Georges Ier of Greece

See also: Georges Ier

Christian Guillaume Ferdinand Adolphe de Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderbourg-Glücksbourg, more known under the name of Georges Ier of Greece (in Greek: Γεώργιος A', Βασιλεύς των Ελλήνων ), was born on December 24th, 1845 with Copenhagen and is deceased on March 18th, 1913 with Thessalonique. Of German-Danish origin, it is however the second sovereign of the modern Greece and the founder of the contemporary Greek royal dynasty.

Family

Georges Ier of Greece is the second wire and the third child of the king Christian IX of Denmark (1818-1906) and his wife the princess Louise de Hesse-Cassel (1817-1898). As such, he is the brother many European monarchs: the king Frederic VIII of Denmark (1843-1912), the queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom (1844-1925), the tsarina Maria Feodorovna of Russia (1847-1928) and the royal princess Thyra of Hanover.

October 27th, 1867, king Georges Ier marries with Saint-Pétersbourg the large-duchess Olga Constantinovna of Russia (1851-1926), girl of the large-duke Constantin Nicolaevitch of Russia (1827-1892) and his wife the princess Alexandra of Saxony-Altenbourg (1830-1911). Grand-daughter of the tsar Nicolas I {{er}} of Russia (1796-1855), the Olga princess was born in the orthodoxe religion whereas her husband remained Luthérien. She also has the characteristic to be downward direct in line matrilinéaire of the Byzantine empress Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera (v. 1155-1211) and of her husband the emperor Alexis III Angel (1195-1203).

Georges Ier had entrusted to the British diplomat Horace Rumbold whom it had horror of the “defect” and wished to marry to escape temptation. He had thus left for Russia in 1867 with the marked goal to be a wife. It would seem that its plan did not completely function. Throughout its life, it goes almost every year to Aix the Baths to take water there but also to meet its mistresses there.

Marriage of Georges Ier and Olga of Russia are born 8 children:

As prescribed by the treaty which made of Guillaume of Denmark king Georges Ier of the Greeks, his/her children are high in the orthodoxe religion. They learn also the Greek , but English remains the principal language in the family relations. With their Western tutors, the princely children learn also French, German and Danish.

Reign

An elected king

Like many members of his family, prince Guillaume of Denmark begins his career in the royal navy of his country. But, in 1862, a military coup d'etat reverses the king Othon I {{er}} of Greece (1815-1867) and populates it Helene consequently refuses to see the prince Luitpold of Bavaria (1821-1912), brother and designated successor of Othon, to replace this one with the head of the country. The Greek government thus organizes a popular consultation to elect with the head of the kingdom a foreign prince having the favor of its future subjects. At the time of this Referendum, it is Alfred of the United Kingdom (1844-1900), second wire of the queen Victoria, who is elected with: 230066 votes while prince Guillaume collects only six of them.

However, the English candidate is drawn aside by the “Protective Powers” (Russia, France and Great Britain) which direct the policy of the young Greek State. The choice of a son of Victoria would indeed be likely to give a too great influence to the United Kingdom on the government of Athens. Sovereign the British and Lord Palmerston in addition are completely opposed to this election. Victoria indeed wishes to see her son becoming duke of Saxony-Cobourg-Gotha following her uncle. It is thus Guillaume, then 17 years old, who is finally elected unanimously by the Greek National Assembly on March 30th, 1863 (Julien March 18th) . The prince offers the characteristic to be the distance going down from several Byzantine emperors and its election allows, in a certain way, to attach modern Greece to its prestigious medieval history.

By the means of the European great powers, Guillaume thus girds a crown a few months only before his father. Contrary to king Othon Ier, Guillaume is not elected “king de Grèce” but only “king of Hellènes”: it is there the mark of the refusal of its subjects to be again directed by a despotic sovereign. It is also, in a sense, an assertion which it reigns on all the Greeks, even those which live apart from the kingdom of Greece.

