50 years ago: State funeral for King Paul I of the Hellenes

The Times published the following correspondent report from Athens in its issue of 12th March 1964:

Tomb of King Pavlos and Queen Frederika of the Hellenes (+6th February 1981)

King Paul of the Hellenes was laid to rest among his ancestors at the Tatoi royal estate today in the presence of his family and a number of 'Europe's reigning monarchs. King Paul himself had marked the place where he had wished to be buried under the pine trees near the tomb of his brother and predecessor, King George II.

Huge crows fare welled their King.

Almost every inhabitant of Athens and many more from country districts lined the two-mile procession route from the Metropolis Church. As the crowds grew weary of the hours of waiting there was some disorder. Many women fainted. Swaying masses forced a police cordon to yield half of the wide boulevard on which the procession was moving. Unfortunately the din and clamour did not die out even when the solemn cortege went by.

King Constantine II kissing the coffin.

Gun salutes boomed across the city as the funeral procession set off after the service at the Metropolis Church where the King's body lay in state for two days. The service was conducted by Archbishop Chrysostomos, the octogenarian Primate of the Orthodox Church of Greece. Before the eight white-kilted Evzones of the Royal Guard moved the black draped coffin from the catafalque on to a gun carriage outside. Queen Frederika knelt and kissed the side of the coffin. She had to be helped to rise, temporarily overcome by emotion. After her King Constantine, the King's son and successor, and his sister Crown Princess Irene kissed the coffin.

The dead king was flanked by a company of Evzones in pairs on both sides.

A company of sailors from the Greek Royal Navy drew the gun carriage bearing the King's body. They were flanked by a company of Evzones in pairs on both sides.

Behind the coffin came the King's personal servants and his white horse.

Behind the coffin came the King's personal servants and his white horse. The King's widow and her son, the new King, followed in the cortège. Behind them walked the Crown Princess, Princes Peter and Michael and Princess Sophia of Spain, nee Princess of Greece and Denmark and her husband, Don Juan Carlos of Spain.

King Constantine II of the Hellenes, his mother, Queen Frederika, behind them Princess Sofía of Spain and Prince Peter, second in line to the Greek throne in 1964.

right to left, German president Lübke, the Duke of Edinburgh, Mr. Lyndon Johnson, Prince Rainier III of Monaco,

The heads of foreign states or their personal representatives followed. They included the Kings of Sweden, Denmark. Norway. and Belgium, and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus. and President Lübke of West Germany, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the Prince of Monaco, Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, and the brother of the Shah of Iran. The former President Truman, who is 80, followed in a car, as did Mr. Papandreou, the Greek Prime Minister. It was an impressive procession, though the solemnity and poignancy of the occasion were marred by a mass turn-out such as Athens has never seen before.

The procession ended before the Hilton Hotel and the gun carriage with the coffin was linked to an army vehicle which took it to Tatoi eight miles north of Athens, followed by the cars of the heads of state or personal representatives, who attended the private interment later.

Greek Royal Family commemorates King Paul I of the Hellenes

Crown Prince Pavlos and his family in Athens.

Athens hasn't seen such a big royal event in decades. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of King Paul's death  his children, King Constantine II of the Hellenes, Queen Anna-Maria, Queen Sofía of Spain and Princess Irene, and many other family members gathered in the Greek capital to hold a memorial service for their parents . Yesterday a new documentary on the life of King Paul I had a world premiere. The film perfomance was attended not only by Greek royals, but also by many members of other royal families, among them  Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia, Margrave Max and Margrevine Valery of Baden.



Today 50 years ago King Paul I of the Hellenes passed away. In late February 1964, he had undergone an operation for stomach cancer, and a couple of days afterwards in Athens he passed away. On 19th February 1964 his eldest son, Crown Prince Constantine, had been appointed as Regent.


The royal decree that appointed 23-year-old Crown Prince Constantine as Regent, was drafted by the Government and sent to the King for signature. King Paul signed it, and it was promulgated in the official gazette. Before he was admitted to the hospital, King Paul had sworn in the new cabinet of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou, which was formed after the recent elections. Due to the king's fragile health the ceremony had taken place at the royal residence of Tatoi and not at the Royal Palace in Athens. On 6th March 1964 the death of King Paul I was announced. He was succeeded by his only son, King Constantine II of the Hellenes.
King Paul (Greek: Παῦλος, Βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων, Pávlos, Vasiléfs ton Ellínon; 14th December 1901 – 6th March 1964) was born in Athens, the third son of King Constantine I of the Hellenes and his wife, Queen Sophia, née Princess of Prussia. He was trained as a naval officer and joined the British Royal Navy as a cadet at the Naval Academy in Dartmouth, later in Osborne. During World War I he accompanied his parents into exile, which they spent in Switzerland and Germany, while his elder brother ruled as King Alexander I. After his brother's premature death, the Greek parliament had proclaimed Prince Paul to be his successor, but he refused and insisted on his father's return on the throne. On 19th December 1920 the royal family returned and Prince Paul joined the Greek Royal Naval Academy in Piraeus to complete his formation. In 1922 he graduated and was promoted to sub lieutenant.

