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Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes. Part II

10 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe

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Demotic Greek, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Evangelika Controversy, King George I of the Hellenes, Koine Greek, Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes

The Emperor Alexander II told Olga “to love her new country twice more than her own”, but she was ill-prepared for her new life. Aware of her youth, she chose to retain the services of her governess to continue her education. On arrival at Piraeus, Olga wore blue and white, the national colors of Greece, to the delight of the crowd.

On the way to the capital, popular unrest was such that Olga, who was not accustomed to such demonstrations, was close to tears. Unable to speak Greek, and with little time for rest, she attended official functions over several days. Overwhelmed, Olga was found sobbing under a staircase cuddling her teddy bear a few days after her arrival in the kingdom while she was expected for a formal event. In less than a year, she learnt Greek and English. On the advice of her mother, she took an interest in the archeology and history of Greece to gain public support.

Private life

Throughout their marriage, George I and Olga were a close-knit couple, and contrary to the prevailing custom spent much time with their children, who grew up in a warm family atmosphere. With age, however, George I argued with his sons and Olga lamented the quarrels that divided the family periodically. In private, Olga and George I conversed in German because it was the only language they both spoke at the time of their marriage. With their offspring, they spoke mainly English, although the children were required to speak Greek among themselves, and Prince Andrew refused to speak anything but Greek to his parents.

The life of the royal family was relatively quiet and withdrawn. The Athenian court was not as brilliant and sumptuous as that of Saint Petersburg, and days in the Greek capital were sometimes monotonous for members of the royal family. In spring and winter, they divided time between the Royal Palace in Athens and Tatoi Palace at the foot of Mount Parnitha. Summers were spent on vacation at Aix-les-Bains in France, visiting relatives in the Russian capital or at Fredensborg and Bernstorff in Denmark, and relaxing at Mon Repos, Corfu.

Olga remained nostalgic for Russia. Her room was filled with icons from her homeland and, in the palace chapel, she sang Slavic hymns with her children. She often visited Russian ships that were docked at Piraeus and invited the Russian sailors to the royal palace. She was the only woman in history to bear the title of Admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy, an honor given to her on marriage. She was honored in the Greek navy by having a ship named after her.

Social work

Olga was genuinely popular and was extensively involved in charity work. On arrival in Athens, her immediate patronages included the Amalieion orphanage founded by the previous queen consort Amalia of Oldenburg, and the Arsakeion school for girls located on University Boulevard. With her personal support and the support of wealthy donors, she built asylums for the terminally ill and for the elderly disabled, and a sanatorium for patients with consumption. She founded a society to help the poor, a kindergarten for the children of the poor, and a soup kitchen in Piraeus that doubled as a cooking school for poor girls that was later expanded into a weaving school for girls and elderly women in financial difficulty.

She was patron of two military hospitals and endowed the Evangelismos (Annunciation) Hospital, Greece’s largest, in downtown Athens. She built the Russian Hospital in Piraeus in memory of her daughter, Alexandra, who died in Moscow in 1891. Although aimed primarily at Russian sailors, the hospital was open to all seamen visiting Greece, with consultation fees set at the low rate of thirty lepta and medicines being free.

Olga also supported the establishment and funding of hospitals during the conflicts between Greece and its neighbors, including the Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and the First Balkan War (1912–13). For their work for the wounded, Olga and her daughter-in-law Crown Princess Sophia were awarded the Royal Red Cross by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in December 1897.

Before Olga’s arrival in Greece, there were no separate prisons for women or the young, and she was instrumental in the establishment of a women’s prison in the capital and, with the support of wealthy philanthropist George Averoff, one for juvenile delinquents.

Shortly after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, shots were fired at Olga’s husband and daughter by disgruntled Greeks in 1898. Despite the failed assassination, Olga insisted on continuing her engagements without a military guard. Her son Nicolas wrote in his memoirs that one day he spoke of the importance of public opinion to his mother, and she retorted, “I prefer to be governed by a well born lion rather than four hundred rats like me.” Olga’s interest in political and public opinion was limited. Although she favored Greece’s Russian party, she had no political influence over her husband and did not seek political influence in the Greek parliament.

