Category Archives: Greek Royals

King Alexander of the Hellenes

by Scott Mehl    © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King Alexander of the Hellenes; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on August 1, 1893, at Tatoi Palace near Athens, Greece, King Alexander was the second son of King Constantine I of the Hellenes and Princess Sophie of Prussia. He had five siblings:

Alexander with four of his siblings, c1904. (l-r) Helen, Irene (in the chair), George, Alexander, and Paul. source: Wikipedia

Raised at the Royal Palace in Athens and Tatoi Palace, Alexander was educated in Greece, attending the Hellenic Military Academy and serving with the Greek forces. He saw combat during the Balkan Wars, and joined his father at the head of the Army of Thessaly, capturing the city of Thessaloniki in 1912.

On June 11, 1917, Alexander’s father was forced to give up his throne, agreeing to go into exile but not officially abdicating. The Allies wanted Greece to remain a monarchy but felt that Crown Prince George was too pro-German, and bypassed him. Alexander was then chosen to replace his father on the Greek throne. He took the oath of loyalty in the ballroom of the Royal Palace that same day, in the presence of his father, elder brother, and the Prime Minister. Two days later, his parents and siblings left Greece and settled in Switzerland. Alexander would not see his family again.

King Alexander of the Hellenes (left) with King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, at the Macedonian Front, 1918. source: Wikipedia

Just days later, Alexander was forced to name Eleftherios Venizelos as Prime Minister. Venizelos, the leader of the Liberal Party, held all the power, and Alexander was basically a prisoner in his own palace, merely acting as a puppet king. His few public appearances were usually visits to the Greek troops, including a visit to the Macedonian Front in 1918.

The day after becoming King, Alexander disclosed his relationship with an old childhood friend, Aspasia Manos. She was the daughter of Petros Manos, who had served as Master of the Horse to his father. They had become reacquainted in 1915 and began a secret romance. With Greece at war, King Constantine insisted that his son wait until the war was over before considering a possible engagement. However, Alexander’s separation from his family only brought him  closer to Aspasia, and he decided to marry her. The Prime Minister was strongly against the idea, fearing that marriage to a native Greek would only bring about public support for the Greek Royal Family. Venizelos had hoped to arrange a marriage between Alexander and Princess Mary of the United Kingdom (daughter of King George V), which would help strengthen the relationship between the two countries. While there was little support at home, his father did support the match but wanted Alexander to wait.

Finally, after several failed attempts, Alexander and Aspasia were married secretly by a royal chaplain on November 17, 1919. When the Archbishop of Athens found out, the marriage became a major scandal. Under the terms of the constitution, permission from both the sovereign and the head of the Greek Orthodox Church was needed for any member of the royal family to marry.

At first, the marriage was kept secret, and Aspasia and her mother were permitted to move into the palace with Alexander. However, once it became public, she was forced to leave the country, eventually settling in Paris. Alexander was allowed to join her there under the guise of attending the Peace Conference and on the condition that she would not accompany him at any official functions.

Alexander and Aspasia, 1920. source: Wikipedia

Eventually, Alexander and Aspasia were permitted to return to Greece. The marriage was legalized but Aspasia would not be recognized as Queen. Settled in at Tatoi Palace, Aspasia was soon pregnant with the couple’s only child who was born five months after her father’s death:

One of Alexander’s last public appearances was in July 1920, when he visited the newly acquired territories of West Thrace. While there, the main town was renamed Alexandroupoli in his honor. Just a few months later, tragedy struck the Greek Royal Family. On October 2, 1920, King Alexander was bitten by a monkey while walking on the grounds of Tatoi Palace. Not thinking it was serious, he had the wound cleaned and dressed but it soon became infected. He soon developed septicemia and became delirious with a fever. Despite his pleas for his mother to be at his bedside, the government would not allow either of his parents to return to Greece. However, his grandmother Queen Olga was given permisson to come to Athens. King Alexander died on October 25, 1920, at the Royal Palace. Delayed by bad weather, Queen Olga did not arrive until two hours after his death.

Tomb of King Alexander. source: Wikipedia

King Alexander’s body lay in state at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation in Athens, Greece until his funeral several days later. Queen Olga was the only member of the Greek royal family permitted to attend. Following the funeral, Alexander’s remains were interred at the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi. Interestingly, unlike the tombstones of his father and brothers, Alexander’s tombstone does not refer to him as King of the Hellenes. Because of the political circumstances that put him on the throne, none in the royal family considered his reign truly legitimate and treated it more like a regency. Alexander himself shared this feeling. His tombstone simply says ‘Alexander, son of the King of the Hellenes, Prince of Denmark.’

King Alexander’s death left the throne vacant, with the Greek Parliament wanting to pass the throne to another member of the Royal Family. The Parlament insisted that King Constantine and Crown Prince George be permanently banned from the line of succession. The throne was offered to Alexander’s younger brother Paul. However, Paul declined, pointing out that his father and elder brother were still living, and neither had renounced their rights to the throne. Just weeks later, new elections saw the defeat of Prime Minister Venizelos and the monarchists winning the majority. King Constantine was restored to the throne, and the new Prime Minister asked Queen Olga, already in Athens, to serve as Regent until King Constantine’s return to Greece.

Two years after Alexander’s death, his marriage was retroactively recognized by King Constantine I, and their daughter was legitimized. Both Aspasia and Alexandra were made Princesses of Greece and Denmark.

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Princess Elisabeta of Romania, Queen of the Hellenes

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Princess Elisabeta of Romania, Queen of the Hellenes; Credit: Wikipedia

Princess Elisabeta of Romania was the wife of King George II of the Hellenes from 1921 until 1935. She was born Elisabeta Charlotte Josephine Alexandra Victoria on October 12, 1894, at Peleş Castle in Romania, the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand I of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh. Elisabeta had five siblings:

Elisabeta on her mother’s lap with her brother Carol, c1895. source: Wikipedia

Elisabeta was raised by her great-aunt (and namesake) Queen Elisabeth, the wife of King Carol I of Romania. As a child, she learned to play the piano and violin and quickly developed a talent for drawing and painting. Educated privately at home, she spoke several languages and furthered her skills in music and art. She also began her charitable work at a young age. Along with her sisters, Elisabeta often joined their mother in her nursing work during World War I. After the war, she spent a year studying art and music in Paris.

