George I, King of the Hellenes, 1863-1913
The revolution that had taken place in Greece in 1862 obliged the sovereign of that realm, Otto of Bavaria, to return to his native land. Greece found herself without a king, and the Greek throne was declined by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The Duc d'Anjou, younger son of Louis Philippe, was also "mentioned." After much talk, and a good many tergiversations, the Greek National Assembly, after having vainly tried to obtain as its Sovereign the second son of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Edinburgh, offered its Crown to Prince William of Denmark, the brother of the Princess of Wales. The Great Powers interested in the Greek question having given their assent to this choice in London on June 5th, 1863, the young prince was recognised as King of the Hellenes under the name of George I.
George I (Christian William Ferdinand Adolphus George), king of the Hellenes, was born December 24, 1845. He was the second son of Christian IX, the king of Denmark, and was brother of the Princess of Wales and of the Czarevna of Russia. He was proclaimed by the National Assembly at Athens as King George I, March 30, 1863, with the consent of Great Britain, France, and Russia, the three protecting powers. He started for his new country in October of the same year, bringing as a present to his people the Ionian Islands, which England had consented to retrocede to Greece. The years of his reign were chiefly marked by endeavours to improve the financial position of the state, by frequent changes of ministry, and by the popular sympathy manifested towards the Cretan insurrectionists, which almost involved the country in war with the Ottoman empire.
The King of Greece married October 27, 1867 the beautiful Olga Constantinovna the Grand-Duchess Olga Constantinovna, eldest daughter of the Grand-Duke Constantine Nicolaievitch of Russia, and niece of the Emperor Alexander. Her presence at Athens would ensure to the new Greek kingdom the powerful protection of Russia. The Queen of Denmark remained on terms of the most tender intimacy with the new Queen of the Hellenes, who on her side reciprocated her affection with all her heart, and whose warm sympathy and tenderness never failed her in after life, and stood beside her during its most cruel moments, when she lost the husband she loved so dearly.
King George was the brother of England's Queen Dowager, Alexandra, and of the Empress Dowager of Russia. The King's consort was a cousin, also, of the present Czar of Russia. Haakon VII of Norway and Christian X of Denmark are nephews of the late King - and these were only a few of the royal connections.
The reign was marked by partisan conflicts within, and two wars with Turkey - 1897 and 1912-1913. In 1898 an attempt upon the life of the King was made in the suburbs of Athens. King George I of Greece, while walking in the principal street of Salonika on 18 March 1913, was shot by Aleko Schoinas, a Greek, and died within half an hour. The regicide, armed with a revolver, approached his victim from behind. The assassination took place in one of the two important towns captured by King George's troops in the second Turkish war of his reign. The murderer is said to be an anarchist, a university graduate, and a former resident of New York. This last particular is hearsay.
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