After the Greek troops were defeated by Turkey, King Constantine I was picked as scapegoat and forced into exile again. He left his beloved Greece on 22nd September 1922 and was succeeded by his eldest son, King George II. This made Prince Paul the new Crown Prince of Greece. King Constantine I died in Italy on 23 January 1923, but the government refused to grant the dead monarch a state funeral at home. The second republic was proclaimed on 25th March 1924 and the Royal Family was forced to leave the country of their birth and were stripped of their nationality and their property.

Short of money, Crown Prince Paul first went to Romania, where his sister had married Crown Prince Carol, then to the UK and found a job in the new aeroplane industry. At the British company Armstrong Siddeley in Coventry he became a mechanic apprentice under the name of "Paul Beck" and assembled planes.

Instablility in the Greek republic
Between 1924, when the republic was proclaimed and 1935, when it was finally abolished again Greece was shaken by instability and financial ruin. In little less than ten years, the country had 23 governments, one dictatorship and 13 coups d'État. In the end, the Monarchy was universally seen as the solution. On 10th October 1935 a military putsch deposed the prime minister and the president and the national assembly proclaimed the re-instalment of the Monarchy under the regency of Georgios Kondýlis. King George II insisted on a popular vote and Kondýlis organised a referendum on 3rd November 1935. On 5th November King George agreed to return to Greece. King and Crown Prince arrived in Athens on 25th November.

Wedding of Crown Prince Paul of Greece and Princess Frederika of Hanover.

To secure the dynasty's future Crown Prince Paul married the Princess Frederika of Hanover. He first met his bride in 1927, when she was only ten years old. They met again in 1934 when both attended the wedding of Greek Princess Marina and the Duke of Kent. The young couple married on 9th January 1938. The first child was born on 2nd November 1938: Princess Sophia, today Queen Sofía of Spain, followed on 2nd June 1940 by Prince Constantine, today King Constantine II of the Hellenes, and 11th May 1942 Princess Irene. The latter princess was born in South Africa, where Crown Princess Frederika had found refuge. Between the two births was the Italian attack on Greece and after the Greek troops had defeated the invader, the Germans came to the aid of their allies and occupied the Kingdom of Greece in 1941.

While King George II, Crown Prince Paul and the royal government went to Britain to continue the fight against the invaders, Crown Princess Frederika and her children were invited by South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts to come to his country. They stayed there until March 1944 and then left South African for Egypt. After the German troops were defeated another referendum was held on the Monarchy. On 1st September 1946 69 % of the Greeks said yes to the return of their royal family. On 27th September King George II came back to Greece for a third time only to die suddenly on 1st April 1947.

The reign of King Paul I
The new King and Queen faced a country that was torn apart by civil war. In 1947 they was unable to attend the wedding of his first cousin, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh to Princess Elizabeth as King Paul was suffering from typhoid fever.

By 1949 the Civil War was effectively over, with the Communist insurgents ceasing the majority of their operations, and the task of rebuilding the shattered north of the country began. Between 1948 and 1952 Greece received 376 millions US $ US aid from the Marshall Plan. The country began to stabilise under King Paul in eleven years the country had only two prime ministers, one of them was Konstantin Karamanlis  who after 1974 played such an unfortunate role. But in the 50s the agricultural and mining sectors boomed and the tourism industry flourished. Greece recovered not only economically, but diplomatic and trade links were strengthened as well by the royal couple's state visits abroad. King Paul became the first Greek Monarch to visit Istanbul and Ankara in June 1952. However, links with Britain became strained over Cyprus, where the majority Greek population favoured union with Greece, which Britain, as the colonial power, would not endorse. Eventually, Cyprus became an independent state in 1960.

The monarch's health deteriorated at the end of the 50s. He died during surgery on 6th March 1964 and was buried in a state funeral on 11th March 1964.

Funeral of King Paul on 11th March 1964. At the centre his widow, Queen Frederika, to her right the new king: Constantine II, next to him, Princess Sofía of Spain. From right to left: Prince Juan Carlos, Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark.