Queen Marie, Princess Elisabeta, and Princess Maria in Paris, 1919. source: Wikipedia

Elisabeta first met her future husband in 1911, when the Greek Royal Family had been invited to visit the Romanian Royal Family. Prince George (later King George II) was the son of King Constantine I of the Hellenes and Princess Sophie of Prussia. George and Elisabeta were second cousins through their mothers. During the visit, George proposed but Elisabeta declined. He proposed again in 1914 after the Balkan Wars but she again turned him down. The two maintained contact and George’s luck would soon improve. In early 1920, while traveling from France with her mother and sisters, they stopped in Switzerland where the Greek Royal Family was living in exile. George proposed again, and this time, Elisabeta accepted. The engagement was announced in October 1920 and they married on February 27, 1921, in Bucharest, Romania. By the time of the wedding, George’s father had been restored to the Greek throne. Elisabeta became the Crown Princess of Greece and the Duchess of Sparta. A week after their return to Greece, a second wedding took place in Athens. Elisabeta’s brother, Carol, married George’s sister, Princess Helen of Greece. Neither marriage would prove to be a happy one.

Elisabeta and George, 1921. source: Wikipedia

The Crown Princess found her new life in Greece to be very difficult. She did not speak the language and often felt snubbed by many in her husband’s family. The couple did not have their own home but lived with King Constantine and Queen Sophia. Trying to make the best of the situation, Elisabeta quickly set out to redecorate their apartments but soon found that there was little money to do so. The Greek Royal Family did not have the same financial resources to which she was accustomed, and her dowry was not much help.

Elisabeta began working with the Red Cross and indulging in her love of painting and gardening. She also worked hard to learn Greek hoping it would help her relationships with her new family. Soon she found herself pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage and then fell ill with typhoid. Having recovered, she returned to Romania in the fall of 1922 to attend her parents’ coronation. While there, Elisabeta learned that her father-in-law had abdicated in favor of her husband. She was now Queen of the Hellenes.

Days after her parents’ coronation, Elisabeta returned to Greece. However, she shunned the typical duties expected of a consort, preferring to spend time at Tatoi Palace where she could paint, play the piano, and spend hours working in the gardens she had designed there. Soon, it became likely that the Greek monarchy would be eliminated in favor of a Republic. Under the guise of an official visit to Romania, Elisabeta and her husband went into exile on December 19, 1923. They settled briefly at Cotroceni Palace before taking the lease on a small villa in Bucharest. Just months later, on March 25, 1924, King George II was formally deposed.

Soon, the couple began to grow apart. Elisabeta was happy to be back in her homeland, while George felt stifled at the Romanian court. He spent more time abroad, and by the early 1930s, was living permanently in London. Both had begun affairs and in 1935, Elisabeta filed for divorce in Bucharest, citing desertion as the grounds for divorce. The divorce was issued on July 6, 1935, and her former husband found out when he read about it in the newspaper. He had never been made aware of the proceedings.

 

Elisabeta then petitioned to have her Romanian citizenship restored (she had relinquished it upon her marriage). Through shrewd investments and the booming Romanian economy, she became financially well-off. In March of that year, she had purchased Banloc – a commune in western Romania made up of several villages where she lived at Banloc Castle. In Bucharest, the Elisabeta Palace was built for her in the mid-1390s. She also had a home in the village of Copăceni, outside of Bucharest. Elisabeta devoted much of her time to charity, working with many organizations to help children and those who were ill. At her own expense, she established a hospital and children’s home in Bucharest.

By 1944, Elisabeta had given up the Elisabeta Palace to her nephew King Mihai who moved his court there following the bombing of the Royal Palace in Bucharest. She spent her time at Banloc and Copăceni. It was there, on December 30, 1947, that King Mihai was forced to abdicate. Just days later, on January 4, 1948, the royal train carrying King Mihai, Queen Mother Helen, and Princess Ileana left Bucharest and traveled to Banloc, where Elisabeta joined them on their journey out of Romania. After staying briefly in Sigmaringen, Germany, and in Zurich, she eventually settled in Cannes, France where she leased an apartment and later taught piano lessons.

Princess Elisabeta of Romania, Queen of Greece, died in Cannes, France on November 15, 1956. She is buried at the Hedinger Church in Sigmaringen, Germany.

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King George II of the Hellenes

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2016

King George II of Greece. source: Wikipedia

King George II of the Hellenes was the eldest son of King Constantine I and Princess Sophie of Prussia. He was born on July 19, 1890, at Tatoi Palace near Athens, Greece, and had five younger siblings:

At the time of his birth, George’s grandfather King George I was King of the Hellenes and his father was Crown Prince. Through his mother, he was a grandson of Friedrich III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal.

Queen Sophia and King Constantine I with their five eldest children (l-r): Paul, Alexander, George, Helen, and Irene. c1911. source: Wikipedia

As a child, George and his family lived in a villa in Athens and enjoyed time at Tatoi Palace. They also often traveled to England and spent part of their summers at Friedrichshof, his maternal grandmother’s home in Germany, as well as Corfu and Venice. His education was primarily military-based, attending the Hellenic Military Academy in Athens. At the age of 18, George continued his military training with the 1st Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Guard in Berlin, where he stayed for several years. He returned to Greece in October 1912 and fought with the 1st Greek Infantry during the Balkan Wars. All would change on March 18, 1913, when his grandfather was assassinated, and his father ascended to the Greek throne. George became Crown Prince and Duke of Sparta, the traditional title for the heir to the Greek throne, although rarely used within Greece.

In June 1917, George’s father was forced to relinquish the throne. While George was the Crown Prince and rightful heir, the government felt he was too ‘German’, having trained with the Prussian Guard, and because of his mother’s German roots. Instead, his younger brother Alexander was placed on the throne. George went into exile in Switzerland with his father and most of his family. King Alexander died on October 25, 1920, having contracted septicemia following a monkey bite, and soon after, King Constantine I was returned to the throne. George returned to Greece and served in the Greek forces during the Greco-Turkish War.

George and Elisabetha, 1921. source: Wikipedia

George married his second cousin Princess Elisabeta of Romania on February 27, 1921, in Bucharest, Romania. She was the daughter of King Ferdinand I of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. The couple became engaged in October 1920, after having known each other for many years. Coincidentally, it was at the formal engagement festivities that George’s sister Helen began her relationship with Elisabeta’s brother Crown Prince Carol of Romania. The two became engaged the following month and married in Athens just two weeks after George and Elisabeta’s wedding. George and Elisabeta had no children, and would eventually divorce in 1935.

