Paul of Greece

Paul (Greek: Παύλος, romanized: Pavlos; 14 December 1901 – 6 March 1964) was King of Greece from 1 April 1947 until his death on 6 March 1964.

Paul was born in Athens as the third son of Crown Prince Constantine and Crown Princess Sophia of Greece. In 1912, the year before his father ascended the throne, Paul joined the Royal Hellenic Navy at eleven years old, becoming the youngest cadet at the time. After the National Schism during World War I, Constantine's abdication was forced and Paul and his family went into exile in Switzerland. Paul's brother, Alexander, became the Greek sovereign in 1917 when Constantine and Paul were exiled, however, Alexander's death in 1920 led to Constantine's restoration. In 1922, Paul's other brother, George, became the monarch. However, a referendum in 1924 two years later saw the abolition of the Greek monarchy. Paul moved to Italy with his family and then to London.

In London, Paul had an affair with his first cousin and his first love, Princess Nina Georgievna of Russia, who would eventually reject his marriage proposal. The monarchy and George's position as king were restored after another referendum in 1935. George was childless, which made Paul the heir presumptive and gave him the responsibility of finding a spouse and having children. At the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, Paul successfully proposed to Frederica of Hanover, who he had been seeing regularly for the past year. However, Paul's engagement to a German princess received a mixed reaction in Greece, especially since Adolf Hitler attempted to include Nazi swastika flags at their wedding ceremony. Paul was forced out of Greece with his family during World War II when Greece fell to the Axis Powers. Paul moved to Egypt and then South Africa, where he left his wife and three young children and moved to London with his brother for the remainder of the war.

After World War II's conclusion, George returned per another referendum and the Greek Civil War broke out. When George died in 1947, Paul succeeded his brother and became the King of Greece. Paul soon contracted typhoid fever, which restricted his ability to manage the Greek Civil War. The war nonetheless concluded in 1949 with monarchists defeating communist forces in the country. During his reign, Paul was also increasingly faced with deterioration in Greco-British relations and Greco-Turkish relations as he worked to achieve enosis. For his support of the movement, Paul was labelled a terrorist in the British media. Though Paul successfully secured money from the Marshall Plan to fund recovery and infrastructure projects, he was criticised for limiting democracy when the new 1952 Greek constitution gave extensive powers to the monarch. During his reign, Paul was commended by the media for his numerous state visits to multiple countries. He was later diagnosed with stomach cancer and died in 1964. He was succeeded by his only son, who became Constantine II. Paul had three children: Queen Sofía of Spain, Constantine II of Greece, and Princess Irene. Paul was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Paul was born on 14 December [Old Style: 1 December] 1901 at the Tatoi Palace in Attica north of Athens, the third son of Crown Prince Constantine and his wife, Princess Sophia of Prussia. To his family, he was known as Palo.

Paul grew up in the Presidential Mansion, where his parents resided, and Tatoi Palace, the official residency of the Greek monarch. Paul grew up with five other siblings. When Paul was three years old, his brother, Alexander, almost killed him by accidentally throwing him off a cart that was going full speed into the royal gardens. Paul grew up speaking English to his parents and learned Greek as a second language.

Paul was born as fourth in line to the Greek throne, behind his father and two older brothers. As a result, Paul did not receive a sophisticated education. He was privately tutored by foreign teachers, Greek university professors, who were chosen by Constantine, and Dr Hoenig, his mother's Pomeranian chaplain. From 1911 to 1914, Paul travelled to the UK to attend summer courses in Eastbourne at Saint Peter's Preparatory School for Young Gentlemen. Paul was said to stand out in more physical subjects, such as woodwork, and in discipline.

In 1909, when Paul was seven years old, a group of Greek officers mounted a coup d'état against his grandfather, George I of Greece. The officers, led by Nikolaos Zorbas, declared themselves in support of the monarchy, however, asked George I to dismiss his sons from the army. His sons instead resigned from the army. As a result of criticism, Constantine decided to move with his wife and his sons, including Paul, to Germany for several months. The family stayed with Princess Margaret of Prussia, who was Paul's maternal aunt, in Kronberg. The family returned to Greece at the beginning of 1911, when the new Greek Prime minister, Eleftherios Venizelos, allowed the princes to regain the ranks in the military. The following year, in 1912, and until 1913, Greece fought in the Balkan Wars. Greece was able to double its size in territory in the wars, during which Paul served as the youngest cadet in the Hellenic navy, at eleven years old.