Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Infobox Greek Royalty
name = Prince Andrew
title = Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
styles = "HRH" Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark


imgw = 180px
spouse = Princess Alice of Battenberg
issue =Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg
Theodora, Margravine of Baden
Cecilie, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Hesse
Princess Sophie
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
father =George I of Greece
royal house = House of Glücksburg
mother =Olga Konstantinova of Russia
date of birth = birth date|1882|2|2
place of birth = Athens, Greece
date of death = death date and age|1944|12|3|1882|2|2
place of death = Monte Carlo, Monaco
place of burial =Royal Cemetery, Tatoi Palace, Greece|

Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark (20 January/2 February 1882 (o.s./n.s.) - 3 December 1944), of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was the seventh child and fourth son of George I (1845-1913), King of the Hellenes, and of Olga Konstantinova (1851-1926), Grand Duchess of Russia.

Birth and early life

Born in Athens, he was taught English by his caretakers as he grew up, but in conversations with his parents he refused to speak anything but Greek, [Vickers, p.309] which he was better at learning to speak than his siblings.

Marriage and children

Prince Andrew married Princess Alice of Battenberg in a civil wedding on 6 October 1903 at Darmstadt. The following day two religious wedding services were performed: one Lutheran in the Evangelical Castle Church, and another Greek Orthodox in the Russian Chapel on the Mathildenhöhe. ["The Times (London)", Thursday 8 October 1903, p.3] Princess Alice was a daughter of Louis Prince of Battenberg (later 1st Marquess of Milford Haven) and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom. As such, Princess Alice was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and in the line of succession to the British throne. Prince Andrew was also in the British line of succession, but much lower down, due to the descent of his mother from George II through his eldest daughter Anne, Princess Royal. Incidentally, his father was descended from two other younger daughters of George II: Louise and Mary.

Prince and Princess Andrew had five children, all of whom later had children of their own.

Early career

He attended cadet school and staff college at Athens, ["The Times (London)", Monday 4 December 1922, p.17] but took no active part in the Balkan Wars during which he ran a field hospital. ["The Times (London)", Wednesday 19 March 1913, p.6] In 1914, Prince Andrew (like many European princes) held honorary military posts in both the German and Russian empires, as well as Prussian, Russian, Danish and Italian knighthoods. [Marquis of Ruvigny, "The Titled Nobility of Europe" (Harrison and Sons, London, 1914) p.71]

During World War I, he continued to visit Britain, despite veiled accusations in the British House of Commons that he was a German agent. ["The Times (London)", Friday 23 November 1917, p.10]

Exile from Greece

infobox hrhstyles


royal name=Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
dipstyle=His Royal Highness
offstyle=Your Royal Highness
altstyle=Sir|In 1917 he left Greece with his brother, King Constantine, who had abdicated in favour of his second son, Alexander, after unsuccessfully attempting to keep Greece neutral in World War I. After his brother was restored to the throne of Greece four years later, Andrew was given command of the Second Army Corps during the Battle of the Sakarya, which effectively stalemated the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). Dissatisfaction with the progress of the war led to a coup d'état in 1922 during which Prince Andrew was arrested, court-martialled and found guilty of "disobeying an order" and "acting on his own initiative" during the battle the previous year. Although many defendants in the treason trials that followed the coup were shot, ["The Times (London)", Friday 1 December 1922, p.12] Andrew was banished for life and his family fled into exile aboard a British cruiser, HMS "Calypso". ["The Times (London)", Tuesday 5 December 1922, p.12] In 1930, the Prince published his own version of events in a book entitled "Towards Disaster: The Greek Army in Asia Minor in 1921". In 1936, the sentence was quashed by emergency laws, which also restored land and annuities to the King. ["The Times (London)", Monday 27 January 1936, p.9] Andrew returned to Greece for a brief visit that May. ["The Times (London)", Wednesday 20 May 1936, p. 15]

During their time in exile the family became more and more dispersed; his daughters eventually settled in Germany separated from Andrew, and Philip wound up being taken care of by his relatives in the United Kingdom. Alice suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized in Switzerland, and after her recovery returned to Greece. Andrew went to live in the South of France onboard a yacht with his lady friend, Countess Andrée de La Bigne. He died in the Metropole Hotel, Monte Carlo, Monaco of heart failure and arterial sclerosis. [Vickers, p.309]

Alice founded (in 1949) the Greek Orthodox Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, a religious order tending the poor and sick in Greece. She sheltered a Jewish family and was posthumously honored for heroism by Israel.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

*2 February 1882 - 3 December 1944: "His Royal Highness" Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark

Ancestors

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1= 1. Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark
2= 2. George I of Greece
3= 3. Olga Constantinovna of Russia
4= 4. Christian IX of Denmark
5= 5. Louise of Hesse-Kassel
6= 6. Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich of Russia
7= 7. Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg
8= 8. Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg
9= 9. Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse-Kassel
10= 10. Landgrave William of Hesse-Kassel
11= 11. Princess Louise Charlotte of Denmark
12= 12. Nicholas I of Russia
13= 13. Charlotte of Prussia
14= 14. Joseph, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
15= 15. Duchess Amelia of Württemberg
16= 16. Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
17= 17. Countess Friederike of Schlieben
18= 18. Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel
19= 19. Princess Louise of Denmark and Norway
20= 20. Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel
21= 21. Princess Caroline Polyxene of Nassau-Usingen
22= 22. Frederick, Hereditary Prince of Denmark and Norway
23= 23. Duchess Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
24= 24. Paul I of Russia
25= 25. Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg
26= 26. Frederick William III of Prussia
27= 27. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
28= 28. Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg
29= 29. Duchess Charlotte Georgine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
30= 30. Duke Louis of Württemberg
31= 31. Princess Henriette of Nassau-Weilburg

Notes and sources

References

*Vickers, Hugo, "Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece" (Hamish Hamilton, London, 2000) ISBN 0-241-13686-5