Pavlos, Crown Prince Of Greece

Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece ( el, Παύλος; born 20 May 1967) is the eldest son and second child of Constantine II, the last King of Greece from 1964 to 1973 and his wife, Anne-Marie of Denmark. He was heir apparent to the throne of Greece and was its crown prince from birth, remaining so during his father's reign until the monarchy's abolition. As a male-line descendant of Christian IX of Denmark, he is also a Danish prince although not in succession to the Danish throne.

Early life

Birth

Pavlos was born on 20 May 1967 at the Tatoi Palace north of Athens, used at the time as the second residence of the Greek royal family. He was the second child and first son of the then King Constantine II and Queen Anne Marie of the Hellenes. In traditional Greek naming practices, first sons are named after their paternal grandfathers. His mother is the youngest sister of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and his father is the brother of Queen Sophia of Spain. His maternal grandparents were King Frederick IX of Denmark and his wife Princess Ingrid of Sweden.

He displaced his older sister, Alexia, born in 1965, as heir to the throne, Greece's order of succession adhering to male-preference primogeniture.

Military coup and abolition of the monarchy

Pavlos was born into a turbulent era in Greek politics. His father, King Constantine II, ascended to the throne on 6 March 1964, aged 23, following the death of his father, King Paul. Pavlos was born barely a month after the ''coup d'état'' which ended democratic rule in Greece over the King's objections on 21 April 1967, ushering in the "Regime of the Colonels", led by Georgios Papadopoulos. In December of that year, King Constantine attempted a counter-coup, but could not rally sufficient military support. Pursued by supporters of the ''junta'', the King fled with his wife, children, mother and sister to Rome. From Rome they went to Copenhagen, and lived with Queen Anne-Marie's mother, Queen Ingrid.

During the years 1967–1973, Greece remained officially a monarchy, with a regency appointed while the King lived in exile. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh. " Burke’s Royal Families of the World: ''Volume I Europe & Latin America'', 1977, pp. 67, 316, 327-328, 516. On 1 June 1973, Constantine II was declared deposed and Georgios Papadopoulos became the self-appointed President of Greece.

On 17 November 1974, the 1974 Greek legislative election was held, resulting in a victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his New Democracy party. Less than a month later, on 8 December, the Greek plebiscite of 1974 confirmed a referendum of the previous year: the majority of Greek voters preferred a republican constitution (69%) to restoration of the monarchy (31%).

Constantine II accepted that his reign was at an end. He and Anne Marie had been living with their family in London for several years. Pavlos's youngest siblings were born in London, Theodora in 1983 and Philippos in 1986.

Education and career

Pavlos was educated in London at the Hellenic College of London, founded by his parents. He attended the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, Montezuma, New Mexico, in the U.S., from 1984 to 1986. After training at the British Army's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards in 1987 on a three-year short service commission.Eilers, Marlene. Queen Victoria's Daughters. Rosvall Royal Books, Falkoping, Sweden, 1997. pp. 32-33, 130, 132, 173. He was promoted to lieutenant in April 1989, and relinquished his commission in April 1990. In 1993 he completed a bachelor's degree at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and later while sharing a house in Washington, DC, he and his cousin, Felipe VI of Spain, then Prince of Asturias, attended Georgetown University where both obtained a Master of Science in Foreign Service in 1995.

As an adult he has lived in New York City and London, working as an investment consultant.de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. Le Petit Gotha. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery. Paris. 2002. pp. 522-525, 536-539 (French) He is the co-founder of Ortelius Advisors, an activist hedge fund. He is an experienced bluewater yachtsman and crews on the multi-record-breaking monohull ''Mari-Cha IV'' owned by businessman and father-in-law, Robert W. Miller.

Marriage and children

Pavlos married American heiress Marie-Chantal Miller, whom he had met at a party three years earlier in New Orleans, on 1 July 1995. The Greek Orthodox rite wedding at St Sophia's Cathedral, London drew a rare modern panoply of royalty, but the ceremony proved to be legally invalid and had eventually to be repeated civilly (not normally required in the UK) in Chelsea because of a law requiring that marriages in England be conducted in English.

After their marriage, the couple took up residence in Greenwich, Connecticut, the job that Pavlos obtained with the Charles R. Weber ship-broking company being headquartered there. Later, he went to work at a New York City firm as an investment portfolio manager, before relocation to London for their children's education in 2004.

The couple has five children: Maria-Olympia (b. 1996), Constantine-Alexios (b. 1998), Achileas-Andreas (b. 2000), Odysseas-Kimon (b. 2004), and Aristidis-Stavros (b. 2008).

Titles, styles, and honours

Titles and styles

From birth, Pavlos was the heir apparent to the throne of Greece and as such he was referred to as the Crown Prince of Greece with the style of ''Royal Highness''. Following the deposition of the Greek monarchy in 1973, these titles and styles are no longer legally recognised by the government of the Hellenic Republic. Through his male-line descent from Christian IX of Denmark,Folketinget. Frank Jensen. 12 October 2001. Ministry of Justice
Spm. nr. S 3937
(Danish). Retrieved 5 April 2017. he is also a Danish prince with the style of ''Highness''.Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser XIX. "Danemark". C.A. Starke Verlag, 2011, p. 10. (German). .

Honours

National

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** Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer (by birth)
** Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Saints George and Constantine
** Knight Grand Cross of the Order of George I
** Knight Grand Cross of Order of the Phoenix
** Recipient of the Commemorative Badge of the Centenary of the Royal House of Greece

Foreign

* Knight of the Order of the Elephant (1997)
* Recipient of the Commemorative Badge of the 50th Birthday Medal of King Carl XVI Gustaf (1996)

Ancestry

Pavlos was a direct descendant of three reigning sovereign monarchs at birth. He was the eldest son of the King of Greece, grandson of the King of Denmark and great-grandson of the King of Sweden, all living and enthroned when he was born. His paternal aunt, Sofía, was Queen consort of Spain. His maternal aunt, Margrethe II, is the reigning Queen of Denmark.

By male-line descent, he is a member of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the House of Oldenburg.

Pavlos is a scion multiple times of the " Grandparents of Europe", due to royal intermarriage. As a result, he descends from Christian IX of Denmark through three of his children; in the male line through George I of Greece, in the female line through Frederick VIII of Denmark and through King Christian's daughter Princess Thyra, Duchess of Cumberland. He also descends thrice from Queen Victoria: once through her third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, and twice through her eldest daughter Victoria, Princess Royal.

Footnotes

References

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* Καδδάς, Αναστάσιος Γ. "Η Ελληνική Βασιλική Οικογένεια", Εκδόσεις Φερενίκη (2010)
* Ανδρέας Μέγκος "Εραλδικά Σύμβολα και Διάσημα του Βασιλείου της Ελλάδος", Εκδόσεις Στέμμα (2015)
* Εκδόσεις Στέμμα, "Κανονισμός Εθιμοταξίας και Τελετών της Βασιλικής Αυλής" (2016)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece
1967 births
Living people
People from Attica
Danish princes
Greek princes
Greek people of Danish descent
Greek people of English descent
Greek people of German descent
House of Glücksburg (Greece)
Members of the Church of Greece
Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
Royal Scots Dragoon Guards officers
Greek emigrants to England
Greek exiles
Heirs apparent who never acceded
Sons of kings

Grand Crosses of the Order of Saints George and Constantine
Grand Crosses of the Order of George I
Grand Crosses of the Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
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Greek people of Swedish descent