May 26, 946: Death of King Edmund I of the English

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Alfred the Great, Glastonbury, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, King Edmund I of England, King of the English, Louis IV of France, Otto the Great

Edmund I or Ædmund I (920/921 – May 26, 946) was King of the English from 27 October 939 until his death. He was the elder son of King Edward the Elder and his third wife, Queen Eadgifu, and a grandson of King Alfred the Great. After Edward died in 924, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Edmund’s half-brother, Æthelstan. Edmund was crowned after Æthelstan died childless in 939.

Marriages and children

Edmund probably married his first wife Ælfgifu around the time of his accession to the throne, as their second son was born in 943. Their sons Eadwig and Edgar both became kings of the English. Ælfgifu’s father is not known, but her mother is identified by a charter of Edgar which confirms a grant by his grandmother Wynflæd of land to Shaftesbury Abbey.

Ælfgifu was also a benefactor of Shaftesbury Abbey; when she died in 944 she was buried there and venerated as a saint. Edmund had no known children by his second wife, Æthelflæd, who died after 991. Her father Ælfgar became ealdorman of Essex in 946.

Edmund presented him with a sword lavishly decorated with gold and silver, which Ælfgar later presented to King Ædred. Æthelflæd’s second husband was Æthelstan Rota, a south-east Mercian ealdorman, and her will survives

Æthelstan had succeeded as the King of the English south of the Humber and he became the first king of all England when he conquered Viking-ruled York in 927, but after his death Anlaf Guthfrithson was accepted as king of York and extended Viking rule to the Five Boroughs of north-east Mercia.

King Æthelstan died at Gloucester on October 27, 939 and was succeeded by his half-brother who became King Edmund I of the English.

After Æthelstan’s death, the men of York immediately chose the Viking king of Dublin, Olaf Guthfrithson as their king, and Anglo-Saxon control of the north, seemingly made safe by the victory of Brunanburh, collapsed. The reigns of Æthelstan’s half-brothers Edmund (939–946) and Eadred (946–955) were largely devoted to regaining control.

Edmund was initially forced to accept the reverse, the first major setback for the West Saxon dynasty since Alfred’s reign, but he was able to recover his position following Anlaf’s death in 941.

In 942 Edmund took back control of the Five Boroughs and in 944 he regained control over the whole of England when he expelled the Viking kings of York. Eadred had to deal with further revolts when he became king, and York was not finally conquered until 954. Æthelstan had achieved a dominant position over other British kings and Edmund maintained this, perhaps apart from Scotland.

The north Welsh king Idwal Foel may have allied with the Vikings as he was killed by the English in 942. The British kingdom of Strathclyde may also have sided with the Vikings as Edmund ravaged it in 945 and then ceded it to Malcolm I of Scotland. Edmund also continued his brother’s friendly relations with Continental rulers, several of whom were married to his half-sisters.

Edmund inherited strong Continental contacts from Æthelstan’s cosmopolitan court, and these were enhanced by their sisters’ marriages to foreign kings and princes. Edmund carried on his brother’s Continental policies and maintained his alliances, especially with his nephew King Louis IV of West Francia and Otto I, King of East Francia and Emperor whose empire evolved into the Holy Roman Empire.

Louis IV was both nephew and brother-in-law of Otto, while Otto and Edmund were brothers-in-law. There were almost certainly extensive diplomatic contacts between Edmund and Continental rulers which have not been recorded, but it is known that Otto sent delegations to Edmund’s court. In the early 940s some Norman lords sought the help of the Danish prince Harald against Louis, and in 945 Harald captured Louis and handed him to Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, who kept him prisoner. Edmund and Otto both protested and demanded his immediate release, but this only took place in exchange for the surrender of the town of Laon to Hugh.

Death and succession

On May 26, 946 Edmund was killed in a brawl at Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire. According to the post-Conquest chronicler, John of Worcester:

“While the glorious Edmund, king of the English, was at the royal township called Pucklechurch in English, in seeking to rescue his steward from Leofa, a most wicked thief, lest he be killed, was himself killed by the same man on the feast of St Augustine, teacher of the English, on Tuesday, 26 May, in the fourth indiction, having completed five years and seven months of his reign. He was borne to Glastonbury, and buried by the abbot, St Dunstan.”

