Royal Turmoil In Greece

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32358, 25 July 1970, Page 5

Royal Turmoil In Greece

(By KENNETH ANTHONY) All the recent adventures of King Constantine of Greece are a reminder of the stormy history of the Greek monarchy. And when the young King left Greece and flew to Italy after his brief and unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the military dictatorship, stamp collectors could turn their album leaves to recall his ancestor of the same name. For this earlier Constantine

had the strange distinction of having been forced to abdicate twice in less than six years. He succeeded to the throne in 1913 after King George I was assassinated. It was an unhappy beginning to an unhappy reign. Constantine I was married to the sister of the German Kaiser, and, when the .First World War broke out, be kept Greece ostensibly neutral but increasingly showed his sympathy with Germany. The result was a revolution. Constantine was deposed, Venizelos headed a new government, and Greece entered the war on the side of the Allies. A plebiscite was held in December, 1920, which returned Constantine to the throne. He then led the nation into a disastrous war with Turkey. In September, 1922, he was compelled to abdicate for the second and last time. In the following year, he died in exile. Twice Greece has been a republic in the last 50 years,

staJp STORY

twice the monarchy has been restored. There have been four years of German occupation and a civil war. So it says something for the resilience of the Greek royal family to find that the present dynasty goes back more than 100 years. To mark the centenary, some handsome stamps were issued in 1963 in the design illustrated. The twice-deposed Constantine is portrayed in the top left corner; King Paul, the present king’s father, is seen top right In the centre is the portrait of the founder of the dynasty. King George I. He was a Danish prince who was originally recommended for the job by the British Government in 1863. In little more than 30 years of independence, two kings had already been driven out of the country by revolutions, so few could have forecast then that his reign would last almost 50 years. The other two kings are Alexander (lower left), who replaced Constantine I between 1917 and 1920, and George 11, who was ousted in 1923 and returned in 1935. He led an heroic defence against the Nazis before going into exile for the second time, and returned again after the W These Greek kings have certainly led eventful lives, and the story of their comings and goings can be symbolised by a collection of Greek sUrnps.