Why is greece monarchy abolished

For a time they traveled on passports issued by the Spanish government, which listed the king's name as "Constantino de Grecia. King Constantine" and "H.

Queen Anne-Marie. The first time they ventured back to Greece after burying Queen Frederica was in , when they flew into Thessaloniki, boarded a friend's yacht, and sailed down the Aegean to the wealthy Porto Heli area.

Constantine remembered being "followed all the way by navy vessels, as if we were an invading force. As the summer Olympics in Athens approached, everyone knew that the ex-king would be coming to Greece as an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.

I wasn't going to have any of that. So I came back to Greece in —the year before the Olympics. Everyone was taken by surprise. When Constantine and Anne-Marie landed in Athens, "it was clear nobody realized we were on the plane. We showed the passports and suddenly they said, 'The king is in the VIP lounge! Then I called the Greek ambassador back in London and said, 'Tell the government the king is back in Greece, and here is my itinerary.

I'm going to Tatoi to have a memorial service for my parents, and then I'm going to the Pentelikon Hotel to spend the night.

I will leave the next morning. After the first surprise visit, the king and his family came back more often, without the excitement. But his arrival in Greece as a representative of the Olympics in the summer of was filled with irony and drew unexpected support from all points on the political spectrum. President, do you do rousfetia [favors]?

That visit to what had once been the royal palace in Athens, now the presidential palace, occurred on December 24, Everything else—every room—is an office.

I asked him, 'How many people work here? I had So are the president's telephones, heating, cars, drivers, clothes, state visits—all paid for by the state. For us it was the complete opposite. We were paid X amount—I think it was 7 million drachmas— and I paid for my own education with an inheritance, because my father was running out of money. Part of the excuse against me was that royalty costs too much. But royalty costs so much less!

Today we have, I don't know, three or four former heads of state. All of them have pensions, and so do all their police, security, drivers, and secretaries. Through all the vicissitudes Constantine has endured over the years, the one foundation that has provided him with a sense of security is the friendship of the 14 men who, years ago, were chosen to be his fourth-grade classmates in the newly created Anavryta School. The boys had been selected through tests of their intelligence and chosen to represent all classes of Greek society.

They had only alternate weekends free to go home, and if their parents could not afford the boarding fees, they were given full scholarships. Of the 14 in the first class, 13 are still alive.

All did well. Five became university professors, four in medicine [including Anagnostopoulos, a clinical professor of surgery at the Columbia University Medical Center, in New York] and one in nuclear physics. The others became successful businessmen. Tales of Constantine's loyalty and kindness to his former classmates abound. Constantine is happiest when he's there. He has never thought of any other place as home.

Back in , Constantine told Larry King that the only good thing about living in exile was that he had "much more time to see my children grow up.

His youngest son, Philippos, 29, works in finance in New York, and his youngest daughter, Theodora, 31, is an actress in Hollywood as Theodora Greece. Nikolaos, 45, is married to Tatiana Blatnik and lives in Kastri, Greece, in an apartment owned by the daughter of the king's late nemesis, Papandreou. Eldest son Pavlos, 48, married Marie-Chantal Miller, whose billionaire father, Robert Warren Miller, developed duty-free shops at airports; they live with their five children in London.

The eldest, Alexia, 50, is married to an architect, Carlos Morales Quintana, and they live with their four children in Spain. He's everything: a rower, a diver, a scholar. We are very lucky with our grandchildren.

Seven years ago, at the age of 68, Constantine underwent heart surgery in London—a reminder of his mortality that undoubtedly fueled his desire to move home full-time. When he's in Greece he lives in Porto Heli, the seaside town he visited years ago followed by the Greek navy. According to Costas Strongylos, Constantine financed the purchase of the house by "selling his London properties for a good profit.

He also made money in business deals in the Middle East. The result is a lavish if less than royal life that does feature his other great love: the sea. Near the end of our interviews, Constantine finally offered his reasons for returning. It's in the blood.

Funnily enough, the one pushing hardest was my wife. I think she realized I would be happy only when I came back home. But why, when so many others have chosen to flee, has he gone in the other direction and thrown in his lot—and his own still considerable resources—with the country that revoked his birth- right?

Why return to his homeland when it has been reduced to economic chaos? In a way, his reasons for returning reflect his attitude about the future of his troubled country. History presents ample evidence of the resiliency of the Greeks. But the Greeks are a tough people who not only know how to enjoy life but how to endure hardship. We suffered centuries of subjugation under the Ottoman Turks, a brutal Nazi occupation, and a devastating civil war, but we bounced back to create a beautiful land to call home.

Everyone must take great care not to allow our glorious country to fall into the kind of national division that brought so much misery in the past. I have faith that Greeks will face our current troubles with patience and resolve and that we will prevail.

During our conversation Constantine confided that he has already decided where he will be buried: the royal cemetery on the grounds of Tatoi. Facing toward the sea It's an appropriate place to spend eternity—overlooking what has drawn Greeks homeward since Odysseus made his way back to Ithaka. Like Homer's legendary hero, the former king has returned with no title to find a palace crumbling into ruins, but he considers himself fortunate to be back on his native ground, in life and in death.

As the poet C. Cavafy wrote about Odysseus's long search for home:. Arriving there is what you are. Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't. Wise as you will have become,. You will have understood by then. The Scene. Type keyword s to search. The monarchy was then formally abolished in King Louis and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were imprisoned and eventually executed by guillotine.

Manuel II was the last king of Portugal , ruling from until the country became a republic in He unexpectedly became king at age 18 after his father and older brother were assassinated in Lisbon. Manuel then fled to London in when the revolution broke out. Some descendants of the Portuguese royal family remain, such as Dom Duarte, Duke of Braganza , but they are regarded by the government as representatives of the monarchy with no actual power.

Czar Nicholas II, who had ruled Russia since , was forced to abdicate in amid strikes and protests in Petrograd now St. Known as the February Revolution , the movement brought an end to years of the Romanov dynasty's rule in Russia.

Nicholas, who was first cousins with Britain's King George V, was held in captivity with his family until they were killed by Bolshevik forces in Wilhelm II became kaiser after the death of his father in A series of public blunders and misplaced spending during World War I led to his abdication in , which was announced before he'd actually agreed to it.

He lived out the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands. Greece was first declared a republic in by the Greek National Assembly. King George II went into exile until , when the Populist party rose to power in the Assembly and reinstated the monarchy. It was abolished for good under a military regime that declared a republic for a second time in A government election was held the following year.

Constantine II was the last king of Greece, ruling from to He was exiled and moved to London, but in , it was reported that the king and his wife had returned to Athens because of soaring London property prices — and because he was homesick. During his reign, he enabled Benito Mussolini's fascist regime and legalized the persecution of Jews. After Italy voted to become a republic in , Victor Emmanuel left the country and lived in exile in Egypt until his death in Romania became a constitutional monarchy in , and the monarchy was dissolved altogether in when communists came to power.

King Michael I, the last king of Romania and a distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth, lived out the rest of his life in Geneva. His grandchildren remain subjects of public interest. Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the last king of Bulgaria. A communist coup in led to the abolishment of the monarchy in After living in exile in Madrid, he returned to Bulgaria in , formed his own political party, and was elected prime minister.