George I of Greece
George I (Greek: Γεώργιος A') (December 24, 1845 – March 18, 1913) was King of the Hellenes (Greece) from 1863 to 1913.
Biographical
He was born in Copenhagen, the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark and Louise of Hesse. Until his accession in Greece, he was known as Prince Vilhelm (namesake of his paternal and maternal grandfathers, "William" in English). He was brother to Alexandra of Denmark (Queen consort of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom) and Maria Fyodorovna, consort of Alexander III of Russia. He began his career in the Danish navy, and was elected King of the Hellenes on March 30, 1863 following the deposition of King Otto. Ironically, he ascended a royal throne before his father.
Like almost all European royals of his day, George descended from several Greek monarchs.
Another Candidate for the Crown
George was not the first choice of the Greek people. Upon the overthrow of Otto, the Greek people had rejected his brother Leopold while adhering to the concept of a monarchy. Many Greeks seeking closer ties to the preeminent world power, Great Britain rallied around Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred. British Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston believed that the Greeks were "panting for increase in territory," 1 hoping for a gift of the Ionian Islands. The 1830 Treaty of London prohibited the Great Powers' ruling families from accepting, and, in any event, Queen Victoria was adamantly opposed. The Greeks nevertheless insisted on holding a plebescite in which over 90% of the votes went for Prince Alfred. King Otto received one vote. 2
Eventually the Greeks and Great Powers winnowed their choice to Prince William of Denmark. There were two significant differences from the elevation of his predecessor: he was elected unanimously by the Greek Assembly, rather than imposed on the people by foreign powers and he was proclaimed 'King of the Hellenes' instead of King of Greece.
At his enthronement in Copenhagen attended by a delegation of Greeks led by First Admiral and Prime Minister Kanaris it was announced that the British government would cede the Ionian Islands to Greece in honor of the reign of the new monarch.
Early Reign (1864-1870)
The new king determined not make the mistakes of his predecessor, so the 17 years old monarch quickly learned Greek in addition to his native Danish. He adopted the motto, " My strength is the love of my people." The new king was seen frequently and informally in the streets of Athens, where his predecessor had only appeared in pomp. King George found the palace in a state of disarray after the hasty departure of King Otto and took to putting it right and updating the 40 year old building. He also sought to ensure that he was not seen as too influenced by his Danish advisers, ultimately sending his uncle Julius of Glucksburg back to Denmark.
Politically, the new king took steps to bring the protracted constitutional deliberations of the Assembly to conclusion and ultimately threatened to return to Denmark if they did not. On November 28, 1864 he was able to take the oath to defend the new Constitution which created a unicameral Assembly (Vouli) with representatives elected by direct, secret, universal male sufferage, a first in modern Europe. King George was scrupulous in adhering to the phrase that the "sovreign reigns but does not rule," always deferring to the legitimate authority of the elected officials but not unaware of the corruption present in elections, and the difficulty of ruling a mostly illiterate population. Between 1864 and 1880 there were nine general elections and 31 governments.
Maintaining a strong relationship with his brother-in-law, the Prince of Wales, King George sought his help in defusing the recurring issue of Crete, an overwhelmingly Greek island which remained under Ottoman control. Since the reign of Otto, this had been a sore spot with Great Britain, France and Russia, which had embarrassed Otto by blockading the main port Piraeus to dissuade Greek irredentism. When the Cretans rose in rebellion in 1866, the Prince of Wales sought the Foreign Secretary Lord Stanley's support in intervening in Crete on behalf of Greece. Ultimately, the Great Powers did not intervene and the Ottomans put down the rebellion.
Establishing a Dynasty
During a trip to Russia to meet with his sister Maria Fyodorovna (consort to Alexander III of Russia) he met Olga Konstantinovna of Russia (1851-1926, a direct matrilineal descendant of Empress Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera), a Grand Duchess of Russia, cousin of the Tsar, and fell in love. They married in 1867.
