Greek Crown Jewels
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When Otto of Bavaria became the first King of Greece in 1832 when the great European powers forced the militarily chastened Ottoman Empire to formally accept its independence, he brought with him from Bavaria some of his ancestral Wittelsbach dynasty crown jewels: a crown, orb and sceptre which he declared to be the Crown Jewels of Greece. However, when he was overthrown in a coup in 1862 and fled, he took "his" jewels back with him to Bavaria.
In 1959, Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria presented the Greek Crown Jewels (also called the Greek Regalia) back to King Paul of Greece. Greek monarchs since Otto had not been crowned. Nevertheless the Crown Jewels of Otto were accepted and remain in Greece.
[edit] Note
The title that Otto used was not that of the King of the Hellenes (a title used for the first time by George I of Greece when he succeeded to the Greek throne in 1864), but rather, "By the Grace of God, King of Greece" (Όθων, ελέω Θεού, Βασιλεύς της Ελλάδος - Óthōn, eléō Theoú, Basileús tēs Elládos). After his deposition and the election of Prince George of Denmark to the throne as George I, the reference to the Divine Right of Kings was dropped and the title was altered to "King of the Hellenes" (Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων, Basileús tōn Ellénōn), in order to emphasise that the king was the symbol of the national unity of all Greeks living inside and outside of Greece.
[edit] References
- John Van der Kiste, Kings of the Hellenes: The Greek Kings 1863-1974 (Sutton Publishing, 1994).
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