Everything about Constantine I Of Greece totally explained
Constantine I, King of the Hellenes (;
2 August 1868 -
11 January 1923) ruled
Greece from
1913 to
1917 and from
1920 to
1922.
Early life
Born
2 August 1868 in
Athens, he was the eldest son of
George I of Greece (born Prince Vilhelm of Denmark) and
Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia.
As
Crown Prince, Constantine was instrumental in the organization of the
1896 Summer Olympics, appointing a committee to prepare Athens for the Games and keeping a close watch to ensure that their tasks were completed.
Prior to the start of
World War I in
1914, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Greek Army during the unsuccessful
Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful
Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 in which Greece captured
Salonika. He succeeded to the throne of Greece on
18 March 1913 following his father's assassination in
Salonica by
Alexander Schinas, Greek anarchist (born in
Volos, Greece
1870).
Educated at
Heidelberg University in
Germany, trained in the
Prussian army, and married to
Kaiser Wilhelm II's sister,
Princess Sophie of Prussia, (in
1889), ensured Constantine's sympathies lay more towards the
Central Powers than to the
Triple Entente once war broke out.
Ascension of throne and World War I
Constantine was faced with the difficulty of determining, officially, where Greece's support lay once war was under way. This was complicated by the fact that his government, led by
Eleftherios Venizelos, was pro-
Allied and the fact that the
Entente Powers were the dominant naval power in the
Mediterranean.
Constantine's sympathies emerged during the Allies' disastrous
Battle of Gallipoli. Despite popular support of Venizelos amongst the people and his clear majority in Parliament, Constantine disagreed with Venizelos's increasing support for the Allies. In October 1915, Venizelos resigned as
Prime Minister after the two of them had argued over the shape of future policy. In his place Constantine appointed
Alexandros Zaimis at the head of a short-lived coalition government.
In July 1916 arsonists set fire to the forest surrounding the royal palaces at Tatoi. Although injured in the escape, the King and his family managed to find refuge. The flames spread quickly in the dry summer heat, and sixteen people were killed.
The Allied Commander in Greece, French General
Maurice Sarrail, was extremely high-handed and disdainful of King Constantine. By threats and intimidation he forced the Greeks to demobilize their army (in mid-1916) and then forced them to remove all their troops to the south of the country in early 1917. Venizelos went to
Thessalonica where, with the support of General Sarrail, he established a provisional revolutionary government. With
civil war apparently imminent, Constantine sought from Germany firm promises of naval, military and economic assistance - without success.
Early in 1917, General Sarrail ordered the Greek army to move to the south of the country. He also ordered the Greek fleet to join the Allies and finally, Sarrail ordered the Greek government to adopt a more friendly attitude towards the Allies. In the face of the large Allied army in Greece, King Constantine abdicated the throne in favour of his second son
Alexander. The Allied Powers were opposed to Constantine’s first son, George, becoming King as he'd served in the German army before the war and was identified with his father’s pro-Central policies. Constantine left Greece for exile in
Switzerland on
11 June 1917. General Sarrail was himself removed in November of 1917 and replaced by a more diplomatic French General. Civil war in Greece was avoided.
Return to Greece and second exile
King Alexander died
25 October 1920 and the following month Venizelos suffered a massive defeat in a general election. Following a
plebiscite, in which nearly 99% of votes were cast in favor of his return, Constantine returned as king on
19 December 1920.
Within two years his popularity was lost. The
Greco-Turkish War of 1920-1922 proved disastrous for the Greeks, as the
Turks regained their former territory in
Anatolia and
Smyrna. He abdicated the throne again on
27 September 1922 and was succeeded by his eldest son,
George II.
He spent the rest of his life in exile in
Italy and died in
1923 at
Palermo,
Sicily.
Marriage and issue
Constantine and Sophie married on
October 27,
1889 in
Athens. They had six children:
Ancestors
Further Information
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