Together they had eight children:
- Constantine (1868-1923), who succeeded his father as king.
- George (1869-1957), High Commissioner of Crete.
- Alexandra (1870-1891), married Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (son of Alexander II of Russia). Mother of Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov, assassin of Grigori Rasputin.
- Nicholas (1872-1938), father of Princess Olga of Greece and Denmark and Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent.
- Marie (1876-1940), married first Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia and second Perikles Joannidis.
- Olga (1881, died when three months old)
- Andrew (1882-1944), father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
- Christopher (1888-1940), father of Prince Michael of Greece.
When alone with his wife, he usually conversed in German. Their children were taught English by their nannies, and when talking with his children he therefore spoke mainly English. Intent on not letting his subjects know of his missing his native land, he discreetly maintained a dairy at his palace at Tatoi, which was managed by his former countrymen from Denmark as a bucolic reminder of his homeland. Queen Olga was far less careful in her expression of apostasy from her native Russia, often visiting Russian ships at anchor in Piraeus two or three times before they weighed anchor.
The king was related by marriage to the rulers of Great Britain, Russia and Prussia, maintaining a particularly strong attachment to the the Prince and Princess of Wales, who visited Athens in 1869. These relationships would assist the king and his small country but also often put them at the center of national political struggles in Europe.
Territorial Expansion (1870-1880)
Throughout the 1870s Greece kept pressure on the Ottoman Empire seeking territorial expansion into Epirus and Thessaly. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 provided the first potential alliance for the Greek kingdom. His sister Dagmar was the daughter-in-law of the Russian Tsar and she sought to have Greece join the war. The French and British refused to countenance such an act, and Greece remained neutral. At the Congress of Berlin convened in 1878 to determine peace terms for the Russo-Turkish War, Greece was awarded minor territorial gains in Epirus and Thessaly, including the towns of Ioannina and Larissa.
The borders still were not finalized in June,1880 when a proposal very favorable to Greece which included Mount Olympus was offered by the British. When the Ottoman Turks strenuously objected, Prime Minster Charilaos Trikoupis made the mistake of threatening a mobilization of the Greek Army. This caused a backlash by the irritated Great Powers who subsequently granted Greece all of Thessaly but only the part of Epirus around Arta. When the government of Trikoupis fell, the new Prime Minister, Alexandros Koumoundouros reluctantly accepted the new boundaries.
While Trikoupis learned a valuable lesson about the viccisitudes of the Great Powers, his main opponents, the National Party led by Theodoros Deliyannis, sought to inflame the Greeks against the Turks at every opportunity. The next opportunity arose when in 1885 Bulgarians rose in revolt of their Turkish overlords and declared themselves independent. Deliyannis rode to victory over Trikoupis in elections that year saying that if the Bulgarians could defy the Treaty of Berlin, so should the Greeks. Deliyannis mobilized the Greek Army and the British Royal Navy blockaded Greece. Ironically, the Admiral in charge of the blockade was Prince Alfred who had been the first choice of the Greeks to be their king in 1863. This was not the last time that King George would discover that his family ties would not always be to his advantage.
National Progress (1880-1900)
Greece in the last decades of the 19th Century was increasingly prosperous and developing a sense of its role on the European stage. In 1893 the Corinth Canal was built by a French company cutting the sea journey from the Adriatic to Piraeus by 150 miles. In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens and the Opening Ceremony presided over by the King. When Spiros Louy a shepherd from just outside Athens ran into the Panathinaiko Stadium to win the Marathon event, the Crown Prince ran down onto the field to run the last thousand yards beside the Greek gold medalist. While the King stood and applauded. Reportedly, the King offered Louy any gift he wanted and Louy aksed for and received a donkey-drawn carriage to help his water delivery business.
