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King
Constantine I. of Greece
(02.08.1868 - 11.01.1923)
place of birth: Athens, Greece
Greece:
His Majesty the King, hon. Generalfeldmarschall
Constantine I King of the Hellenes was ruler of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and again
fro 1920 to 1922. He was the eldest son of King George I of Greece and
his queen Olga. Constantine served as Commander-in-Chief of the Greek
Army during the was with Turkey in 1897, and he led the army again
during the successful Balkan Campaign of 1912-13 when Greece captured
Salonika. He became king on 18 March 1913 following his father's
assassination.
When the First
World War broke out,
Constantine naturally sided with the Germans. He had been educated at
Germany's Heidelberg University, received his military training in the
Prussian Army, and was also married to Princess Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm
II's sister. His support for the Prussian's brought him into conflict
with Greek Prime Minister Venizelos who supported the Entente since
Britain and France had powerful navies in the Mediterranean. After the
disastrous Battle of Gallipoli, Venizelos was
dismissed from his post in October 1915, and Constantine thereafter
made sure that the Prime Minister remained a loyal servant of the King.
Venizelos later established a provisional revolutionary government in
1917 at Thessalonica.
As French
General Sarrail successfully transformed the Greek Army and Navy into supporters of the
Allied cause, Constantine abdicated his throne in June 1917 and went to
live in exile in Switzerland. Since his first son George was likewise
very pro-German, Constantine diplomatically named his second son
Alexander as his successor, thus avoiding a potential civil war. When
Alexander died in 1920, Constantine returned to rule Greece with the
support of almost 100 percent of the people. This popularity he
squandered during the Greco-Turkish War of
1920-22, where Turkey regained its former territory in Anatolia and
Smyrna. Constantine once again abdicated, exiling himself this time to
Italy and naming his eldest son George as King. He died in Palermo,
Sicily on 11 January 1923.
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