The London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations between the three Great Powers (United Kingdom, France and Russia) resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian Prince. The decisions were ratified in the Treaty of Constantinople later that year.
The London Conference of 1832 was an international conference convened to establish a stable government in Greece. Negotiations between the three Great Powers resulted in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece under a Bavarian Prince. The decisions were ratified in the Treaty of Constantinople later that year. The treaty followed the Akkerman Convention which had previously recognized another territorial change in the Balkans, the suzerainty of Principality of Serbia.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.
The July Monarchy was a liberal constitutional monarchy in France under Louis Philippe I, starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848. It marks the end of the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830). It began with the overthrow of the conservative government of Charles X, the last king of the House of Bourbon.
The convention offered the throne to the Bavarian Prince, Otto. They also established the line of succession which would pass the crown to Otto's descendants, or his younger brothers should he have no issue. It was also decided that in no case there would be a personal union of the crowns of Greece and Bavaria. Otto went on to rule Greece until he was exiled in the 23 October 1862 Revolution.
A personal union is the combination of two or more states that have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws, and interests remain distinct. A real union, by contrast, would involve the constituent states being to some extent interlinked, such as by sharing some limited governmental institutions. In a federation and a unitary state, a central (federal) government spanning all member states exists, with the degree of self-governance distinguishing the two. The ruler in a personal union does not need to be a hereditary monarch.
The 23 October 1862 Revolution was a popular insurrection which led to the overthrow of King Otto of Greece. Starting on 18 October in Vonitsa, it soon spread to other cities and reached Athens on 22 October.
| King | Reign | Claim |
|---|
| № | Portrait | Name
(Birth–Death) | Reign start | Reign end | Time in office |
|---|
| 1 |  | Otto
Όθων
(1815–1867) | 27 May 1832
[1] | 23 October 1862
(Deposed) | 30 years, 149 days | Ascended to the throne following the 1832 London Conference |
|---|
|
In October 1862, King Otto was deposed in a popular revolt, but while the Greek people rejected Otto, they did not seem averse to the concept of monarchy per se. Many Greeks, seeking closer ties to the pre-eminent world power, Great Britain, rallied around the idea that Prince Alfred, the second son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, could become the next King. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston believed that the Greeks were "panting for increase in territory", hoping that the election of Alfred as King would also result in the incorporation of the Ionian Islands, which were then a British protectorate, into an enlarged Greek state.
Alfred reigned as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1893 to 1900. He was the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was known as the Duke of Edinburgh from 1866 until he succeeded his paternal uncle Ernest II as the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire.
Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. On 1 May 1876, she adopted the additional title of Empress of India.
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria.
The London Conference of 1832, however, had prohibited any of the Great Powers' ruling families from accepting the crown of Greece, and in any event, Queen Victoria was adamantly opposed to the idea. Nevertheless, the Greeks insisted on holding a referendum on the issue of the head of state in November 1862. It was the first referendum ever held in Greece.
Prince Alfred turned down the Kingship and Prince William of Denmark, son of Prince Christian of Denmark, was elected by the National Assembly to become King George I of the Hellenes.
George I was King of Greece from 1863 until his assassination in 1913.
Christian IX was King of Denmark from 1863 until his death in 1906. From 1863 to 1864, he was concurrently Duke of Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg.
Denotes Regent
| King | Reign | Claim |
|---|
| № | Portrait | Name
(Birth–Death) | Reign start | Reign end | Time in office |
|---|
| 2 |  | George I
Γεώργιος A΄
(1845–1913) | 30 March 1863 | 18 March 1913
(Assassinated) | 49 years, 353 days | Ascended to the throne following the 19 November 1862 referendum |
|---|
| 3 |  | Constantine I
Κωνσταντίνος A΄
(1868–1923) | 18 March 1913 | 11 June 1917
(Abdicated) | 4 years, 90 days | Son of George I |
|---|
| 4 |  | Alexander
Αλέξανδρος
(1893–1920) | 11 June 1917 | 25 October 1920 | 3 years, 136 days | Second son of Constantine I |
|---|
| — |  | Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis
Παύλος Κουντουριώτης
(1855–1935) | 28 October 1920 | 17 November 1920
(Resigned) | 20 days | Regent |
|---|
| — |  | Queen Olga
Βασίλισσα Όλγα
(1851–1926) | 17 November 1920 | 19 December 1920 | 32 days | Regent
Widow of George I
Mother of Constantine I |
|---|
| (3) | | Constantine I
Κωνσταντίνος A΄
(1868–1923) | 19 December 1920 | 27 September 1922
(Abdicated) | 1 year, 282 days | Restored to the throne following the 22 November 1920 referendum |
|---|
| 5 |  | George II
Γεώργιος Β΄
(1890–1947) | 27 September 1922 | 25 March 1924
(Deposed) | 1 year, 180 days | Eldest son of Constantine I |
|---|
|
Constantine II reigned as the King of Greece, from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973.