Evangelika controversy

An Orthodox Christian from birth, Queen Olga became aware, during visits to wounded servicemen in the Greco-Turkish War (1897), that many were unable to read the Bible. The version used by the Church of Greece included the Septuagint version of the Old Testament and the original Greek-language version of the New Testament. Both were written in ancient Koine Greek, but her contemporaries used either Katharevousa or the so-called Demotic version of Modern Greek.

Katharevousa was a formal language that contained archaized forms of modern words, was purged of “non-Greek” vocabulary from other European languages and Turkish, and had a (simplified) archaic grammar. Modern or Demotic Greek was the version commonly spoken. Olga decided to have the Bible translated into a version that could be understood by most contemporary Greeks rather than only those educated in Koine Greek.

Opponents of the translation, however, considered it “tantamount to a renunciation of Greece’s ‘sacred heritage'”. In February 1901, the translation of the New Testament from Koine into Modern Greek that she had sponsored was published without the authorization of the Greek Holy Synod. The price was set at one drachma, far below its actual cost, and the edition sold well. To mitigate opposition to the translation, both the old and new texts were included and the frontispiece specifically stated it was for “exclusive family use” rather than in church.

At the same time, another translation was completed by Alexandros Pallis, a major supporter of a literary movement supporting the use of Demotic in written language. Publication of the translation started in serial form in the newspaper Akropolis on September 9, 1901. Purist theologians and Ecumenical Patriarch Joachim III of Constantinople denounced the translation.

A faction of the Greek press started accusing Pallis and his Demoticist supporters of blasphemy and treason. Riots, peaking on November 8, were started by students of the University of Athens, partly motivated by conservative professors. They demanded the excommunication of Pallis and anyone involved with the translations, including Olga and Procopios, the Metropolitan bishop of Athens, who had supervised the translation at her personal request.

Troops were called in to maintain order, and conflict between them and the rioters resulted in eight deaths and over sixty people wounded. By December, the remaining copies of Olga’s translation had been confiscated and their circulation prohibited. Anyone selling or reading the translations was threatened with excommunication. The controversy was called Evangelika, i.e. “the Gospel events” or Gospel riots, after the word Evangelion, Greek for “Gospel”, and led to the resignation of the metropolitan bishop, Procopius, and the fall of the government of Georgios Theotokis.

September 3, 1851: Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen of the Hellenes. Part I.

03 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, royal wedding

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Alexander II of Russia, Alexander III of Russia, Duke of Edinburgh, Felipe VI of Spain, King George I of the Hellenes, Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia, Nicholas II of Russia, Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Philip of Gr÷ce and Denmark, Poland, Queen of the Hellenes, Russian Empire

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926) was queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920. Olga was the Grandmother of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh and the great-great-grandmother of Spains current king, Felipe VI.

Family and early life

Olga was born at Pavlovsk Palace near Saint Petersburg and was the second child and elder daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Grand Duchess Alexandra, a former princess of Saxe-Altenburg. Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

Her childhood was spent at her father’s homes, including Pavlovsk Palace and estates in the Crimea. Her father was a younger brother of Alexander II, and her mother was considered one of the most intelligent and elegant women of the court. Olga was particularly close to her older brother, Nicholas, and was one of the few members of the imperial family to keep in touch with him after he was banished to Tashkent.

Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich of Russia had an affair with a notorious American woman Fanny Lear. Due to his affair, he stole three valuable diamonds from the revetment of one of the most valuable family icons. He was declared insane and he was banished to Tashkent.

As a child, Olga was described as a simple and chubby little girl with a broad face and big blue eyes. Unlike her younger sister, Vera, she had a calm temperament, but she was also extremely shy. For example, when interrogated by her tutors during lessons, she burst into tears and ran from the classroom.