Queen Sofía turns 75

Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain celebrates her 75th birthday today. She was born Princess Sophia Margarita Victoria Friederika of Greece and Denmark nearly exactly three years to the day that Greece had voted in a referendum to restore the Monarchy (3rd November 1935). King George II of the Hellenes had returned after 12 years of exile, but he and his Romanian born wife Queen Elisabeta had no children, therefore Princess Sophia’s father Pavlos was Crown Prince of Greece. In 1947 the Crown Prince ascended to the Greek throne as King Pavlos I. When she was born Princess Sophia was second in line to the Greek throne until her brother Konstantinos was born on 2nd June 1940. He succeeded his father in March 1964 as King Constantine II of the Hellenes.

Princess Sophia with her father, King Pavlos, and sister Princess Irene 1948.

The Greek Royal Family was again forced into exile in 1941, when German and Italian troops invaded the Kingdom. In an adventurous escape Crown Princess Friederika and her two children fled first to the island of Crete, then to Egypt and finally to South Africa, where the family stayed until in 1946 another referendum affirmed the Monarchy in Greece.

During the Greek civil war and the years of reconstruction in the 1950s Princess Sophia fulfilled her duties as a member of the Greek Royal Family.

Royal wedding in Athens in May 1962.

On 14th May 1962 she married Prince Juan Carlos of Borbón y Borbón in a colourful ceremony in Athens. The Greek parliament has approved a $300,000 tax-free dowry for Princess Sophie. The bill was passed by a show of hands. Two parties, the Union of the Centre and the Pro-Communist United Democratic left, abstained from the voting. Opposition leaders "denounced the practice of granting dowries and anachronistic and barbarous."

Between 1963 and 1968 the couple had three children: Infanta Elena (* 20th December 1963), Infanta Cristina (* 13th June 1965) and Infant Felipe (* 30th January 1968).

Queen Sofia cuddles a panda bear in the Madrid zoo.

After General Franco’s death Prince Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain and the return of the Monarchy, which had been approved in a referendum in 1947 was completed in November 1975. A new democratic constitution was drawn and accepted by the Spanish people in a referendum. In the difficult years of the renewed the Monarchy as well as democracy and various attempted coups that were tried by adherents of the old regime Queen Sofia was at her husband’s side to encourage and inspire him. On the occasion of his 30th anniversary as King, Don Juan Carlos thanked Queen Sofia "for her constant support, sensitivity and commitment”.

Queen Sofia behind the wheel of the Peugeot iON, a zero-emission electric vehicle with a battery life of 80 miles.

95th birthday of HM Queen Frederica of the Hellenes

The Greek Queen Frederica was born on 18th April 1917 as daughter of Duke Ernest Augustus III of Brunswick and his wife, Duchess Victoria Luise, née Princess of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II and Empress Augusta Viktoria. As daughter of the head of the House of Hanover, she was Princess Frederica of Hanover, Great Britain and Ireland, and also Duchess Frederica of Brunswick-Lüneburg. As a descendant of King George III of the United Kingdom, she was, at birth, 34th in the line of succession to the British throne.


HRH Crown Prince Paul of Greece proposed to her during the summer of 1936, while he was in Berlin attending the 1936 Summer Olympics. Prince Paul was the son of King Constantine I of Greece and Queen Sophie, sister of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Their engagement was announced officially on 28th September 1937. They married in Athens on 9th January 1938. With her marriage Frederica used the title Hereditary Princess (Greek: Πριγκήπισσα Διαδόχου, Prinkēpissa Diadókhou, literally "Princess of the Heir") of Greece, her husband being heir presumptive to his elder brother, King George II of the Hellenes.


During the early part of their marriage, they resided at Villa Psychiko in the suburbs of Athens. Ten months after their marriage, their first child, Princess Sophia (the future Queen Sofia of Spain), was born on 2nd November 1938. On 2nd June 1940, their son and heir, Prince Constantine (the future King Constantine II), was born.

On 28th October 1940 Mussolini's troops attacked Greece, but were defeated by the Royal Greek Army. In April 1941 Hitler came to Mussolini’s rescue and invaded Greece. Crown Princess Frederica and her infant children were evacuated on a British warplane to Crete, where they were repeatedly strafed by the Luftwaffe. Several weeks later, Crete fell, and the Royal Family escaped to Cairo. From there, Crown Prince Paul accompanied King George to London, where a government-in-exile was formed. Crown Princess Frederica and the children spent the next two and a half years in South Africa, where a third child, Princess Irene, was born in 1942.


After the war, the Allies oversaw a plebiscite, and in September 1946, the Royal Family returned to Athens. On 1st September 1946 the Greek people decided by referendum on the Monarchy, which won 69 percent of the vote. King George II returned to the throne for a third time.


