Greek Royals

[nuharoo]

And then his counter-coup failed miserably and he fled the country

That jerk. That shamelessly spineless wimpy little jerk. He interferes in the politics, created that huge mess, and then flees from the mess only to leave his people to suffer?

People accused him of not staying to try to protect the people. He was advised to return to Greece by Hussein of Jordan, even if that meant getting assassinated, because that would allow the people to cling to the hope of democracy being restored, and would enshrine his family in their hearts. He obviously didn't do that, and is despised.

No wonder the Greeks dislike him so much, if not outright loathe him. After hearing this, just seeing the Greek royals sitting pretty on covers of expensive magazines and now learning this, makes me hate their selfish guts. Constantine could have died and saved the throne for his son and left a stunning legacy, but he squandered it by running away like a little coward.

Even Louis XVI stayed throughout the revolution to provide a stable beacon for his people as the government fell apart. Even though it got him beheaded, he stayed and only left when his children started getting threatened.

By the way, these threads are really becoming a great source of history. ;D

Just learning this makes me ill whenever I think of them and now seeing them prance around pretentiously makes me understand why they are not wanted back by the Greeks.

[kelly9480]

nuharoo said:

And then his counter-coup failed miserably and he fled the country

That jerk. That shamelessly spineless wimpy little jerk. He interferes in the politics, created that huge mess, and then flees from the mess only to leave his people to suffer?

To be fair to Constantine, the colonels had overthrown the democratically-elected government. Constantine's counter-coup was designed to re-establish the democratically-elected government. He shouldn't have fled, but his only involvement in politics was that attempt (his PM and advisers basically altered between lying outright to him and ignoring him and treated him like the untrained man-child he was).

People accused him of not staying to try to protect the people. He was advised to return to Greece by Hussein of Jordan, even if that meant getting assassinated, because that would allow the people to cling to the hope of democracy being restored, and would enshrine his family in their hearts. He obviously didn't do that, and is despised.

No wonder the Greeks dislike him so much, if not outright loathe him. After hearing this, just seeing the Greek royals sitting pretty on covers of expensive magazines and now learning this, makes me hate their selfish guts. Constantine could have died and saved the throne for his son and left a stunning legacy, but he squandered it by running away like a little coward.

Even Louis XVI stayed throughout the revolution to provide a stable beacon for his people as the government fell apart. Even though it got him beheaded, he stayed and only left when his children started getting threatened.

By the way, these threads are really becoming a great source of history. ;D

Just learning this makes me ill whenever I think of them and now seeing them prance around pretentiously makes me understand why they are not wanted back by the Greeks.

I think Constantine has learned his lesson. After the fact, of course, but he learned it. He has implied that he shouldn't have fled or staged the counter-coup and simply suffered alongside the people, but he countered that by stating he had a wife, two small children, a mother and sister to think about and if he were killed, who could or would have protected them?

It must be remembered that Constantine isn't despised by all Greeks. Some of his generation and older do like him, and do understand that he tried his best (however inadequate that might have been). His children's generation grew up without a monarchy and don't see a need for one. The furore over Pavlos' marriage to a woman who is seen by Greeks to wear the pants in that house hasn't helped, nor has Constantine's fight with the government to recover his family's private property and family burial site that was confiscated by the government in the 1990s. The government was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to either return the property or pay compensation, and they decided to pay compensation. The payout was criticised, and Constantine took heat for it, but, to be fair to him, the government had the option of handing over the rundown, dilapidated property and burial grounds and decided to pay him instead.

[kelly9480]

They say they realize they won't get their throne back, but their actions don't rely line up with that. Anne-Marie has said, word for word, that monarchy isn't in Greece's future. And Constantine has said that, let the people enjoy their republic line. MC acknowledges that their dethronement is permanent. I've never heard the others say anything about it, but they don't really get interviewed either. Those pics of Pavlos crying on one trip to Greece because he realized his "birthright" (ie, the throne) was gone forever made me wonder whether he was still delusional before then.

[Deleted]

Birth right? Please. It's not like when the Romanovs were overthrown, or any other royals-the Greeks had a revolving door of Kings after WWI. And they were only around for about 100 years. And NONE OF THEM ARE GREEK. The nearest monarch with Greek blood is Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia-his maternal grandmother was a native Greek who married the King morganaticly.

