Kingdom of Greece
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kingdom of Greece (Greek: Βασίλειον της Ελλάδος) was the name of the Greek state established by the Great Powers (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, July Monarchy France and the Russian Empire) in 1832.
[edit] House of Wittelsbach
At the end of the Greek War of Independence, Greece became independent from the Ottoman Empire with Ioannis Capodistrias as the first head of state. Capodistria was assassinated before the new regime was able to attain formal international recognition. At the London Conference of 1832, Great Britain, France and Russia (the Great Powers at the time) offered the Greek throne to the 17-year-old Bavarian Prince Otto of the ruling House of Wittelsbach, who became the first King of Greece. Otto was a minor when he arrived in Greece and thus a Council of Regents ruled in his name until 1835. In 1835, Otto began a period of absolute monarchy in which he selected an advisor (usually Bavarian) to serve as the President of the Council of State. At times, he himself was his own chief councillor. After an uprising on September 3, 1843, Otto was forced to grant Greece a constitution, and he was a constitutional monarch until he was deposed in 1863.
[edit] House of Oldenburg-Glücksburg
After King Otto was deposed in 1863, 17-year-old Prince William of Denmark was elected to the throne as a constitutional monarch, known as George I. He reigned for 50 years, and his tenure is remembered for expanding the boundaries of Greece (upon his accession to the crown, Britain ceded the Ionian Islands to Greece), its economic progress and the acceptance of the concept that the government should be headed up by the leader of the party that received the most votes in the previous election, not whichever minister was most favored by the king. Nevertheless, King George I was quite politically active. He was assassinated in 1913 in Thessaloniki, which had recently been annexed to Greece.
He was succeeded by his son, King Constantine I, who had distinguished himself as a military leader in Greece's drive to add territory to her demesne. He was educated in Germany, and married the daughter of the Kaiser, and consequently, he sought to keep Greece neutral in the First World War. The Entente Powers backed Eleftherios Venizelos and ultimately Greece joined the Entente and King Constantine was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Alexander in 1917. Greece was rewarded for her support of the winning side in the war with territories in Asia Minor including Smyrna. King Alexander died in 1920 from a monkey bite and his father returned as king. After the disastrous Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), King Constantine was deposed again and he died in exile in Sicily.
King Constantine was now succeeded by his eldest son, King George II, who left the country in 1924 when a Republic was declared. In 1935, he was invited to return to Greece as king and he remained until the German invasion of Greece in 1941. He returned to Greece in 1944 and reigned until his death in 1947. On account of his many exiles, he is said to have remarked that "the most important tool for a King of Greece is a suitcase."
King George was followed by his last brother, King Paul who reigned from 1947 until his death in 1964. His son, King Constantine II was king until he was exiled by a military junta in 1967. In 1974, after the downfall of the junta during the period of metapolitefsi, a referendum was held on the monarchy and by a vote of approximately 2-1, Greeks abolished the monarchy and established the third Hellenic Republic.