Otto was a Bavarian prince who became the first modern King of Greece in 1832 under the Convention of London. He reigned until he was deposed in 1862.
The Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, colloquially referred to as the Prime Minister of Greece, is the head of government of the Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Greek cabinet. The incumbent prime minister is Alexis Tsipras, who took office on 21 September 2015.
The President of the Hellenic Republic, colloquially referred to in English as the President of Greece, is the head of state of Greece. The President is elected by the Hellenic Parliament, and his role is mostly ceremonial since the 1986 constitutional reform. The office was formally established by the Constitution of Greece in 1975, but has antecedents in the Second Hellenic Republic of 1924–1935 and the republic established by the Greek military junta in 1973–1974. The incumbent, since 2015, is Prokopis Pavlopoulos, serving his first term in office.
The Coat of Arms of Greece is made up of a white Greek cross on a blue escutcheon, surrounded by two laurel branches. It has been in use in its current form since 1975. Prior to the adoption of the current coat of arms, Greece used a number of different designs, some of which were not heraldic; the first heraldic design was introduced in 1832 and its main element, the blue shield with the white cross, has been in use in one form or another since then.
The Greek national assemblies are representative bodies of the Greek people. During and in the direct aftermath of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832), the name was used for the insurgents' proto-parliamentary assemblies. Thereafter, the term has been used for a number of extraordinary assemblies chiefly in regard to changes in the Constitution and the form of government of Greece.
The Second National Assembly of the Hellenes took place in Athens and dealt both with the election of a new sovereign as well as with the drafting of a new Constitution, thereby implementing the transition from constitutional monarchy to a crowned republic.
The Greek royal family is a branch of the House of Glücksburg that reigned in Greece from 1863 to 1924 and again from 1935 to 1973. Its first monarch was George I, the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. He and his successors styled themselves "Kings of the Hellenes".
In the modern history of Greece, starting from the Greek War of Independence, the Constitution of 1975/1986/2001 is the last in a series of democratically adopted Constitutions.
The Presidential Mansion in Athens, Greece, is the official residence of the President of the Hellenic Republic. It served previously as the Royal Palace, until the abolition of the monarchy by referendum in 1973.
The history of the Hellenic Republic constitutes three discrete republican periods in the modern history of Greece: from 1822 until 1832; from 1924 until 1935; and from 1974 through to the present. See also the constitutional history of Greece.
A constitutional referendum was held in Greece on 29 July 1973. The amendments would abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. The proposal was approved by 78.6% of voters with a turnout of 75.0%. This initiated the first period of the Metapolitefsi.
The Speaker, properly the President of the Hellenic Parliament. The president's term coincides with the term of the assembly, and he or she is chosen by a vote during the opening session, after each legislative election. Following is a list of Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament or other national legislative bodies such as the Greek Senate, from the time of the Greek War of Independence till present. The official order of precedence ranks the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament in the 3rd position, after the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.
The Greek Senate was the upper chamber of the parliament in Greece, extant several times in the country's history.
The name of Greece differs in Greek compared with the names used for the country in other languages and cultures, just like the names of the Greeks. The ancient and modern name of the country is Hellas or Hellada, and its official name is the Hellenic Republic "Helliniki Dimokratia". In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from the Latin Graecia and literally means 'the land of the Greeks'.
From 19 November 1862, a plebiscite in Greece was held in support of adopting Prince Alfred of the United Kingdom, later Duke of Edinburgh, as king. The results were announced in February the following year. Of the 240,000 votes reported, over 95% were in favour of the appointment. The previous king, Otto, who had been deposed in a popular revolt, received one vote. There were six votes for a Greek candidate and 93 for a Republic.
The Old Royal Palace is the first royal palace of modern Greece, completed in 1843. It has housed the Hellenic Parliament since 1934. The Old Palace is situated at the heart of modern Athens, facing onto Syntagma Square.
The Monarchy of Greece or Greek Monarchy was the government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign of the Kingdom of Greece from 1832 to 1924 and 1935 to 1973.
