Ferdinand I was the heir to the throne of Romania after his father and elder brother renounced their claims. As the heir presumptive to his uncle, King Carol I of Romania, Ferdinand became a prince of Romania in 1889. The Romanian government did not require Ferdinand to convert from Catholicism to Orthodoxy to take the throne, but his children would have to be raised in the Orthodox faith, the state religion of Romania. For agreeing to this, Ferdinand was briefly excommunicated from the Catholic Church.