Alexandra of Greece and Denmark
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- This article is about the Queen of Yugoslavia. For the Grand Duchess of Russia, see Alexandra Georgievna of Greece and Denmark.
| Alexandra of Greece and Denmark | ||
|---|---|---|
| Queen of Yugoslavia | ||
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| Titles | HM Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (1945-1993) HM The Queen of Yugoslavia (1944-1945) HRH Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark (1921-1944) |
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| Born | March 25, 1921 | |
| Athens, Greece | ||
| Died | January 30, 1993 | |
| East Sussex, England | ||
| Consort | 1944 - November 9, 1945 | |
| Consort to | Peter II | |
| Issue | Alexander | |
| Royal House | House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg | |
| Father | Alexander I of Greece | |
| Mother | Aspasia Manos | |
Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia (née Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark) (25 March 1921 - 30 January 1993) was the wife of the last King of Yugoslavia, Peter II.
She was born five months after the death of her father, King Alexander I of the Hellenes, to his morganatic widow, Aspasia Manos. His father, King Constantine I, was restored to the Greek throne a month after Alexander's death and returned to Greece from exile. His government officially treated the brief reign of his late son as a regency, which meant that Alexander's marriage, contracted without his father's permission, was technically illegal, the marriage void, and the couple's posthumous daughter, Alexandra, illegitimate.
At the behest of Alexander's mother, Queen Sophia, a law was passed in July 1922 which allowed the King to recognize the validity of marriages of members of the Royal Family contracted without the Royal Assent, even retroactively, although on a non-dynastic basis. King Constantine then issued a decree, gazetted on 10 September 1922, recognizing Alexander's marriage to Aspasia. Thus Alexandra became legitimate in the eyes of Greek law, but continued to lack the right of succession to the throne that dynastic princesses enjoyed under the monarchist constitution.[1][2]
Henceforth, she and her mother were accorded the title "Princess of Greece and Denmark" and the style of Royal Highness.[3] This title was customarily borne by non-reigning members of the Greek Royal Family, who also happened to be members of a cadet branch of the reigning dynasty of Denmark.
As daughter of Aspasia and granddaughter of Petros Manos and Maria Argyropoulos, she was the only scion of the Royal Family of Greece to be of recent Greek descent. Through her mother she descended from, among others, Phanariote Greeks from Constantinople. Like most European royal families, the Glücksburg dynasty, to which her husband belonged, was of predominantly German extraction, but his lineage included some Greek ancestry dating back to the Middle Ages, cf Byzantine descent of Danish royals of Greece.
She died in East Sussex, England and was buried in the former private Greek royal residence at Tatoi in Greece.
[edit] Sources
- Marlene Eilers König, Descendants of Queen Victoria
[edit] References
- ^ Diesbach, Ghislain de (1967). Secrets of the Gotha, translated from the French by Margaret Crosland, London: Chapman & Hall, p. 225.
- ^ Valynseele, Joseph (1967). Les Prétendants aux trônes d'Europe (in French), page 442.
- ^ (1973-03-06) in Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh: Burke's Guide to the Royal Family. London: Burke's Peerage. ISBN 0-220-66222-3.
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| House of Yugoslavia Born: 25 March 1921 Died: 30 January 1993 |
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| Titles in pretence | ||
| Preceded by Marie of Romania |
* NOT REIGNING * Queen Consort of Yugoslavia (1947-1993) |
Succeeded by Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Braganza |
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