Editing Iron Guard (section)

===Struggle for power===
[[File:Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]], the founder of the Iron Guard]]

In the [[1937 Romanian general election|1937 parliamentary elections]] the Legion came in third with 15.5% of the vote, behind the National Liberal and the [[National Peasants' Party|National Peasant Parties]]. [[Carol II of Romania|King Carol II]] strongly opposed the Legion's political aims and successfully kept them out of government until he himself was forced to abdicate in 1940. During this period, the Legion was generally on the receiving end of persecution. On 10 February 1938, the king dissolved the government and initiated a royal dictatorship.

Codreanu advised the Legion to accept the new regime. However, Interior Minister [[Armand Călinescu]] did not trust Codreanu and ordered him arrested on 16 April. Realizing that the government was looking for an excuse to have him executed, Codreanu ordered the Legion's acting commander, [[Horia Sima]], to take no action unless there was evidence that he was in immediate danger. However, Sima, who was known for his violent streak, launched a wave of terrorist activity in autumn. Codreanu got wind of this and ordered the violence to end.<ref name="Payne">{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Stanley G. |title=A History of Fascism, 1914–1945 |date=1996 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0203501322 |author-link=Stanley G. Payne}}</ref>

The order came too late. On the night of 29–30 November 1938, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were strangled to death by their [[Jandarmeria Română|Gendarmerie]] escort, purportedly during an attempt to escape from prison. It is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt, and that Codreanu and the others were killed on the king's orders, probably in reaction to the 24 November 1938 murder by legionnaires of a relative (some sources say a "friend") of Călinescu. In the aftermath of Carol's decision to crush the Iron Guard, many members of the Legion fled into exile in Germany, where they received both material and financial support from the [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]], especially from the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] and [[Alfred Rosenberg]]'s [[NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs|Foreign Political Office]].<ref name="Haynes pages 676-683">{{cite journal |jstor=4211380 |last1=Haynes |first1=Rebecca |title=German Historians and the Romanian National Legionary State 1940–41 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |year=1993 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=676–683}}</ref>

For much of the interwar period, Romania was in the French sphere of influence, and in 1926 Romania signed a treaty of alliance with France. Following the [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland]] in March 1936, Carol started to move away from the traditional alliance with France as the fear grew within Romania that the French would do nothing in the event of German aggression in Eastern Europe, but Carol's regime was still regarded as essentially pro-French. From the German viewpoint, the Iron Guard was regarded as far preferable to King Carol. The royal dictatorship lasted just over one year. On 7 March 1939, a new government was formed with Călinescu as prime minister; on 21 September 1939, he, in turn was assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu. Călinescu favored a foreign policy where Romania would maintain a pro-Allied neutrality in World War II, and as such, the SS had a hand in organizing Călinescu's assassination.<ref name="Haynes pages 676-683"/> Further rounds of mutual carnage ensued, with the government massacring over 300 Legionnaires nationwide in reprisal.<ref>Iordachi, p. 39.</ref>

[[File:Corneliu Zelea Codreanu archive Legionary Movement Romanian Christian Nationalists.jpg|300px|thumb|left|[[Corneliu Zelea Codreanu]] and Iron Guard members in 1937]]

In addition to the conflict with the king, an internal battle for power ensued in the wake of Codreanu's death. Waves of repression almost eliminated the Legion's original leadership by 1939, promoting second-rank members to the forefront. According to a secret report filed by the Hungarian political secretary in Bucharest in late 1940, three main factions existed: the group gathered around Sima, a dynamic local leader from the Banat, which was the most pragmatic and least Orthodox in its orientation; the group composed of Codreanu's father, Ion Zelea Codreanu, and his brothers (who despised Sima); and the Moța-Marin group, which wanted to strengthen the movement's religious character.

After a long period of confusion, Sima, representing the Legion's less radical wing, overcame all competition and assumed leadership, being recognised as such on 6 September 1940 by the Legionary Forum, a body created at his initiative. On 28 September the elder Codreanu stormed the Legion headquarters in Bucharest (the Green House) in an unsuccessful attempt to install himself as leader.<ref>Iordachi, p. 39</ref> Sima was close to SS ''Volksgruppenführer'' Andreas Schmidt, a ''volksdeutsch'' (ethnic German) from Romania, and through him become close to Schmidt's father-in-law, the powerful [[Gottlob Berger]] who headed the SS Main Office in Berlin.<ref name="Haynes pp. 676">Haynes, Rebecca "German Historians and the Romanian National Legionary State 1940–41" pp. 676–683 from ''The Slavonic and East European Review'' Volume 71, Issue # 4, October 1993 p. 681.</ref> The British historian Rebecca Haynes has argued that financial and organizational support from the SS was an important factor in Sima's rise.<ref name="Haynes pp. 676"/>