Constantine

CONSTANTINE, king of the Hellenes (1868-1923), eldest son of George I. and of the Grand Duchess Olga Constantinova of Russia, was born at Athens on Aug. 2, 1868. The prince com pleted his education in Germany, where he attended the univer sity of Leipzig, served in the Guards and studied at the Prussian Staff college. In 1889 he married the Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hohenzollern, daughter of the Emperor Frederick. This union was popular in Greece because of the superstition that when a Constantine and a Sophia were upon the throne the empire of Byzantium would be restored, and, coupled with the fact that he was appointed a field marshal in the Prussian Army in 1913, it affected the king's attitude during the World War.

On returning to Greece, the crown prince was given various military appointments; in 1897 he took over the command of the army in Thessaly, and he was held largely responsible for the disastrous campaign of that year. In 1909 Constantine and his brothers were once more made scapegoats by the Military league, and were compelled to resign their commissions. Subsequently, on the initiative of Venizelos, the royal princes were recalled from their practical exile. Thenceforward, acting in co-operation with the French military mission, Constantine, now inspector-general of the army, devoted h::nself to . reforms which were markedly apparent during the Balkan wars, and the successes that were then gained completely re-established his prestige. He succeeded his father on the throne of Greece on March 18, 1913.

On Aug.

7, 1914, immediately after the outbreak of the World War, Constantine expressed his personal sympathy for the Ger man emperor and advocated a neutrality which would be useful to him, but took no active steps. But after the entry of Turkey into the war, the king, probably influenced by his military ad visers, vetoed Venizelos' proposal to co-operate with the West ern Powers in the Dardanelles in exchange for their promises of concessions in Asia Minor. Venizelos resigned (March 1915), but at the subsequent election in June he obtained a large parliamentary majority. (See VENIZELOS.) For some months the struggle between the king and Venizelos continued, but from Oct. 1915 the rupture was complete, and thenceforward Constantine was more occupied by his relations with the Allies than by the internal crisis. The closing months of 1915 and the earlier part of 1916 passed without any overt signs of hostility, but in May of the latter year Fort Rupel, which commanded the Struma pass into eastern Macedonia, was sur rendered to the Bulgarians, and the Allies demanded the complete demobilization of the Hellenic army, which menaced them in Macedonia. Five months later (Oct). the Greek fleet (except three vessels) was taken over by the Allies, and in November, the demobilization having proceeded slowly, a further demand was made for the cession of war material. This request was not com plied with, and, although it would appear that the king had given personal assurances to the French admiral, an Allied landing at the Peiraeeus was opposed, and the naval contingents, disembarked there on Dec. I, had to be withdrawn after material losses. A month later a further blockade was declared and the removal of the whole Greek army to the Peloponnesus was on.

This was agreed to and a formal apology was made for the events of Dec. I, but it soon became obvious that the king's attitude con stituted a danger to the Allied position at Salonika.

In June 1917 M. Jonnart, the High Commissioner of the protecting Powers, arrived at Athens, where, backed up by strong forces, he demanded better guarantees for the safety of the Allied army in Macedonia, a more loyal adherence to the constitution and the departure of the king. Constantine, accompanied by the queen and the crown prince, sailed from Greece on June 12, leav ing his son Alexander upon the throne ; but the proclamation then issued by the king was ambiguous, and contained no final renun ciation of his rights. Constantine spent the next three years in Switzerland.

As a result of the election of Nov. 1920, and of the subsequent plebiscite, Constantine returned to Athens at the end of Decem ber. His position was exceedingly difficult. Never recognized by Great Britain and France, he was compelled either to pursue the Asiatic policy of his predecessors or to make himself unpopular by sacrificing gains promised to Greece under the already signed Treaty of Sevres. Rightly or wrongly, he adopted the former alternative ; he declared himself in favour of a continuation of the Turkish campaign, and he failed to condemn, if he never en couraged, the Greek objections to the several offers of mediation made by the Western Powers. For the disastrous results of the campaign in Asia Minor see GREECE : History. By the last week in Sept. 1922 an insurrection had broken out in the army, and, at the demand of a revolutionary committee headed by Col. Gonatas, the king abdicated in favour of his son George. On Sept. 3o Con stantine left Athens for Palermo, where he died on Jan. 1923, from haemorrhage of the brain.

Vak

a, Constantine, King and Traitor (1918) ; Paxton Hibben, Constantine I. and the Greek People (192o) ; Major G. M. Melas, Ex-King Constantine and the War (1920) ; William Miller, A History of the Greek People, 1821-1921, (1922).