Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark ( el, Αλεξία; born 10 July 1965) is a Greek princess and educator. She is the eldest child of Constantine II and Anne-Marie of Denmark, who were

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

and

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973. She was heiress presumptive to the Greek throne from her birth in 1965 until the birth of her brother Crown Prince Pavlos in 1967.

Early life

Alexia was born on 10 July 1965 at Mon Repos, a villa on the Greek island of

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

used at the time as a summer residence by the Greek royal family. She was the first child born to the then King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes. At the time of her birth, her father was King of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, her grandfather was King of

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, and her great-grandfather was King of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. As the monarch's only child, between her own birth and the birth on 20 May 1967 of her brother Pavlos, Alexia was

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

to the throne of the Hellenes, then an extant monarchy. The Greek Constitution of 1952 had changed Greece's

order of succession An order of succession or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility.Salic law The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old D ...

, prevalent in much of the continent, and which precluded the succession of women, to

male-preference primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

, which accorded succession to the throne to a female member of a dynasty if she has no brothers, similar to the then extant succession laws of the United Kingdom, Denmark and Spain. Alexia grew up in exile and was raised in between Rome and London. Prior to her education at the Hellenic College of London, she attended the Miss Surtee’s School for Boys and Girls in Rome, Italy. After Hellenic College, she went to the Froebel College of the

Roehampton Institute The University of Roehampton, London, formerly Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, is a public university in the United Kingdom, situated on three major sites in Roehampton, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. Roehampton was formerly an e ...

, a division of the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institu ...

, in 1985 and took a BA in History and Education in 1988. In 1989, she achieved a Post Graduate Certificate of Education and became a primary school teacher in the inner city area of

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

in London between 1989 and 1992de Badts de Cugnac, Chantal. Coutant de Saisseval, Guy. Le Petit Gotha. Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery. Paris. 2002. pp. 522–525, 536–539 (French) Eilers, Marlene. Queen Victoria's Descendants. Rosvall Royal Books, Falkoping, Sweden, 1997. pp. 31–33, 132, 173. before moving to

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

where she became a teacher of children with

developmental disabilities Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, espe ...

Marriage and children

Dual Cypher of Alexia and Carlos of Greece

On 9 July 1999, Alexia married Carlos Javier Morales Quintana, an architect and a champion yachtsman, at St. Sophia Cathedral, London. The bride wore a gown by the Austrian designer Inge Sprawson. Her attendants were her sister Princess Theodora, her niece Princess Maria-Olympia, and Princess Mafalda, daughter of

Kyril, Prince of Preslav Kyril, Prince of Preslav, Duke in Saxony (born 11 July 1964), also known as Kyril of Saxe-Coburg, is the second son of Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prime Minister of Bulgaria from 2001 to 2005 and previously tsar of Bulgaria from 1943 to 1946, an ...

, a son of former King Simeon of Bulgaria. The couple have four children: *Arrietta Morales y de Grecia (b. 24 February 2002,

) *Anna-Maria Morales y de Grecia (b. 15 May 2003, Barcelona) *Carlos Morales y de Grecia (b. 30 July 2005, Barcelona) *Amelia Morales y de Grecia (b. 26 October 2007, Barcelona) Alexia and her family now live in her husband's native land, at Puerto Calero marina, Yaiza,

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...

in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, :es:Canarias, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to ...

, in a house designed by her husband.

Titles and styles

* 10 July 1965 – present: ''Her Royal Highness'' Princess Alexia of Greece and Denmark

Honours

* Greek Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of the Redeemer The Order of the Redeemer ( el, Τάγμα του Σωτήρος, translit=Tágma tou Sotíros), also known as the Order of the Saviour, is an order of merit of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the ...

* Greek Royal Family: Dame 1st Class of the Order of Saints Olga and Sophia (by birth)

Ancestry

Citations

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexia Of Greece And Denmark, Princess 1965 births Living people Nobility from Corfu Greek princesses Danish princesses House of Glücksburg (Greece) Alumni of the University of Roehampton Members of the Church of Greece Special educators Spanish schoolteachers Daughters of kings People from Lanzarote Greek expatriates in Spain