In 1862, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich was appointed viceroy of Russian Poland by his brother and moved to Warsaw with his wife and children. The stay in Poland proved difficult for the Grand Duke, who was the victim of a nationalist assassination attempt the day after his arrival in the Polish capital. Although Constantine embarked on a program of liberalization and re-instated Polish as an official language, Polish nationalists agitating for reform were not appeased. Finally, an uprising in January 1863 and the radicalization of the separatists pushed the Emperor to recall his brother in August. Olga’s difficult experiences in Poland marked her profoundly.

Engagement and marriage

The 17 year old King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga’s uncle Emperor Aexander II for his support during George’s election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time.

George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.

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.

For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.

Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children:

Constantine (August 2, 1868 – January 11, 1923), who was born ten months after the marriage of his parents; he married Princess Sophia of Prussia and succeeded his father as king;

George (June 24, 1869 – November 25, 1957), High Commissioner of Crete from 1898 to 1906, married Princess Marie Bonaparte;

Alexandra (August 30, 1870 – September 24, 1891), married Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia; their children included Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, one of the assassins of Grigori Rasputin;

Nicholas (January 22, 1872 – February 8, 1938), married Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia;

Marie (March 3, 1876 – December 14, 1940), married firstly Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and secondly Perikles Ioannidis;

Olga (April 7, 1880 – November 2, 1880);

Andrew (February 2, 1882 – December 3, 1944), he married Princess Alice of Battenberg, their children included Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; and

Christopher (August 10, 1888 – January 21, 1940), father of Prince Michael of Greece.

September 3, 1851: Birth of Olga Constantinovna of Russia, Queen consort of the Hellenes.

03 Thursday Sep 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Abdication, Empire of Europe, Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, royal wedding, This Day in Royal History

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Alexander III of Russia, Emperor Alexander II of Russia, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Olga Constantinova of Russia, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, Revolution, Russian Empire

Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926) was Queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King George I. She was briefly the regent of Greece in 1920.

Olga Constantinovna of Russia


A member of the Romanov dynasty, she was the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, the fifth daughter of Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg and Amelie Theresa Luise, Duchess of Württemberg. She is an ancestor of the British, Greek, Romanian, Yugoslavian and Spanish Royal Families through her elder daughter Olga.

Through her father, Olga was a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I, a niece of Emperor Alexander II and first cousin of Emperor Alexander III.

She spent her childhood in Saint Petersburg, Poland and the Crimea. Her father was a younger brother of Alexander II, and her mother was considered one of the most intelligent and elegant women of the court. Olga was particularly close to her older brother, Nicholas, and was one of the few members of the imperial family to keep in touch with him after he was banished to Tashkent.

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Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg (Mother)

The young King George I of Greece visited Russia in 1863 to thank Olga’s uncle Emperor Alexander II for his support during George’s election to the throne of Greece. Whilst there, George met the then twelve-year-old Olga for the first time.

George visited Russia again in 1867 to meet with his sister Dagmar, who had married Tsarevitch Alexander (later Alexander III) the year before. He was determined to find a wife and the idea of an alliance with a Russian grand duchess, born into the Eastern Orthodox Church, appealed to him.

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.

For her part, Grand Duchess Alexandra was much more enthusiastic than her husband and, when some members of the imperial family noted the extreme youth of her daughter, she replied that Olga would not always be as young. Eventually, it was decided that Olga and George would marry when she had reached her sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, she would continue her schoolwork until her wedding day.

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Olga and George married at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867. After five days of festivities, they spent a brief honeymoon at Ropsha, south-west of Saint Petersburg. Over the following twenty years, they had eight children.

At first, she felt ill at ease in the Kingdom of Greece, but she quickly became involved in social and charitable work. She founded hospitals and schools, but her attempt to promote a new, more accessible, Greek translation of the Gospels sparked riots by religious conservatives.

On the assassination of her husband in 1913, Olga returned to Russia. When the First World War broke out, she set up a military hospital in Pavlovsk Palace, which belonged to her brother. She was trapped in the palace after the Russian Revolution of 1917, until the Danish embassy intervened, allowing her to escape to Switzerland. Olga could not return to Greece as her son, King Constantine I, had been deposed.

