Greek Crown Jewels

The Greek crown jewels

When Otto of Bavaria became the first King of Greece in 1832 when the great European powers forced the militarily chastened Ottoman Empire to formally accept its independence, he brought with him from Bavaria some of his ancestral Wittelsbach dynasty crown jewels: a crown, orb and sceptre which he declared to be the Crown Jewels of Greece. However, when he was overthrown in a coup in 1862 and fled, he took "his" jewels back with him to Bavaria.

In 1959, Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria presented the Greek Crown Jewels (also called the Greek Regalia) back to King Paul of Greece. Greek monarchs since Otto had not been crowned. Nevertheless the Crown Jewels of Otto were accepted and remain in Greece.

References

• The Greek Royal Regalia
• John Van der Kiste, Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings 1863-1974 (Sutton Publishing, 1994).