Constantine

Constantine

Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, who won an Olympic gold medal before becoming entangled in his country’s volatile politics in the 1960s as king and spent decades in exile, has died at the age of 82.

He was born on 2 June 1940 in Athens to Princess Frederica of Hanover and Prince Paul, younger brother of King George II and heir presumptive to the throne. He was also a cousin of British monarch King Charles III.

The family, which had ruled in Greece from 1863 – apart from a 12-year republican interlude between 1922 and 1935 – was descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark.

In 1960, aged 20, he and two other Greek sailors won a gold medal in the Dragon Class – now no longer an Olympic class – at the Rome Olympics. When he acceded to the throne as Constantine II in 1964 at the age of 23, the youthful monarch was hugely popular.

While still a prince, Constantine was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee and became an honorary member for life in 1974.

When the dictatorship collapsed in July 1974, Constantine was eager to return to Greece but was advised against it by veteran politician Constantine Karamanlis, who returned from exile to head a civilian government.

To his final days, Constantine, while accepting that Greece was now a republic, continued to style himself King of Greece even though Greece no longer recognised titles of nobility.

For most of his years in exile, he lived in London.

It took Constantine 14 years to return to his country, briefly, to bury his mother, Queen Frederica in 1981, but he eventually moved back permanently.

He is survived by his wife, the former Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, five children, and nine
grandchildren.