greece royalty

Royalty
- https://www.quora.com/Are-any-of-the-Greek-royal-family-ethnically-Greek
- George I (Greek: Γεώργιος Α΄, Geórgios I; 24 December 1845 – 18 March 1913) was King of Greece from 1863 until his assassination in 1913. Originally a Danish prince, he was born in Copenhagen, and seemed destined for a career in the Royal Danish Navy. He was only 17 years old when he was elected king by the Greek National Assembly, which had deposed the unpopular former king Otto. His nomination was both suggested and supported by the Great Powers: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire and the Russian Empire. He married the Russian grand duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1867, and became the first monarch of a new Greek dynasty. Two of his sisters, Alexandraand Dagmar, married into the British and Russian royal families. King Edward VII and Tsar Alexander III were his brothers-in-law, and King George V, Tsar Nicholas II, King Christian X of Denmark and King Haakon VII of Norway were his nephews. George's reign of almost 50 years (the longest in modern Greek history) was characterized by territorial gains as Greece established its place in pre-World War IEurope. Britain ceded the Ionian Islands peacefully in 1864, while Thessaly was annexed from the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). Greece was not always successful in its territorial ambitions; it was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War (1897). During the First Balkan War, after Greek troops had captured much of Greek Macedonia, George was assassinated in Thessaloniki. Compared with his own long tenure, the reigns of his successors Constantine, Alexander, and George II proved short and insecure.

• The Great Powers looked around for a potential king for Greece and eventually settled on Prince William of Denmark. He was 17 years old at the time they elected him. Strangely, he ascended the Greek throne before his own father became King of Denmark later the same year (1863). He took the name King George I of the Hellenes, and as he was born a Danish prince, his descendants were princes(ses) “of Greece and Denmark”.https://www.quora.com/How-was-Prince-Philip-Prince-of-two-countries-Greece-and-Denmark

- Constantine I (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Αʹ, Konstantínos I; 2 August [O.S. 21 July] 1868 – 11 January 1923) was King of Greecefrom 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece expanded to include Thessaloniki, doubling in area and population. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on 18 March 1913, following his father's assassination. His disagreement with Eleftherios Venizelos over whether Greece should enter World War I led to the National Schism. Constantine forced Venizelos to resign twice, but in 1917 he left Greece, after threats of the Entente forces to bombard Athens; his second son, Alexander, became king. After Alexander's death, Venizelos' defeat in the 1920 legislative elections, and a plebiscite in favor of his return, Constantine was reinstated. He abdicated the throne for the second and last time in 1922, when Greece lost the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and was succeeded by his eldest son, George II. Constantine died in exile four months later, in Sicily.

• https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Entente-which-occupied-Constantinople-and-wanted-it-as-an-international-zone-give-it-up-to-the-Republic-of-Turkey-instead-of-Greece