On 1st April 1947, King George II died suddenly and Frederica's husband ascended the Greek throne as King Paul I. Civil war was raging with the Communist guerrillas in the North, and that spring the Truman Doctrine had been launched to prevent Greece and Turkey from coming under Communist control. The King and Queen toured Northern Greece under severe security to try to appeal for loyalty in the summer of 1947.



During the civil war, Queen Frederica set the Queen's Camps or Child-cities (translation of: Παιδο(υ)πόλεις / Paidopoleis or Paidupoleis) a network of 53 camps around Greece where she would gather mostly orphans and children of poor families. These camps provided much needed shelter, food, and education to these children.


The Greek Civil War ended in August, 1949. The Sovereigns took this opportunity to strengthen the monarchy. But Queen Frederica has been described as "inherently undemocratic". The reason why the Queen became an often hated figure was because she was involved in Greek politics. However this involvement was often undertaken out of necessity. A closer analysis of Queen Frederica’s actions indicate that she was motivated by a desire to promote democracy and ultimately ensure that the Greek Monarchy became an institution that was above politics.


On 6th March 1964, King Paul died of cancer, and her son ascended the throne as King Constantine II. Queen Frederica assumed the title of queen dowager but continued to serve in the role of Queen. When King Constantine married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark later that year on 18th September, Queen Frederica stepped back from the majority of her public royal duties in favor of the new Queen. She remained a target for vicious attacks. In response she renounced her apanage and retired to the countryside where she lived an almost reclusive life. However, she continued to attend Royal events that were family-oriented, such as the baptisms of her grandchildren in both Spain and Greece.


After King Constantine’s counter-coup to restore democracy failed on 13th December 1967, Queen Frederica left the country with the King, Queen Anne-Marie, the King’s two year old daughter Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, the King’s sister, Princess Irene and Prime Minister Kollias.


Queen Frederica died during a surgery in Madrid on 6th February 1981. Her funeral on 12th February 1981 in the garden of the Royal Estate Tatoi was attended by a multitude of reigning and deposed royalty. This was testament to the high esteem that the late Queen was still held in royal circles. Unfortunately Queen Frederica’s status as an important twentieth century historical figure progressively diminished following her son’s exile and the repudiation of the monarchy in 1974. When King Constantine II and his family were allowed to return to briefly attend Queen Frederica’s funeral at Tatoi, the King’s return was brief and His Majesty was not even allowed to stay overnight. At Athens Airport the King and his family were greeted by cheers from Monarchists behind a wire fence. Poignantly, many of the assembled Monarchists were vexed to the point of crying that their King was not allowed to go over and meet with them.

In February 2006 the Royal Family commemorated the late Queen Frederica at Tatoi.

70th Birthday of the King of the Hellenes

Today His Majesty King Constantine II of the Hellenes Κωνσταντίνος, Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων celebrates his 70th birthday. That this important landmark in his life cannot be celebrated with joy and festivities at home has nothing to do with the Greek financial crisis that cripples the country. The King has been living in exile since the counter-coup to re-establish democracy in Greece, failed that fatal night of 13th December 1967.

The Mad Monarchist stated quite bluntly that “the ruling regime is so hostile to the former royal family and the royals so increasingly removed from the country that it can seem like a lost cause more along the lines of the plight of the Dalai Lama than even the King of Romania in terms of the likelihood of the success of a restoration. However, the Greek monarchists deserve a great deal of credit for fighting the good fight far more frequently and for greater durations than most other monarchists, especially in modern times. It is also important to note that when modern Greece won its independence from the Turks in 1829 it originally went back to the classical period which is so idealized and founded a republic. Monarchists should be quick to point out that this republic did not last long because it proved totally incapable and so a monarchy was established.”

When Prince Constantine of Greece and Denmark was born on 2nd June 1940 to Crown Prince Paul and Crown Princess Frederika (née Prinzessin Friederike von Hannover, Herzogin zu Braunschweig und Lüneburg) Europe was at war. On 28th October the same year the Duce decided to attack the Kingdom of Greece, but the defiant Greeks were able to claim the first great victory that the Allied forces had won against the Axis powers since the beginning of the war. It increased the prestige of King George II of Greece, Crown Prince Paul's brother, who was very active in monitoring the progress of the military campaign against Italy. The Italian troops were driven out of Greece, and the Royal Greek army entered Albania, that had also fallen victim to Italian expansion plans. German dictator Adolf Hitler came to his allies rescue and on 6th April 1941 German troops attacked the Royal Greek Army.

After several weeks of intense fighting, the Greek armed forces were defeated and German troops occupied Athens on 27th April. At that time the King was determined to continue the resistance. He formed a government under Emmanouel Tsouderos (a former opponent of the King’s), who also happened to be from the island of Crete - the place of the latest epic battle between the Greeks and the Germans. On 23rd April King George , Crown Prince Paul, Queen Frederika and their children, Princess Sophia and Prince Constantine and the royal government were evacuate to Crete.