The popular desire to unite all Greeks within the territory of their kingdom was never far below the surface and another revolt against Turkish rule in Crete erupted in January, 1897. King George sent his son, Prince George to take possession of Crete. The Great Powers refused and on February 25, 1897 announced that Crete would be under an autonomous administration and ordered the Greeks and Ottoman Turks to withdraw. The Turks agreed, but Prime Minister Deliyannis refused and dispatched 1500 volunteers to Crete. When the Great Powers announced a blockade of Greek ports, Greek troops crossed the Macedonian border and the Sultan declared war. Announcement that Greece was finally at war with Turks was greeted by delirious displays of patriotism and spontaneous parades in honor of the king in Athens. Volunteers by the thousands streamed north to join the forces under the command of Crown Prince Constantine.
The war went badly for the ill-prepared Greeks, the only saving grace being the swiftness with which the Greek Army was overrun. By the end of April, 1897 the war was lost. The worst consequences of defeat for the Greeks was mitigated by the intervention of the king's relatives in Britain and in Russia; nevertheless, the Greeks were forced to give up Crete to independent administration, and agree to minor territorial concessions in favor of the Turks and an idemnity of £4,000,000.
The jubiliation with which Greeks had hailed their king at the beginning of the war was reversed in defeat. It was not until the king faced down an assassination attempt in February, 1898 with great bravado that his subjects again held their monarch in high esteem.
When yet another uprising threatened the Turkish control of Crete, the Great Powers proposed making Prince George Governor-General of Crete under the suzerainty of the Sultan, thus effectively putting Greece in day-to-day control of Crete for the first time.
Later Reign (1900-1913)
The death of Britain's Queen Victoria in 1901, left King George as the second-longest reigning monarch in Europe. His always-cordial relations with the new King Edward VII continued to tie Greece to Britain. This was abundantly important in Britain's support of the King's son, George as Governor-General of Crete. A leader in the Cretan Assembly, Eleftherios Venizelos supported union of Crete and Greece. This was accomplished in 1908 by resolution of the Cretan Assembly over the objections of the Great Powers. The state of affairs in Athens was quite unsettled as a group of military officers formed a military league that demanded that the Royal family be stripped of their military commissions. To save the king the embarrassment of removing his sons from their commissions, they resigned them. Eventually, the military league attempted a coup d'etat and the king insisted on supporting the duly elected parliament. Later, the military league joined forces with Venizelos in calling for a National Assembly to revise the constitution. In time, Crown Prince Constantine was reinstated as Commander-in-Chief and Venizelos became Prime Minister.
Venizelos and the King were united in their belief that the nation required a strong army to avenge the defeat of 1897. Under the close training and equipping of Crown Prince Constantine, the army was improved. Meanwhile, through diplomatic means Venizelos had united the Christian countries of the Balkans in opposition to the ailing Ottoman Empire.
On October 8, 1912 Montenegro declared war on Turkey followed quickly, after ultimata, by Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece in what was known as the First Balkan War. This campaign was the polar opposite of 1897. The well-trained Greek forces, 120,000 strong, won victory after victory. In November, 1912, Salonika fell to the Greek Army. Followed by the Crown Prince and Venizelos in a parade a few days later, King George rode in triumph through the streets of the second largest Greek city. Just as he did in Athens, the King went about Salonika without any meaningful protection force. While out on a walk on afternoon near the White Tower, he was shot in the back and killed by madman Alexander Schinas. Schinas was thought to be a deranged individual and committed suicide while in custody.
For three days the coffin of the King draped in Danish and Greek flags lay in the Metropolis in Athens before his body was committed to the tomb at his palace in Tatoi.
Notes and references
- van der Kiste, John; Kings of the Hellenes; Sutton Publishing, 1994; ISBN 0750921471
- IBID.
| Styles of King George I of the Hellenes |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Reference style | His Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Sir |
| Preceded by: Otto |
King of the Hellenes 30 March 1863 – 18 March 1913 |
Succeeded by: Constantine I |
