Prince andrew of greece biography examples
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Next month marks the 70th wedding anniversary of Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh and, as such, we’ll cover all that brought about the original 1947 pairing. But ahead of that I thought it was fitting that there was a post on Prince Philip’s parents, particularly since his origin story isn’t particularly well-known. His lineage is unique in the context of the British Royal Family and his entry into the House of Windsor was perhaps the most dramatic in its history, quite a bit of which had to do with his parents and siblings.
So, who were they? His father was Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and his mother was Princess Alice of Battenberg. A couple years ago a guest at Buckingham Palace remarked that, like Philip, they were also Greek, to which he responded that he actually didn’t have a drop of Greek blood. That started a question in the papers as to whether that was true and the answer is, well yes, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing that given the styling of his father’s name.
Andrew was legally a Greek prince and he was born in Athens, but he possessed no Greek heritage and his family didn’t consider itself Greek. His father was King George I of Greece, who arrived in Athens for the first time at the age of 17 in 1863. He was its lawful king, but he was selected out of a group of European princes to succeed Otto I after his deposition in 1862. He was in fact a Danish prince, the son of Christian IX and his wife, Louise of Hesse-Kassel.
The year he ascended the Greek throne his sister, Alexandra, married Queen Victoria’s eldest son, the future Edward VII. A few years later, his younger sister, Dagmar, would marry the future Tsar of Russia. As such, Greece suddenly had familial ties with major European powers, a fact which enhanced George’s hold on the throne and would later on complicate his family’s place in the country. More on that [hot] mess can be found here.
In 1867 Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (February 2, 1882 – December 3, 1944) of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the seventh child and fourth son of King George I of the Hellenes and He was a grandson of Christian IX of Denmark, and the father of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was a prince of both Denmark and Greece by virtue of his patrilineal descent. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark Prince Andrew was born at the Tatoi Palace just north of Athens on February 2, 1882, the fourth son of George I of the Hellenes and Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia, the oldest daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg. Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievich was the son of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Princess Charlotte of Prussia, the eldest surviving daughter and fourth child of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, and Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and a sister of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV and of German Emperor Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. King George I of the Hellenes Prince Andrew was a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, he was a Prince of both Greece and Denmark, as his father, King George I of the Hellenes a younger son of Christian IX of Denmark and his wife Prince Louise of Hesse-Cassel. Prince Andrew was in the line of succession to the Greek and more distantly to the Danish throne. A career soldier, he began military training at an early age, and was commissioned as an officer in the Greek army. His command positions were substantive appointments rather than honorary, and he saw service in the Balkan Wars. Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna In 1913, his father was assassinated and Andrew’s elder brother, Constantine, became king. The king’s neutrality policy during World War I led to his abdication, and most of the royal family, including Andrew, was exiled. On th Unlike his future wife Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip did not have a stable childhood. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, fought in a military campaign against the Turks in the 1920s. Philip was born during the campaign. Unfortunately for Andrew, the Greeks lost and he and other military leaders were blamed. Andrew’s wife Alice had ties to Britain, which she used to beg the British king to spare her husband’s life. Prince Andrew, Alice and the children reunited on the British ship HMS Calypso. While on shipboard, young Philip took his first steps. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip, Coronation Portrait From the time of his father’s exile from Greece, Philip’s family never had their own home. Instead Philip and his sisters stayed at the homes of relatives or other royal families in Europe. Philip’s parents took little interest in the raising of their son, but Nanny Roose remained a constant presence as the prince grew up. Since his nanny was British, English was Philip’s first language. She tried to train him as an English gentleman. She had her work cut out for her, since the prince delighted in teasing and pranks. For example, Philip loved to escape from his nanny at bath time. He ran naked through the halls of whatever castle he happened to be living in until someone finally caught him and brought him to the bathtub. Philip’s outgoing personality and kindness helped him get along with the various cousins with whom he stayed. One cousin, Helene Foufounis, felt her mother paid Philip too much attention, but she still “thought he was a very nice little boy.” Helene’s sister had a hip injury and was often unable to play. When Philip received a toy from a family member who neglected to get one for his sick cousin “he came back with an armful of his own toys, and the new one, thrust them on her bed and said, ‘These are for you.’” Philip was not a snob, either. He knew he was a prince, but if an adult called him Prince Philip, he prot .European Royal History
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