- George II (Greek: Γεώργιος Βʹ, Geórgios II; 19 July 1890 (NS) – 1 April 1947) reigned as King of Greece from 1922 to 1924 and from 1935 to 1947. He was a paternal first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.George was born at the royal villa at Tatoi, near Athens, the eldest son of Crown Prince Constantine of Greece and his wife, Princess Sophia of Prussia. George pursued a military career, training with the Prussian Guard at the age of 18, then serving in the Balkan Wars as a member of the 1st Greek Infantry. When his grandfather was assassinated in 1913, his father became King Constantine I and George became the crown prince.^{[citation needed]}After a coup deposed King Constantine during the First World War, Crown Prince George, by then a Major, followed his father into exile in 1917 (see National Schism). George's younger brother, Alexander, was installed as king by prime minister Eleftherios Venizelos, an avowed Republican.^{[citation needed]}When Alexander I died following an infection from a monkey bite in 1920, Venizelos was voted out of office, and a plebiscite restored Constantine to the throne. Crown Prince George served as a colonel, and later a major general in the war against Turkey. During this time he married his second cousin, on 27 February 1921 in Bucharest, Princess Elisabeth of Romania, daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie of Romania. When the Turks defeated Greece at the Battle of Dumlupınar, the military forced the abdication of Constantine, and George succeeded to the Greek throne on 27 September 1922.Following a failed royalist coup in October 1923, the Revolutionary Committee asked him to depart Greece while the National Assembly considered the question of the future form of government. He complied and, although he refused to abdicate, he left on 19 December 1923 for exile in his wife's home nation of Romania. When a republic was proclaimed on 25 March 1924, he was officially deposed and stripped of his Greek nationality, and his property was confiscated. During his exile, his wife stayed in Bucharest whilst he spent more and more time abroad visiting Britain, and his mother in Florence. In 1932 he left Romania permanently and moved to Britain. He and Elisabeth had no children, and were divorced on 6 July 1935.^[6] George's principle love was his English mistress, Joyce Brittain-Jones, whom he called J.In Greece between 1924 and 1935 there were 23 changes of government, a dictatorship, and 13 coups. General Georgios Kondylis, a former Venizelist who had suddenly decided to throw in his lot with the monarchist forces, overthrew the government in October 1935 and appointed himself prime minister. He then arranged a plebiscite both to approve his government and to bring an end to the republic. On 3 November 1935, almost 98% of the reported votes supported restoration of the monarchy.^[7] The balloting was not secret, and participation was compulsory. As Time described it at the time, "As a voter one could drop into the ballot box a blue vote for George II and please General George Kondylis, or one could cast a red ballot for the Republic and get roughed up."George, who had been living at Brown's Hotel in London, returned to Greek soil on 25 November. Almost immediately he and Kondylis disagreed over the terms of a general amnesty the King wanted to declare, and George appointed an interim Prime Minister, Konstantinos Demertzis. New elections were held in January, which resulted in a hung parliament with the Communists (who were naturally anti-monarchist) holding the balance of power. A series of unexpected deaths amongst the better-known politicians (including Kondylis and Demertzis), as well as the uncertain political situation, led to the rise to power of veteran army officer Ioannis Metaxas. On 4 August 1936, George endorsed Metaxas's establishment of dictatorship – the "4th of August Regime",^[9] signing decrees that dissolved the parliament, banned political parties, abolished the constitution, and purported to create a "Third Hellenic Civilization."^[10] The king, ruling with Prime Minister Metaxas, oversaw a right-wing regime in which political opponents were arrested and strict censorship was imposed. An Index of banned books during that period included the works of Plato, Thucydides and Xenophon.^[10] George disliked dealing with both Greek politicians and ordinary Greeks, and preferred to let Metaxas undertake tours of the provinces.^[11] His support for the 4th of August Regime ended the limited popularity that he enjoyed in Greece.During the war he remained the internationally recognized head of state, backed by the exiled government and Greek forces serving in the Middle East. The British Foreign Office found the king an exceedingly difficult man to deal with, as the king was deeply obstinate about upholding what he regarded as his royal prerogatives, and proved notably unwilling to compromise with those who wanted a clear break with the 4th of August Regime.^[4] George long resisted British pressure to promise to restore the constitution of 1911, under the grounds to do so would be to admit that he acted illegally in suspending the constitution on 4 August 1936.^[19] Likewise, George kept on until 1942 cabinet ministers from the Metaxas Regime, most notably Maniadakis.^[20] Under heavy British pressure, George in a radio broadcast on 28 October 1941 reluctantly proclaimed the end of the 4th of August Regime, and only in February 1942 did he promise to restore articles 5, 6, 10, 12, 14, 20 and 95 of the 1911 constitution.After two changes of Prime Minister, the establishment of a rival Communist-led government in occupied Greece and a pro-EAM mutiny among the armed forces in the Middle East, it was agreed in the May 1944 Lebanon conference that the fate of the monarchy would be decided in a national referendum. George was very much opposed to a regency, and tried his best to turn his friend Winston Churchill against Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens, accusing him of being a Communist and a Nazi collaborator.Bowing to Allied pressure, George was forced to appoint Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens as Regent in January 1945. Damaskinos immediately appointed a republican-dominated government. Ill, exhausted and powerless, George bought a lease on a house in Chester Square, Belgravia, and made a home there with his long-time mistress.
-  Constantine II (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Βʹ, Konstantínos II, pronounced [ˌkonstanˈdinos]; born 2 June 1940) reigned as the King of Greece from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy on 1 June 1973.He acceded as king following the death of his father King Paul in March 1964. Later that year he married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark with whom he eventually had five children. Although the accession of the young monarch was initially regarded auspiciously, his reign saw political instability that culminated in the Colonels' Coup of 21 April 1967. The coup left Constantine, as the head of state, little room to manoeuvre since he had no loyal military forces on which to rely. As a result, he reluctantly agreed to inaugurate the junta on the condition that it be made up largely of civilian ministers. On 13 December 1967, Constantine was forced to flee the country, following an unsuccessful countercoup against the junta. He remained (formally) the head of state in exile until the junta abolished the monarchy on 1 June 1973. The 1973 Greek republic referendum on 29 July, ratified the abolition. There were questions concerning the validity of this referendum and whether people were pressured to vote for a republic. Therefore a fresh referendum was held after the restoration of democracy in 1974. This second referendum was held after the fall of the junta as the 1974 Greek republic referendum on 8 December 1974 and confirmed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic. Constantine, who was not allowed to return to Greece to campaign,^[1] accepted the results of the plebiscite.Constantine is also a former competitive sailor and Olympian, winning a gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics in the Dragon class, and later serving on the International Olympic Committee.

• Constantine was born at the Psychiko Palace in Psychiko, a suburb of Athens. He was the nephew of King George II, and also the second child and only son of the king's brother and heir presumptive, Crown Prince Paul. His mother was Princess Frederica of Hanover.^[3] Constantine's older sister, Queen Sofía of Spain, is the wife of the retired King Juan Carlos I of Spain, while his younger sister, Princess Irene, has never been married.Constantine remained in exile for almost forty years after the vote in favour of the republic.^[3][11] He was strongly discouraged from returning to Greece, and he did not return until February 1981, when the government only allowed him to return for a few hours, to attend the funeral of his mother, Queen Frederica, in the family cemetery of the former Royal Palace at Tatoi.There were also legal disputes with the Greek state. In 1992 he concluded an agreement with the conservative government of Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, ceding most of his land in Greece to a non-profit foundation in exchange for the former palace of Tatoi, near Athens, and the right to export a number of movables from Greece. The latter reportedly included privately owned art treasures from the royal palaces. As such, no formal account of what was removed was ever given or needed to be given. In 1993, Constantine visited Greece, but faced with government insecurity, he was asked to leave. In 1994, the second government of Andreas Papandreou passed new legislation reversing the 1992 agreement and stripping Constantine of his property in Greece and his Greek citizenship.Constantine sued Greece at the European Court of Human Rights for €500 million in compensation for the seized property. He won a much smaller amount, receiving a monetary compensation of €12 million for the lost property, with a far smaller sum awarded to his unmarried younger sister, Princess Irene, and his aunt Princess Katherine.^[12] The Greek government chose to pay out of the "extraordinary natural disasters" fund, but was not obliged by the court's decision to return any lands (the Court of Human Rights awards only monetary compensation).Constantine, in turn, announced the creation of the Anna Maria Foundation, to allocate the funds in question back to the Greek people for use in "extraordinary natural disasters" and charitable causes. The court decision also ruled that Constantine's human rights were not violated by the Greek state's decision not to grant him Greek citizenship and passport unless he adopts a surname.Until 1994, Constantine's official Greek passport identified him as "Constantine, former King of the Hellenes". A law passed in 1994 stripped him of his Greek citizenship, passport, and property. The law stated that Constantine could not be granted a Greek passport unless he adopted a surname. Constantine has stated: "I don't have a name—my family doesn't have a name. The law that Mr Papandreou passed basically says that he considers that I am not Greek and that my family was Greek only so long as we were exercising the responsibilities of sovereign, and I had to go out and acquire a name. The problem is that my family originates from Denmark, and the Danish royal family haven't got a surname." Glücksburg, he said, was not a family name but the name of a town. "I might as well call myself Mr. Kensington."^{[20][page needed]}Constantine freely travels in and out of Greece on a Danish passport, as Constantino de Grecia (Spanish for 'Constantine of Greece'),^[21] because Denmark (upon request) issues diplomatic passports to any descendants of King Christian IX and Queen Louise, and Constantine is a Prince of Denmark in his own right.^[22] During his first visit to Greece using this passport, Constantine was mocked by some of the Greek media, which hellenized the "de Grecia" designation and used it as a surname, thus naming him Κωνσταντίνος Ντεγκρέτσιας ('Constantine Degrecias').The International Olympic Committee continues to refer to Constantine as His Majesty King Constantine.^[23] In Greece, he is referred to as ο τέως βασιλιάς or ο πρώην βασιλιάς ('the former king').
• Constantine and Anne-Marie for many years lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, Constantine being a close friend of his second cousin Charles, Prince of Wales, and a godfather to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, his second cousin once removed. After the wedding of their son, Nikolaos, Constantine and Anne-Marie moved back to Greece, currently residing in Porto Cheli, Peloponnese.
• Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece (Marie-Chantal Claire; née Miller; born 17 September 1968) is the wife of Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, son of Constantine II of Greece and Anne-Marie of Denmark. Her husband is the heir apparent to the defunct throne of Greece, as the monarchy was abolished in 1973. She is a Danish princess by marriage, as her husband is a male-line descendant of Christian IX of Denmark. Marie-Chantal Miller was born in London, England, to María Clara "Chantal" Pesantes Becerra, an Ecuadorian, and Robert Warren Miller, an American-born British businessman. She has an older sister, Pia, ex-wife of Christopher Getty, and a younger sister, Alexandra, ex-wife of Prince Alexander von Fürstenberg. She was baptized in the Catholic Church at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City by Cardinal John O'Connor, Archbishop of New York with Princess Donatella Missikoff Flick as her godmother. Marie-Chantal was raised in Hong Kong where she attended The Peak School until she was 9 years-old when she went to board at Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. In 1982 she transferred to the Ecole Active Bilingue in Paris until her senior year which she took at The Masters School in New York which was then girls only. After graduating she attended the Academy of Arts for one year. She began a degree in History of Art at New York University in 1993 but dropped out a year later after Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, proposed to her on a skiing holiday in Gstaad, Switzerland, at Christmas.
•  Robert Warren Miller (born May 23, 1933) is an American-born British billionaire, entrepreneur, co-founder of DFS (Duty Free Shops), and sailing champion. He is the father of Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, Alexandra Miller, and Pia Getty, dubbed by tabloids and high society as The Miller Sisters. Miller was born in Quincy, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in 1933, the son of Ellis Warren Appleton Miller (1898 – c. 1986), a bookkeeper, salesperson, and descendant of several Mayflower passengers; and Sophia "Sophie" June Squarebriggs (1899–1998), a Canadian-born former governess. Miller's ancestry is rooted in the British North American colonial elite, and descends over time, he claims, from Henry I of England, Louis IV the Carolingian, and William, King of the Scots. Miller attended Cornell University School of Hotel Administration and graduated in 1955, with a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and the Irving Literary Society.
• Philip’s father Andrew was the youngest brother of King Constantine I, Constantine II’s grandfather. This means Philip was always relatively low on the line of succession — more so now, since many members of the dynasty have been born. But it’s irrelevant anyway, because Philip abandoned his Greek titles and Orthodox Christianity so as to marry Queen Elizabeth. https://www.quora.com/If-Greece-decides-to-reinstall-the-monarchy-who-would-be-a-monarch