Following Greece’s loss in the Greco-Turkish War, an uprising of Greek military officers, known as the 11 September 1922 Revolution, took control of the government. The new military regime forced King Constantine I to abdicate, and George ascended to the throne on September 27, 1922, as King George II. Like his brother Alexander, George was a puppet king for the Revolutionary Committee and lived in constant fear.

On October 18, 1923, the Revolutionary government announced that elections would be held in mid-December to elect a National Assembly that would determine Greece’s future form of government. Just days later, a group of pro-royalist military officers attempted to stage a coup but were quickly defeated. Although not responsible for the coup, King George II was blamed for it, and there were public calls to abolish the monarchy.

Following the elections in December, George was asked to leave the country while the new government decided Greece’s fate. Under the guise of an official visit to his wife’s home country of Romania, George left Greece on December 19, 1923, with his wife and younger brother Paul. They lived for a few weeks in a wing of Cotroceni Palace, before taking a small villa in Bucharest. On March 25, 1924, Greece declared itself a Republic, and the monarchy was abolished. King George was stripped of his Greek citizenship and all of his assets in the country were confiscated.

King George and Queen Elisabetha (on right) with the Romanian royal family, late 1920s. source: Wikipedia

George quickly grew disenchanted with his life at the Romanian court but found great comfort in the help and support of his mother-in-law Queen Marie who he wrote “was the only one to make life bearable” at the time. He soon began to travel, spending about half the year between visiting his mother in Florence, and friends in London. In 1932, he moved permanently to London, taking a small suite of rooms at Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. He was careful to avoid saying or doing anything that could be considered political, stating simply that he considered himself to be one of the Greek people, and should the country choose to bring him back to the throne, he would abide by their wishes.

George was close with the British royal family, and in 1934, attended the wedding of his cousin Princess Marina to Prince George, Duke of Kent. By this time, his marriage to Elisabetha had deteriorated, and she had undertaken several affairs. George, too, had begun an affair. In early 1935, he met Joyce Wallach, the wife of an aide to the Governor of India. Married with a young daughter, she soon divorced her husband, and the two enjoyed a very private relationship for the rest of George’s life. After returning to London, George was surprised to find out he was no longer married. Elisabetha had been granted a divorce in Bucharest, citing desertion as the grounds for divorce. In reality, she had already vowed not to return to Greece and there was growing sentiment to restore the monarchy. The marriage was dissolved on July 6, 1935.

Embed from Getty Images 
George with his cousin Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent in 1946

Elisabeta was right. On November 3, 1935, a referendum resulted in an overwhelming majority supporting the restoration of the Greek monarchy. George and his brother Paul began making arrangements to return to Athens. After visits to France and Italy, they arrived in Greece on November 25, 1935. Although met with significant support, George found his country broken and needing reform. More changes in the government’s leadership led to the dissolution of the Hellenic Assembly and new elections to be held in January 1936. By April of that year, Ioannis Metaxas had become Prime Minister.

The further unrest led to a general strike planned for August 5, 1936. The day before the strike, Metaxas advised King George to dissolve the Assembly without calling for new elections, and to suspend parts of the constitution, basically allowing for a dictatorship. Facing increased political turmoil and the growing rise of communism, King George agreed and allowed for what became known as the 4th of August Regime under Prime Minister Metaxas. Once again, King George became a puppet king, but this time at least he had the support and respect of his Prime Minister.

Having little power and no formal role, King George began restoring the Royal Palace in Athens, which had been looted and left in disrepair. With no money provided, George undertook the project and the costs himself. Another project George undertook was to bring home the remains of his relatives buried elsewhere. In November 1936, George and his brother Paul traveled to Florence to retrieve the remains of their parents and grandmother Queen Olga. They were brought back to Greece and interred at the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace. Four years later, he arranged for the remains of his aunt Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia to be returned to Greece, fulfilling a promise he had made to his grandmother many years before.

In April 1941, following the German occupation of Greece, King George and the government went into exile. The Greek Royal Family was evacuated to Egypt but soon needed to find another place to live. George and his brother Paul moved to London, while Paul’s wife and children went to South Africa for the remainder of the war. The British government was not willing to allow Prince Paul’s wife, born Princess Frederica of Hanover, into the country. He eventually settled in Cairo, Egypt where his government-in-exile had settled in 1943.

Despite George’s promise that following liberation he would restore the 1911 Constitution and hold elections within six months, many in Greece did not trust him and fought against his return. With the establishment of a rival Communist-led government, it was decided that a referendum would be held to determine the fate of the Greek monarchy. King George was forced to appoint the Archbishop of Athens as Regent. The archbishop quickly appointed a new government that was very anti-monarchy. George, frustrated and tired, leased a house in London, expecting to live the rest of his life in exile with his mistress. However, the following year on September 1, 1946, a referendum was finally held, and the majority supported the return of the King. Several weeks later, King George II returned to a country rife with political uncertainty and facing economic collapse.

Tomb of King George II at Tatoi. source: Wikipedia, photo by krischnig

George’s return would be short-lived. His health declining, King George II of the Hellenes was found unconscious in his office at the Royal Palace in Athens, Greece on April 1, 1947. Several hours later, it was announced that he had died of arteriosclerosis. Following a state funeral at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, he was buried at the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi.

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Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2016

Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes; source: Wikipedia

Queen Olga of the Hellenes was born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, on September 3, 1851, at Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the elder daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich of Russia (a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of all Russia) and Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg.

Olga had five siblings:

Olga (far right) with her mother and four of her siblings, c.1861. source: Wikipedia

Olga grew up at her father’s estates in St. Petersburg and the Crimea, as well as in Poland where her father served as Viceroy. She was educated privately at home.

Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna, c.1866. source: Wikipedia

In 1863, Olga first met her future husband who had just been elected King George I of the Hellenes. He was born Prince Vilhelm of Denmark, son of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Luise of Hesse-Kassel. The two met again four years later, and she quickly fell in love. The couple married in the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 27, 1867. Just sixteen years old, Olga was now Queen of the Hellenes.