In October 1920, she returned to Athens on the fatal illness of her grandson, King Alexander. After his death, she was appointed regent until the restoration of Constantine I the following month. After the defeat of the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–22 the Greek royal family were again exiled and Olga spent the last years of her life in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.

Are the descendants of the Duke of Edinburgh also Prince/Princess of Greece and Denmark? Part I.

19 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by liamfoley63 in Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal House, Royal Succession

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Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, House of Glucksburg, House of House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, King George I of the Hellenes, king George II of the Hellenes, King George VI of the United Kingdom, Prince of Greece and Denmark, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Sophia of the Rhine (Electress Sophia)

George I, King of the Hellenes, (December 24, 1845 – March 18, 1913) was born as Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf George, the second son and third child of King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Wilhelm. At age only 17, he was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 by the Greek National Assembly under the regnal name of George I.

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King George I of the Hellenes

King George I of the Hellenes married Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia (September 3, 1851 – June 18, 1926), the daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg, at the chapel of the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg on October 27, 1867 when she was barely 16 and he was he was 21. Over the next twenty years, they had eight children.

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Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia

All male line descendants of King George are entitled to the be a Prince of Greece and Denmark. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born the only son and fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, was a prince of both Greece and Denmark by virtue of his patrilineal descent from George I of Greece and Christian IX of Denmark.

The Duke of Edinburgh is also member of the House of Glücksburg, itself a branch of the House of Oldenburg. The House of Glücksburg (also spelled Glücksborg), shortened from House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, is a Dano-German branch of the House of Oldenburg, members of which have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Greece and several northern German states.

The question I raise is, are the Duke of Edinburgh’s children and other descendants also princes/princesses of Greece and Denmark?

At birth the Duke of Edinburgh was in the line of succession to both thrones of Greece and Denmark; the 1953 Succession Act removed his family branch’s succession rights in Denmark.

In 1947 Philip was granted permission by George VI to marry Princess Elizabeth. Before the official announcement of their engagement in July of that year, Philip renounced his Greek and Danish royal titles, became a naturalised British subject, and adopted his maternal grandparents’ surname Mountbatten.

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Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark

However, it wasn’t necessary for Philip to under go the naturalization process due to the fact that he was born a British national as a descendant of the Electress Sophia of Hanover and the subsequent Sophia Naturalization Act of 1705 which granted British nationality in perpetuity to Sophia’s descendants. The act was superseded in 1949 by the passage of the British Nationality Act.

Although born a Prince of Greece and Denmark his upbringing was thoroughly British. On September 22, 1922, Philip’s uncle, King Constantine I of the Hellenes was forced to abdicate and the new military government arrested Prince Andrew, his father, along with others. In December, a revolutionary court banished Prince Andrew from Greece for life. The British naval vessel HMS Calypso evacuated Prince Andrew’s family, with Philip carried to safety in a cot made from a fruit box.

Because Philip left Greece as a baby, he does not speak Greek, and has stated that he thinks of himself as Danish. In 1928, he was sent to the United Kingdom to attend Cheam School, living with his maternal grandmother, Victoria Mountbatten, Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven, at Kensington Palace and his uncle, George Mountbatten, 2nd Marquess of Milford Haven, at Lynden Manor in Bray, Berkshire. Philip has always lived in the United Kingdom ever since.

Prince Philip initially started the process of renouncing his Greek and Danish titles in 1941, after he had joined the British Royal Navy. The renunciation of his Greek and Danish titles was done in a private via a letter to King George II, then in exile, in December of that year. The king accepted the renunciation with some reluctance, but only accepted his request due to Philip’s desire to serve in the British Royal Navy. After George II returned there was never any official action taken by the Greek government to remove Philip’s Greek and Danish, but the decision was accepted by the Greek king therefore that action in itself has been considered official by many historians and governmental figures.

However, there are some historians that believed since there isn’t any direct evidence that official documentation was submitted by King George II of the Hellenes to the government to remove Philip’s titles, therefore it is believed that Philip just simply stopped using his titles. Therefore theoretically, do Philip and his descendants still have their Dynastic titles such as Prince/Princesses of Greece and Denmark as well as other dynastic titles, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarschen, Lauenburg, and Oldenburg? Are they still there, and just in a state of disuse?

