Former King Constantine II, who briefly ruled Greece in the 1960s, died in Athens on Tuesday at the age of 82, Greek public broadcaster ERT reported.
The former sovereign “died (…) as a result of a stroke,” ERT announced. He had been hospitalized in Athens last week also suffering from respiratory problems, according to some Greek media.
A descendant of the royal family of Schleswig-Holstein-Glücksburg, Constantin was a cousin of the British sovereign Charles III and godfather to his son William. He was also the brother of Sofía, the mother of King Felipe VI of Spain.
The monarchy in Greece was abolished by referendum in 1974, ending the Danish dynasty established in 1863 by Constantine II’s great-grandfather, George I.
Return to the country in 2013
Constantine II had acceded to the throne at the age of 23 in 1964, one of the most turbulent periods in contemporary Greek history. The political crises that followed provided fertile ground for the colonels’ coup in April 1967 and the seven-year term of the junta that the CIA was accused of supporting.
According to later published US diplomatic documents, Constantin also tried to impose martial law in 1967 to prevent the return of Georges Papandreou or his socialist son Andreas, elected prime minister fifteen years later.
He left Greece in 1968 and lived for forty years in London, before returning to his country in 2013. Married to Anne-Marie, sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, he leaves behind five children.
Source: BFM TV
