Hero or Burden? - King Constantine I of Greece I WHO DID WHAT IN WW1?

by Panzer
He was a king at court and a soldier in the field, and to many Greeks during the First
World War he was the living embodiment of Greek liberty.
I’m talking about King Constantine I.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War bio special of “Who did what in World War
One?” today featuring, Constantine, King of the Greeks.
Constantine was the first Greek born prince.
King Otto, the first Greek king after Greece became independent from the Ottoman Empire
in 1832, had been childless, and so the “protector powers” Britain, France, and Russia had
installed George I of the Danish House of Glücksburg as the new king in 1863 after
Otto was deposed.
The first Greek prince being born was a big deal, and the Greek people demanded he be
named Constantine.
This was because Constantine XI Paleologus had been the last Byzantine Emperor when Constantinople
fell, and folk legends said that the king who would take back Constantinople from the
Ottomans would be named Constantine.
King George created the title “Duke of Sparta” for his young son, but this caused a heated
debate in Parliament since the constitution forbade any noble titles for the citizenry,
even for the royal family.
Constantine was tutored by the best professors and they instilled in him the Megali idea-
the great idea- that Greece should liberate and unite all the Greeks living under foreign
rule, which was four times the actual population of Greece.
He enrolled in the Greek Military Academy in 1882 and after his graduation four years
later, continued his military education in Berlin and served in the German Imperial Guard,
though he also studied business and political science.
He believed more in the divine right of kings than democracy.
In 1889, he married Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm’s sister, and in 1890 returned to Athens as
a Major General.
In the 1890s Constantine was President of the Organizing Committee for the first modern
Olympic Games, working together with Pierre de Coubertin.
The successful conduct of the games really fueled Greek nationalism, so the next year
when a revolt broke out in Crete against the Ottomans, Greece sent 2,000 men there and
declared the island part of Greece.
The Ottomans invaded and Constantine, as crown prince and the only general in the army, took
command of the men.
Greece was unprepared for war.
The Ottomans occupied Thessaly and after an armistice was signed Greece was forced to
pay huge reparations.
The country itself was put under International Financial Control and the general consensus
was that Constantine bore a lot of responsibility for the poor condition of the army.