The historians Clare Downham and Kevin Halloran dismiss John of Worcester’s account and suggest that the king was the victim of a political assassination, but this view has not been accepted by other historians.

Like his son Edgar thirty years later, Edmund was buried at Glastonbury Abbey. The location may have reflected its spiritual prestige and royal endorsement of the monastic reform movement, but as his death was unexpected it is more likely that Dunstan was successful in claiming the body. His sons were still young children, so he was succeeded as king by his brother Eadred, who was in turn succeeded by Edmund’s elder son Eadwig in 955.

March 15, 1792: Assassination of King Gustaf III of Sweden

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Adolph Ribbing, Carl Fredrik Pechlin., Carl Pontus Lilliehorn, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Christiansborg Palace, Claes Fredrik Horn, Jacob Johan Anckarström, King Carl XII of Sweden, King Frederik V of Denmark, King George II of Great Britain, King Gustaf III of Sweden, Princess Louise of Great Britain

Gustaf III (January 24, 1746 – March 29, 1792) was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of Adolf Frederick of Sweden and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Prussia.

King Gustaf III was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Carl XII. Seizing power from the government in a coup d’état, called the Swedish Revolution, in 1772 that ended the Age of Liberty, he initiated a campaign to restore a measure of Royal autocracy, which was completed by the Union and Security Act of 1789, which swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) during the Age of Liberty, but at the same time it opened up the government for all citizens, thereby breaking the privileges of the nobility.

A believer in enlightened absolutism, Gustaf spent considerable public funds on cultural ventures, which were controversial among his critics, as well as military attempts to seize Norway with Russian aid, then a series of attempts to re-capture the Swedish Baltic dominions lost during the Great Northern War through the failed war with Russia. Nonetheless, his successful leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat and signified that Swedish military might was to be countenanced.

Gustaf married Princess Sophia Magdalena, daughter of King Frederik V of Denmark and his first consort, the former Princess Louise of Great Britain, the youngest surviving daughter of King George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

The by proxy marriage occurred in Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen, on October 1, 1766 and in person in Stockholm on November 4, 1766. Gustaf was first impressed by Sophia Magdalena’s beauty, but her silent nature made her a disappointment in court life. The match was not a happy one, owing partly to an incompatibility of temperament, but still more to the interference of Gustav’s jealous mother, Queen Louisa Ulrika.

The marriage produced two children: Crown Prince Gustaf Adolph (1778–1837), future King Gustaf IV Adolph and Prince Carl Gustaf, Duke of Småland (1782–1783). For the consummation of the marriage, the king and queen requested actual physical instruction by Count Adolf Munck, reportedly because of anatomical problems of both spouses. There were also rumors that the queen was made pregnant by Munck, who would then be the true father of the heir Prince Gustav Adolph.

Gustaf’s mother supported rumors that he was not the father of his first son and heir. It was rumored at the time that Gustaf III was homosexual, a possibility asserted by some writers. The close personal relationships that he formed with two of his courtiers, Count Axel von Fersen and Baron Gustav Armfelt, were alluded to in that regard. His sister-in-law Charlotte implied as much in her famous diary.

Assassination

Gustaf III’s war against Russia and his implementation of the Union and Security Act of 1789 helped increase hatred against the king which had been growing among the nobility ever since the coup d’état of 1772. A conspiracy to have the king assassinated and reform the constitution was created within the nobility in the winter of 1791–92. Among those involved were Jacob Johan Anckarström, Adolph Ribbing, Claes Fredrik Horn, Carl Pontus Lilliehorn and Carl Fredrik Pechlin. Anckarström was chosen to carry out the murder with pistols and knives, but there has also been evidence suggesting that Ribbing was the one who actually shot Gustav.

The assassination of the king was enacted at a masked ball at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm at midnight on March 16, 1792. Gustaf III had arrived earlier that evening to enjoy a dinner in the company of friends. During dinner, he received an anonymous letter that described a threat to his life (written by the colonel of the Life guards Carl Pontus Lilliehorn), but, as the king had received numerous threatening letters in the past, he chose to ignore it.

