Oh no! That is sad. His Majesty and the Queen lived in North London and visited Greece in 2004 and were shocked at the state of Tatoi.
Pages of old Greek stamps showing the king in younger days (1964 2nd row) and as a crown Prince (1957 Royalty set).
Some coins of him
Constantine II became King of Greece in 1964 after the death of his father Paul I from Heart Complications. He was not a popular ruler. On April 21 1967 a bloodless coup saw him toppled and the reign of the generals took over Greece until 1974. In December 1967, the king was behind a counter coup which failed and that saw him and his Queen (Anne Marie of Denmark - younger sister of Queen Margerethe II) and the princess royal flee to Italy and then the UK. The King lived in exile until his death and lost his Greek citizenship and passport in 1973, despite being on the coins of Greece until then. In 2004 he returned to Greece and was saddened by the state of Tatoi the royal residence and the changes.
Despite his ethnicity being entirely northern and western European (The royal family was Glucksburg of Denmark, a cadet branch of the Danish royal family going back to Christian IX of Denmark (1819 - 1906, king 1863 - 1906). Prince Philip was the youngest child of King George I's son Prince Andros (Andrew). His mother Prince Alice also fled Greece in late 1967 after spending years at a Greek nunnery/hospital (It was in an episode of the Crown) and died in 1970 at Buckingham Palace. Constantine held on to his Greek Orthodox faith until his death and it is likely his funeral will be an Orthodox one. I am not sure if he will be interred at Tatoi with his ancestors or at St Georges or Roskilde Cathedral in Denmark.
Anyone else feel free to add more.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
King Constantine II & his family were treated abominably by the post-1974 Greek governments, who stole their property & refused to pay proper compensation.
Among the property stolen was the Tatoi Royal Estate itself.
Corruption & theft by Greek politicians has been rampant - & still continues today.
Sadly this is a theme with monarchies that are overthrown and even after the superseding government was replaced most of the time the monarchy is not restored.
Barbados (2021 when the Queen ceased to be head of state), Nepal (2008) and Iran (1979) are the most recent examples of the Monarchy being abolished. But there has been a few examples where monarchies have been restored such as Spain (1975), Kuwait (1991) and Cambodia (1993).
Simeon II (Last Tsar of Bulgaria between 1943-1946 and later became Prime Minister between 2001-2005)
Gyanendra of Nepal (Last ruler of Nepal 1950-51 and 2001-2008)
Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar (Last ruler of Zanzibar 1963-1964)
Fuad II (Last King of Egypt and Sudan 1952-53)
Ghalib II al-Qu'aiti (Last ruler of the Yemen state of Hadramaut 1966-67)
Hi to whoever is reading this. Did you know that TYPEWRITER (on a QWERTY keyboard) is the longest word you can type using only the letters on one row of the keyboard.
It is sad how Constantines death barely registered a whimper in the media, not in the news here, did not see it on BBC or Al Jazira (Well its Arab bias, so a Christian monarch would hardly be mentioned).
Yet the media went gangbusters over Harry and his stupid gossip book. Plus Lisa Marie Presley, a drug addicted American who is only famous for being Elvis's daughter, and marrying Michael Jackson - got much more attention.
The world is turning to crap, no respect for monarchies or standards anymore. Just air all our dirty washing and muck racking and people who become famous for having sex (The Kardashians) and being the child of some celebrity or alleging their family was racist.
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
Sadly this is a theme with monarchies that are overthrown and even after the superseding government was replaced most of the time the monarchy is not restored.
Barbados (2021 when the Queen ceased to be head of state), Nepal (2008) and Iran (1979) are the most recent examples of the Monarchy being abolished. But there has been a few examples where monarchies have been restored such as Spain (1975), Kuwait (1991) and Cambodia (1993).
Simeon II (Last Tsar of Bulgaria between 1943-1946 and later became Prime Minister between 2001-2005)
Gyanendra of Nepal (Last ruler of Nepal 1950-51 and 2001-2008)
Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar (Last ruler of Zanzibar 1963-1964)
Fuad II (Last King of Egypt and Sudan 1952-53)
Ghalib II al-Qu'aiti (Last ruler of the Yemen state of Hadramaut 1966-67)
There are hundreds of living titular head monarchies living in india of the former princely states that were formally abolished in 1971 with the removal of the privy purse. Granted they were striped of any concrete powers in 1947. Though many were made honorary governors for life (until 1971)
Apart from Constantine who didnt even have any Greek blood, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mukkram Jah died this week in Istanbul where he’s been living since 1968. It only got a brief mention in IndIan Newspapers, none whatsoever in the international media or here in Numista until right now. The Nizams started out life as Turkish Generals in the Pay of the Mughal Emperors until that empire started crumbling and the Nizam who were mughal governors by then made the power grab. Hyderabad under the British raj days was the most Prestigious of the princely states and for a time the nizam was the richest person in the world. Hyderabad was the only princely state which india ”fought a war with” because the ruler did not want to fall in line (in Kashmir, the maharaja invited the Indian army to protect him after signing the instrument of accession while in Junagarh the nawab fled as his own people were out to lynch him and the Indian army was invited by the acting Diwan)
anyways i wouldn’t shed a tear for any of these people. they didn’t exactly fall on hard times once they were stripped of their powers. There’s a special place in hell for the likes of Gyanendra who single handedly ended the monarchy there with his arrogance and his possible hand in the killing of his own brother and the royal family.
