Former King of Greece Constantine II died aged 82

Greece’s former King
Constantine II, whose nine-year reign coincided with one of the
most turbulent periods in the country’s political history, died
on Tuesday aged 82, state website ERT news reported.
Constantine II, the only son of King Paul and Queen
Frederica of Greece, ascended to the throne in 1964 after his
father died but his reign was marred by political instability
which culminated in a military coup on April 21, 1967.
A few months later, he was forced to flee the country after
leading an unsuccessful countercoup against the then military
junta.
He remained in Rome until the junta abolished the monarchy
in 1973.
In a referendum called by a national unity government led by
Konstantinos Karamanlis after the fall of the junta in 1974,
Greeks rejected monarchy for a second time, making Constantine
the last king of Greece. Athens later stripped him of his
citizenship.
In 2002, he and other family members were compensated with
13.7 million euros for their former property in Greece which
includes the Tatoi palace estate north of Athens that is
currently being restored and a villa in Corfu, where Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was born, now turned into a museum.
With his wife Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, the former king, a
sailor whose team won a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics, had
five children. Constantine, Prince William’s godfather, and his
family had lived in London for years, before returning to
Greece.
In his last public appearance in the centre of Athens last
year, the former king was seen in a wheelchair and with nasal
catheters, accompanied by his sister, the former Queen of Spain
Sofia, and other family members.
Suffering from chronic heart and mobility problems, the
former king’s health condition had worsened and he had been
hospitalised several times in recent months.