The German invasion of Crete began on 20th May 1941 and by 1st June the last Allied troops had surrendered. King George II, Crown Prince Paul and the Royal Greek government were first evacuated to Egypt, and later went to the United Kingdom to continue their fight for the liberation of Greece. Crown Princess Frederika and her children went to South Africa, where in 1942 the couple's third child, Princess Irene, was born.

After the German defeat the Monarchy was re-affirmed in a referendum in 1946. In the midst of a bloody civil war, King George II died and was succeeded by his brother, who ascended the Greek throne as King Pavlos I. Now Crown Prince Constantine went to the Anavryta School in Athens; graduated of three military academies; was inscribed in the Faculty of Law at the University of Athens; and underwent postgraduate studies in modern European History at Cambridge University. At the Games of the XVII Olympiad in Rome Crown Prince Constantine won an Olympic Gold Medal in 1960 for yachting, becoming the first Greek to do so since 1912.

On 6th March 1964 King Paul died, and his son ascended to the throne as King Constantine II. The US magazine Time illustrated his proclamation:

Last week, as high government officials, the hierarchy of the Greek church, leading judges and Members of Parliament gathered solemnly for a candlelight ceremony at the royal palace, new King Constantine kissed a silver-bound Bible, then took the royal oath. "I succeed my father to the throne with the firm determination to follow his lofty example," Constantine declared. "I pledge to serve my country with wholehearted devotion, and all my powers as a vigilant guardian of the free institutions of the democratic regime. My only thoughts and cares will always be the true and supreme interest of our fatherland." When the vows had been spoken, Premier George Papandreou shouted "Long live the King!" and the assemblage echoed the words. At 23 the world's youngest monarch, Constantine will be tutored in statecraft by the foxy Papandreou,* 76, whose Center Union coalition won a landslide victory over Karamanlis' Conservatives last month. A tall, athletic youth who won an Olympic gold medal in 1960, Constantine can rely for some time on sympathy for his father and the good feeling engendered by his impending marriage next January to Denmark's Princess Anne-Marie to facilitate his task. But ultimately Constantine can calm Greece's latent antimonarchist feelings only by calling, like his father, on the motto of his royal house: "My power is the love of my people."

* Whose own son Andreas, 45, gave up U.S. citizenship and a University of California post as an economics professor to run for election and join his father's Cabinet as chief aide to the Premier.

The following years were full of unrest and unstable governments. For a good account of this period see Wikipedia.

King Constantine’ Counter-Coup:

From the outset, the relationship between King Constantine II and the colonels was an uneasy one. The colonels were not willing to share power with anyone whereas the 25-year old King, like his father before him, was used to playing an active role in politics and would never consent to being a mere figurehead, especially in a military administration.

The King finally decided to launch his counter-coup on 13th December 1967. Since Athens was effectively in the hands of the junta militarily, Constantine decided to fly to the small northern city of Kavala, East of Thessaloniki. There he hoped to be among troops loyal only to him.

The vague plan he and his advisers had conceived was to form a unit that would advance to Thessaloniki (Greece's second biggest city and unofficial capital of northern Greece) and take it. Constantine planned to install an alternative administration there. International recognition, which he believed would be given, as well as internal pressure from the fact that Greece would have been split in two governments would, as the King hoped, force the junta to resign, leaving the field clear for him to return triumphant to Athens.

In the early morning hours of 13th December the King boarded the royal plane together with Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, their two baby children, Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark and Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, his mother [Queen] Friederike and his sister, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark. Constantine also took Premier Kollias with him. At first things seemed to be going according to plan. Constantine was well received in Kavala which, militarily, was under the command of a general loyal to him. The air force and navy, both strongly royalist and almost not involved in the 1967 coup, immediately mobilized. Another of Constantine's generals effectively cut all communication between Athens and the north.

Two referenda, the first under the military junta’s rule in 1973 and another one in 1974 did not bring back the Monarchy. The Greek Royal Family left Rome in 1973 and took residence in the United Kingdom.

King Constantine suffered another blow in 1994, when the Greek parliament, the very same parliament that is directly responsible for Greece's current debt crisis, passed a law to expropriate his property and revoke his citizenship. To this day, he refuses to accept being told that he is not Greek.

The Prime Minister in 1994 was Andreas Papandreou, son of the former Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou, and father of the current Prime Minister... so much for democracy in a republic!
One of the most recent photos: On 16th April 2010 the King and Queen of the Hellenes attended H.M. Queen Margrethe of Denmark's 70 birthday anniversary at the Palace of Fredensborg.

