His loyalism was rewarded by the Austrian authorities and antagonized the Romanian National People's Party, but Isopescu-Grecul also took distance from the pro-Austrian line advocated by Aurel Onciul.

When public order broke down in Vienna, he and Iuliu Maniu organized defense units of Romanians from the Common Army, which doubled as a police force.

[1] Constantin's mother Aglaia Constantinovici-Grecul was the daughter of Ghideon Ritter von Grecul, who variously served as an archimandrite and as a high government official.

[2][3] Constantin had three siblings: Aurelia, a sister, who married the Austrian academic Johann Wenzel Patz; brothers Emanoil, Eusebie and Gheorghe—respectively, a professor, a physician, and a career soldier.

[7] Having received a law doctorate in 1897,[3] young Isopescu-Grecul entered the magistracy, serving as court clerk in Gura Humorului for a time before becoming a prosecutor in Czernowitz.

[9] His journalistic work saw print in virtually every newspaper and magazine in Czernowitz, but also in Romanian publications in other parts of Austria-Hungary (Tribuna, Vatra) and in the Kingdom of Romania (Convorbiri Literare, Neamul Românesc).

[12] A member of the breakaway Romanian National People's Party (PNPR) in its new avatar, the Apărărist group, Constantin took over for his father, and ran in the House at the Austrian election of 1907 for Czernowitz, Storozynetz and Bojan.

[13] He only took the latter two constituencies after winning a runoff against Ioan Iancu Cuparencu, of the Democratic Peasants' Party; in the first round, they had both beaten George Grigorovici, of the Bukovina Socialists.

[15] Subsequently, the Independents occupied the middle ground between two irreconcilable approaches: the radicalized nationalism of the PNPR and Concordia, and the loyalism of the Democratic Peasantists;[16] in addition to Isopescu-Grecul and Simionovici, they managed to enlist a third deputy in Vienna, namely Alexandru Hurmuzaki.

This was a mission prepared by Count Leopold Berchtold, the Minister President of Austria, who wanted to calm the anti-Austrian irredentism of Romanian nationalists such as Nicolae Iorga.

Isopescu-Grecul took up their cause in the Viennese parliament, earning support from prominent figures such as Karl Seitz and Ignaz Seipel; they pleaded with Francis Joseph, arranging the prisoners' pardon and release.

Isopescu-Grecul and his fellow deputy Simionovici requested an interview with Ernest von Koerber, the new Minister President, who praised their loyalism and assured them that Bukovina would remain in the Austrian domain.

[41] In February 1918, as premier Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg proposed a new budget, Isopescu-Grecul agreed to support it out of Austrian patriotism, though he publicly expressed the wish that the government would follow up with concrete measures to grant Romanian subjects their autonomy; he explained that: "the start of [Romania's] war was the saddest moment in any Bukovinian's life.

[46] In September, Isopescu-Grecul and Simionovici informed Baron Hussarek, the Minister President, that Bukovinian Romanians felt betrayed by the regime, and no longer considered themselves loyal to the monarchy.

On October 4, during an interview with the emperor, he asserted that the 4 million Romanians of Bukovina and Transylvania now wished to form their own independent state,[47] or a single autonomous unit of Austria.

[52] On the same day, Emperor Charles released his proclamation To my peoples, which promised a new political system for Cisleithania, but made virtually no mention of Bukovina's future organization.

In his own speech, he referred to the Fourteen Points doctrine as a guarantee of self-determination, criticizing the emperor's "nebulous" promises; he also attacked Austria for not intervening to support the Romanian cause in Transylvania or Transleithania at large.

[57] On November 1,[58] Isopescu and Maniu visited General Stöger-Steiner, nominally in charge of the War Ministry, and demanded direct control over Romanian units in the Common Army.

[69] In June 1919, Isopescu-Grecul noted with worry that the Hungarians were losing interest in forming a league with Romania, and were instead pondering a personal union with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, under Alexander Karađorđević.

[77] By early 1925, Isopescu-Grecul had revived the PNPR's sections; in April, after negotiations between him and Traian Brăileanu, he agreed to fuse these into the Democratic Nationalist Party, whose national leader was his old rival Iorga.

[85] The Iași-based newspaper Lumea attributed this claim to deputy Vasile Georgescu Bârlad, who had seen suspicious behavior from Ștefan Cicio Pop, the Assembly President.

[89] Once the institution was hit by the Great Depression, Isopescu-Grecul formally demanded financial assistance for "Bukovina's brain and heart" from the government, led at the time by Iorga.

Just before the buildings had been evacutaed and occupied by the Romanian Army as peacekeepers, the law faculty asked him to intervene for the conditional release of Christians arrested as agitators; he instead "issued parental demands that the students settle down and refrain from causing any additional regrettable incidents".

[96] In his late years, Isopescu-Grecul was also involved in intrigues between the Rusyn and Ukrainian communities, supporting Kassian Bogatyrets and Jevhen Kozak as the authorized representatives of the former.

"[97] Appearing at a political rally on September 10, he endorsed the PNȚ program of transforming Romania into a "peasant state", describing the need to harnass productive capital against a "coterie that has taken hold of the country.

"[98] Another such rally was held in November 1936, with Isopescu-Grecul appearing at the rostrum in Alecsandri Square alongside members of the PNȚ elite—Ion Mihalache, Virgil Madgearu, and Pan Halippa.

[99] At the time, Isopescu-Grecul's idea of unifying Romania and Hungary was again being championed by the likes of István Bethlen and Hermann Müller, who proposed it to Carol II;[100] on the Romanian side, the negotiations reportedly involved Dimitrie Ghyka.

The service was provided by 12 Orthodox priests, including Visarion Puiu; rector Ion Nistor delivered a funeral oration, as did Diti Tarangul, on behalf of Isopescu-Grecul's students.

[89] In an obituary piece that was published in April, Iorga recognized Isopescu-Grecul as a "good Romanian" and a "stolidly impartial" legislator, an exponent of "correct Austrian bureaucratism".

[104] According to the left-wing lawyer Otto Roth, by 1939 the project for a personal union between Hungary and Romania was again being promoted by Budapest dissidents, being seen as a possible bulwark against encroachment by Nazi Germany.