Over the next 20 years, Olga and George had eight children:

Being so young, Olga was unprepared for her new life as Queen, in a new country. She made efforts to earn the love and respect of the Greek people, wearing a dress of blue and white, the Greek national colors, for her arrival and quickly learning to speak Greek. Being used to the splendor of the Russian court, life in Greece was quite different and almost boring in comparison. However, Olga adjusted, was a very hands-on mother, and threw herself into charity work which she thoroughly enjoyed. From the moment she arrived in Greece, Olga took on several patronages previously held by the previous Queen Amalia. Particularly drawn to helping those in need, she worked tirelessly to improve conditions for the poor and orphaned. She also became the patron of several military hospitals and helped establish the Annunciation Hospital in Athens. Olga also built a Russian Hospital in Piraeus, which served Russian soldiers and other soldiers visiting Greece. During the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the Balkan Wars, Olga established hospitals to serve the wounded and was awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in December 1897. She also retained her love for Russia and often entertained Russian sailors at the Royal Palace.

Despite her charity work, Olga occasionally courted controversy in Greece. Realizing that many wounded soldiers could not read the Bible due to the archaic Greek in which it was written, she arranged for a new version to be published in Modern Greek. This was not authorized by the Greek Holy Synod and caused a huge uproar, with calls for the excommunication of anyone involved in the project, including Olga. By the end of the year, all remaining copies had been confiscated and no longer allowed to be circulated.

Queen Olga and King George, December 1912. source: Wikipedia

Olga’s husband, King George, was assassinated in Thessaloniki, Greece on March 18, 1913. Olga arrived in the city the next day to accompany her husband’s body back to Athens. She retained a wing of the Royal Palace in Athens but spent much of her time in Russia. When World War I began, Queen Olga was in Russia, where she established a hospital at Pavlovsk Palace to treat wounded soldiers.

Olga remained in Russia after the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917.  Following the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks invaded Pavlovsk Palace but she remained unharmed.  Initially, the Bolsheviks refused to let her leave Russia, and at the time, Greece was in no position to offer any help.  Her son King Constantine I had been deposed and sent into exile, and his son Alexander had been chosen to replace him.  Finally, with help from the Danish government, Olga was able to leave Russia, traveling to join her family in Switzerland in 1919.

In October 1920, her grandson King Alexander developed septicemia from a monkey bite. Gravely ill, he called for his mother but the government would not permit Queen Sophie to return. However, it was negotiated that Queen Olga could travel to Athens to be at her grandson’s bedside. Sadly, she arrived just hours after Alexander died on October 25, 1920. The next several weeks saw significant changes in the political landscape of Greece. Prime Minister Venizelos was defeated in a general election just days after Alexander’s death. The following month, the new Prime Minister asked Queen Olga to serve as Regent. A referendum was held, in which her son, King Constantine I, was restored to the Greek throne. Queen Olga served as Regent until his return to Greece on December 19, 1920.

Queen Olga with her son Prince Christopher and his first wife on their wedding day, January 1, 1920. source: Wikipedia

In September 1922, following another coup, King Constantine I abdicated in favor of his eldest son and rightful heir King George II. Constantine and his family, along with Queen Olga, left the country and went into exile in Italy. King George II would only serve for 18 months before the monarchy was deposed. Unlike the other members of the Greek royal family, Queen Olga was held in very high esteem by the Greek people and was the only member of her family to be given a pension by the new government.

Queen Olga, painted by de László, 1914. source: Wikipedia

Queen Olga spent her remaining years in the United Kingdom, shuttling between the homes of her son Christopher and her daughter Marie, and the royal residences of the British Royal Family. Olga remained very close to her sister-in-law Queen Alexandra and was particularly close to her nephew King George V. After several years of ill health, Queen Olga died on June 18, 1926.

As a sign of respect, the Greek government offered to provide a lavish funeral and burial in Greece. Her children, however, declined the offer. Following a funeral at the Orthodox Church in Rome, Queen Olga’s remains were placed in the crypt of the Russian church in Florence, beside her son King Constantine I. In 1936, after the Greek monarchy was restored, Queen Olga was re-interred in the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace.

Queen Olga’s grave in the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace; Credit – Wikipedia

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King George I of the Hellenes

by Scott Mehl © Unofficial Royalty 2016

source: Wikipedia

King George I of the Hellenes

King George I of the Hellenes was born Prince Christian Vilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, on December 24, 1845, at the Yellow Palace in Copenhagen. Known as Vilhelm, he was the son of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (later King Christian IX) and Princess Luise of Hesse-Kassel. He had five siblings:

In 1852, his father was designated as heir-presumptive to the childless King Frederik VII of Denmark. Vilhelm’s title changed to Prince of Denmark. The family split their time between the Yellow Palace and Bernstorff Palace, which had been available to them following his father’s appointment. After his initial education at home, Vilhelm joined the Royal Danish Navy, attending the Royal Danish Naval Academy alongside his elder brother, Frederik.

Prince Vilhelm with his family, 1862. front: Princess Dagmar, Prince Valdemar, Queen Louise, Princess Thyra, Princess Alexandra; back: Prince Frederik, King Christian IX, Prince Vilhelm. source: Wikipedia

In 1862, King Otto of Greece (born Prince Otto of Bavaria) was deposed. Still wanting a monarchy, but rejecting Otto’s proposed successor, Greece began searching for a new King. Initially, the focus fell on Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (the second son of Queen Victoria), who received overwhelming support from the Greek people. However, the London Conference of 1832 stipulated that no one from the ruling families of the Great Powers could accept the Greek throne. While several other European princes were put forward as possible sovereigns, the Greek people and the Great Powers soon chose Prince Vilhelm as their next King. On March 30, 1863, the 17-year-old Vilhelm was unanimously elected by the Greek National Assembly and took the name King George I of the Hellenes. A ceremonial enthronement was held in Copenhagen on June 6, 1863.