To dare any possible assassins, the King went out into an open box facing the opera stage. And after roughly ten minutes he said “this would have been an opportunity to shoot. Come, let us go down. The ball seems to be merry and bright.” The King with Baron Hans Henrik von Essen by his right arm went around the theatre once and then into the foyer where they met Captain Carl Fredrik Pollet.

The King, von Essen and Pollet continued through a corridor leading from the foyer towards the opera stage where the dancing took place. On the stage several masked men – some witnesses talked of 20 or 30 men – made it impossible for the king to proceed. Due to the crowd, Pollet receded behind the King, who bent backwards to talk to Pollet.

Anckarström stood with Ribbing next to him at the entrance to the corridor holding a knife in his left hand and carrying one pistol in his left inner pocket and another pistol in his right back pocket. They edged themselves behind the King, Anckarström took out the pistol from his left inner pocket and Ribbing or he pulled the trigger with the gun in Anckarström’s hand. Because of the King turning backwards the shot went in at an angle from the third lumbar vertebra towards the hip region.

The King twitched and said “aee” without falling. Anckarström then lost courage, dropped the pistol and knife and shouted fire. People from the King’s lifeguard stood some meters away. When they reached the King, they heard him say in French “Aï, je suis blessé” (Ouch, I am wounded).

The king was carried back to his quarters, and the exits of the Opera were sealed. Anckarström was arrested the following morning and immediately confessed to the murder, although he denied a conspiracy until informed that Horn and Ribbing had also been arrested and had confessed in full.

The king had not been shot dead; he was alive and continued to function as head of state. The coup was a failure in the short run. However, the wound became infected, and on March 29, the king finally died with these last words:

Jag känner mig sömnig, några ögonblicks vila skulle göra mig gott (“I feel sleepy, a few moments’ rest would do me good”)

Gustaf III’s gunshot wound was not initially considered life-threatening; reexamined evidence allows that the sudden serious infection that killed him almost immediately, 13 days into his convalescence, may have been caused chemically by attending surgeon Daniel Théel [sv] who was his known adversary.

Ulrica Arfvidsson, the famous medium of the Gustavian era, had told him something that could be interpreted as a prediction of his assassination in 1786, when he visited her anonymously – a coincidence – but she was known to have a large network of informers all over town to help her with her predictions, and she was in fact interrogated about the murder.

The Life of Maria Sophie, Duchess in Bavaria, the last Queen consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Part II.

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Félix-Emmanuel de Lavaÿsse, King Francis II of the Two Sicilies, King Umberto I of Italy, Maria Sophie in Bavaria, Princess Maria Cristina Pia of the Two-Sicilies, Queen of the Two-Sicilies

While in exile in Rome, Marie Sophie became pregnant with an illegitimate child. In order to avoid a public scandal, she gave health reasons to urgently visit her parents’ house in Possenhofen. It was decided in a family council that Marie Sophie should retire to the Ursuline Convent in Augsburg, where on November 24, 1862 she gave birth to a daughter who was named Mathilde Marie Sophie Henriette Elisabeth Louise, but commonly known as Daisy.

The child was immediately given to foster parents, the Count and Countess de Gineste, who raised her at Castle Garrevaques in Département Tarn. However, Maria Sophie was able to keep in touch with her daughter until she died in January 1886 and even attended her funeral in Paris. This story was revealed by a great-great-grandniece of the Ginestes in a book published in 2021.

Countess Marie Larisch von Moennich, niece of Marie Sophie, had spread the story that the child’s father was a Belgian officer of the papal guard named Count Armand de Lavaÿss.

Although Countess Larisch’s biographer Brigitte Sokop refuted this assertion and speculated that a possible father of the child would be the Spanish diplomat Salvador Bermúdez de Castro (later Duke of Ripalda and Santa Lucía), who was often to be seen in the company of the Neapolitan royal couple and who was also said to have had an affair (and also an illegitimate daughter) with Marie Sophie’s sister Mathilde, Countess of Trani, Lorraine Kaltenbach in her 2021 biography of Marie Sophie established that the father of her illegitimate daughter was indeed a certain Félix-Emmanuel de Lavaÿsse, a pontifical zouave, whom officially recognized Daisy as his daughter on May 16, 1867 shortly before his death on April 18, 1868 aged 32.