Is that true? That is what we’ll examine in part II.

This date in History: December 1, 1844. Birth of Alexandra of Denmark, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom.

01 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Featured Royal, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, This Day in Royal History

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Alexandra of Denmark, Christian IX, Edward VII, King Christian IX of Denmark, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Denmark, kings and queens of the United Kingdom, Prince Albert Edward, Prince Albert Victor, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom

Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; December 1, 1844 – November 20, 1925) was Queen consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress consort of India as the wife of King Edward VII.

Alexandra was born at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, right next to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen. Her father was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg and her mother was Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel.

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Although she and her family were of royal blood, her family lived a comparatively normal life. They did not possess great wealth; her father’s income from an army commission was about £800 per year and their house was a rent-free grace and favour property. Alexandra’s family had been relatively obscure until 1852, when her father was chosen with the consent of the major European powers to succeed his distant cousin, Frederik VII of Denmark.

Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, were already concerned with finding a bride for their son and heir, Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales. They enlisted the aid of their daughter, Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia, in seeking a suitable candidate. Alexandra was not their first choice, since the Danes were at loggerheads with the Prussians over the Schleswig-Holstein Question and most of the British royal family’s relations were German. Eventually, after rejecting other possibilities, they settled on her as “the only one to be chosen”.

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On September 24, 1861, Crown Princess Victoria introduced her brother Albert Edward to Alexandra at Speyer. Almost a year later on September 9, 1862 (after his affair with Nellie Clifden and the death of his father) Albert Edward proposed to Alexandra at the Royal Castle of Laeken, the home of his great-uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium.

Thomas Longley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, married the couple on March 10, 1863 at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The choice of venue was criticised widely. As the ceremony took place outside London, the press complained that large public crowds would not be able to view the spectacle. Prospective guests thought it awkward to get to and, as the venue was small, some people who had expected invitations were disappointed.

Later in 1863, Alexandra’s father had ascended the throne of Denmark as King Christian IX, and her brother Vilhelm was elected King George I of the Hellenes (Greece), her sister Dagmar was engaged to the Tsesarevich of Russia, (she was engaged to Tsarevich Nicholas until his death and then she married his brother, the future Alexander III). Early in 1864 Alexandra had given birth to her first child, Prince Albert-Victor (Eddy) future Duke of Clarence and Avondale.

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Her father’s accession gave rise to further conflict over the fate of Schleswig-Holstein. The German Confederation successfully invaded Denmark, reducing the area of Denmark by two-fifths. To the great irritation of Queen Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia, Alexandra and Albert Edward supported the Danish side in the war. The Prussian conquest of former Danish lands heightened Alexandra’s profound dislike of the Germans, a feeling which stayed with her for the rest of her life.

Alexandra showed devotion to her children: “She was in her glory when she could run up to the nursery, put on a flannel apron, wash the children herself and see them asleep in their little beds.” Albert Edward and Alexandra had six children in total: The aforementioned Albert Victor, George (future King), Louise, Victoria, Maud (future Queen Consort of Norway) and Alexander John, who died within a day.

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From left to right: Prince George, the Princess and Prince of Wales and Princess Victoria (back row), Princess Maud, Prince Albert Victor and Princess Louise (front row)

Alexandra was Princess of Wales from 1863 to 1901, the longest anyone has ever held that title, and became generally popular; her style of dress and bearing were copied by fashion-conscious women. Largely excluded from wielding any political power, she unsuccessfully attempted to sway the opinion of British ministers and her husband’s family to favour Greek and Danish interests. Her public duties were restricted to uncontroversial involvement in charitable work.

On this Date in History: Assassination of King George I of the Hellenes.

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Alexandros Schinas, Assassination, Christian IX of Denmark, George I of Greece, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of the Hellenes, Otto of Greece, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

George I of Greece (1863-1913) was originally a Danish prince, the second son and third child of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (future King Christian IX of Denmark) and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel. George was born on December 24, 1845 at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, right next to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen.