George made visits to Russia, England, and France, before arriving in Athens on October 30, 1863. From the beginning, George was determined to be very different than his predecessor. He quickly learned Greek and was often seen informally strolling through the streets of Athens. Although he had been accompanied to Greece by several advisors from Denmark, he soon dispatched them back home so it wouldn’t appear that he was being overly influenced by his home country. George toured the country the following year and then demanded that the Assembly finally adopt a new constitution. Finally done, he took an oath on November 28, 1864, to defend the new constitution, establishing a constitutional monarchy in which the King deferred authority to the elected government. George quickly became very popular with the Greek people.

source: Wikipedia

In 1863, while visiting St. Petersburg before his arrival in Greece, King George first met his future wife, Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia. She was the daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich (a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia) and Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Four years later, while visiting his sister Dagmar, who had married the future Alexander III, Emperor of All Russia, George met Olga again. By this time, George was looking for a wife, and marriage to a Russian Grand Duchess would be advantageous both politically and as far as the religion of future generations. While George had remained Lutheran after taking the throne, it was expected that future Greek sovereigns would be raised in the Orthodox faith. Olga was smitten with George, and the two quickly fell in love. They married in Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia on October 27, 1867, and went on to have eight children:

King George and Queen Olga with six of their children, c1890. source: Wikipedia

The King and his family spent much of their time at Tatoi, a 10,000-acre estate outside Athens which he had purchased in the 1870s. Along with the main palace, King George established a winery and a Danish-styled dairy farm. He established the Royal Cemetery on the grounds, following the death of his daughter, Princess Olga, in 1880. King George also acquired Mon Repos, a villa on the isle of Corfu, in 1864, which the royal family used as a summer residence. Mon Repos is probably best known today as the birthplace of George’s grandson, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was born there in 1921.

King George’s early reign saw constant upheaval, with 21 different governments in 10 years. Attempts to return the isle of Crete to Greek control went unsuccessful, which caused great tension among the Greek people. Following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 (in which Greece remained neutral despite the attempts of George’s sister, Tsarevna Maria Feodorovna of Russia, to get Greece to join with the Russians), Greece claimed Crete and the regions of Epirus and Thessaly which were all under the Ottoman rule. Eventually, in 1881, the Ottomans ceded Thessaly.

The political climate in Crete remained tense, with the predominantly Greek population revolting against Turkish rule in 1897. The Great Powers stepped in, ordering both Greek and Turkish forces to withdraw, with Crete being under international control. While the Turks agreed, the Greek Prime Minister refused and sent troops to take the island. When forces crossed the Macedonian border, war broke out. By the end of April, the war was over, with Greece losing swiftly and severely. Following the defeat, King George lost much of his popularity and support from the Greek people, even considering abdication. But the following year, in February 1898, an assassination attempt was made on the King and his daughter Maria, while riding in an open carriage. Fortunately, both were unharmed, and he received an upswell of support from his subjects.

In the First Balkan War of 1912, Greece joined forces with Montenegro, Serbia, and Bulgaria in fighting against Turkey. This time, the Greek forces were victorious, and on November 12, 1912, led by Crown Prince Constantine, they took the city of Thessaloniki in what was then Macedonia. Three days later, the King arrived and rode through the streets accompanied by his son and the Prime Minister.

Tomb of King George I of Greece, photo by Kostisl, source: Wikipedia

With his Golden Jubilee approaching, King George planned to abdicate following the celebrations planned for October 1913. However, his life would end several months before he had the chance. On March 18, 1913, while walking in Thessaloniki, Greece, King George was killed when an assassin shot him at close range in the back. The King died instantly. His body was returned to Athens, where it lay in state for three days in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. Draped in both the Greek and Danish flags, his coffin was then interred in Royal Cemetery at Tatoi.

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King Constantine I of the Hellenes

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

King Constantine I of the Hellenes; Credit – Wikipedia

King Constantine I of Greece was born on August 2, 1868, in Athens, Greece. Constantine’s birth was met with great joy in Greece as he would be the first Greek-born child of a modern Greek monarch. He was the eldest of the eight children of King George I of the Hellenes and his wife Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich who was a son of Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia. Constantine’s father was born Prince Vilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and later became a Prince of Denmark when his father succeeded to the Danish throne as King Christian IX. When he was only 17 years old, Prince Vilhelm was elected King by the Greek National Assembly.

Constantine had four brothers and three sisters:

Greek Royal Family around 1890, Credit – Wikipedia

Although Danish-born King George I retained his Lutheran faith, all his children were baptized Greek Orthodox and learned Greek from birth. Constantine was tutored by prominent university professors in Greek literature, mathematics, physics, and history. In 1882, Constantine enrolled in the Hellenic Military Academy, the officer cadet school of the Hellenic Army. After graduation, Constantine received further military education in the German Imperial Army in Berlin. He also attended the University of Heidelberg and the University of Leipzig in Germany where he studied political science and business. In 1890, he returned to Greece and embarked on a military career. With the rank of Major General, Constantine took over the command of the 3rd Army in Athens.

Constantine in the field uniform of a Lieutenant General of the Greek Army in the 1890s; Credit – Wikipedia

During the summer of 1887, many European royals were in England to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Queen Victoria was pleased to see a relationship developing between her granddaughter Princess Sophie of Prussia and Constantine. Constantine was not very bright, but as Queen Victoria wrote to her eldest child Victoria, Princess Royal, Sophie’s mother, “a good heart and a good character…go far beyond cleverness.” The couple became engaged shortly after the death of Sophie’s father Friedrich III, German Emperor in 1888. Despite having the approval of Queen Victoria and her eldest brother Wilhelm, now the German Emperor, Sophie did not have the wholehearted agreement of her mother. Her mother dreaded sending Sophie so far away, and she thought the stability of the Greek throne was uncertain and the country was considered underdeveloped. Nevertheless, Sophie and Constantine married on October 27, 1889, in Athens, Greece. They had a Greek Orthodox service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation and then a Lutheran service in the private Lutheran chapel of King George I of Greece. A contemporary account of the wedding can be read at Otago Witness: The Royal Wedding in Athens.

Sophie and Constantine’s engagement photo 1889; Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie and Constantine had six children and there is a 23-year age gap between their eldest and youngest child.

Photo circa 1910, Top left: Constantine holding Irene, Top right: the future George II, Left: Sophia, Center: Helen, Right: the future Alexander I, Front: the future Paul I, Katherine is not yet born; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

On March 18, 1913, Constantine’s father King George I was assassinated and he acceded to the Greek throne as King Constantine I.