- Tatoi (Greek: Τατόι, pronounced [ta.ˈto.i]) was the summer palace and 10,000 acre estate of the former Greek Royal Family, and the birthplace of George II of the Hellenes. The area is a densely wooded southeast-facing slope of Mount Parnitha, and its ancient and current official name is Dekeleia.George I of the Hellenes obtained the estate during the 1880s, purchasing it with private funds he had brought from Denmark. In 1916, during World War I, the house was burned down.In the 1920s, most of the estate was stolen from its owners, but in 1936 it was returned to George II of the Hellenes.During the Second World War, when George II of the Hellenes was in exile and Greeks suffered considerable hardships under German occupation, the woods at Tatoi were chopped down for fuel and corpses were buried in shallow graves.King Geórgios II regained possession of the estate in 1946. It passed down as private property to Constantine II of the Hellenes until 1994, when the royal estates were confiscated by the government of Andreas Papandreou.Constantine took the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, who ruled in his favour in 2003. They were not able to force the return of the estates, but they were able to legally force the government to pay him €12m in compensation; this amounted to only one per cent of its real worth. The government paid his compensation from the Greek Natural Disasters fund trying to embarrass Constantine by claiming by paying out money to him he was harming the Greek people in need. Constantine used the funds to set up the "Anna Maria Foundation" to provide grants to needy Greeks in time of hardship caused by natural disasters. The fund is named after Queen Anne-Marie.In June 2007, the Government of Greece said it intended to turn the former palace and grounds into a museum.However it was reported in September 2012 that the government now intended to sell the palace and its estate in the face of mounting financial pressure.Founded in 2012, the "Friends of Tatoi Association" has set itself the goal to restore the former royal estate and convert it to a museum and public venue, while facing political indifference and lack of money.In 2015 ten cars which are kept in the former royal estate of Tatoi, were designated as cultural monuments by the Central Council for Modern Monuments (ΚΣΝΜ). However, the cars and also the carriages (which are not included in this decision) remain in the ruins. In the year 2016 some parts of the roofs have fallen on the cars.Currently, the Greek government has planned no efforts for preservation of the Tatoi Palace, neighbouring buildings and the natural area around the Tatoi. Theft, vandalism and illegal water abstraction occur almost every month, as political corruption allows this. In the case of a fire, terrorist attack or major earthquake, the buildings, the flora and the fauna would be completely defenseless. Damage caused by time and weather is extensive. The Greek state has renamed the area as metropolitan area.^{[clarification needed]} A political idea to convert the former royal estate to a private winery or a resort with restaurants and barbecue could erase the important history from this important part of the modern Greek history. Nevertheless, this proposal was criticised by private persons and organisations, who would like to open Tatoi as a museum for the public. The former royal estate of Polydendri is also completely abandoned, and the buildings are in a state of decay.