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Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (10 August 1888 - 21 January 1940) was a member of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg Royal House. [1]
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He was born at Pavlovsk, Imperial Russia; his parents were George I of Greece and Olga, Queen of Greece; he was the youngest of their eight children (twenty years younger than their oldest child, Constantine), and was called "Christo" by the family. His older brothers included Constantine, George, Nicholas and Andrew. [2]
Christopher, like his siblings, was a polyglot, speaking Greek, English, Danish, Russian, French and Italian. The siblings spoke Greek to one another, and used English with their parents. The parents, however, spoke German to each other.
When Christopher came of age he joined the Hellenic Army, although apparently he would much rather have rather studied the piano. While a young man, he was apparently offered no less than three different thrones - those of Portugal, Lithuania, and Albania - but he declined them all, as he did not wish the stress of royal duties.
He was briefly engaged to Princess Alexandra, Duchess of Fife in about 1910. (Alexandra's mother, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, was a daughter of Alexandra of Denmark, an older sister of George I of Greece, his father.) The engagement was terminated when disapproving parents learned of the liaison.
Prince Christopher's mother, Queen Olga, was a former Grand Duchess of Russia before her marriage to King George I of Greece. With the coming of the revolution, seventeen close family members including his first cousin Nicholas II and his wife and five children, of the Romanov family were murdered. [3]
On 1 January 1920, Christopher married a very wealthy American widow, None May "Nancy" Stewart Worthington Leeds, at Vevey, Switzerland. [4] His wife, who was previously widowed and divorced, was granted the title "HRH Princess Anastasia of Greece," and her fortune, which she inherited from her second husband, a tin millionaire, greatly helped the Greek Royal Family during their exile in the 1920s. The wedding followed a six-year engagement while the legal details of marriage to a twice-married commoner were worked on. Shortly after their marriage she developed cancer, and died in London on 29 August 1923, leaving no children from this marriage. Prince Christopher did, however, have a stepson, William Bateman Leeds Jr (1902-1971), who married, in 1921, Princess Xenia Georgievna Romanova of Russia, who was Christopher's niece through his elder sister, Marie, Grand Duchess George of Russia.
Prince Christopher later remarried; his second wife was Françoise de Guise, Princess of Orléans (25 December 1902 - 25th February, 1953). Françoise was a daughter of Jean d'Orléans, Duc de Guise and Isabelle d'Orléans. Isabelle was a daughter of Philippe, Comte de Paris and his wife and first cousin Marie Isabelle d'Orléans. They were married in 1929 in Palermo, Italy; the civil ceremony was on 10 February, and the religious one on 11 February. They had one child, Prince Michael of Greece, who was born in 1939, shortly before his father's death in Athens.
Prince Christopher's first wife was the mother of William B. Leeds who was married to his niece, Princess Xenia Georgievna of Russia who lived on Long Island in the United States. In 1927, he was on a visit to his step-son and Xenia. Xiena was taking an interest in the strange case of a woman who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the late Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. She had been found in one of the hospitals in Berlin where she had been taking after attempting suicide. Her story was when the rest of her family had been murdered she had managed to make her way to Bucarest with the soldier who had rescued her from the cellar in Ekaterinburg. He had brought her to Berlin but left her destitute. [5] As Prince Christopher explained, "That was her story, and, fantastic as it was, there were many who believed then - and still believe - in her, among them one or two members of the Imperial Family." [6] He went on, "Dozens of people who had known the Grand Duchess Anastasia were brought to see the girl in the hope that they might be able to identify her, but none of them could come to any definite conclusion." [7] Beyond this there was little to justify her statements. Prince Christopher described her, "In the first place she was unable to speak Russian, which the Grand Duchess Anastasia, like all the Czar's children, had talked fluently and would only converse in German." [8] Summing up he said of her, "The poor girl was a pathetic figure in her loneliness and ill health, and it was comprehensible enough that many of those around her let their sympathy over-rule their logic. ... She was unable to recognise people whom the Grand Duchess Anastasia had known intimately, and her descriptions of rooms in the different palaces and of other scenes familiar to any of the Imperial Family were often inaccurate." [9]
Prince Christopher recorded his thoughts on Monarchy and those aspiring to it : "Nothing under the sun would induce me to accept a Kingdom. A crown is too heavy a thing to be put on lightly. It has to be worn by those born to that destiny, but that any man should willingly take on the responsibility, not being constrained by duty to do so, passes my comprehension." [10]
Prince Christopher of Greece, the son of King George I of Greece, brother of King Constantine of Greece, uncle of Kings Alexander and George II and Paul of Greece, cousin of King George V of the United Kingdom, cousin of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, cousin of Christian X of Denmark and Uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, died in 21 January 1940. [11]
- ^ Lines of Succession by Jiri Louda, Table 142
- ^ Memoirs of Prince Christopher of Greece, p.15
- ^ ibid, p.150
- ^ ibid, p.152
- ^ ibid pp.216-217
- ^ ibid, p.217
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid
- ^ ibid
- ^ Monarchs In Waiting by Walter J.P.Curley, frontpiece
- ^ Lines of Succession by Jiri Louda, Table 143
- Greece, Christopher, Prince (1938). Memoirs of HRH Prince Christopher of Greece. London: The Right Book Club.
- Curley, Walter (1975). Monarchs In Waiting. London: Hutchinson & Co (Publishers) Ltd. ISBN 0 09 122310 5.
- Louda, Jiri; Michael Maclagan (1981). Lines of Succession. London: Orbis Publishing. ISBN 0 85613 276 4.
| Styles of Prince Christopher of Greece |
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| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |
| Prince Christopher of Greece | Father: George I of Greece |
Paternal Grandfather: Christian IX of Denmark |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel |
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| Paternal Grandmother: Louise of Hesse-Kassel |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Prince William of Hesse |
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| Paternal Great-grandmother: Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark |
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| Mother: Olga Konstantinovna of Russia |
Maternal Grandfather: Konstantine Nicholaievich of Russia |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Nicholas I of Russia |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Charlotte of Prussia |
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| Maternal Grandmother: Alexandra Iosifovna of Altenburg |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg |
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| Maternal Great-grandmother: Amalie of Württemburg, Duchess of Saxe-Altenburg |
Prince Christopher of Greece and Princess Francoise of Guise had one son, Prince Michael of Greece.