Swearing-in ceremony of King Constantine I before the Greek Parliament in 1913; Credit – Wikipedia

At first, Constantine was a popular king because of his success in the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Early in World War I, Constantine rejected a request from his brother-in-law Wilhelm II for Greece to join Germany and the Central Powers in the war. Many Greek people thought German-born Sophie, Constantine’s wife and Wilhelm II’s sister, supported Germany, but she was pro-British. Like her father, Sophie had been influenced by her mother, the British-born Victoria, Princess Royal. Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos was strongly pro-Allies, having established an excellent rapport with the British and French, and was convinced that German aggression had caused the war. Constantine had decided upon a policy of neutrality because it seemed the best way to ensure that Greece would emerge from World War I intact and with the substantial territorial gains it had won in the recent Balkan Wars. The disagreement between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Venizelos was called “The National Schism” and would have repercussions in Greek politics until after World War II.

Constantine with Eleftherios Venizelos in 1913; Credit – Wikipedia

Despite the popularity of Venizelos and his clear majority in Parliament for supporting the Allies, Constantine continued to oppose the Prime Minister. In 1913, after the Balkan Wars, Greece signed the Greek–Serbian Alliance which obliged each country to come to the other’s aid should either be attacked. When Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia, Venizelos wanted to mobilize the Greek army and enter the war on the side of the Allies but Constantine, who was popularly considered to be a German sympathizer, refused. In an attempt to force the king’s hand, Venizelos allowed a British-French force to land in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1915 to aid the Serbs, establishing the Salonica Front. Constantine’s constant refusal to allow Greece to fulfill its treaty commitments led to the resignation of Venizelos as Prime Minister in September 1915.

King Constantine I of Greece in the uniform of a German Field Marshal, a rank awarded to him by German Emperor Wilhelm II in 1913; Credit – Wikipedia

Protests began to occur in Greece and threats on Constantine’s life were received. In July 1916, arsonists, possibly at the instigation of the Greek secret police, attempted to kill Constantine and some members of the Greek royal family while they were at Tatoi Palace, the summer palace outside Athens. The forest surrounding the palace was set on fire and due to the hot, dry weather, the fire quickly spread. Tatoi Palace was burned down, sixteen people were killed, and Constantine was injured but managed to escape with his family.

In August 1916, an Allied-supported popular revolt broke out in Thessaloniki. There, the former Prime Minister, Venizelos established a provisional revolutionary government, which declared war on the Central Powers. With Allied support, the revolutionary government of Venizelos gained control of half the country.

In the Royal Palace in Athens, Constantine was basically a prisoner. Only the veto of Russia’s Nicholas II, Emperor of All Russia prevented the British and French from deposing Constantine. That changed with the Russian Revolution in March 1917 when Nicholas II abdicated. In May 1917, supporters of Venizelos protested, calling upon the government in Athens to depose Constantine. The government in Athens realized that it was inevitable that this would happen. On June 10, 1917, Allied High Commissioner Charles Jonnart required King Constantine I to abdicate on the grounds that he had violated his oath to rule as a constitutional monarch. The Allies were opposed to Constantine’s eldest son George becoming the king. George had served in the German army and was viewed as having German sympathies.

At a Crown Council in the Royal Palace, Constantine explained that he would leave because Athens would be a bloodbath if he did not. He named his second son Alexander his successor with the understanding that he would return to Greece after the war. The 23-year-old Alexander was horrified. Constantine told Alexander that he would be holding the throne in trust for him. Neither Constantine nor his son George would sign any renunciation of succession. On June 11, 1917, Constantine left Greece for exile in neutral Switzerland, and on June 30, 1917, Greece officially declared war on the Central Powers

In 1920, King Alexander died of blood poisoning as a result of sepsis from a monkey bite, and the third son Paul was asked to take over the throne. After Paul declined, Constantine was brought back after a change of government and a referendum allowing his return from exile. Constantine was enthusiastically welcomed by the Greek people but their enthusiasm did not last long. After a defeat in a war against Turkey in 1922, Constantine was forced to abdicate a second time and again go into exile. The crown went to his eldest son George, who reigned until 1925 when he was forced to abdicate. He was restored to the throne in 1936 and reigned until his death in 1947 when his younger brother Paul became king. Thus, all three sons of Constantine became Kings of Greece.

 

On January 11, 1923, Constantine died at the age of 54 from a brain hemorrhage in Palermo, Sicily. He was buried in the crypt of the Russian Church of Florence in Italy. With the restoration of the monarchy in 1936, the return of the remains of Greek royals to Greece was permitted. The Greek government sent the battleship Averof Brindisi to pick up the remains of Constantine, his mother Queen Olga, and his wife Queen Sophia, who had also died in exile. The battleship arrived in Piraeus, Greece on November 17, 1936. An official procession transported the remains to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation in Athens where they lay in state for six days. He was then buried at the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace near Athens, Greece.

Tomb of King Constantine I of Greece; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Princess Sophie of Prussia, Queen of Greece

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2015

Princess Sophie of Prussia, Queen of Greece; Credit – Wikipedia

A granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Sophie Dorothea Ulrike Alice was born a Princess of Prussia at the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia (now in Brandenburg, Germany) on June 14, 1870. Sophie was the seventh of the eight children of Friedrich III, German Emperor and Victoria, Princess Royal (Vicky). Her mother was particularly close to her three youngest daughters and called them “my three sweet girls.” Sophie had four brothers and three sisters.

Sophie around 15 years old; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie grew up at her parents’ two residences, Neues Palais in Potsdam and Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, both in the Kingdom of Prussia and now in Brandenburg, Germany. As her mother was English, Sophie was raised with a love of all things English and frequently visited her grandmother Queen Victoria. It was on one of these visits that Sophie became better acquainted with Crown Prince Constantine of Greece, known as Tino. During the summer of 1887, many European royals were in England to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Queen Victoria observed a relationship developing between her granddaughter Sophie and Constantine and was pleased.  Constantine was not very bright, but as Queen Victoria wrote to Sophie’s mother, “a good heart and a good character…go far beyond cleverness.”

The couple became engaged shortly after the death of Sophie’s father in 1888. Despite having the approval of Queen Victoria and her eldest brother Wilhelm, now the German Emperor, Sophie did not have the wholehearted agreement of her mother. Vicky dreaded sending Sophie so far away, and she thought the stability of the Greek throne was uncertain and the country underdeveloped. Nevertheless, Sophie and Constantine married on October 27, 1889, in Athens, Greece. They had a Greek Orthodox service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Annunciation and then a Lutheran service in the private chapel of King George I of Greece.  Constantine’s father had been Prince William of Denmark before he was elected King by the Greek National Assembly, and had retained his Lutheran faith. A contemporary account of the wedding can be read at Otago Witness: The Royal Wedding in Athens.

