by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Aspasia Manos, Princess of Greece; Credit – Wikipedia

Aspasia Manos was the wife of King Alexander of the Hellenes. Born on September 4, 1896, in Athens, Greece to Colonel Petros Manos and Maria Argyropoulos, she grew up around the Greek royal family as her father was an aide to King Constantine I.

After her parents divorced, Aspasia left Greece to study in France and Switzerland. Upon returning, she became reacquainted with Prince Alexander, King Constantine I’s second son, who would later reign briefly as King. The two quickly began a romance, despite the unlikelihood of being able to marry due to their different ranks.

In June 1917, King Constantine I was forced to step down from the throne, and his son Alexander was appointed to replace him. With his family exiled in Switzerland, and subject to a Prime Minister who treated him as just a puppet king, Alexander had only Aspasia by his side. The relationship remained largely unknown to the public but was a source of contention within the Greek royal family and the Greek government. The Prime Minister was strongly against the idea of marriage, as he feared that marriage to a Greek citizen would bring about increased support for the monarchy. He, instead, hoped to arrange a marriage for Alexander to Princess Mary of the United Kingdom, to strengthen the relationship between the two countries. King Constantine I supported his son’s relationship, but before leaving Greece had made Alexander promise to wait until his return before marrying.

Despite the challenges from his family and the Prime Minister, Aspasia and Alexander married secretly on November 17, 1919. Aspasia and her mother moved into the Royal Palace in Athens but were soon forced to go abroad when news of the marriage became known. Several months later, Alexander was able to leave Greece and join his wife in Paris and soon the couple returned to Greece together. However, she was never given the title of Queen, instead, she was known simply as Madame Manos.

Alexander and Aspasia had one daughter:

• Princess Alexandra of Greece (1921-1993), married King Peter II of Yugoslavia, had one son

Months later, on October 25, 1920, King Alexander died after contracting septicemia from a monkey bite several weeks earlier. Aspasia was four months pregnant at the time, and gave birth to their daughter, Alexandra, on March 21, 1921. After Alexander’s death, his father King Constantine I was restored to the throne. King Constantine I and his government treated Alexander’s reign as merely a regency, meaning that Alexander and Aspasia had not received the necessary permissions to marry and their marriage was void. However, at Queen Sophia’s urging, a law was passed allowing the King to approve the marriage retroactively. On September 12, 1922, King Constantine issued a decree recognizing the marriage of Alexander and Aspasia and legitimizing their daughter Alexandra. Aspasia was now Princess Alexander of Greece and Denmark. Despite this, her relationship with her husband’s family was not always easy. Her father-in-law remained distant, and her sister-in-law, Elisabeta of Romania, wife of Crown Prince George of Greece, despised her. However, others reached out to her, including Queen Sophia, Dowager Queen Olga, and Princess Andrew of Greece (the former Alice of Battenberg, and mother of the Duke of Edinburgh).

In the fall of 1922, King Constantine I was forced to abdicate in favor of Crown Prince George (King George II), and another coup in December 1923 again forced the Greek royal family into exile. When the Second Hellenic Republic was declared in March 1924, Aspasia and Alexandra were the only members of the Royal Family to remain in Greece. However, they left several months later, settling in Florence, Italy with Queen Sophia. Later, they moved to England, where they stayed with Sir James Horlick and his family in Ascot. With Horlick’s help, Aspasia purchased a property in Venice, Italy, known as the Garden of Eden (link in French) from a relative of Sir Anthony Eden, later Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The property, situated on a canal, consisted of a modest villa and a large garden.

Aspasia (seated) with her daughter Alexandra

Aspasia and her daughter remained in Venice after the monarchy was restored in 1935, making only occasional visits to Greece. However, after the outbreak of war between Italy and Greece in 1940, they quickly left Venice and returned to Athens, where Aspasia worked tirelessly with the Red Cross. The next year, they were forced to flee when the Germans invaded, traveling to Egypt and then South Africa. Aspasia was permitted to settle in the United Kingdom where she continued her work with the Red Cross. In the United Kingdom, Aspasia’s daughter Alexandta began a romance with King Peter II of Yugoslavia, and the couple was married on March 20, 1944.  Aspasia’s only grandchild  Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia was born at Claridge’s Hotel in London, England the next year.

Aspasia soon returned to Venice and began rebuilding her home which had been partially destroyed during the war. During the remainder of her life, Aspasia often struggled financially, and she was once forced to leave her villa during the winter as she could not afford the heating bill. When necessary, she also sold furniture and other assets to pay her bills. Despite her financial situation, she often had her daughter and grandson living with her. Following the war, and the overthrow of the Yugoslavian monarchy, Alexandra and Peter’s marriage began to deteriorate. Limited income, his numerous affairs, his drinking, and Alexandra’s ill health and depression soon led the couple to separate, and Aspasia was instrumental in the raising of her grandson.

Aspasia’s tomb at Tatoi. source: Wikipedia

Aspasia lived to see her grandson’s marriage to Princess Maria da Glória of Orléans-Bragança, although she was too ill to attend. A month later, on August 7, 1972, Aspasia Manos, Princess Alexander of Greece and Denmark, died in Venice, just a month before her 76th birthday. She was buried in the Orthodox cemetery on the island of San Michele in Venice. In 1993, her remains were reinterred in the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi, Greece.

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