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Frederika of Hanover
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| Frederika of Hanover | |
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| Queen of the Hellenes | |
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| Consort | 1 April 1947 – 6 March 1964 |
| Consort to | Paul I |
| Issue | |
| Sofia, Queen of Spain Constantine II Princess Irene |
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| Titles | |
| HM Queen Frederica of Greece HM The Queen of the Hellenes HRH The Crown Princess of Greece HRH Princess Frederica of Hanover |
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| Royal house | House of Hanover |
| Father | Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick |
| Mother | Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia |
| Born | 18 April 1917 Blankenburg, Harz, Germany |
| Died | 6 February 1981 (aged 63) Madrid, Spain |
| Burial | Tatoi, Athens |
Frederica of Hanover (Frederica Louise Thyra Victoria Margaret Sophie Olga Cecily Isabelle Christina; Greek: Φρειδερίκη Βασίλισσα της Ελλάδας; 18 March 1917 – 6 February 1981) was Queen Consort of King Paul I of the Hellenes as Queen Frideriki of the Hellenes (Greek: βασίλισσα Φρειδερίκη των Ελλήνων)
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Frederika was born on 18 April 1917 in Blankenburg, Harz, Germany. She was daughter of Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick and Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, the only daughter of German Emperor William II and Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
Through her maternal grandfather Frederika was a great-granddaughter of German Emperor Frederick III and Empress Victoria, Victoria, Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Through this relationship Frederika was a distant cousin of the United Kingdom's Elizabeth II and also of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. As a descendant of George III of the United Kingdom she was, at birth, 34th in the line of succession to the British throne although she had no British rank or title.
In 1936 Prince Paul, heir apparent to the Greek throne, later Paul I of the Hellenes proposed to her in Berlin when he was there to see the 1936 Summer Olympics. Their engagement was announced officially on 28 September 1937. On 9 January 1938 they married in Athens. Prince Paul was the son of King Constantine I and Queen Sophie of Prussia, sister of German Emperor William II (therefore he was a great-grandson of Queen Victoria and a second cousin to Frederika).
During the early part of their marriage they resided at Villa Psychiko in the suburbs of Athens. Ten months after their marriage their first child was born on 2 November 1938: Sophia, the future Queen Sofia of Spain. On 2 June 1940 their son and heir, Constantine was born.
At the peak of World War II, in April, 1941 the Greek Royal Family evacuated to Crete in a Sunderland flying boat. In exile, King George II and the rest of the Greek Royal Family settled in South Africa. Here Frederika's last child, Princess Irene, was born on May 11, 1942. The South African leader, General Jan Smuts, served as her godfather.
Shortly afterwards the German forces attacked Crete. Frederika and her family were evacuated again, setting up a government-in-exile office in London. The family eventually settled in Egypt in February of 1944.
On September 1, 1946 the Greek people decided by referendum to restore King George to the throne. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess returned to their villa in Psychiko.
| Styles of Queen Frederika of The Hellenes |
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| Reference style | Her Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
On 1 April 1947 George II died. Frederica and her husband ascended the throne as King Paul I and Queen Frederika of The Hellenes. Communist political instability in Northern Greece led to into the Greek Civil War. The King and Queen toured Northern Greece under severe security to try to appeal for loyalty in the summer of 1947.
During the civil war Queen Frederika set the Queen's Camps or Child-cities (translation of: Παιδο(υ)πόλεις / Paidopoleis or Paidupoleis) a network of 53 Camps around Greece where she would gather mostly orphans and children of poor families. These camps admirably provided much needed shelter, food, and education to these children who were aged 3 years to adolescence. Many children who were abducted by communist forces during the civil war were taken against their parents' will into countries behind the Iron Curtain with an aim at communist re-education and as a means of recruiting rebels for the communist cause. This cause included the partition of Greece into a northern communist state. It is estimated by sources including the United Nations and the International Red Cross that 28 000 children were taken by the communists to Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. Most children were never returned after the civil war ended in the communist defeat. Many of the children who managed to return with the help of the International and Greek Red Crosses were placed in these Queen's Camps with the personal support of the Queen. Furthermore, many children from earthquake ravaged cities in Greece during the early 1950s were accepted into the Paidopoleis.
