Eager to obtain the favor of the new sovereign (and some legitimation to his dictatorship), Antonescu granted Helen the title of "Queen Mother of Romania" ("Regina-mamă Elena") with the style "Her Majesty" on 8 September 1940 and sent the diplomat Raoul Bossy to Fiesole to persuade her to return to Bucharest (12 September 1940). Back in Romania (14 September 1940), Helen found herself, however, subject to the whim of the dictator, determined to keep the royal family in a purely ceremonial role. Indeed, in the years that followed, Antonescu systematically excluded the king and his mother from political responsibility and didn't even bother to warn them of his decision to declare war on the Soviet Union in June 1941.