Beginning of the reign (1863-1870)

As of its establishment with Copenhagen by a Greek delegation led by the Prime Minister Constantin Kanaris, the chance seems to smile to the new monarch: the British government announces indeed that it wishes to yield the Ionian islands to Greece in its honor. It is thus with a benevolent curiosity that the Greek people receive his king when it arrives at Athens on October 30th, 1863.
June 2nd, 1864 (Julien May 21st) , Georges Ier goes in the lately acquired archipelago and integrates it into the Helene kingdom. But it dissatisfied quickly local population by its measurements. It indeed attaches the Ionian Church, which depended up to that point on the oecumenical patriarch, with the Greek Église autocéphale and removes the Ionian Academy, establishment of higher education which had played a great part in the development of the Greek national feeling.

Determined not to make the same errors that its predecessor, Georges Ier learns the Greek language quickly and chooses for currency “My force is the love of my people”. Contrary to Othon I {{er}}, it is frequently shown in the streets of Athens, where it walks without any pump. Especially, it takes guard well not to seem the puppet of a foreign power. It thus returns to Denmark his uncle prince Jules of the Schleswig-Holstein (1824-1903), that his/her father chose however to him like advising, and declares on this occasion: “I will not allow any interference in the control of my government! ”.

Politically, Georges Ier is of all his weight so that the Greek Parliament sets up a new constitution. October 19th, 1864, it thus sends a request, contresigned by Constantin Kanaris, explaining to the Parliament why it accepted the crown by thinking that a new constitution would be voted and that if such were not the case, it would feel “completely free to adopt all the measures which its disappointment could suggest to him”. It is then difficult to know if the sovereign wants to say that it is ready to turn over to live in Denmark or that it considers contrary to imposing on Greece his constitutional own text. But, as none of the two solutions is appropriate for the Parliament, the deputies end up agreeing on a new text.

November 28th, 1864, the king lends oath to defend the new constitution which gives the day to a Constitutional monarchy with a Parliament monocaméral (the Vouli ) elected by the male vote. In spite of the reforms, the corruption and the strong rate of illiteracy return the government of the very difficult country. Throughout the reign of Georges Ier, Greece thus sees being held twenty-and-a legislative elections while seventy different governments follow one another.

Abroad, the king maintains close relationships with his brother-in-law, the future Edouard VII of the United Kingdom (1841-1910), which is for him a faithful support. The bonds between the two characters appear thus clearly at the time of the Révolte crétoise of 1866-1869, during which the prince of Wales makes pressure on the British Minister for the Foreign affairs, Edward Stanley, count de Derby, so that it intervenes in favor of the Greeks against the Ottoman Empire. However, the “Great powers” refuse to support the irredentists hellenes and the Turks crush the rebellion in blood. For marking the proximity well existing between the two brothers-in-law, the prince and the princess of Wales return visit to king Georges Ier and to his wife in their country, in 1869.

Political evolution and territorial expansion (1871-1881)

From 1864 to 1874, Greece sees following one another 21 different governments and that which remains longest with the capacity lasts only one year and half. Denouncing this irrefutable fact, Charilaos Trikoupis written, in July 1874, an anonymous article, entitled “ Τί φτάει; ” ( With which it fault? ) in the newspaper Kairoi where he blames king Georges Ier and his advisers for the continual political crisis which undergoes the country. In this article, the politician shows the king to act as an absolutist monarch by imposing a Minority government on his people. He explains indeed that, if the king insisted that only politicians belonging to a majority elected within the Vouli are named Prime Ministers, then the deputies would be obliged to work together in a more harmonious way and would form coalition governments. For Trikoupis, such an attitude would put an end to political instability and would reduce moreover the number of the small parts which pullulate in the country.

Little time afterwards, Trikoupis admits being the author of this article in order to protect the individual whom the police force stopped to have written it. The politician is then placed in his turn in detention but then discharged loads of “attack to the constitutional order” which weigh on him and slackened. The following year, the king asks Trikoupis to form a new government (without parliamentary majority) then pronounces a Speech from the throne where he declares that, henceforth, the leader of the parliamentary majority would be appointed like Prime Minister.