Engagement Photo 1889; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie and Constantine had six children and there was a twenty-three-year age gap between their eldest child and youngest child. The Greek, Romanian, Serbian, and Spanish Royal Families descend from their marriage. Sophie’s granddaughter via her son King Paul of Greece was named after her. Princess Sophia of Greece married King Juan Carlos of Spain and her name was changed to the more Spanish, Sofia. Queen Sofia of Spain’s younger granddaughter via her son King Felipe VI of Spain is also named Sofia.

Sophie and Constantine’s children:

Photo circa 1910, Top left: Constantine holding Irene, Top right: the future George II, Left: Sophia, Center: Helen, Right: the future Alexander I, Front: the future Paul I, Katherine is not yet born; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

In 1890, Sophie decided to convert to the Greek Orthodox faith. She was summoned by Augusta (known as Dona), the wife of her brother, Wilhelm II, German Emperor, who told Sophie that not only would Wilhelm find her conversion unacceptable, but she would be barred from Germany and her soul would end up in hell. Sophie replied what she did was her own business. Augusta became hysterical and gave birth to a premature son Prince Joachim. After the birth, Wilhelm wrote to his mother saying that if baby Joachim had died, Sophie would have murdered him. On the advice of her mother, Sophie ignored her brother, and gradually, the relationship between the siblings returned to normal.

While Crown Princess and later as Queen, Sophie cared intensely about healthcare, hygiene improvements, the school system, and the creation of employment opportunities for women through the promotion of arts and crafts. On March 18, 1913, Constantine’s father King George I was assassinated and Constantine acceded to the Greek throne as King Constantine I.

At first, Constantine was a popular king because of his success in the war against Turkey and Bulgaria. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Greece remained a neutral nation. However, Greece had signed a treaty with Serbia in 1913 obliging Greece to come to Serbia’s aid if attacked by Bulgaria. Bulgaria did attack Serbia, disagreements arose between King Constantine and the Greek Prime Minister, the King was accused of pro-German sentiments, and he was forced to abdicate in 1917.  Constantine, Sophie, and their family went into exile in Switzerland.

Crown Prince George, was also suspected of collaborating with the Germans, so it was the second son Alexander, who succeeded his father on the throne. In 1920, Alexander died of blood poisoning as a result of a monkey bite, and the third son Paul was asked to take over the throne. After Paul declined, Constantine was brought back after a change of government and a referendum allowing his return from exile. Constantine was enthusiastically welcomed by the Greek people, but the enthusiasm did not last long. After a defeat in a war against Turkey in 1922, Constantine was forced to abdicate a second time and again go into exile. The crown went to his eldest son George, who reigned until 1925 when he was forced to abdicate. He was restored to the throne in 1936 and reigned until his death in 1947 when his younger brother Paul became king. Thus, all three sons of Sophie became Kings of Greece. Constantine died in 1923 in Palermo, Italy from a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54.

Greek royal family in 1921, From left: Princess Irene, Queen Sophia, King Constantine I of Greece, Princess Helen (later Queen of Romania), Carol, Crown Prince of Romania (Carol II), and Prince Paul of Greece (Paul I); Photo Credit – Wikipedia

Sophie spent her last years at her villa in Florence, Italy. She died at the age of 61, on January 13, 1932, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, where she had been undergoing treatment for cancer. Sophie was buried alongside her husband in the Greek Orthodox Church in Florence, Italy. In November of 1936, after the restoration of the monarchy, the remains of Sophie and Constantine were transferred to Greece and buried in the mausoleum at the Royal Cemetery at Tatoi Palace near Athens, Greece.

Tomb of Queen Sophie; Photo Credit – Wikipedia

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Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

photo: Wikipedia

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent

Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent was the wife of Prince George, Duke of Kent (the fourth son of King George V and Queen Mary). She was born Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, on December 13, 1906, in Athens, Greece. Her parents were Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (a son of King George I of the Hellenes) and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna (a granddaughter of Alexander II, Emperor of All Russia). Through her father, she was a first cousin of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh.

Her christening took place shortly after birth, with the following godparents:

Marina had two elder sisters:

1913 brought the family’s idyllic life to an end. Marina’s grandfather, King George I, was assassinated. After several years of upheaval, the monarchy was overthrown in 1924, and Prince Nicholas and his family settled in Paris.

by Bassano Ltd 12 x 10 inch glass plate negative, 29 November 1934 NPG x95788 © National Portrait Gallery, London

photo: by Bassano Ltd; 12 x 10 inch glass plate negative, 29 November 1934; NPG x95788; 
© National Portrait Gallery, London

In August 1934, she became engaged to Prince George, Duke of Kent. The two were second cousins, through their mutual descent from King Christian IX of Denmark. They married on November 29, 1934, at Westminster Abbey in London, England, followed by a Greek Orthodox ceremony in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace. Marina was now officially styled HRH The Duchess of Kent. This would be the last marriage of a foreign princess into the British Royal Family. They settled into a home at No.3 Belgrave Square, in London, and Coppins, a country home in Buckinghamshire that Prince George inherited from his aunt, Princess Victoria.

The couple had three children:

Sadly, just six weeks after the birth of their youngest child, Prince George was killed when his military plane crashed in Scotland on August 25, 1942. At the time, there were no financial provisions made for a widow of a Royal Duke. The Duke’s Civil List payments stopped upon his death, leaving Marina and her children with no income. Fortunately, her brother-in-law, King George VI, and her mother-in-law, Queen Mary, stepped in to help.

 

Marina threw herself into her royal duties and her support of the war efforts. She trained as a nurse and joined the civil nurse reserve. She also supported numerous charities and military groups. From 1940 until her death, she served as Chief Commandant of the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS). And from 1963 until her death, she served as the first Chancellor of the University of Kent at Canterbury.  She also held several honorary military positions, including:

  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Kent Regiment
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Dorset Regiment
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
  • Colonel-in-Chief, The Queen’s Regiment (Allied)
  • Honorary Commandant, The Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service

In 1955, Marina and her children moved into Apartment No.1 at Kensington Palace in London. At the time, the former apartments of Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, were split into two apartments – No.1 and No.1A. She remained a very active, and highly popular, member of the Royal Family. She is perhaps best known for her 26 years serving as President of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, a position previously held by her husband. In this role, she was seen each year handing out the trophies to the winners of Wimbledon. After her death, her son, The Duke of Kent, took on the role of President.

