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Alexandra of Greece and Denmark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Queen of Yugoslavia. For the Grand Duchess of Russia, see Alexandra Georgievna of Greece and Denmark.
| Alexandra of Greece and Denmark | |
|---|---|
| Queen Consort of Yugoslavia | |
 |
|
| Queen Alexandra, circa 1960 | |
| Titles | HM Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (1945-1993) HM The Queen of Yugoslavia (1944-1945) HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (1921-1944) |
| Born | March 25, 1921 |
 Athens, Greece |
|
| Died | January 30, 1993 (aged 71) |
 East Sussex, England |
|
| Buried | Tatoi Royal Cemetery, Greece |
| Consort | 1944 - November 9, 1945 |
| Consort to | Peter II |
| Issue | Alexander II Crown Prince |
| Royal House | House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg |
| Father | Alexander I of Greece |
| Mother | Aspasia Manos |
Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (née Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark) (25 March 1921 - 30 January 1993) was the wife of the last King of Yugoslavia, Peter II.
She was born five months after the death of her father, King Alexander I of the Hellenes, to his morganatic widow, Aspasia Manos. His father, King Constantine I, was restored to the Greek throne a month after Alexander's death and returned to Greece from exile. His government officially treated the brief reign of his late son as a regency, which meant that Alexander's marriage, contracted without his father's permission, was technically illegal, the marriage void, and the couple's posthumous daughter, Alexandra, illegitimate.
At the behest of Alexander's mother, Queen Sophia, a law was passed in July 1922 which allowed the King to recognize the validity of marriages of members of the Royal Family contracted without the Royal Assent, even retroactively, although on a non-dynastic basis. King Constantine then issued a decree, gazetted on 10 September 1922, recognizing Alexander's marriage to Aspasia. Thus Alexandra became legitimate in the eyes of Greek law, but continued to lack the right of succession to the throne that dynastic princesses enjoyed under the monarchist constitution.[1][2]
Henceforth, she and her mother were accorded the title "Princess of Greece and Denmark" and the style of Royal Highness.[3] This title was customarily borne by non-reigning members of the Greek Royal Family, who also happened to be members of a cadet branch of the reigning dynasty of Denmark.
As daughter of Aspasia and granddaughter of Petros Manos and Maria Argyropoulos, she was the only scion of the Royal Family of Greece to be of recent Greek descent. Through her mother she descended from, among others, Phanariote Greeks from Constantinople. Like most European royal families, the Glücksburg dynasty, to which her husband belonged, was of predominantly German extraction, but his lineage included some Greek ancestry dating back to the Middle Ages, cf Byzantine descent of Danish royals of Greece.
Alexandra for most of her life suffered from alcoholism and mental problems, by her twenties she had attempted suicide a number of times, her husband also suffered from alcoholism and numerous other problems, their son was raised by his grandmother Aspasia. In the 1950s, Queen Alexandra, described by royal biographer Hugo Vickers as "neurotic and not very bright", had a lengthy affair with the mysterious and controversial Hungarian-born banker Arpad Plesch.[4] He paid many of the financially strapped royal couple's debts during their exile.
Queen Alexandra died in East Sussex, England and was buried in the former private Greek royal residence at Tatoi in Greece.
- Marlene Eilers König, Descendants of Queen Victoria
- ^ Diesbach, Ghislain de (1967). Secrets of the Gotha, translated from the French by Margaret Crosland, London: Chapman & Hall, p. 225.
- ^ Valynseele, Joseph (1967). Les Prétendants aux trônes d'Europe (in French), page 442.
- ^ (1973-03-06) in Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh: Burke's Guide to the Royal Family. London: Burke's Peerage. ISBN 0-220-66222-3.
- ^ Etti (Mrs Arpad) Plesch, Horses & Husbands: The Memoirs of Etti Plesch, Dorset: Dovecote Press, pages 152
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Alexandra of Greece and Denmark
Cadet branch of the House of Oldenburg
Born: 25 March 1921 Died: 30 January 1993 |
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| Yugoslavian royalty | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Marie of Romania |
Queen consort of Yugoslavia March 20, 1944-November 9, 1945 |
Succeeded by None Monarchy abolished Republic declared |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by None |
— TITULAR — Queen consort of Yugoslavia November 9, 1945-January 30, 1993 Reason for succession failure: Kingdom abolished in 1945 |
Succeeded by Katherine Clairy Batis |