Romania's Crown Princess turned 60

Crown Princess Margarita of Romania celebrated her 60th birthday on 26th March. Her father, King Michael I (in Romanian: Regele Mihai , *25th October 1921) was forced to abdicate on 30th December 1947.

In November 1947 the King attended the wedding of his cousins, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark in London. There he met Princess Anna of Bourbon-Parma. On his return to Bukarest, the Romanian Communists who controlled the country objected the King founding a family and threatened to shoot 1,500 young people whom they had arrested, should he not abdicate. King Michael left Romania on the 3rd January 1948 feeling, as he once said, as if his heart had died. He had signed, under duress, an abdication that he never recognized.

He and Princess Anna were married on the 10th of June 1948 in Athens, at the invitation of King Paul I and Queen Frederica of the Hellenes. The ceremony took place at the Royal Palace of Athens.

Exile in Switzerland
From 1949 until 1950 the royal couple lived in Lausanne, where Princess Margarita, their first child, was born. Princesses Helena and Irina were also born in Switzerland, in 1951 and 1953 respectively. Princess Sophie was born in Athens in 1957 and Princess Marie in Copenhagen in 1964. In 1950 the Romanian Royal Family established itself in England, in Bramshill House in Hampshire and then in Ayot St-Lawrence, in Hertfordshire. There, the King and Queen ran a chicken farm and built a carpentry workshop. In 1955 the Romanian Royal Family settled in Switzerland in 1955.

Crown Princess Margarita spent her teenage years in Switzerland. For her higher education however, rather than heading straight for Paris and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, her preferred destination, she was persuaded to spend a year with her grandmother, Queen Helena of Romania, a cousin of Prince Philip, in Florence.

"She taught me everything I know. Everything I am is thanks to her. She introduced me to people - diplomats, artists, people from the UN who were working in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa." As a result she spent some months working in refugee camps in Ethiopia.

Her years in Scotland
Dreams of art school were, to Queen Helena's relief, quickly replaced by a determination to go to university. A supporter of the Romanian cause offered to pay for her fees and the British consul was summoned.

"We looked through the UCCA handbook and I thought, 'Well, I won't get into Oxford so easily.' I didn't want to go to London because some of my parents' friends were there and I didn't want to get tied down. Scotland seemed so romantic and lovely."

In the early 70s she enrolled at the Edinburgh University. She became a member of the Student Representatives' Council, where she would meet the man who was to share her life for the next five years. Gordon Brown, “a socialist student firebrand” (The Daily telegraph in a long article on that romance) meets the beautiful young Princess. They fall in love. Political principles force them apart. He turns, not into a frog, but into Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. The five-year love affair between Gordon Brown and his Romanian Princess was such that all who knew them in their student days were convinced they would marry.

"She was the one great love of his life," a close friend of Brown's once said. "He has never got over it." The Princess remains friends with Brown and his family.

Crown Princess Margarita, as a great-great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was 81st in line to the British throne at that time and a goddaughter of Prince Philip - something she did not broadcast widely.

Working with the United Nations
After Edinburgh, Crown Princess Margarita specialised in medical sociology. In 1983 she joined the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation, transferring, three years later, to the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Six years later her life took a new course. In Romania, the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had been executed. She decided to accompany her father on his return home.

"Getting on the plane was quite emotional. We didn't know what was going to happen to us," she recalls. "It was so strange to look out of the plane window and see the fields; they were huge." This was the first intimation of Ceausescu's collectivist policies that had destroyed rural communities.

"We stayed for a few days and found that villages had been knocked down and 150,000 children were living in orphanages. Ceausescu had wanted to boost the population. Family planning was forbidden, abortion was forbidden, women were compelled to have four children but they had nowhere to bring them up and had to give them to the state. A lot of children had Aids. It was a shock to the eyes and to the soul."

While she was visiting one orphanage, a child in a filthy cot died in front of her. It spurred her on to establish the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation. "I just didn't want this ever to happen again," she says.

In practical terms, life was "quite difficult; we had nowhere to stay. We didn't have much money. I said to my father, 'I think I had better quit my career and come home.' He said, 'What for?'" Nevertheless, she abandoned her job with the UN and, as the eldest of five daughters, found a role as the family representative in Romania where she began work on her foundation.

Education was one of her first priorities. Romanian doctors, who had not been allowed contact with the West, thought that Aids was spread through the air. Conditions in health centres were, she says, "disgusting. We began to provide training not just for the medical team but for the children in the village about sex education and how to protect yourself from getting Aids."

One of the bodies with which the foundation worked was the Actors' Union, with resting actors providing art therapy for the children. One, who ended up directing an orphanage project, was Radu Duda. His association with Princess Margarita was to prove more than professional and in 1996 the couple married in Lausanne. Created Prince Radu of Hohenzollern-Veringen, he now has an official role with the Romanian government as a trade ambassador.