A year later, on the advice of her family, Marie Sophie decided to confess the affair to her husband. Afterwards, the relationship between the two improved for a time. Francis submitted to an operation which allowed him to consummate the marriage, and Marie Sophie became pregnant a second time, this time by her husband.

Both were overjoyed at the turn of events and full of hope. On December 24, 1869, after ten years of marriage, Marie Sophie gave birth to a daughter, Maria Cristina Pia. Cristina was born on the birthday of her aunt, Empress Elisabeth, who became her godmother. Unfortunately, the baby lived only three months and died on March 28, 1870. Marie Sophie and her husband never had another child.

Later life

In 1870, Rome fell to the forces of Italy and the King and Queen fled to Bavaria. The king died in 1894. Marie Sophie spent time in Munich, and then moved to Paris where she presided over somewhat of an informal Bourbon court-in-exile.

It was rumored she was involved in the anarchist assassination of King Umberto I in 1900 in hopes of destabilizing the new nation-state of Italy. Recent historians have resurrected that rumor based on the apparent credence given to this conspiracy theory by the then Prime Minister of Italy, Giovanni Giolitti. Others regard it as anecdotal. In any event, the case against Marie Sophie is circumstantial.

During World War I, Marie Sophie was actively on the side of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary in their war with the Kingdom of Italy. Again, the rumors claimed she was involved in sabotage and espionage against Italy in the hope that an Italian defeat would tear the nation apart and that the kingdom of Naples would be restored.

During her life, she generated an almost cult-like air of admiration even among her political enemies. Gabriele d’Annunzio called her the “stern little Bavarian eagle” and Marcel Proust spoke of the “soldier queen on the ramparts of Gaeta”. She and her sister Elisabeth were considered amongst the great beauties of their age.

Maria Sophie died in Munich in 1925. Since 1984 her remains now rest with those of her husband and their daughter in the Church of Santa Chiara in Naples.

History of The Kingdom of Greece. Part VI: First Reign of King Constantine I.

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Abdication, Athens, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, Crown Prince George of Greece, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, King Constantine I of the Hellenes, Prime Minister Venizelos, Princess Royal, princess Sophie of Prussia, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom., The Balkan War, The Great War, World War I

Constantine I (August 2, 1868 – January 11, 1923) was King of the Hellenes from March 18, 1913 to June 11, 1917 and from December 19, 1920 to September 27, 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 March 18, 1913, following his father’s assassination.

Crown Prince Constantine of Greece

Constantine was born on August 2, 1868 in Athens. He was the eldest son of King George I and Queen Olga (Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia). His birth was met with an immense wave of enthusiasm: the new heir apparent to the throne was the first Greek-born member of the family.

As the ceremonial cannon on Lycabettus Hill fired the royal salute, huge crowds gathered outside the Palace shouting what they thought should rightfully be the newborn prince’s name: “Constantine”.

This was both the name of his maternal grandfather, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich of Russia, and the name of the “King who would reconquer Constantinople”, the future “Constantine XII, legitimate successor to the Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos”, according to popular legend.

He was inevitably christened “Constantine” on August 12, 1868. The most prominent university professors of the time were handpicked to tutor the young Crown Prince: Ioannis Pantazidis taught him Greek literature; Vasileios Lakonas mathematics and physics; and Constantine Paparrigopoulos history, infusing the young prince with the principles of the Megali Idea.

In 1884, Constantine, Crown Prince of Greece, turned sixteen and his majority was declared by the government. He then received the title of Duke of Sparta. Soon after, Constantine completed his military training in Germany, where he spent two full years in the company of a tutor, Dr. Lüders. He served in the Prussian Guard, took lessons of riding in Hanover and studied political science at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig.

