The funeral of Greece’s last king, Constantine II, will take place on Monday and a host of European royals are expected to descend on Athens for the service.
At the ceremony, royals from Britain, Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain will pay their respects to the former monarch, who died on Tuesday at the age of 82.
In Greece, however, there was controversy over burial arrangements.
Constantine was a controversial figure in the country’s history and the government decided not to give him the honor of a state funeral.
The private service begins at 12:00 p.m. in the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral, with nearly 200 guests expected.
The entire Royal Family of Spain, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II and Crown Prince Frederik, the Swedish Royal Family, the King and Queen of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg Henri, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Prince Albert II of Monaco will attend.
The British Crown is represented by Princess Anne, daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II. King Charles III, cousin of the former Greek king, and Constantine’s godson Prince William are not expected to join her.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Katerina Sakellaropoulou will not attend the funeral.
The Greek government will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos and Minister of Culture and Sport Lina Mendoni.
– overthrown by coup –
Constantine’s body will lie between 06:00 (0800 GMT) and 10:00 for the public to pay their respects.
Many Greeks feel either indifference or resentment towards the former king.
The last member of a centuries-old dynasty, Constantine had reigned for just three years when a brutal army dictatorship took control of the country in 1967.
Declassified US diplomatic cables say Constantine may have contemplated martial law himself before the coup.
Almost eight months after the junta seized power, Constantine organized a military counter-coup that failed. He fled to Rome and later to London with the rest of the royal family.
The story goes on
The junta abolished the monarchy in 1973, and Greeks voted not to restore the royal family after democracy was restored in 1974.
Later embroiled in a bitter property dispute with the Greek state, Constantine had his Greek citizenship revoked in 1994.
The ex-king returned to Greece in 2013 and sold the 9,500-square-foot London mansion where his family had lived for four decades.
– ‘Kingdom of Greece no longer exists’ –
The day after Constantine’s death in a private Athens hospital, the prime minister announced that the funeral would be private.
Mitsotakis on Saturday insisted it was the right decision, stressing that the former king is the leader of the “Kingdom of Greece that no longer exists”.
He said history will “judge Constantine fairly and harshly”.
“It embarrasses me every time colleagues from abroad ask me why the former king is not buried with the honors of a head of state, even though he was head of state,” journalist and royals expert Christos Zampounis told ERT TV and on Sunday echoed the broader criticism of the Greek government’s decision.
After the funeral service, Constantine’s body is transferred to the royal tombs in Tatoi, about 29 kilometers north of Athens.
Most members of the former royal family are buried in the former royal summer palace at Tatoi, including the Danish-born founder of the dynasty, George I.
Constantine was married to Anne-Marie – sister of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe – and they had five children.
As Crown Prince, he won a gold medal in sailing at the 1960 Rome Olympics and was an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee.
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