Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, dies at 82



ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Constantine, the preceding and ultimate king of Greece, who obtained an Olympic gold medal earlier than turning into entangled in his u . S .’s unstable politics inside the Sixties as king and spent a long time in exile, has died. He was eighty two.

Doctors at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to The Associated Press that Constantine died late Tuesday after treatment in an intensive care unit however had no in addition details pending an reliable declaration.

When he acceded to the throne as Constantine II 1964 at the age of 23, the youthful monarch, who had already completed glory as an Olympic gold medalist in crusing, changed into incredibly famous. By the subsequent 12 months he had squandered numerous that manual along with his energetic involvement in the machinations that added down the elected Center Union government of high minister George Papandreou.

The episode related to the defection from the ruling celebration of severa lawmakers, however broadly diagnosed in Greece because the “apostasy,” destabilized the constitutional order and triggered a military coup in 1967. Constantine sooner or later clashed with the military rulers and come to be forced into exile.

The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973, even as a referendum after democracy modified into restored in 1974 dashed any hopes that Constantine had of ever reing once more.

Reduced within the following a long time to exceptional fleeting visits to Greece that raised a political and media hurricane each time, he have become able to settle again in his domestic u . S . A . In his waning years even as opposing his presence no longer held fore money as a badge of vigilant republicanism. With minimum nostalgia for the monarchy in Greece, Constantine have emerge as a tremendously uncontroversial determine.

Constantine modified into born June 2, 1940 in Athens, to Prince Paul, extra younger brother to King George II and heir presumptive to the throne, and princess Frederica of Hanover. His older sister Sophia is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Greek-born Prince Philip, the past due Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the past due Queen Elizabeth II, was an uncle.

The family, which had ruled in Greece from 1863 aside from a 12-three hundred and sixty five days republican interlude among 1922-1935, become descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the Danish ruling circle of relatives.

Before Constantine’s first birthday, the royal circle of relatives changed into compelled to escape Greece at some point of the German invasion in World War II, shifting to Alexandria in Egypt, South Africa and once more to Alexandria. King George II lower again to Greece in 1946, following a disputed referendum, but died a few months later, making Constantine the inheritor to King Paul I.

Constantine come to be educated at a boarding school and then attended three army academies in addition to Athens Law School classes as practise for his destiny position. He also competed in numerous sports activities activities, collectively with crusing and karate, in which he held a black belt.

In 1960, elderly 20, he and different Greek sailors received a gold medal inside the Dragon Class — now no longer an Olympic magnificence — at the Rome Olympics. While nonetheless a prince, Constantine turned into elected a member of the International Olympic Committee and have become an honorary member for existence in 1974.

King Paul I died of cancer on March 6, 1964 and Constantine succeeded him, weeks after the Center Union birthday celebration had triumphed over the conservatives with fifty 3% of the vote.

The high minister, George Papandreou, and Constantine initially had a totally near courting, however it quickly soured over Constantine’s insistence that manipulate of the army have become the monarch’s prerogative.

With many officials toying with the idea of a dictatorship and viewing any non-conservative government as mild on communism, Papandreou desired to control the ministry of protection and ultimately demanded to be appointed safety minister. After an acrimonious alternate of letters with Constantine, Papandreou resed in July 1965.

Constantine’s insistence on appointing a government composed of centrist defectors that received a slender parliamentary majority on the third attempt emerge as quite unpopular. Many viewed him as being manipulated through his scheming mom, dowager Queen Frederica.

“The people don’t need you, take your mother and pass!” became the rallying cry in the protests that rocked Greece inside the summer time of 1965.

Eventually, Constantine made a truce of kinds with Papandreou and, together along with his agreement, appointed a government of technocrats and, then, a conservative-led government to preserve an election in May 1967.

But, with the polls closely favoring the Center Union and with Papandreou’s left-leaning son, Andreas, gaining in recognition, Constantine and his courtiers feared revenge and with the aid of excessive-rating officials organized a coup.

However, a group of lower-rating officers, led by using colonels, were preparing their personal coup and, apprised of Constantine’s plans by a mole, proclaimed a dictatorship on April 21, 1967.

Constantine changed into enthusiastic about the resource of marvel and his feelings closer to the contemporary rulers have been apparent inside the dependable photo of the latest authorities. He pretended to go with them, while getting ready a counter-coup with the help of troops in northern Greece and the military, which turn out to be dependable to him.

On Dec. Thirteen, 1967, Constantine and his own family flew to the northern metropolis of Kavala with the goal of marching on Thessaloniki and installing area a central authority there. The counter-coup, badly controlled and infiltrated, collapsed and Constantine changed into pressured to get away to Rome tomorrow. He might in no way pass back as reing king.

The junta appointed a regent and, after an abortive Navy counter-coup in May 1973, abolished the monarchy on June 1, 1973. A July plebiscite, extensively considered rigged, showed the choice.

When the dictatorship collapsed in July 1974, Constantine changed into eager to go back to Greece but was recommended in competition to it by using the use of veteran baby-kisser Constantine Karamanlis, who returned from exile to transport a civilian government. Karamanlis, who had additionally headed the government between 1955-63, changed into a conservative however had clashed with the court docket over what he taken into consideration its excessive interference in politics.

After his triumphal win in November elections, Karamanlis known as for a plebiscite at the monarchy in 1974. Constantine was not allowed in the u . S . A . To advertising campa, however the end result come to be unambiguous and widely common: sixty nine.2% voted in pick of a republic.

Soon after, Karamanlis famously said the nation had rid itself of a cancerous boom. Constantine said on the day following the referendum that “national cohesion have to take precedence ... I wholeheartedly desire that inclinations will justify the give up result of the day before today’s vote.”

To his final days, Constantine, whilst accepting that Greece was now a republic, persisted to fashion himself King of Greece and his kids as princes and princesses despite the fact that Greece no longer recognized titles of nobility.

For most of his years in exile he lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, and was stated to be specifically close to his 2nd cousin Charles, the Prince of Wales and now King Charles III.

While it took Constantine 14 years to go back to his u . S ., in short, to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, he elevated his visits thereafter and, from 2010, made his home there. There were continued disputes: in 1994, the then socialist authorities stripped him of his nationality and expropriated what remained of the royal family’s belongings. Constantine sued on the European Court of Human Rights and changed into presented 12 million euros in 2002, a fraction of the 500 million he had sought.

He is survived by way of his partner, the preceding Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, youngest sister of Queen Margrethe II; five youngsters, Alexia, Pavlos, Nikolaos, Theodora and Philippos; and 9 grandchildren. ___ Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.