Crown Prince of Greece

Heir to the defunct throne of Greece

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The Crown Prince of Greece (Greek: Διάδοχος, romanized: Diadochos) is the heir apparent or presumptive to the defunct throne of Greece. Since the abolition of the Greek monarchy by the then-ruling military regime on 1 June 1973, it is merely considered a courtesy title.

Title

Neither the constitution of 1844 or 1864, which served as the basis for other fundamental laws of the Kingdom of Greece, recognised titles of nobility. On the contrary, they prohibited even the sovereign from conferring such titles.^[1]^{[N 1]}^{[N 2]}

As a result, the heir apparent was usually referred to simply as "the diadochos" by virtue of his function, rather than as a title. The word diadochos (διάδοχος) simply means "successor, he who collects the estate". This is a deverbal of διαδέχομαι (diadéchomai), "receive by succession",^[2] and has been used since the Archaic period for heirs-apparent.^[3] The most famous bearers of the title were the Diadochi, the "Successors" of Alexander the Great, who contended with each other for the spoils of his empire.^[4]

Only one crown prince, the future Constantine I, bore a separate title of nobility, that of "Duke of Sparta." It was created soon after his birth in 1868. However, that caused a political scandal as many viewed it as a violation of the constitution. In the end, the creation was ultimately ratified by the Greek parliament, while the title's use within Greece continued to be highly restricted.^[5]

Succession

The London Conference of 1832, established a semi-salic line of succession which would pass the crown to Otto I's descendants, or his younger brothers, should he have no issue. It was also decided that in no case would the crowns of Greece and Bavaria be joined in a personal union.^[6]

The continued inability of Otto and Queen Amalia to have children was a permanent threat to the stability of Otto's throne: the 1844 constitution insisted that Otto's successor had to be Orthodox, but as the king was childless, the only possible heirs were his younger brothers, Luitpold and Adalbert. The staunch Catholicism of the Wittelsbachs complicated matters, as Luitpold refused to convert and Adalbert married Infanta Amalia of Spain. The sons of Adalbert, and especially the eldest, Ludwig Ferdinand, were now considered the most likely candidates, but due to the issue of religion, no definite arrangements were ever made prior to Otto's deposition in 1862.^[7]

Since the establishment of the constitution of 1952, the daughters of the sovereign came after their brothers in the order of succession to the throne.

When Constantine II succeeded Paul I in 1964, his sister became heir presumptive according to the 1952 Constitution but that caused a constitutional crisis because his father's cousin Prince Peter who declared himself heir to the throne on the pretext that female dynasts had been unlawfully granted succession rights, but Prince Peter lost his succession rights by marrying Irina Ovtchinnikova in 1939. Also at the time Constantine's older sister Princess Sophia married the future Juan Carlos I in 1962 and cousin Prince Philip married Queen Elizabeth II in 1947 renounced their rights for their descendants.

Personal standard

1914 version
1935 version

Crown princes of the House of Glücksburg

Name	Heir of	Birth	Became Heir	Created Crown Prince	Ceased to be Crown Prince	Death	Other titles	Crown Princess
Constantine	George I	2 August 1868			18 March 1913	1 January 1923	Prince of Denmark	Princess Sophia of Prussia
George	Constantine I	20 July 1890	18 March 1913		11 June 1917	1 April 1947	Prince of Denmark
	Alexander I	Vacant
George	Constantine I	20 July 1890	19 December 1920		27 September 1922	1 April 1947	Prince of Denmark	Princess Elisabeth of Romania
Paul	George II	14 December 1901	27 September 1922	3 November 1935	1 April 1947	6 March 1964		Princess Frederica of Hanover
Constantine	Paul I	2 June 1940	1 April 1947		6 March 1964	10 January 2023
Irene	Constantine II	11 May 1942	6 March 1964		10 July 1965		Princess of Denmark
Alexia		10 July 1965			20 May 1967		Princess of Denmark
Paul		20 May 1967			1 June 1973		Prince of Denmark	Marie-Chantal Claire Miller

References

^ Greek Constitution of 1844 at Heraldica.org (in French). Retrieved on 1 April 2014.
^ Anatole Bailly, Greek-French Dictionary, Librairie Hachette, 1952, pp. 466–468.
^ L.H. Jeffery, Archaic Greece: The City States C. 700-500 B.C., Ernest Benn, 1971. p. 39
^ Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française, vol. 2, Le Robert, 1972, p. 208 (in French).
^ Markezinis, Spyridon (1968). Πολιτική Ιστορία της Νεωτέρας Ελλάδος (1828 - 1964). Τόμος Β′: Η Συνταγματική Βασιλεία, 1863 - 1909 (in Greek). Athens: Papyros. p. 67.
^ Succession Laws of the Greek Monarchy at Heraldica.org. Retrieved on 1 April 2014.
^ Jelavich 1961, pp. 126–127.

Notes

^ Article XXXIII of the Constitution of 1844 states:
“The King has the right to confer the insignia of existing orders, in accordance with the laws which have been established. But can not give titles of nobility or recognise those who would be given by a foreign power to Greek citizens.”
^ Article III of the Constitution of 1864 states:
“Titles of nobility and distinction are neither conferred nor recognised for Greek citizens.”

Bibliography

Jelavich, Barbara (1961). "Russia, Bavaria and the Greek Revolution of 1862/1863". Balkan Studies. 2 (1): 125–150. ISSN 2241-1674.
Eéche, Arturo B.; Michael of Greece; Helen Hemis-Markesinis (2007). The Royal Hellenic Dynasty. Eurohistory. ISBN 978-0977196159.
Palmer, Alan W.; Michael of Greece (1990). The Royal House of Greece. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0297830600.