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King George I of the Hellenes

Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Wilhelm, the namesake of his grandfathers Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel. George was 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 (second son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghause).

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Otto, King of Greece

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, and became the first monarch of a new Greek dynasty.

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George and his family, 1862: (back row left to right) Crown Prince Frederick, Christian IX, George; (front row left to right) Dagmar, Valdemar, Queen Louise, Thyra, Alexandra

The death of Britain’s Queen Victoria 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 second 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 Power. The muted reaction of the Athens Government to the news from Crete led to an unsettled state of affairs on the mainland.

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King George I of the Hellenes

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.

Venizelos and the King were united in their belief that the nation required a strong army to repair the damage of the humiliating defeat of 1897. Crown Prince Constantine was reinstated as Inspector-General of the Army, and later Commander-in-Chief. Under his and Venizelos’s close supervision the military was retrained and equipped with French and British help, and new ships were ordered for the Hellenic Navy. Meanwhile, through diplomatic means, Venizelos had united the Christian countries of the Balkans in opposition to the ailing Ottoman Empire.

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. George 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 9 October. 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 Venizelos.

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Assassination of George I by Alexandros Schinas as depicted in a contemporary lithograph

As he approached the fiftieth anniversary of his accession, the King made plans to abdicate in favor of his son 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, he 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.” 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 six weeks later fell to his death from a police station window.

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. Crown Prince Constantine succeeded his father as the new king of the Hellenes.

Election of the King of the Hellenes.

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by liamfoley63 in Featured Monarch, Kingdom of Europe, Royal Genealogy, Royal Succession, This Day in Royal History

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Alfred Duke of Edinburgh, Christian IX, Christian IX of Denmark, Election, Ernest II Duke of Save-Coburg-Gotha, George I of Greece, King George I of the Hellenes, Kingdom of Greece, Kingdom of the Hellenes, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto of Greece, Plebiscite, Queen Victoria

On this date in History: March 30, 1863. Prince Wilhelm of Denmark was elected as King of the Hellenes (Greece).

George I (born Prince Wilhelm of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg; 24 December 24, 1845 – March 18, 1913) was King of the Hellenes (Greece) from 1863 until his assassination in 1913.

IMG_0318

George was born at the Yellow Palace, an 18th-century town house at 18 Amaliegade, right next to the Amalienborg Palace complex in Copenhagen. He was the second son of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg (Christian IX of Denmark) and Princess Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Although his full name was Prince Christian Wilhelm Ferdinand Adolf Georg of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Wilhelm the namesake of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, and Prince Wilhelm of Hesse-Cassel.

Although he was of royal blood, his family was relatively obscure and lived a comparatively normal life by royal standards. In 1853, however, George’s father was designated the heir presumptive to the childless King Frederik VII of Denmark, and the family became princes and princesses of Denmark. George’s siblings were Frederik (who succeeded their father as King of Denmark), Alexandra (who became wife of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and the mother of King George V), Dagmar (who, as Empress Maria Feodorovna, was consort of Emperor Alexander III of Russiaand the mother of Emperor Nicholas II), Thyra (who married Prince Ernest Augustus, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale) and Valdemar.

King of the Hellenes

Following the overthrow of the Bavarian-born King Otto of Greece (son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen) in October 1862, the Greek people had rejected Otto’s brother and designated successor Leopold, although they still favored a monarchy rather than a republic. Many Greeks, seeking closer ties to the pre-eminent world power, Great Britain, rallied around Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. British prime minister Lord Palmerston believed that the Greeks were “panting for increase in territory”, hoping for a gift of the Ionian Islands, which were then a British protectorate.

The London Conference of 1832, however, prohibited any of the Great Powers’ ruling families from accepting the crown, and in any event, Queen Victoria was adamantly opposed to the idea. The Greeks nevertheless insisted on holding a plebiscite in which Prince Alfred received over 95% of the 240,000 votes. There were 93 votes for a Republic and 6 for a Greek.King Otto received one vote. Prince Alfred was also the designated heir to his uncle, Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha should the Duke remain childless.