Betrothal and Marriage

After a long stay in the United Kingdom celebrating her grandmother, Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Princess Sophie of Prussia became better acquainted with Constantine in the summer of 1887.

Princess Sophia of Prussia, was a daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm, Crown Prince of Prussia, (future German Emperor Friedrich III) and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom.

The Crown Prince of Prussia was the son of King Wilhelm I of Prussia (German Emperor Wilhelm I) and Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. The Princess Royal was the eldest child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Princess Sophie of Prussia

Queen Victoria watched their growing relationship, writing “Is there a chance of Sophie’s marrying Tino? It would be very nice for her, for he is very good”. Crown Princess Victoria also hoped that Sophie would make a good marriage, considering her the most attractive among her daughters.

During his stay at the Hohenzollern court in Berlin representing the Kingdom of Greece at the funeral of Emperor Wilhelm I in March 1888, Constantine saw Sophie again. Quickly, the two fell in love and got officially engaged on September 3, 1888. However, their relationship was viewed with suspicion by Sophie’s older brother Prince Wilhelm (future Emperor Wilhelm II) and his wife Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg.

This betrothal was not completely supported in the Greek royal family either: Queen Olga showed some reluctance to the projected union because Sophie was Lutheran and Olga would have preferred that her son marry an Orthodox Christian. Despite the difficulties, the wedding was scheduled for October 1889 in Athens.

On October 27, 1889, Crown Prince Constantine married Princess Sophie of Prussia in Athens in two religious ceremonies, one public and Orthodox and another private and Protestant. They were third cousins in descent from Emperor Paul I of Russia, and second cousins once removed through King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.

Princess Sophie of Prussia

For the wedding Sophie’s witnesses were her brother Heinrich and her cousins Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales; for Constantine’s side, the witnesses were his brothers Princes George and Nicholas and his cousin the Tsarevich Nicholas of Russia.

The marriage (the first major international event held in Athens) was very popular among the Greeks. The names of the couple were reminiscent to the public of an old legend which suggested that when a King Constantine and a Queen Sophia ascended the Greek throne, Constantinople the Hagia Sophia would fall into Greek hands.

Crown Prince Constantine and Crown Princess Sophie had six children. All three of their sons ascended the Greek throne. Their eldest daughter Helen married Crown Prince Carol of Romania; their second daughter married the 4th Duke of Aosta; whilst their youngest child, Princess Katherine, married a British commoner.

George I was assassinated in Thessaloniki by an anarchist, Alexandros Schinas, on March 18, 1913, and Constantine succeeded to the throne. In the meantime, tensions between the Balkan allies grew, as Bulgaria claimed Greek and Serbian-occupied territory.

Balkan Wars

In May, Greece and Serbia concluded a secret defensive pact aimed at Bulgaria. On June 16, the Bulgarian army attacked their erstwhile allies, but were soon halted. King Constantine led the Greek Army in its counterattack in the battles of Kilkis-Lahanas and the Kresna Gorge.

The widely held view of Constantine I as a “German sympathizer” owes something to his marriage with Sophie of Prussia, sister of Wilhelm II, to his studies in Germany and his supposed “militaristic” beliefs and attitude.

The Great War

When World War I broke out Constantine did rebuff Emperor Wilhelm II who in late 1914 pressed him to bring Greece into the war on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany. In their correspondence he told him that his sympathy was with Germany, but he would not join the war. Constantine then also offended the British and French by blocking popular efforts of Prime Minister Venizelos to bring Greece into the war on the side of the Allies.

Constantine’s insistence on neutrality, according to him and his supporters, was based more on his judgement that it was the best policy for Greece, rather than venal self-interest or his German dynastic connections, as he was accused of by the Venizelists.

In August 1916, a military coup broke out in Thessaloniki by Venizelist officers. There, Venizelos established a provisional revolutionary government, which created its own army and declared war on the Central Powers.

With Allied support, the revolutionary government of Venizelos gained control of half the country – significantly, most of the “New Lands” won during the Balkan Wars. This cemented the National Schism, a division of Greek society between Venizelists and anti-Venizelist monarchists, which was to have repercussions in Greek politics until past World War II.

