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VIVA – The former and last king of Greece, Constantine passed away at the age of 82. He won an Olympic gold medal before becoming entangled in his country's turbulent politics in the 1960s as king and spending decades in exile.
Doctors at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to the Associated Press that Constatine who also became a godfather to Prince William died Tuesday, January 10, 2023.
Earlier, when he ascended the throne as Constantine II in 1964 at the age of 23, and as a young monarch, he had achieved glory as an Olympic gold medalist in sailing and became very popular at the time.
By the following year, he had squandered much of that support with his active involvement in the machinations that brought down the elected Central Unity government of prime minister George Papandreou.
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The episode involving the defection from the ruling party of some members of parliament, still widely known in Greece as the 'apostasy', destabilized the constitutional order and led to a military coup in 1967 in the country. Constantine eventually fell out with the military rulers and was forced into exile.
The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973, while a referendum after democracy was restored in 1974 dashed hopes that Constantine would rule again.
As quoted from AP, Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Constantine was born June 2, 1940, in Athens, to Prince Paul, younger brother of King George II heir to the throne, and daughter Frederica of Hanover.
Her older sister Sophia was the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. Greek-born Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the late Queen Elizabeth II, is an uncle.
The family, had ruled in Greece from 1863 apart from a 12-year republican break between 1922-1935. He was descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark, of the Danish branch of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Dynasty, which was the ruling family.
