| Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza | |
|---|---|
| Pretender | |
 | |
| Born | 1862 or 1864 |
| Died | April 4, 1890 (aged 25–28) Madrid, Kingdom of Spain |
| Title(s) | aspiring Domnitor |
| Royal House | Cuza |
| Father | Alexandru Ioan Cuza |
| Mother | Maria Catargi-Obrenović (officially, Elena Rosetti-Cuza) |
| Spouse | Maria Moruzi |
Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza (also known as Alexandru A. Cuza, A. A. Cuza, or Sașa Cuza; 1862 or 1864 – April 4, 1890) was a Romanian aristocrat and politician. He was the eldest of the sons adopted by Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza and his consort, Elena Rosetti-Cuza. Public opinion and historians generally agree that both Cuza brothers were Cuza's natural sons from his mistress Maria Catargi-Obrenović, though another hypothesis has them as born to Maria from her liaison with Cezar Librecht, the Postmaster General and spy chief. His biological and his adoptive mother both belonged to the boyar aristocracy of Moldavia. Through Catargi, Alexandru and Dimitrie were half-brothers of Milan I Obrenović, the King of Serbia, and of General Radu Catargi. During his brief political activity, Alexandru was repeatedly described as a Russophile or more specifically an agent of the Russian Empire, resembling in this Maria and her father, Costin Catargi.
Alexandru Ioan's reign marked the first political union between the two Danubian Principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia), which was to form the Kingdom of Romania in 1881. In the 1860s, his father made a conscious attempt at establishing a Cuza dynasty—this, together with his dissolute lifestyle, helped coalesce the "monstrous coalition", which fought to have him deposed. When Alexandru Ioan was ousted and replaced with Carol of Hohenzollern (February 1866), Alexandru Al. Ioan followed him into exile, graduating from the University of Paris. He settled back in Romania after his father's death, attempting to create a current of opinion against Carol, and being presented, by his partisans and adversaries alike, as a competitor for the throne. He rallied with the opposition Conservatives for the election of January 1888, winning a Third-College seat in the Assembly of Deputies, whereupon he resigned. In mid 1888, he helped journalists Alexandru Beldiman and Grigore Ventura found an anti-Carlist newspaper, Adevărul.
Alexandru stepped back from politics shortly after the peasant riots of 1888, having been identified as their inspiration, and possibly co-instigator. Also that year, when Dimitrie Cuza died, he was the last surviving direct male heir of the Cuzas, and the sole landowner of Ruginoasa. Gravely ill and allegedly incapable of fathering children of his own, he disinherited his adoptive mother, while favoring his young wife, Maria Moruzi. After his death in Madrid, the Cuza estate, including Ruginoasa manor, passed through his widow onto the Moruzis and the Brătianus. The dying out of the Cuza line remained contested into the 20th century, with inaccurate reports that "Cuza's son" was leading the peasants' revolt of March 1907, and with new claimants appearing in both France and Chile.