Alexandra of Yugoslavia
| Alexandra of Greece and Denmark | |
|---|---|
 Alexandra with her son | |
| Queen consort of Yugoslavia | |
| Tenure | 20 March 1944 – 29 November 1945 |
| Born | 25 March 1921 Athens, Greece |
| Died | 30 January 1993 (aged 71) East Sussex, England |
| Burial | 7 February 1993 |
| Spouse | Peter II of Yugoslavia |
| Issue | Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia |
| House | Glücksburg |
| Father | Alexander of Greece |
| Mother | Aspasia Manos |
| Religion | Eastern Orthodox |
| Styles of Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | Her Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Αλεξάνδρα, Serbian: Александра/Aleksandra; 25 March 1921 – 30 January 1993) was Queen of Yugoslavia as the wife of the last King of Yugoslavia, Peter II, and mother of Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia.
Birth and inheritance
She was born five months after the death of her father, King Alexander of Greece, to his morganatic widow, Aspasia Manos.[1] His father, King Constantine I, was restored to the Greek throne a month after Alexander's death and returned to Greece from exile. His government officially treated the brief reign of his late son as a regency, which meant that Alexander's marriage, contracted without his father's permission, was technically illegal, the marriage void, and the couple's posthumous daughter, Alexandra, illegitimate.
At the behest of Alexander's mother, Queen Sophia, a law was passed in July 1922 which allowed the King to recognize the validity of marriages of members of the Royal family contracted without the Royal assent, even retroactively, although on a non-dynastic basis. King Constantine then issued a decree, gazetted on 10 September 1922, recognizing Alexander's marriage to Aspasia. Thus Alexandra became legitimate in the eyes of Greek law, but continued to be shunned and lacked the right of succession to the throne that dynastic princesses enjoyed under the monarchist constitution.[citation needed] As a result, instead of a first Greek queen regnant, she eventually became Yugoslavia's last queen consort.[2][3]
Hence, she and her mother were accorded the title "Princess of Greece and Denmark" and the style of Royal Highness.[4] This title was borne by non-reigning members of the Greek Royal Family, who also happened to be members of a cadet branch of the reigning dynasty of Denmark. They moved to Italy, then London, then lived at the Hotel Crillon in Paris.[1]
She was educated at Heathfield School, Ascot, followed by a finishing school in Paris.[1][5]
Marriage and later life
In 1944, she moved to London, where on 20 March at the Yugoslav Legation[6] she married her third cousin, the young King of Yugoslavia, Peter II, whom she had met in 1942. (Both were great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria, she through her paternal grandmother Sophia, Queen of the Hellenes, and he through his maternal grandmother, Queen Marie of Romania). Guests at the wedding included members of the British royal family, including King George VI and Queen Elizabeth; Henry, Duke of Gloucester; Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent; as well as other European royalty in exile, such as King Haakon VII of Norway and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.[7]
On 17 July 1945 she gave birth to the Crown Prince in Suite 212 of Claridge's Hotel in Brook Street. The British Government ceded sovereignty over the suite to Yugoslavia just for one day, so that the prince would be born in Yugoslav territory, which was to be the only time Queen Alexandra was in Yugoslavia.[1]
The marriage deteriorated after the war and the declaration of a Communist republic in Yugoslavia; in the late 1940s Queen Alexandra left her husband, taking their son with her, after he had sold her jewels and most of their other remaining property.
After his death in 1970, she settled in East Sussex, where she died on 30 January 1993 after suffering for several years from cancer.[1][6]
She was buried in the former private Greek royal residence at Tatoi in Greece. In May 2013, her remains were transferred to Serbia for reburial in the crypt of the Royal Mausoleum at Oplenac. The reburial of HM King Peter II and his mother, HM Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, also took place at the same time, on 26 May 2013.[8]
Publications
She published an autobiography in 1956[9] and a biography of her fathers cousin, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1961.[10]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 25 March 1921 – 20 March 1944: Her Royal Highness Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark
- 20 March 1944 – 29 November 1945: Her Majesty The Queen of Yugoslavia
- 29 November 1945 – 30 January 1993: Her Majesty Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia
- In pretense: 29 November 1945 – 3 November 1970 : Her Majesty The Queen of Yugoslavia
- In pretense: 3 November 1970 – 30 January 1993 : Her Majesty The Queen Mother of Yugoslavia
Honours
Greek Royal Family: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia[11]
House of Karađorđević: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe[12]- House of Karađorđević: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle[12]
- House of Karađorđević: Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sava[13]
Ancestry
As daughter of Aspasia and granddaughter of Petros Manos and Maria Argyropoulos, she was the only scion of the Royal Family of Greece to be of recent Greek descent. [citation needed] Through her mother she descended from, among others, Phanariote Greeks from Constantinople. Like most European royal families, the Glücksburg dynasty, to which her husband belonged, was of predominantly German extraction. [citation needed]
References
- ^ a b c d e "Obituary: Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia". The Independent. 2 February 1993.
- ^ Diesbach, Ghislain de (1967). Secrets of the Gotha. translated from the French by Margaret Crosland. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 225.
- ^ Valynseele, Joseph (1967). Les Prétendants aux trônes d'Europe (in French). Paris. p. 442.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh, ed. (1973-03-06). Burke's Guide to the Royal Family. London: Burke's Peerage. ISBN 978-0-220-66222-6.
- ^ "Repatriation of HM Queen Alexandra Remains to Serbia". The Royal Family of Serbia. 9 May 2013.
- ^ a b "Alexandra of Yugoslavia Is Dead; Queen Without a Throne Was 71". The New York Times. 1 February 1993.
- ^ "Wedding of HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece & Denmark to King Peter II of Yugoslavia. 20th March 1944, London". Flickr.com.
- ^ Mendick, Robert; Sawer, Patrick (28 April 2013). "Yugoslavia's exiled Queen returns home at long last". The Daily Telegraph.
- ^ Alexandra, Queen Consort of Peter II, King of Yugoslavia (1956). For a king's love: the intimate recollections of Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia. London: Odhams. OCLC 752753235.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Alexandra, Queen Consort of Peter II., King of Yugoslavia (1961). Prince Philip. London: May Fair. OCLC 752753242.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ http://www.royal-magazin.de/yugoslavia/emeralds-queen-serbia-necklace.htm
- ^ a b , [1] queen Alexandra wears the Star of Karađorđe on her right shoulder and star of the White Eagle on her right stomach
- ^ http://www.royalfamily.org/king-peter-ii-queen-alexandra-and-queen-maria-and-hrh-prince-andrej-left-the-royal-palace-chapel-this-morning-to-cathedral-church-in-belgrade/
Sources
- Marlene Eilers König, Descendants of Queen Victoria.
External links
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*also a princess of Denmark See also House of Glücksburg | ||
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1 Also princess of Norway 2 Also princess of Greece 3 Also princess of Iceland 4 Not Danish princess by birth, but created princess of Denmark Princesses that lost their title are shown in italics | ||
![[1]](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/98/1a/74/981a74d5819f32bf1c50202eb66bafb5.jpg){kind=link}
- Greek princesses
- Danish princesses
- Yugoslav queens consort
- House of Glücksburg (Greece)
- People from Athens
- 1921 births
- 1993 deaths
- Karađorđević dynasty
- Burials at the Mausoleum of the Royal House of Karađorđević, Oplenac
- Burials at Tatoi Palace Royal Cemetery
- People educated at Heathfield School, Ascot
- Greek people