Greek Royal Family

Greek Royal Family

The Greek Royal Family was a branch of the House of Glucksburg, reigning in Greece from 1863 to 1924 and from 1935 to 1973. The first Greek king of this line was George I. All of the Greek kings styled themselves as Kings of the Hellenes.

When Otto of Bavaria, the first king of the Greek state, was overthrown in 1862, the family ascended to the throne of Greece. Although initially a referendum by the Greeks elected Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom to the Greek throne, the Great Powers rejected it, because they refused to permit anyone from their own royal families to gain that position. Eventually, Prince William of the Glucksburg dynasty of Denmark was offered the throne, having received six votes in the referendum; he was proclaimed king as George I, and arrived in the country in 1863. In 1924, the monarchy was deposed and replaced by the Second Hellenic Republic; however, it was later overthrown by a royalist coup d’état in 1935.

On 21 April 1967, the government was overthrown by middle – ranking army officers led by Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos, who established a military dictatorship, also known as the Regime of the Colonels. King Constantine II was forced to legitimize the regime, but later made an unsuccessful counter – coup. As a result, he was forced to exile in Rome and later London. In 1973, Papadopoulos officially deposed Constantine II and proclaimed himself President of the Hellenic Republic. The dictatorship fell in 1974 and a referendum abolished monarchy by a vote of 69% to 30%. Constantine II and his wife Anne – Marie have recently announced that they have returned to Greece to live there.