King Constantine II of Greece — king of greece with roots in the Russian Empire
Constantine of Greece was born at Psychiko, near Athens, on 2 June 1940, the only son of Crown Prince Paul and Frederica of Hanover. Within a year the German invasion sent the family into exile in Egypt and South Africa, and they returned to Greece in 1946.
His Russian descent ran through his father's side. His grandfather, King Constantine I, was the eldest son of King George I and Queen Olga, who had been born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna at Pavlovsk Palace in 1851, a granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I. Olga remained Russian and Orthodox in her loyalties throughout fifty years in Greece and briefly served as regent in 1920. Through her, Constantine shared Romanov ancestry with his cousins Prince Philip and Princess Marina, and with his sister, the future Queen Sofía of Spain.
An accomplished sailor, he won a gold medal in the Dragon class at the Rome Olympics in 1960, at the age of twenty, and later served as a member of the International Olympic Committee. He was the brother of Queen Sofía of Spain and of Princess Irene. He succeeded his father as king on 6 March 1964, aged twenty-three, and that September married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, the youngest daughter of Frederick IX, herself a great-granddaughter of the Russian-born Grand Duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna.
His reign was short and turbulent. In April 1967 a group of army officers took power. In December of that year Constantine attempted to remove the military government, failed, and left Greece with his family. The junta declared the monarchy abolished in 1973, and after the restoration of democracy a referendum in December 1974 confirmed the republic.
He spent most of the following decades in London, where he and Anne-Marie raised their five children, among them Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece. A long dispute with the Greek state over the family's property was taken to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favour on compensation in 2000. He returned to live in Greece in 2013 and died in Athens on 10 January 2023, aged eighty-two, and was buried at the royal cemetery at Tatoi.
Tracing the roots — Pavlovsk (great-grandmother)
His great-grandmother, Queen Olga of Greece, was born a Russian grand duchess at Pavlovsk in 1851, a granddaughter of Nicholas I. He was the brother of Queen Sofía of Spain.
Great-grandson of Queen Olga of Greece, born Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna at Pavlovsk in 1851, through his grandfather Constantine I and father Paul.
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Pavlovsk (great-grandmother). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.