Throughout the years 1870, Greece makes pressure on the Ottoman Empire so that it yields the Épire to him and the Thessalie. The Russo-Turkish Guerre of 1877-1878 provides to Greece its first allied potential, the more so as the tsar Alexandre II of Russia (1818-1881) is the brother-in-law of Georges Ist But France and Great Britain prohibit in Greece to intervene in the conflict and force it to remain neutral. At the time of the Congress of Berlin of 1878, the Helene kingdom however asserts the acquisition of Crete, Epire and Thessalie.

In June 1880, the new Balkan borders are still not delimited when a proposal very favorable to Greece (because including in the territories having to return to him the Mont Olympe and the town of Ioannina) is made by the British and the French. The Turks oppose this project and Trikoupis makes the error to threaten the Ottoman Empire of a mobilization of its army. The replacement of Charles de Freycinet by Jules Ferry as President of the Council in France causes dissensions between the great powers and allows the Othomans to deliver to the Greeks only Thessalie and the part of Épire located around Arta. When the government of Trikoupis is reversed, the new Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koumoundouros accepts the territorial delimitations unwillingly.

National alarm clock (1882-1900)

The crisis of 1885

Whereas Trikoupis pursued a policy of cutting off behind the borders of the small Greek State, its principal opponent, Theodoros Deligiannis, chief of the nationalist Party, seeks to ignite the feeling turcophobe Greek population. In 1885, the Bulgaria revolts against the Othoman occupant and is declared independent. At the same time, Deligiannis gains the elections against Trikoupis. He declares on this occasion that, if the Bulgarian people could be opposed to the Traité of Berlin, then the Greeks should make in the same way.

Channel of Corinth and Olympic Games

Greece of the last decades of the 19th century is increasingly prosperous and takes little by little conscience of its importance on the European chess-board. In 1893, the Canal of Corinth is dug by a French company, which makes it possible to reduce considerably the sea journey of the Adriatique to the Pirée.

In 1896, the Olympic Games are recreated on the initiative of the baron Pierre de Coubertin and the opening ceremony of the Plays is chaired by king Georges. It is also him which finances the archaeological excavations, directed by the German archeologist Ernst Ziller, which puts at the day the panathénaïque Stade which is used to the Olympic seconds Games as Zappas in November 1970. When the Greek shepherd Spyrídon Loúis gains the Marathon, the diadoque Constantin change of the steps to run to its sides on the last meters while the king rises to applaud.

The failure of the Thirty day old War

The desire of the Greeks to be all joined together in the same independent kingdom (the Megali Idea ) continuous to justify the policy of the country and its king. A new popular revolt bursts in Crete and the king sends to it his second wire, the prince Georges, in February 1897, to take possession of the island.

If the Ottoman Empire obtempère, the Deligiannis Prime Minister refuses and sends: 1400 soldiers in Crete under the command of colonel Timoleon Vassos. The European great powers announce the blockade of the Greek coasts then while the troops hellenes cross the border Macedonian. The Othoman sultan Abdülhamid II (1842-1918) thus declares the war with his old province. The advertisement is accommodated very favorably in Greece and of the processions in favor of Georges Ier spontaneously take place in the streets of Athens. Thousands of volunteers gain North to join the forces placed under the command of diadoque Constantin.

However, the Othoman army is prepared well better than the Greek army. The soldiers hellenes are quickly obliged to beat a retreat and, at the end of the month of April 1897, the war is lost. It becomes known then under the humiliating name of “Thirty day old Guerre”. Thanks to the intervention of prince de Galles and the tsar, the consequences of the defeat are attenuated considerably for Greece but the country is all the same forced to give up Crete, to make some minor territorial concessions with the Ottoman Empire and to pour to him with an allowance of: 4000000 of Turkish pounds.