The role of these Queen's Camps is disputed by the left-wing as a means of propaganda by the monarchy through the educational program. The Queen's Camps were a way to fend for the children - victims of the civil war. Some communist sources have always insisted that many children were illegally adopted by American families while they were in the Paidopoleis. To date there has not been any credible evidence that any child was illegally adopted from the Queen's Camps. Conversely, there are hundreds of personal accounts and written testimonies from children who grew up in the Paidopoleis. These testimonies describe a program of emotional and educational support from the staff involved. Queen Frederika personally visited these camps many times to review the children's program and meet the needs of the children and/or their families. According to the Greek Royal Family's Historic Record over 33,000 children passed through these Queen's Camps. In the years following the civil war, these children were returned to their families or next of kin after they completed their (usually) high school education.
The King and Queen worked tirelessly for Greece. The Greek Civil War ended in August, 1949. The Sovereigns took this opportunity to strengthen the monarchy, they paid official visits to Marshal Josip Broz Tito in Belgrade, the Presidents Luigi Einaudi of Italy in Rome, Theodor Heuss of West Germany, Bechara El Khoury of Lebanon, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari of India, King George VI of the United Kingdom, and the United States as guest of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, at home in Greece, Queen Frederika was targeted by the opposition, because as a girl she had belonged, as all German girls were forced to,[citation needed] to a Bund Deutscher Madel girl's branch of the Hitler Youth group. Three of her brothers served in the Wehrmacht.[citation needed] Others argue, given the Hitler dictatorship, it would be an unwise parent in 1930s Germany who did not comply with the order that their offspring must join the Hitler Youth.[citation needed] She would have been about the only non-Jewish German child not to have complied with the Nazi directive.[citation needed]
Her 16 November 1953 appearance in Life as America's guest was taken on one of the many state visits she paid around the world. Also that year she appeared on the cover of Time. On 14 May 1962 her eldest daughter Sofia married Prince Juan Carlos of Spain, (later King Juan Carlos I of Spain) in Athens.
On 6 March 1964 King Paul died of cancer, and her son ascended the throne as Constantine II. He married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark later that year on 18 September. Queen Frederika, now Queen Mother, attended many royal events including the christenings of her grandchildren in both Spain and Greece.
Constantine's clashes with the democratically elected Prime Minister George Papandreou, senior were blamed by critics for causing the destabilisation that led to a military coup on 21 April 1967 and the rise of the regime of the colonels. Constantine initially collaborated with the military dictatorship, swearing in their government under a royalist prime minister. However, he eventually attempted a counter-coup, whose failure forced him into exile.
On June 1, 1973 the junta abolished the Greek Monarchy and attempted to legitimize its actons through a 1973 plebiscite that was widely suspected of being rigged. The new head-of-state became President of Greece George Papadopoulos.
The dictatorship ended on 24 July 1974. A genuinely democratic plebiscite was held in 1974, in which Constantine (who was able to campaign only from outside the country) freely admitted his past errors, promised to support democracy, and in particular, promised to keep his mother Queen Frederika away from Greece and out of Greek politics. Nevertheless, a massive 70% of Greeks voted to abolish the monarchy and to make Greece a democratic republic.
Queen Frederika died on 6 February 1981 in exile in Madrid during ophthalmic surgery. In its obituary of the Queen, The New York Times reported that she died during "eyelid surgery," which led to frequent but unsubstantiated rumors that she died while undergoing plastic surgery. Other sources state that her cause of death was a heart attack while undergoing the removal of cataracts.
She was interred at Tatoi (the Royal family's palace and burial ground in Greece). Her son and his family were allowed to attend the service but had to leave immediately afterwards.
- 18 March 1917 – 9 January 1938: Her Royal Highness Princess Frederica of Hanover
- 9 January 1938 – 1 April 1947: Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Greece
- 1 April 1947 – 6 March 1964: Her Majesty The Queen of the Hellenes
- 6 March 1964 – 6 February 1981: Her Majesty Queen Frederica of Greece
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Frederika of Hanover
Cadet branch of the House of Welf
Born: 18 April 1917 Died: 6 February 1981 |
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| Greek royalty | ||
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| Preceded by Elisabeth of Romania |
Queen Consort of Greece 1 April 1947– 6 March 1964 |
Succeeded by Anne-Marie of Denmark |