Prince Barbu Alexandru Știrbey (; 4 November 1872 – 24 March 1946) was 30th Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Romania in 1927. Early life and ancestry Born into the most prestigious House of Stirbey, he was the son of Prince Alexandru Știrbey and his wife, Princess Maria Ghika-Comănești (1851-1885), and grandson of another Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei (born Bibescu, adopted Știrbei), who was Prince of Wallachia and died in 1869. The Știrbey family was one of the more prominent and wealthier boyar (noble) families in Wallachia, and had been so since the 15th century. Boyar Știrbey was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris, and was famous in Romania for his work in modernising the vast estates he owned, and "his model farm was recognized for the exceptional quality of its products". Știrbey was a polished, cultivated aristocrat known in Romania as the "White Prince" on the account of his impeccable manners and the "strange hypnotic quality" of his eyes. In common with other members of Romania's Francophile elite who wanted to emulate France, Romania's "big Latin sister", Știrbey spoke immaculate French and was always dressed in a dapper style that followed the latest fashions of Paris. He married his second cousin, Princess Nadèje Bibescu in 1895, daughter of Prince Gheorge Bibescu and Marie Henriette Valentine de Caraman-Chimay, daughter of Prince Joseph de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay. They had five daughters: Maria, Nadejda, Elena, Eliza and Catharina. As a scion of one of the oldest boyar families of Wallachia while also being a descendant of the well known Bibescu boyar family, which had provided several voivodes and hospodars over the centuries, Știrbey had a somewhat patronising attitude towards the Romanian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Romanian Hohenzollerns were a Catholic Swabian cadet branch of the Prussian Protestant branch of the Hohenzollerns; Știrbey noted that his ancestors had been ruling Wallachia while the ancestors of King Carol I were mere petty Swabian nobility. Știrbey was one of Romania's richest men while also being one of its largest landowners. At Buftea, he owned 225 hectares of farmland and another 225 hectares of forestland; in the Olt County, he owned 325 hectares of farmland and another 2, 500 hectares of forestland; in Plugari, he owned 5, 200 hectares of farmland, and at Plopii-Slăvești, he owned 345 hectares of farmland. In addition, Știrbey sat on the board of directors of several of Romania's largest