Queen Anne-Marie Turns Seventy

  August 30, 2016 at 7:00 am by

The last Queen of the Hellenes, Anne-Marie, today celebrates a milestone birthday: she turns seventy.

Born Princess Anne-Marie Dagmar Ingrid of Denmark, she is the third and final daughter of the late King Frederik IX and Queen Ingrid, nee Princess of Sweden. Like her two older sisters, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Princess Benedikte of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, Anne-Marie was born in Amalienborg Palace, in Copenhagen.

At her christening shortly after her birth, she was given a bevy of royal godparents: King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden, King Haakon VII of Norway, Queen Mary of the United Kingdom, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Prince Bertil of Sweden, Crown Princess Märtha of Norway and Princess Dagmar of Denmark. Anne-Marie spent her childhood, along with her sisters, in the palaces of Amalienborg, Fredensborg and Graasten. The Princess was educated at the N Zahle’s School between 1952 and 1963, spent a year in 1961 at the Chatelard School for Girls boarding school in Switzerland, and then attended the Le Mesnil finishing school in Switzerland from 1963 to 1964.

An infant Anne-Marie with her parents and siblings, 1946

Princess Anne-Marie was officially engaged to her third cousin, Crown Prince Constantine of Greece, on January 23, 1963, on the condition that the couple wait until the Princess was eighteen before they married. The couple had first met in 1959, when the Crown Prince accompanied his parents, King Paul and Queen Frederica, on a state visit to Denmark. It was after their second meeting, in 1961, that Constantine informed his parents of his wish to marry the Danish Princess. Said Princess was later a bridesmaid at the wedding of Constantine’s younger sister, Princess Sophia, to Prince Juan Carlos of Spain the following year.

The couple were married on September 18, 1964 at the Athens Cathedral, in front of dozens and dozens of Europe’s royals – for the bride and groom were related to the majority of crowned Europe. Crown Prince Constantine was by this time King Constantine II of the Hellenes, his father had died in March 1964. The following year, in July 1965, the couple welcomed their first child, Princess Alexia, who was born at Mon Repos, on the island of Corfu. Crown Prince Pavlos followed in May 1967 at Tatoi.

Anne-Marie and Constantine are married, September 1964

In December 1967, the family was forced to flee Greece in the middle of the night following the King’s failed counter-coup against the military junta. Their destination was Rome, where the family of four – plus Queen Frederica and Princess Irene – spent the next five years. The Queen suffered a miscarriage in the months following their exile from Greece. In October 1969, the couple’s third child, Prince Nikolaos, was born. A move to London came in 1973, with Queen Anne-Marie and the children joining King Constantine after spending some time in Denmark with her recently widowed mother (King Frederik IX passed away in January 1972). That same year, King Constantine was officially deposed as King of Greece and the country became a republic. Constantine and Anne-Marie therefore joined the mass of European royals without countries to rule over.

During their time in London, the King and Queen founded and ran the Hellenic College of London, where their children were educated. London is also the birthplace of Anne-Marie’s two youngest children, Princess Theodora (born 1983) and Prince Philipppos (born 1986). In 2003, following the court ruling against the state of Greece which required King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie to receive appropriation for their private properties in Greece (which were seized during and after their exile), the couple founded the Ana-Maria Foundation to provide assistance to victims of natural disasters in Greece.

Queen Anne-Marie, who has nine grandchildren, has for the past few years lived in Greece with her husband, after years of exile.

Queen Anne-Marie, October 2012

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