Constantine I, King of the Hellenes

Venizelos made a public call to the King to dismiss his “bad advisors”, to join the war as King of all Greeks and stop being a politician. The royal governments of Constantine in Athens continued to negotiate with the Allies a possible entry in the war.

During November/December 1916, the British and French landed units at Athens claiming the surrender of war materiel equivalent to what was lost at Fort Rupel as a guarantee of Greece’s neutrality. After days of tension, finally they met resistance by paramilitary (Epistratoi) and pro-royalist forces (during the Noemvriana events), that were commanded by officers Metaxas and Dousmanis.

After an armed confrontation, the Allies evacuated the capital and recognized officially the government of Venizelos in Thessaloniki. King Constantine then became the most hated person for the Allies after his brother-in-law Emperor Wilhelm II.

After the fall of the monarchy in Russia, Constantine lost his last supporter inside the Entente opposed to his removal from the throne.

In the face of Venizelist and Anglo-French pressure, King Constantine finally left the country for Switzerland on June 11, 1917; his second-born son Alexander became king in his place.

The Allied Powers were opposed to Constantine’s first born son Crown Prince George becoming king, as he had served in the German army before the war and like his father was thought to be a Germanophile.

History of the Kingdom of Greece. Part V. King George I.

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Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Alexandros Schinas, Crown Prince Constantine of the Hellenes, Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, King George I of the Hellenes

King George I of the Hellenes first met Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia in 1863, when she was 12 years old, on a visit to the court of Emperor Alexander II of Russia between his election to the Greek throne and his arrival in Athens.

They met for a second time in April 1867, when George went to the Russian Empire to visit his sister Dagmar, who had married into the Russian imperial family. While George was privately a Lutheran, the Romanovs were Orthodox Christians like the majority of Greeks, and George thought a marriage with a Russian Grand Duchess would re-assure his subjects on the question of his future children’s religion.

Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes

Olga was born at Pavlovsk Palace near Saint Petersburg on September 3, 1851. She was the second child and elder daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia). Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

Olga fell in love with George, but she was nevertheless anxious and distraught at the thought of leaving Russia. Her father was initially reluctant to agree to their marriage, thinking that at the age of fifteen she was too young and, being close to his daughter, concerned by the distance between Greece and Russia.

Olga was just 16 years old when she married George at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After a brief honeymoon at Tsarskoye Selo, the couple left Russia for Greece on November 9.

From 1864 to 1874, Greece had 21 governments, the longest of which lasted a year and a half. In July 1874, Charilaos Trikoupis, a member of the Greek Parliament, wrote an anonymous article in the newspaper Kairoi blaming King George and his advisors for the continuing political crisis caused by the lack of stable governments.

In the article, he accused the King of acting like an absolute monarch by imposing minority governments on the people. If the King insisted, he argued, that only a politician commanding a majority in the Vouli could be appointed prime minister, then politicians would be forced to work together more harmoniously to construct a coalition government. Such a plan, he wrote, would end the political instability and reduce the large number of smaller parties.

Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna of Russia, mother of Olga Constantinovna of Russia

Trikoupis admitted to writing the article after a man supposed by the authorities to be the author was arrested, whereupon he was taken into custody himself. After a public outcry, he was released and subsequently acquitted of the charge of “undermining the constitutional order”.

The following year, the King asked Trikoupis to form a government (without a majority) and then read a speech from the throne declaring that in future the leader of the majority party in parliament would be appointed prime minister.

King George’s silver jubilee in 1888 was celebrated throughout the Hellenic world, and Athens was decorated with garlands for the anniversary of his accession on October 30.

Visitors included the Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark (the King’s brother) the Prince and Princess of Wales (the Princess of Wales was the King’s sister) the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, Grand Dukes Sergei and Paul of Russia, and Djevad Pasha from the Ottoman Empire, who presented the King with two Arabian horses as gifts.

Jubilee events in the week of October 30th included balls, galas, parades, a thanksgiving service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens, and a lunch for 500 invited guests in a blue and white tent on the Acropolis.

