support against Ottoman rule. He routed the Turks at Călugăreni (August 1595) and Giurgiu (October 1595). In 1598 he took an oath of fealty to the Habsburg emperor, Rudolf II, and also concluded a peace with the Turks. The following year he attacked his new Transylvanian suzerain, Andreas Báthory, and defeated him at Şelimbăr (October 1599). Having now proclaimed himself prince of Transylvania, Michael next conquered Moldavia (May 1600) and assumed the title of “prince of Ungro-Walachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia.” In September of that year, however, the troops of Emperor Rudolf divested him of Transylvania, while Polish forces wrested Moldavia from his control the following month. Reconciled to the emperor in 1601, he helped suppress a rebellion of Magyar nobles at Gorăslău (August 1601) but was killed shortly thereafter on the order of the imperial general Giorgio Basta. During the 19th century, Michael acquired the reputation among Romanian nationalists as the pioneer of national unity.

▪ tsar of Russia

Russian in full  Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov  

born July 22 [July 12, old style], 1596

died July 23 [July 13, O.S.], 1645, Moscow

 tsar of Russia from 1613 to 1645 and founder of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia until 1917.

      Son of Fyodor Nikitich Romanov (later the Orthodox patriarch Philaret), Michael was related to the last tsar of the Rurik dynasty, Fyodor I (reigned 1584–98) through his grandfather Nikita Romanov, who was Fyodor's maternal uncle. When the zemsky sobor (assembly of the land) met in 1613 to elect a new tsar after the Time of Troubles—a period of chaotic internal disorders, foreign invasions, and a rapid succession of rulers following the death of Fyodor I—it chose Michael Romanov as tsar (February 1613).

      Emissaries came from Moscow to the monastery near Kostroma where Michael was living with his mother—who had been compelled to become a nun during the reign of Boris Godunov (ruled 1598–1605)—and in March he accepted the offer of the throne with great reluctance.

      Only 16 years old and poorly educated at the time of his coronation on July 21 (July 11, O.S.), 1613, Michael at first allowed his mother's relatives to gain control of governmental affairs. Although they promoted their personal interests, they also restored order to Russia, suppressed internal uprisings, and made peace both with Sweden (Treaty of Stolbovo, 1617) and with Poland (Truce of Deulino, 1618).

      In 1619 Michael's father, who had been forced to become a monk under the name Philaret (Filaret) in 1601 and had later been taken to Poland, was released from captivity. Upon his return to Russia, he was installed as patriarch of the church and Michael's co-ruler. From then until his death in 1633, he dominated Michael's government, which increased diplomatic, commercial, and cultural contact with western Europe, made extensive use of the zemski sobor as a popular consultative body, employed a variety of means to solve Russia's continuing financial dilemmas, reformed the structure of local government to increase the authority of the central administration, and strengthened the institution of serfdom. When his father died, Michael's maternal relatives again played prominent roles in his government until he died and left his throne to his son Alexis.

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