The joy with which the subjects of Georges Ier accommodated the beginning of the war transforms into resentment against the sovereign after the defeat. The opposition against him is so strong besides that he thinks one moment to abdicate. But, in February 1898, takes place an attempted murder against the monarch and this one acts so bravely during the event which the Helene people return to him immediately his regard. For those at which the feeling antimonarchic remains strong, the theory of the plot develops. The attack would have been a handling of the palate to reconquer the sympathy of the public opinion.

In Crete, agitation continues and the British vice-consul is assassinated. The great powers then propose to make of the prince Georges the Governor-general of the island under the suzerainty of the sultan, which would put de facto Crete under Greek domination, with however a statute of autonomy.

End of the reign (1901-1913)

The death of the Victoria queen on January 22nd, 1901 made of Georges Ier the second European monarch with the longest reign (after the emperor François-Joseph I {{er}} of Austria). The cordial relations of the king with his brother-in-law Edouard VII of the United Kingdom continue, which largely explains the support that Great Britain brings to prince Georges in his functions of Governor-general of Crete. The prince gives up his station however after the leader of the assembly of the island, Eleftherios Venizelos, made countryside to make it resign. In answer to the Revolution of the Young person-Turks of 1908, the supports of Venizelos become even more numerous. October 8th, 1908, the Parliament crétoise vote a resolution in favor of the union of the island in Greece, and this in spite of the reserves of the Helene government of Georgios Theotokis and the objections of the great powers.

A group of Greek officers forms then a military league, the Stratiotikos Syndesmos , requiring that the family members royal be dislocated their military functions. In order to avoid with the sovereign shame to have to dislocate its own sons of their stations in the army, the princes resign of themselves. The military league organizes a coup d'etat known under the name of “blow of Goudi” but the king supports the Parliament legally elected. Finally, the Stratiotikos Syndesmos joined Venizelos and the forces which require of the National Assembly to revise the constitution. The king yields and of new elections take place. Venizelos thus obtains the post of Prime Minister but its government is minority. One month after, Venizelos makes organize other elections that it gains with a very strong majority.

Venizelos and Georges Ier are both convinced that Greece needs a strong army to repair the damage caused by humiliating demolished of 1897. Diadoque Constantin thus finds his post of general inspector of the army then is named Commander-in-chief. Under its supervision and that of the Prime Minister, the army is modernized and equipped with the support with French and English officers. New warships are also ordered by the Helene navy. In same time, Venizelos succeeds in linking the Christian States of the Balkans in their opposition to the Empire ottoman.
October 8th, 1912, the Montenegro declares the war in Turkey. Quickly, the Serbia, the Bulgaria and the Greece make in the same way: it is the beginning of the First Balkan war. This time, them: 200000 Greek combatants gain victory after victory. November 9th, 1912, the forces hellenes enter Thessalonique, just a few hours before the arrival of a Bulgarian division. Accompanied by his oldest son and Venizelos, king Georges Ier arrives a few days later in what is from now on the second town of Greece. The days which follow, the king undertakes to discover the recently released city and leaves to walk without protection in the streets, like it with the practice to do it in Athens. But, in the afternoon of March 18th, 1913, the sovereign is assassinated by Alexandros Schinas, whereas it is close to the white Tour of Salonique. The Greek government refuses any political reason with the assassination and declares that Schinas is an alcoholic vagrant. Thereafter, the murderer is tortured in prison and he dies, six weeks later, after having jumped of a window.

During five days, the coffin of the king, surrounded of the flags Greek and Danish, is placed in the cathedral of Athens. The skin of the monarch is then buried in the gardens of the royal palace of Tatoi.

Others

In deprived, king Georges Ier and his wife generally converse in German language. But, with their children, it is English whom the sovereigns use more.

Nostalgic of his country, Georges Ier discreetly installs a dairy farm, held by Danes, on the grounds of his palate of Tatoi. The place is for him a place of rest bucolic where it has all the leisure to join again with its memories of childhood. The Olga queen is on the other hand much less discrete in the expression of sound badly of the country and visit very regularly the Russian boats which make stopover in Pirée.

See too

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