Greece in the last decades of the 19th century was increasingly prosperous and was developing a sense of its role on the European stage. In 1893, the Corinth Canal was built by a French company cutting the sea journey from the Adriatic Sea to Piraeus by 150 miles (241 km).

In 1896, the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, and the Opening Ceremony of the 1896 Summer Olympics was presided over by the King. When Spiridon Louis, a shepherd from just outside Athens, ran into the Panathinaiko Stadium to win the Marathon event, the Crown Prince ran down onto the field to run the last thousand yards beside the Greek gold medalist, while the King stood and applauded.

The popular desire to unite all Greeks within a single territory (Megali Idea) was never far below the surface and another revolt against Turkish rule erupted in Crete. In February 1897, King George sent his son, Prince George, to take possession of the island. The Greeks refused an Ottoman offer of an autonomous administration, and Deligiannis mobilized for war.

The Great Powers refused to allow the expansion of Greece, and on February 25, 1897 announced that Crete would be under an autonomous administration and ordered the Greek and Ottoman Turk militias to withdraw.

The death of Britain’s Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom on January 22, 1901 left King George as the second-longest-reigning monarch in Europe. His always cordial relations with his brother-in-law, the new King Edward VII, continued to tie Greece to Britain.

This was abundantly important in Britain’s support of King George’s son Prince George as Governor-General of Crete. Nevertheless, Prince George resigned in 1906 after a leader in the Cretan Assembly, Eleftherios Venizelos, campaigned to have him removed.

As a response to the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, Venizelos’s power base was further strengthened, and on October 8, 1908 the Cretan Assembly passed a resolution in favor of union despite both the reservations of the Athens government under Georgios Theotokis and the objections of the Great Powers. The muted reaction of the Athens Government to the news from Crete led to an unsettled state of affairs on the mainland.

In August 1909, a group of army officers that had formed a military league, Stratiotikos Syndesmos, demanded, among other things, that the Royal Family be stripped of their military commissions.

To save the King the embarrassment of removing his sons from their commissions, they resigned them. The military league attempted a coup d’état, and the King insisted on supporting the duly elected Hellenic Parliament in response.

Eventually, the military league joined forces with Venizelos in calling for a National Assembly to revise the constitution. King George gave way, and new elections to the revising assembly were held in August 1910.

After some political maneuvering, Venizelos became prime minister of a minority government. Just a month later, Venizelos called new elections for December 11, 1910, at which he won an overwhelming majority after most of the opposition parties declined to take part.

When the Kingdom of Montenegro declared war on Turkey on October 8, 1912, it was joined quickly by Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece in what is known as the First Balkan War.

King George I was on vacation in Denmark, so he immediately returned to Greece via Vienna, arriving in Athens to be met by a large and enthusiastic crowd on the evening of October 9. The results of this campaign differed radically from the Greek experience at the hands of the Turks in 1897.

The well-trained Greek forces, 200,000 strong, won victory after victory. On November 9, 1912, Greek forces commanded by Crown Prince Constantine rode into Thessaloniki, just a few hours ahead of a Bulgarian division. Three days later King George rode in triumph through the streets of Thessaloniki, the second-largest Greek city, accompanied by the Crown Prince and Prime Minster Venizelos.

As he approached the fiftieth anniversary of his accession, the King made plans to abdicate in favor of his son Crown Prince Constantine immediately after the celebration of his Golden Jubilee in October 1913.

Just as he did in Athens, George went about Thessaloniki without any meaningful protection force. While out on an afternoon walk near the White Tower on March 18, 1913, the King was shot at close range in the back by Alexandros Schinas, who was “said to belong to a Socialist organization” and “declared when arrested that he had killed the King because he refused to give him money”.

King George died instantly, the bullet having penetrated his heart. The Greek government denied any political motive for the assassination, saying that Schinas was an alcoholic vagrant. Schinas was tortured in prison and fell to his death from a police station window six weeks later.

The King’s body was taken to Athens on the Amphitrite, escorted by a flotilla of naval vessels. For three days the coffin of the King, draped in the Danish and Greek flags, lay in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens before his body was committed to a tomb at his palace in Tatoi.

His eldest son became King Constantine I of the Hellenes.