With Prince Alfred’s exclusion, the search began for an alternative candidate. The French favored Henri d’Orléans, duc d’Aumale, while the British proposed Queen Victoria’s brother-in-law Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, her nephew Prince Leiningen, and Archduke Maximilian of Austria, among others. Eventually, the Greeks and Great Powers winnowed their choice to Prince William of Denmark, who had received 6 votes in the plebiscite.

IMG_0319

Aged only 17, he was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 by the Greek National Assembly under the regnal name of George I. Paradoxically, he ascended a royal throne before his father, who became King Christian IX of Denmark on November 15 of the same year. There were two significant differences between George’s elevation and that of his predecessor, Otto. First, he was acclaimed unanimously by the Greek Assembly, rather than imposed on the people by foreign powers. Second, he was proclaimed “King of the Hellenes” instead of “King of Greece”, which had been Otto’s style.

His ceremonial enthronement in Copenhagen on 6 June was attended by a delegation of Greeks led by First Admiral and Prime Minister Constantine Kanaris. Frederick VII awarded George the Order of the Elephant, and it was announced that the British government would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece in honor of the new monarch.

King George I is the paternal grandfather of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, husband of HM Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.

Who is entitled to a Princess title?

29 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by liamfoley63 in From the Emperor's Desk, Uncategorized

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7th Duke of Buccleuch, Diana Spencer, Elector of Hanover, George I of Great Britain, John Montagu Douglas Scott, King George I of the Hellenes, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands., Princess Alice of Gloucester, Princess Diana, Princess Marina of Greece, Princess Mary of Teck, The Duke of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent

There has been a lot of discussion concerning who is entitled to call themselves a Princess followed by their first name in the British system. Many people get it wrong including the press, or shall I say, frequently the press. Many know by now, for example, that when Diana was Princess of Wales she was wrongly called Princess Diana by the media. Although she was a Princess of the United Kingdom via her marriage to HRH The Princes of Wales this did not entitle her to be called “Princess Diana” as that is reserved for British princesses born into the royal family. Princess Anne; The Princess Royal, Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York are prime examples. The correct title for Diana was, simply, HRH The Princess of Wales. The press, being sloppy, just called her Princess Diana, and they also sloppily call the Prince of Wales, simply Prince Charles. This may sound pedantic but the way to address royalty in the media is to call them by their correct styles and titles. For example it is correct to call Princess Beatrice of York “Princess Beatrice” because that is her correct title. It is not correct to call Princes Anne by her name in the press, it is correct to call her The Princess Royal

This system is unique to Britain among the existing monarchies in Europe. The German monarchies, when they existed, used the British system. Well, to be more honest it was Britain that adopted the German system of how they titled the wives of princes when George I of Great Britain, originally the Elector of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick, came to the British throne in 1714. In places like Denmark and the Netherlands for example when a woman married into those royal families they are often created Princesses in their own right. For example when Marie Cavallier married HRH Prince Joachim of Denmark in 2008 she became Her Royal Highness Princess Marie of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat. When Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti married the Prince of Orange (king Willem-Alexander) in 2002 she was created a Princess of the Netherlands in her own right and was styled HRH Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, Princess of Orange-Nassau.

What is interesting to note is that even when foreign royals married into the British Royal family they were not entitled to be styled as if they were a British princess in their own right. For example, when Princess Alexandra of Denmark, a Danish Princess in her own right, married HRH The Prince of Wales (Prince Albert-Edward, future king Edward VII) in March of 1863 she ceased to be a Danish Princess and was only a British Princess by marriage and this did not allow her to be called Princess Alexandra. In other words, even though she was born a Princess in her own right, she was not born a British Princess in her own right, and she was in the same boat that Diana Spencer would be over a century later; only entitled to be called HRH The Princess of Wales. You know what? The press got it wrong back in the day, for they also called her Princess Alexandra.