To make a donation to the Crown Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation, visit http://www.fpmr.ro/


The Crown Princess in her own words

HRH The Crown Princess Margarita of Romania's article for "Leaders" Magazine
Jan. Feb. March 2002, No 1 Vol 25
My country was one with which I was myself unacquainted, though I had grown up in its shadow. As a child I had grown to know it and yearn for it through the eyes and voice of my father, King Michael who was brutally forced by the communists to leave Romania in 1948. But I had never been warmed by its sunshine, never heard the wind in the trees, or felt its earth beneath my feet. My father would tell us stories about this distant land which he called home, and described with such love, longing - and constant pain. I read books about the painted monasteries of Moldavia and Bukovina, about the Danube Delta, we listened to Romanian music, we pored over old photograph albums. Later I read history books and raged at the injustice which had condemned 23 million people to a ruthless dictatorship, to hardship, darkness and hunger, locked behind the impenetrable and seemingly eternal Iron Curtain. The Romanians suffered and I searched for my roots, my history and my identity.

I do not believe that monarchy is the only solution to a country's political ills. But in Romania it remains a fact that the monarchy was removed by a Soviet diktat. And it is equally undeniable that the post-dictatorship transformation in many European states was assisted by historic personalities who either knew how to stabilise critical moments of crises, or project their sheer personality on the events. Does anyone deny that Spain's transformation in the 1970s would have taken a different, and altogether less favourable course if King Juan Carlos, my Father's good cousin, was not there?

My father encouraged me to set up a humanitarian foundation and immediately after that first trip to Romania I launched the work of the Princess Margarita of Romania Foundation with the aim of helping to rebuild Romania - a lifelong task to be accomplished through projects across the country, drawing on people's imagination, aiming to recreate social relations, dignity and hope.

The Foundation is established in Romania, the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, France and Belgium. In the UK it is known as Princess Margarita of Romania Trust. This is a whole network which does fundraising activities for projects in Romania, as well as showing to a large number of people abroad the many faces and images of Romania.

We undertake projects in the areas of health, education, civil society development and culture. We encourage initiatives which develop people's potential to shape their own lives, and which can stimulate the revival of local communities, churches, health and educational establishments, and so help to restore a sense of civic responsibility.

Beneficiaries of the projects have included the elderly poor, hundreds of children in orphanages, children with HIV/AIDS, doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers and high school students, but just as the Foundation's programs provide help to disadvantaged categories we have also encouraged and supported that which is positive, dynamic and creative in Romania: non-governmental organisations working in the field of child protection, talented young artists, and playwrights. For instance we have a program aiming to provide Scholarships to Young Gifted Children in the Arts. Because of the very difficult economic situation in Romania, there is an enormous amount of poverty, and art has become a luxury. Faced with financial hardship, artistically talented children often become disheartened and find it impossible to go on studying, so they abandon what could be a promising career in the arts and do something else for which they do not care. So we are starting a programme of scholarships for high school students so that they can continue their studies in music, visual arts or dance. We are hoping to raise enough money this year to help 30 students, and we aim to increase that amount every year. Maybe some of you might get involved so that people your own age but less fortunate can be helped.


"Freedom and Hope in Romania"
American Women's Club in Geneva, 17th MAY 2001 By HRH Crown Princess Margarita of Romania

The work of the Foundation is based on one fundamental premise: that Romanian society, just as the societies of other East European states, must be recreated from the bottom up. And this can only be achieved through perseverance despite adversity; determination despite obstacles. Our work acts to coordinate and concentrate our operations away from areas now subject to world attention, by directing our efforts towards medium term grass roots pilot projects - in the areas of health, education, civil society development and culture. We encourage initiatives which develop people's potential to shape their own lives, and which can stimulate the revival of local communities, churches, health and educational establishments, and so help to restore a sense of civic responsibility and pride.

Education and capacity building in particular are built into all of our projects to help make a positive and meaningful change which will have an impact well beyond the life of any financial or technical support given by the Foundation and ensure that the programs achieve sustainability in the long-term.

To date beneficiaries of the projects have included many thousands of elderly poor: for instance last year we assisted over 32,000 senior citizens living well below any arbitrary poverty line, some, earn the equivalent of only $16 a month; other beneficiaries are about fifteen hundred institutionalized children and children with HIV/AIDS, healthcare workers and over 1000 high school students a year, but we also encourage and support that which is positive, dynamic and creative in Romania: non-governmental organizations working in the field of child protection, talented young artists, and playwrights.