Sadly this is a theme with monarchies that are overthrown and even after the superseding government was replaced most of the time the monarchy is not restored.
Barbados (2021 when the Queen ceased to be head of state), Nepal (2008) and Iran (1979) are the most recent examples of the Monarchy being abolished. But there has been a few examples where monarchies have been restored such as Spain (1975), Kuwait (1991) and Cambodia (1993).
Simeon II (Last Tsar of Bulgaria between 1943-1946 and later became Prime Minister between 2001-2005)
Gyanendra of Nepal (Last ruler of Nepal 1950-51 and 2001-2008)
Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar (Last ruler of Zanzibar 1963-1964)
Fuad II (Last King of Egypt and Sudan 1952-53)
Ghalib II al-Qu'aiti (Last ruler of the Yemen state of Hadramaut 1966-67)
There are hundreds of living titular head monarchies living in india of the former princely states that were formally abolished in 1971 with the removal of the privy purse. Granted they were striped of any concrete powers in 1947. Though many were made honorary governors for life (until 1971)
Apart from Constantine who didnt even have any Greek blood, the last Nizam of Hyderabad, Mukkram Jah died this week in Istanbul where he’s been living since 1968. It only got a brief mention in IndIan Newspapers, none whatsoever in the international media or here in Numista until right now. The Nizams started out life as Turkish Generals in the Pay of the Mughal Emperors until that empire started crumbling and the Nizam who were mughal governors by then made the power grab. Hyderabad under the British raj days was the most Prestigious of the princely states and for a time the nizam was the richest person in the world. Hyderabad was the only princely state which india ”fought a war with” because the ruler did not want to fall in line (in Kashmir, the maharaja invited the Indian army to protect him after signing the instrument of accession while in Junagarh the nawab fled as his own people were out to lynch him and the Indian army was invited by the acting Diwan)
anyways i wouldn’t shed a tear for any of these people. they didn’t exactly fall on hard times once they were stripped of their powers. There’s a special place in hell for the likes of Gyanendra who single handedly ended the monarchy there with his arrogance and his possible hand in the killing of his own brother and the royal family.
There are still quite a few heads of Indian princely states' families - who may not be recognised by the Indian & Pakistani governments, but they are accepted by local people in the cultural sense.
I suppose nostalgia for the monarchy results from the increasing distrust in our democracies, with the 1% voting themselves tax cuts and/or hiding their money in some fiscal paradise. But the restoration of monarchical rule is not the solution to our problems.
If you visit Athens one of these days and have time, take a couple of hours to visit the Olympic Stadium rebuilt for the 1896 Olympic Games:
The most fascinating thing to me was this:
But I'm not sure when the bullets were fired. 1939-1945? April or November 1967? If anyone knows the answer, I'd be interested to know. If December 1967, that would be when Constantine's countercoup failed.
I have been to that stadium, although from the 1890s, its believed parts date back to Roman times and as you all know, Roman ruins in Athens are seen as later invader garbage (Look at the state of Hadrians arch in the Plaka), and the lack of interest in Marcus Agrippa's Propyklea at the Akropolis.
The bullets could be from April 1967, or possibly even 1922 during the Venizelist revolt. If the part of the stadium is Roman or reused Roman or Greek marble, they could even date from the Venetian Bombardment of 1687 (Mainly to blow up a mosque and armoury in the Akropolis).
I love coins. Especially silver, gold and anything really old.
Member of the Royal Numismatic Society of New Zealand and the Auckland Numismatic Society
True, but there is virtually nothing left of the original Panathenaic Stadium beside a few statues and a few stones near the entrance on the lower right on the first photo, so these bullet holes are post-1896 (they are from the right side in that same picture).
As a tourist I tend to look where few people would and see how old monuments carry evidence of modern events… and of course wars are most likely to leave their mark. Berlin has many monuments peppered with bullet impacts, and Budapest as well (especially obvious when one looks up).
