Constantine II will be buried on the grounds of his family’s former summer palace in northern Athens, government sources said.
When Constantine II took the throne in 1964 at the age of 23, he was hugely popular as an Olympic gold medalist in sailing. In his first year in office, he lost much of his popular support as he became actively involved in the political machinations that toppled Prime Minister George Papandreou’s centrist Union government.
In 1967, after a coup, a military dictatorship was established in Greece and the king went into exile. The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973, but a referendum was held after the restoration of democracy in 1974 in which 69.2% voted for the republic.
Konstantin was born on June 2, 1940 in Athens in the family of Prince Paul and Princess Frederika. His older sister, Sofia, is the wife of the former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. Constantine’s second cousin is the current King Charles III of Great Britain.
After the German invasion of Greece in 1941, the royal family fled abroad, but returned in 1946. Constantine was educated at three military academies and at the Athens Law School, and competed in several sports, including sailing and karate .
In 1960, Konstantin together with two other Greek sailors won a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rome. In 1963 he became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held this position until 1974, when he became an honorary member of the IOC for life.
When Constantine’s father, King Paul I, died in 1964, Constantine assumed the throne just weeks after the Central Union’s victory in the elections. Constantine II initially had a close relationship with Prime Minister Papandreou, but it deteriorated when the king insisted that control of the military was the monarch’s prerogative.
In April 1967, a dictatorship was declared in Greece after a coup staged by the colonels, Constantine fled to Rome in December and never returned to Greece as king.
The junta appointed a regent to replace the king, but abolished the monarchy on 1 June 1973. The king’s hopes of returning to power after the restoration of democracy were dashed in 1974 by a referendum in which he voted for a republic.
After the abolition of the monarchy, Constantine lived mostly in exile. In 1981 he came to Greece for his mother’s funeral, after which he visited Greece more and more often, finally settling in 2010.