It's a shame, because technically, they are still royals of Denmark.

[Mouse]

guinastasia said:

Birth right? Please. It's not like when the Romanovs were overthrown, or any other royals-the Greeks had a revolving door of Kings after WWI. And they were only around for about 100 years. And NONE OF THEM ARE GREEK.

Not only that, but the Greeks themselves voted to abolish the monarchy. In a 1974 election, only 31 percent voted to keep it.

To be fair, the Danish royal house from which the Greek royal house derives can claim some remote descent from the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, which was indeed Greek. But again, it's a small bit of Greek ancestry. For the most part, they are still ethnically Northern European. They never married any native-born Greeks; and they mostly intermarried with other Northern European royals (Germans, Danes, etc.).

The nearest monarch with Greek blood is Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia-his maternal grandmother was a native Greek who married the King morganaticly.

Prince Michael of Greece (Constantine's cousin) is also married to a native-born Greek woman, so technically his daughters, Olga and Alexandra, are more Greek than the erstwhile monarch.

It's a shame, because technically, they are still royals of Denmark.

Yeah...Greece and Denmark. What's up with that?

[Deleted]

Okay, this is kind of complicated:
The first modern era King of Greece was Otto of Bavaria-the Greeks achieved independence from the Turks, then decided to elect someone to be King. Originally, they chose Otto, and he turned out to be a terrible choice, so they kicked his sorry ass out. THEN, they had to find a new King. One suggestion was Queen Victoria's second son, Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, but he AND Victoria declined, as he was to inherit his uncle's duchy of Saxe-Coburg. Then, the throne was offered to Prince William, the son of the Crown Prince of Denmark. He came to the throne as George I.

George proved to be a very popular King-he converted to the Greek Orthodox religion as soon as possible and married the sixteen year old Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna, a granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I. But technically, he was still considered a Prince of Denmark. George was a very informal sort-he and his family would walk the streets unguarded quite frequently, just as George's family did so back in Denmark. Sadly, during one of his afternoon walks in Salonica in 1913, he was assassinated by an anarchist. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Constantine I and his wife, Sophie of Germany.

I don't think any monarch in Greece thereafter ever achieved the popularity that George and Olga held. George was a friendly, outgoing sort, the favorite brother of his elder sister, Princess Alexandra, the Princess of Wales. Another sister, the younger Dagmar, would become Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia. (Like Victoria, Christian IX of Denmark was known as "Father-in-Law of Europe", because so many of his off-spring made such impressive matches.)

Queen Olga, on the other hand, was regarded with apprehension at first due to her age, but when she wore a wedding gown in the national colors of blue and white, she won the heart of her people-and never lost it. She was extremely sweet, loving and motherly.

(BTW, George and Olga were the grandparents of Prince Phillip, husband of Elizabeth II, and the great-grandparents of Queen Sophie of Spain, and probably some others I'm forgetting.)

[Mouse]

Prince Phillip is an asshat. Queen Sofia of Spain, however, seems to be very gracious and classy.

[Deleted]

mouse said:

Prince Phillip is an asshat. Queen Sofia of Spain, however, seems to be very gracious and classy.

Absolutely, she is.

As for Phillip, while I agree, at the same time, having read Hugo Vicker's bio of his mother, I can't help but feel for him. Not that I think his upbringing excuses him, per se, but it does explain why he's kind of a dick. His mother was institutionalized for a while when he was still very young and she and his father drifted apart. So he was passed around to various relatives (his grandmother, Lady Milford Haven, his uncle, Mountbatten, etc) and boarding schools.

Also, I think most of his controversial remarks are to get attention-the old boy's trolling.

But yeah, I do agree, he really is a dick.

[Mouse]

I've also read that Phillip seems rather scornful of Greece and the Greek people. But I don't know if that's true or not.

The one nobody talks about is Princess Irene (Sofia and Constantine's sister). Anyone know anything about her?

[kelly9480]

Philip is very disdainful of Greece and the Greeks. Between what happened to his grandfather, father and cousin, he has some right to be, though.

Irene had a relationship with a married Greek man, but he's since died. She lives in Spain and might be a concert pianist.