Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark

Princess Maria
Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia
Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna
Spouse	Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia Perikles Ioannidis
Issue
Princess Nina Princess Xenia
House	House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov
Father	George I of Greece
Mother	Olga Constantinovna of Russia
Born	3 March 1876(1876-03-03) Athens, Greece
Died	14 December 1940(1940-12-14) (aged 64) Athens, Greece
Burial	Royal Cemetery, Tatoi Palace, Greece
Religion	Eastern Orthodox

Maria or Marie Georgievna, Princess of Greece and Denmark (Greek: Πριγκίπισσα Μαρία της Ελλάδας και Δανίας) (3 March 1876 – 14 December 1940), was the fifth child and second daughter of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia and thus a family member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.

Early life and family

Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna in costume for a 1903 ball.

She was born in Athens as a younger sister to Constantine I of Greece, Prince George of Greece, Alexandra Georgievna of Greece and Prince Nicholas of Greece. She was an older sister of Prince Andrew of Greece and Prince Christopher of Greece as well as the shortly-lived Princess Olga of Greece. She was very close with her cousin Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia. They both later married two Romanov Grand Dukes and stayed together on many occasions.

Marriage

On 30 April 1900, Maria was married to Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia in Corfu. George chased after Maria, who was nicknamed "Greek Minny" to tell her apart from the Dowager Empress Maria of Russia. She refused to marry unless her place in the line of succession to the Greek and Danish thrones was secured. She made it clear that she was not in love with him when she married him, but the Grand Duke hoped that feelings might grow in time. The couple had two daughters:Nina, born 7 June 1901, and Xenia, born 9 August 1903. As they grew older, Maria seized the opportunity to spend more time abroad, ostensibly for her daughters' health, but also to spend more time away from her husband. She was in Great Britain when World War I broke out and chose not return to Russia. She was patron of a military hospital there.

She became a widow on 30 January 1919, when her husband was murdered by the Bolsheviks. On 16 December 1922, Maria was remarried to Admiral Pericles Ioannides in Wiesbaden. She died in her native Athens during the Greco-Italian War (28 October 1940 – 30 April 1941).

Her daughter Xenia lived for years in Long Island and was for a time married to millionaire William Leeds. She took in for a few months a woman later found to be an impostor, Anna Anderson. Anderson fraudently claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, the youngest daughter of Nicholas II of Russia and was forced to leave Xenia's house at the demand of William Leeds. Grand Duchess George never recognised Anderson.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 3 March 1876 – 30 April 1900: Her Royal Highness Princess Maria of Greece and Denmark
• 30 April 1900 – 16 December 1922: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia
• 16 December 1922 – 14 December 1940: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia, Mrs. Perikles Ioannidis

*Note. Women who marry into the Russian Imperial Family are made Grand Duchesses in their own right with the style of Imperial Highness by the Czar. Therefore Princess Maria correct style is Her Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia, Mrs. Perikles Ioannidis.

Ancestry

External links

Media related to Grand Duchess Maria Georgievna of Russia at Wikimedia Commons