Upon her son’s marriage in 1961, Marina’s official style became HRH Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. Having been born a Princess in her own right, the Queen gave her permission to use that style, as opposed to being styled The Dowager Duchess.

In July 1968, Princess Marina spent several days in the hospital, where it was discovered that she was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Sadly, her condition diminished very quickly. At 11:40 am, on August 27, 1968, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her children, and her sister Olga.

Marina’s funeral was held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. The previous day, her husband’s remains were removed from the Royal Vault at St George’s Chapel and buried at the Royal Burial Ground at Frogmore. She was then laid to rest beside him. Ironically, she died almost 26 years to the day of her husband’s death. See Unofficial Royalty: Tragedy in the British Royal Family at the End of August (scroll down).

 

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Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece

by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Embed from Getty Images 

Marie-Chantal is the wife of Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece, the eldest son of King Constantine II of Greece who was deposed in 1973. Marie-Chantal Claire Miller was born on September 17, 1968, in London, England. Her parents are Robert Miller, a billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of Duty-Free Shops, and María Clara Pesantes Becerra. Her father was born American but is now a British citizen, and her mother was born in Ecuador. Marie-Chantal was an American citizen but renounced her American citizenship in 2011.

Marie-Chantal has an older and a younger sister and the trio was often referred to as “The Miller Sisters” in the newspaper society pages.

Marie-Chantal_sisters

Marie-Chantal on the left with her sisters:  Photo: www.instawebgram.com

Marie-Chantal grew up in Hong Kong, the location of the corporate headquarters of her father’s business. In Hong Kong, she attended the Peak School, an English language international primary school.  When she was nine years old, Marie-Chantal went to the Institut Le Rosey, an exclusive boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. In 1982, she began to attend Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris, France where she continued until her senior year. Marie-Chantal then attended The Masters School, a private, coeducational boarding school in Dobbs Ferry, New York. She began to attend New York University in New York City in 1993 but dropped out a year later when Crown Prince Pavlos proposed marriage.

Marie-Chantal and Pavlos met on a blind date arranged by a friend in 1992. The marriage proposal occurred on a ski lift in Gstaad, Switzerland over the Christmas holiday in 1994. Prior to the wedding, Marie-Chantal converted from Roman Catholicism to Greek Orthodoxy. The couple was married on July 1, 1995, at St. Sophia’s Cathedral in London, England. The wedding celebrations were extravagant and expensive. The wedding ceremony, receptions, and celebrations combined reportedly cost the Miller family 8 million dollars. The wedding dress alone reportedly cost $225,000. More royalty attended Marie-Chantal and Pavlos’ wedding than the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

 

The couple has five children:

Marie-Chantal_family

Marie-Chantal with her family in 2014; Photo: The Royal Post

Marie-Chantal and Pavlos have lived in New York City and London, where Pavlos has worked as an investment consultant. Marie-Chantal has her own business, Marie-Chantal, an international children’s wear brand.

Marie+Chantal+Claire+Pavlos+Commemorative+jabxBYRLXupl

March 6, 2014: Crown Princess Marie-Chantal on the right attending services commemorating the 50th anniversary of King Paul I of Greece’s death, with her husband Crown Prince Pavlos and his aunt Queen Sofia of Spain; Photo: Zimbio

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Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece

by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Embed from Getty Images 

Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece is the eldest son of the late former King Constantine II of Greece and Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark. He was born on May 20, 1967, at Tatoi Palace just north of Athens, Greece. His paternal grandparents are  King Paul of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, both descendants of Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal. His maternal grandparents are  King Frederik IX of Denmark and Princess Ingrid of Sweden, a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria.

He has four siblings:

A coup forced the royal family to flee the country seven months after Pavlos was born.  They settled in Rome, Italy for several years before moving to England in 1974.

Pavlos and his cousin Felipe of Spain while attending Georgetown University, 1995 photo: Washington Life Magazine

Pavlos and his cousin Felipe of Spain while attending Georgetown University, 1995.  photo source: Washington Life Magazine

Pavlos attended the Hellenic College of London, founded by his parents, and then graduated from the United World College in 1986. He attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, followed by a three-year commission with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Following his military career, he enrolled in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington DC, earning his Bachelor’s Degree in 1993 (International Relations, Law and Organization) and his Master’s Degree in 1995 (Foreign Relations and Economics). While at Georgetown, his roommate was his first cousin, the future King Felipe VI of Spain.

 

On July 1, 1995, Pavlos married Marie-Chantal Miller at St Sophia’s Cathedral in London, England. Marie-Chantal is the daughter of billionaire entrepreneur Robert Warren Miller and María Clara Pesantes Becerra. The wedding celebrations were extravagant and expensive. The wedding ceremony, receptions, and celebrations reportedly cost the Miller family 8 million dollars. The wedding dress alone reportedly cost $225,000. More royalty attended Marie-Chantal and Pavlos’ wedding than the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

They have five children:

Pavlos and his family lived in New York City and London, where Pavlos has worked as an investment consultant. In 1997 Pavlos founded Griphon Asset Management. The following year, he co-founded Ivory Capital Group LLC. In 2002, he co-founded Ortelius Capital Partners LLC, and in 2003, he co-founded Brigantine, a value-based equity firm.

The Crown Prince and his family, March 2014. photo: Royalista.com

The Crown Prince and his family, March 2014. photo source: Royalista.com

Pavlos and his family retain close ties to their Spanish and Danish cousins, and the British Royal Family. King Charles III of the United Kingdom is a godparent to Pavlos and his eldest daughter Maria-Olympia. Prince William, The Prince of Wales is a godparent to Pavlos’ eldest son, Constantine-Alexios.

Pavlos’ father, the former King Constantine II of the Hellenes died on January 10, 2023, aged 82, Pavlos succeeded him as Head of the House of Glücksburg-Greece and titular King of the Hellenes.

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updated 1/10/2023