There have been exceptions to when a member of the British royal family, who is not entitled to be called Princess and use their first names, has been allowed to stlye themselves as if they were born a British princess. One example is Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. She was born a Greek and Danish Princess the daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark (a son of King George I of the Hellenes) and his wife Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia the daughter of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia and Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. In November of 1934 Princess Marina married HRH The Duke of Kent (Prince George) the fourth son and fifth child of King George V and Princess Mary of Teck (Queen Mary).

Sadly, the Duke of Kent died in 1942 when the military plane he was riding in crashed in Scotland. His eldest son, Prince Edward became the current Duke of Kent. Marina remained styled as HRH The Duchess of Kent until her son’s marriage to Katherine Worsley in 1961. This meant that Katherine was now legally HRH The Duchess of Kent. This mean that Marina now had to be called something different. She could have chosen to be called HRH The Dowager Duchess of Kent but instead petitioned the Queen to allow herself to be called Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, despite not being born a British Princess. The queen did grant her this permission.

This seems to have set a precedence. In 1974 with the death of HRH The Duke of Gloucester (Prince Henry) son of King George V and Princess Mary of Teck (Queen Mary), his widow, Alice, daughter of John Montagu Douglas Scott, 7th Duke of Buccleuch, petitioned the queen to be allowed to style herself Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester. This permission was also granted. The significant difference between the sister-in-laws Marina and Alice was that Marina was born a Greek and Danish Princess in her own right while Alice was never born a princess in her own right. Under the British system this did not matter, for to be called a Princess and to be allowed to use your first name is a right reserved only to those women born into the British royal family. All others must seek permission from the queen to do so.

Who was Countess Maria of Loon-Heinsberg?

04 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by liamfoley63 in Royal Genealogy

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Countess Margaret of Solms-Braunfels, Elizabeth II, King George I of the Hellenes, kings of Prussia and German Emperors., Maria of Loon-Heinsberg, Prince William of Wales, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Victoria, The Duke of Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain

I am going to have a little fun today with genealogy. On a cold and rainy day I may grab the genealogy charts I have and trace various royals both past and present through various lines just to see how they are related to other dynasties and other obscure royals. Okay, I lied. I don’t always wait for a rainy day to do this because I have no life!! LOL!

My starting point was Prince William of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge. He is a descendent of a minor German Countess, Maria of Loon-Heinsberg (1426-1502). Countess Maria was the daughter of Count Johann I of Loon-Heinsberg and Countess Margaret of Solms-Braunfels. She married Count Engelbert I of Nassau and they had 6 children including Count Johann IV of Nassau Vianden-Dietz. Through her descendants the line snakes through the Counts of Nassau to reach Prince Willem I, Prince of Orange, Stadholder of the Netherlands, and the direct ancestor of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. From Willlem I the line goes through the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg and Prussia who would eventually become kings of Prussia and German Emperors. The line continues through the German House of Württemberg to Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia who married King George I of the Hellenes and they are the paternal grandparents of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and the paternal grandfather of Prince William of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge.

I did this in a random fashion and went through either the female line or the male line arbitrarily. If I had gone in a different direction I would have ended up with some different. Here is the line, starting with the Duke of Cambridge and going back until we reach Countess Maria of Loon-Heinsberg 17 generations later.

Prince William of Wales, Duke of Cambridge 1982-
Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales 1948-
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh 1921-
Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark 1882-1944
Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia 1851-1926
Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg 1830-1911
Duchess Amelia of Württemberg 1799-1848
Duke Ludwig of Württemberg 1756-1819
Margravine Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt 1736-1798
Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt 1700-1771
Margrave Philipp Wilhelm of Brandenburg-Schwedt 1669-1711
Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg, Duke of Prussia 1620-1688
Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate 1597-1660
Princess Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau 1576-1644
Prince Willem I, Prince of Orange, 1533-1584
Count Willem I of Nassau-Dillenburg 1487-1559
Count Johann V of Nassau-Vianden-Dietz 1455-1516
Countess Maria of Loon-Heinsberg 1426-1502

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