Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
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Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (20 January 1882(O.S.) - 3 December 1944), of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the son of George I (1845-1913), King of the Hellenes, and of Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinova (1851-1926) of Russia.
Birth and early life
Born in Athens, he was taught English by his caretakers as he grew up, but in conversations with his parents he refused to speak anything but Greek,[1] which he was better at learning to speak than his siblings.
Marriage and children
Prince Andrew married Her Serene Highness Princess Alice of Battenberg in a civil wedding on 6 October 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day two religious wedding services were performed: one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and another Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe.[2] Princess Alice was a daughter of His Serene Highness Louis Prince of Battenberg (later 1st Marquess of Milford Haven) and Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of HRH Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. As such, Princess Alice was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and in the line of succession to the British throne. Prince Andrew was also in the British line of succession, but much lower down, due to the descent of his mother from George II through his eldest daughter Princess Anne of Orange. Incidentally, his father was descended from two other daughters of George II: Louise and Mary.
Prince and Princess Andrew had five children:
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Margarita | 18 April 1905 | 24 April 1981 | Married 1931, to HSH Gottfried, 9th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg; had issue. |
| Princess Theodora | 13 May 1906 | 16 October 1969 | Married 1931, to HRH Prince Berthold, Margrave of Baden; had issue. |
| Princess Cecilie | 22 June 1911 | 16 November 1937 | Married 1931, to HRH Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine; had issue. |
| Princess Sophie | 26 June 1914 | 3 November 2001 | Married firstly in 1930, to HH Prince Christoph of Hesse; had issue. Married secondly in 1946, to HRH Prince George Wilhelm of Hanover; had issue. |
| Prince Philip | 10 June 1921 | Married 1947, to Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom; had issue. Later titled Duke of Edinburgh. |
Early career
He attended cadet school and staff college at Athens,[3] but took no active part in the Balkan Wars during which he ran a field hospital.[4] In 1914, Prince Andrew (like many European princes) held honorary military posts in both the German and Russian empires, as well as Prussian, Russian, Danish and Italian knighthoods.[5]
During World War I, he continued to visit Britain, despite veiled accusations in the British House of Commons that he was a German agent.[6]
Exile from Greece
In 1917 he left Greece with his brother, King Constantine, who had abdicated in favour of his son after unsuccessfully attempting to keep Greece neutral in World War I. After his brother was restored to the throne of Greece four years later, Andrew was given command of the Second Army Corps during the Battle of the Sakarya, which effectively stalemated the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). Dissatisfaction with the progress of the war led to a coup d'état in 1922 during which Prince Andrew was arrested, court-martialled and found guilty of "disobeying an order" and "acting on his own initiative" during the battle the previous year. Although many defendants in the treason trials that followed the coup were shot,[7] Andrew was banished for life and his family fled into exile aboard a British cruiser, HMS Calypso.[8] In 1930, the Prince published his own version of events in a book entitled Towards Disaster: The Greek Army in Asia Minor in 1921. In 1936, the sentence was quashed by emergency laws, which also restored land and annuities to the King.[9] Andrew returned to Greece for a brief visit that May.[10]
During their time in exile the family became more and more dispersed, his daughters eventually settled in Germany separated from Andrew, and Philip wound up being taken care of by his relatives in the United Kingdom. Alice suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in Switzerland, and after her recovery returned to Greece. Andrew went to live in the South of France onboard a yacht with his lady friend, Countess Andrée de La Bigne. He died in the Metropole Hotel, Monte Carlo, Monaco of heart failure and arterial sclerosis.[11]
Alice founded (in 1949) the Greek Orthodox Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, a religious order tending the poor and sick in Greece. She sheltered a Jewish family and was posthumously honored for heroism by Israel.
Ancestors
| Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark |
Father: George I of Greece |
Paternal grandfather: Christian IX of Denmark |
Paternal great-grandfather: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg |
| Paternal great-grandmother: Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel | |||
| Paternal grandmother: Louise of Hesse-Kassel |
Paternal great-grandfather: Prince William of Hesse | ||
| Paternal great-grandmother: Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark | |||
| Mother: Olga Konstantinovna of Russia |
Maternal grandfather: Grand Duke Constantine Nikolayevich of Russia |
Maternal great-grandfather: Nicholas I of Russia | |
| Maternal great-grandmother: Alexandra Feodorovna (Charlotte of Prussia) | |||
| Maternal grandmother: Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg |
Maternal great-grandfather: Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg | ||
| Maternal great-grandmother: Amalie of Württemberg |
Notes and sources
- ^ Vickers, p.309
- ^ The Times (London), Thursday 8 October 1903, p.3
- ^ The Times (London), Monday 4 December 1922, p.17
- ^ The Times (London), Wednesday 19 March 1913, p.6
- ^ Marquis of Ruvigny, The Titled Nobility of Europe (Harrison and Sons, London, 1914) p.71
- ^ The Times (London), Friday 23 November 1917, p.10
- ^ The Times (London), Friday 1 December 1922, p.12
- ^ The Times (London), Tuesday 5 December 1922, p.12
- ^ The Times (London), Monday 27 January 1936, p.9
- ^ The Times (London), Wednesday 20 May 1936, p. 15
- ^ Vickers, p.309
References
- Vickers, Hugo, Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece (Hamish Hamilton, London, 2000) ISBN 0-241-13686-5
Titles
- His Royal Highness Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.
| Styles of Prince Andrew of Greece | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |