Iorga, Nicolae

(b. June 18, 1871, Botosani, Rom.--d. Nov. 28, 1940, Strejnicu), scholar and statesman, Romania's greatest national historian, who also served briefly as its prime minister (1931-32).

Appointed professor of universal history at Bucharest (1895), Iorga early established his historical reputation with his Geschichte des rumänischen Volkes (1905; "History of the Romanian People"), his five-volume Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (1908-12; "History of the Ottoman Empire"), and studies of the Crusades.

From the time of his first election to the Romanian Parliament (1907), he played an important role in national politics. He founded his own party, the National Democrats, and in 1931-32 he served as prime minister and also minister of education. A man of enormous energy, he had already by 1933 written an estimated 800 books and 10,000 articles and founded a people's university at Valenii de Munte (1908), the Southeast European Institute (1913), and numerous periodicals. He subsequently published a monumental 10-volume national history (Istoria Românilor; 1936-39). His strongly nationalist writings and lectures influenced all of Romanian intellectual life. (see also Index: Romanian literature)

Iorga supported the regime of his former pupil, King Carol II, who had returned from exile in 1930 to claim the national throne. In November 1940 Iorga was assassinated by terrorists of the national Fascist Iron Guard.