Steph Deschamps / January 12, 2023
Former King Constantine II, who briefly ruled Greece in the 1960s, died in Athens on Tuesday at the age of 82, Greek public broadcaster ERT announced.
The former sovereign "died (...) of a stroke," ERT announced. He had been hospitalized in Athens last week, also suffering from respiratory problems, according to some Greek media.
A descendant of the royal family of Schleswig-Holstein-Glücksburg, Constantine was the cousin of the British monarch Charles III and the godfather of his son William. He was also the brother of Sofia, the mother of King Felipe VI of Spain.
The monarchy in Greece was abolished by referendum in 1974, ending the Danish dynasty established in 1863 by Constantine II's great-grandfather, George I.
Constantine II came to the throne at the age of 23 in 1964, one of the most turbulent periods in contemporary Greek history.
The political crises that followed provided fertile ground for the colonels' coup d'état in April 1967 and the seven-year rule of the junta, which the CIA was accused of supporting.
According to U.S. diplomatic documents later disclosed, Constantine had also tried to impose martial law in 1967 to prevent the return of George Papandreou or his socialist son Andreas, who was elected prime minister 15 years later.
He left Greece in 1968 and lived in London for forty years, before returning to his country in 2013.
Married to Anne-Marie, sister of Queen Margareth II of Denmark, he left five children.