There is an important issue that is facing Romania, and one that it has to solve, it is the problem of institutionalized children. It is paradoxical, but, in spite of all the changes that have taken place since 1989, there are still thousands of children living in institutions - over 80,000. In addition, there are about 6,000 children who are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. In 1997-1998 the Romanian Government created an Agency for the Protection of Child Rights which has introduced a comprehensive reform policy for the de-institutionalization of children. The Foundation is one important partner NGO that is taking part in the formulation of the national strategy and has continuously provided feedback and shared the experience gathered in our programs.. The Foundation has several programs not only to help improve the quality of the lives of the kids in institutions but to support as a priority efforts to de-institutionalize them as well.
The aim is to close the orphanages.


Succession of King Michael
HM King Michael named, his eldest daughter, HRH Princess Margarita as his successor and Head of the Royal House of Romania and Custodian of the Romanian Crown after his death. The King mentioned: ‘If the Romanian Nation and Parliament were to decide to reinstate the Monarchy as the form of government’ the King will ask the Parliament ‘to cease to implement the Salic-law as the form of succession, which does not correspond either to the elementary rights in Europe today, or to the values of Romanian society’. A notable proportion of the Romanian population believes that a monarchy would bring the much-needed political stability to their country. Details on the reformed Romanian succession here.

The new Line of Succession to the Throne and to the Headship of the Royal House of Romania was decided by HM King Michael, in keeping with duty to History and to the heirs of the Family:

1. HRH Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Custodian of the Crown of Romania
2. HRH Princess Helena of Romania
3. Nicholas de Roumanie Medforth Mills (who shall become HRH Prince Nicholas of Romania on 1st April 2010 – according to the Document of the Head of the Royal House, 5th January 2005)
4. Elisabeta Karina de Roumanie
5. HRH Princess Irina of Romania
6. Michael de Roumanie Kreuger
7. Angelica de Roumanie Kreuger
8. HRH Princess Sophie of Romania
9. Elisabeta Marie Biarneix
10. HRH Princess Marie of Romania

Nicholas de Roumanie Medforth Mills will assume the title, style and rank when upon his 25th anniversary or immediately the demise of the current Head of the Royal House and at that time he will enter in the order of succession to the Throne.

70th Birthday of Queen Sofía of Spain

On 2nd November Queen Sofía of Spain celebrates her 70th birthday. She was born Princess Margarita Victoria Friederika of Greece and Denmark almost exactly three years to the day after Greece had voted in a referendum to restore the Monarchy (3rd November 1935).
King George II of the Hellenes had returned after 12 years in exile, but he and his Romanian born wife Queen Elisabeth had no children, therefore Princess Sophia’s father was Crown Prince of Greece. In 1947 he ascended to the Greek throne as King Pavlos I. When she was born in 1938 Princess Sophia was second in line to the Greek throne until the birth of her brother Konstantinos on 2nd June 1940. He succeeded his father in March 1964 as King Constantine II of the Hellenes.



Drawing of the young Princess Sophia for Admiral Stavridis

The Greek Royal Family was again forced into exile in 1941, when German and Italian troops invaded the Kingdom. The Royal Greek Army fought bravely against the powerful enemies, but they could not prevent the occupation. In an adventurous escape Crown Princess Frederika and her two children fled first to the island of Crete, then to Egypt and finally to South Africa, where the family stayed until in 1946 another referendum affirmed the Monarchy in Greece.

Princess Sophia with Greek peasants

During the Greek civil war and the years of reconstruction in the 1950s Princess Sophia fulfilled her duties as a member of the Greek Royal Family.





















King Pavlos and his son, Crown Prince Konstantinos, held the crowns above the heads of the royal couple during the wedding ceremony in Athens.

On 14th May 1962 she married Prince Juan Carlos of Borbón y Borbón in a colourful ceremony in Athens. Between 1963 and 1968 the couple had three children: Infanta Elena (* 20th December 1963), Infanta Cristina (* 13th June 1965) and the heir to the Spanish throne, Infant Felipe (* 30th January 1968).

After General Franco’s death Prince Juan Carlos was proclaimed King of Spain and the return of the Monarchy, which had been approved in a referendum in 1947, was completed in November 1975. A new democratic constitution was drawn up and accepted by the Spanish people in a referendum. In the difficult years of the renewed Monarchy as well as democracy and with various attempted coups by adherents of the old regime Queen Sofía was at her husband’s side to encourage and inspire him.

When celebrating his 30th anniversary on the Spanish throne, King Juan Carlos thanked Queen Sofía "for her constant support, sensitivity and commitment”.

On her 70th Birthday, the huge majority of the Spanish people [plus myself] will cherish their Queen and wish her a long life at the side of her husband, King Juan Carlos I.