Prince Peter (1908-1980) & Irina Ovtchinnikova (1900-1990)

[mariazil]

I came up with interesting information on Prince Peter that will perhaps help us understand better the man and the conflict with his family, I will put the links here, since they are about his role during the War:

"Prince Philip's cousin subverted war against Nazis"
Prince Philip's cousin 'subverted war against Nazis' | UK news | The Guardian

"Prince Philip's cousin was 'troublemaker'
Prince Philip's cousin was `trouble-maker' - News - The Independent

I would like to know what you think of them

[Vasillisos Markos]

Interesting articles, thank you for posting them. I would love to know what was redacted and blacked out.

I don't know much about Prince Peter but if the Allies believed he was a danger to the war effort, I have no doubt that they acted as they did. He was not the first member of royalty to be viewed with dismay for beliefs or actions and I am sure the political powers would do anything to see that he did not come to the throne.

[mariazil]

I feel the same way about this royal person as you. I found these articles while looking for any kind of information on the Prince and I was a bit surprised, since I was under the impression that Prince Peter in fact worked for the Allies, for example (not only) here you will find his name as being part of the British military mission in Greece

Diggers and Greeks by Dr Maria Hill – Professional Historian specialising in Military History

But of course, it's not the first time the British get rid of those who are "annoying" them...
I only wonder if Peter followed orders when he went back to India, or he just went away on his own will.
P.S. There is no copy available of the Government Gazette printed in Cairo, so I really wonder where all that information came from in the article about King George's intentions towards Peter. Perhaps it all came from an article in the international press(British maybe) on the subject? I can only keep searching...

[Vasillisos Markos]

I wonder if they believed he was a fascist at heart and decided that even if he was helping the war effort, the prince would be a liability in post-war Greece.

[mariazil]

That could be the answer, yes. I also think that he hadn't given the impression of a stable, easy-to-trust person before the war, when King George had asked for his assistance. I found some information on those years, but the text is in French, so I'll translate it later today and post it here.

[Vasillisos Markos]

Mariazil,

Looking forward to reading your post!

[mariazil]

Well, here it is!!! It is taken from the french edition of Wikipedia, which has a lot more information on Prince Peter than the english one. Those who understand French will find perhaps interesting to read it here:

Pierre de Grèce - Wikipédia

I took the liberty of translating the part about his coming back to Greece in 1936, for the first time since his childhood!

En 1935, la Grèce connaît d’importants bouleversements politiques et la monarchie y est restaurée après douze ans de république. Le roi Georges II, de retour au pouvoir, appelle alors auprès de lui, à Athènes, son cousin et lui offre une position. Placé troisième dans l’ordre de succession au trône après le diadoque Paul (encore célibataire) et le prince Georges, Pierre est en effet un membre important de la famille souveraine. Cependant, le prince refuse d'abord de rentrer dans son pays. Irina, son amante, menace en effet de se suicider s'il la quitte. Quant au prince Georges, traumatisé par ses déboires politiques lorsqu'il était haut-commissaire de la Crète autonome, il ne pousse pas son fils à assumer d'importantes fonctions officielles[19].
Finalement, Pierre revient en Grèce en novembre 1936 pour la cérémonie de retour des cendres des membres de la famille royale morts en exil. Il n'avait pas revu la Grèce depuis ses quatre ans et il est ravi par le voyage[20]. Cependant, en décembre, Irina obtient son divorce et Pierre part la rejoindre en France. Tourmenté entre son devoir de prince et son amour pour la jeune femme, il craint d'apparaître comme le roi Édouard VIII du Royaume-Uni, dont il désapprouve l'attitude, mais choisit malgré tout de poursuivre sa liaision[20]. Dans les années qui suivent, il passe tout de même quelques temps à Athènes et intègre l’armée hellène, qui le nomme au grade de sous-lieutenant puis à celui de Lieutenant de réserve dans l’infanterie en 1937[9].


In 1935, Greece goes through important political turmoil and monarchy is once again restored after 12 years of republic. King George II, back in power, invites his cousin to come near him in Athens and offers him a position. Placed third in line for succession to the throne right after the diadoch Paul (still single at the time) and Prince George, Peter is indeed an important member of the family. Nevertheless, the prince at first refuses to return to his homeland. Irina, his lover, actually threatens she will kill herself if he leaves her. As for Prince George, traumatized by his political sorrows when he was High Commander of the autonomous Crete, he does not push his son into assuming important official service.

Finally, Peter returns to Greece in November 1936 for the ceremony of the return of the ashes of the members of the Royal Family who had died in exile. He hadn’t seen Greece since he was 4 years old and he finds it ravishing. In the meantime, in December, Irina obtains her divorce and Peter leaves for France to join her. Tormented between his duty as a prince and his love for the young woman, he fears he may give the impression he is like the King Edward VIII, whose attitude he disapproves, but chooses nevertheless to continue his liaison. In the following years, he spends in spite of that sometime in Athens and integrates himself in the Hellenic Army, taking the grade of the Second Lieutenant and then that of the Lieutenant in reserve in the Infantry in 1937.

(to be continued)

[Vasillisos Markos]

Thank you. Looking forward to the remainder.

[snowflower]

Originally Posted by Vlaha Karatsokaros

In the 20 years from Paul's ascent to the throne (April 1947) to the royal family's departure abroad (December 1967), the only public and official appearance of Prince Peter was at the funeral of King Paul - he walked with the cortege standing to the right of Princess Irene (then Diadoch) as next in the Line of Succession. I understand in fact, that even in the solemn swearing-in ceremony of Constantine as king conducted by the Archbishop, at the Athens Palace, Princess Irene and Prince Michael were also in attendance, but not Prince Peter. It is, therefore, crystal-clear that he was banned or, at least, ostracized from and by the Palace.

I was searching earlier today for a video at the Hellenic National Audiovisual Archive and as a result of my search criteria came a few old videos from the celebrations of previous Greek Independence Day on March 25th . I watched those of 1957,1963 and 1964 out of curiosity and saw that Peter was on all three celebrations - in 1957 escorting the King and Constantine to the momument of the Unknown Soldier and watching the parade on horseback next to Constantine, in 1963 standing behind King Paul along with Constantine and Michael while he was leaving the wreath at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and also on horseback after King Paul duirng the military parade. The same happened the next year when Constantine was King ( curiously Michael seemed to be missing then). So the fact that he attended two years in a row the military parade on March 25th makes me believe that he must have made some public appearances through the years with the rest of the royal family

[Vasillisos Markos]

Could it be that Prince Peter was reticent about appearing in public?

[Nikolopoulus]

Prince George, father of Peter did not authorized his marriage. The rules required consent of the father to maintain the title of nobility. Prince Peter never legalized in official document his marriage to not lose the title of Prince and military privileges that derives from this condition.. The situation was always very dificulty, Prince George Attending on many occasions, military parades, in Thessaloniki, Athens .. When his father died at 1957, he tried to legalize his marriage situation( he want that her spouse would was Princess of greece), he was based on the principle that his father was dead, he did not need parental consent , he thought that he would not lost his title, But, the politicians and King Pavlo were refused because his father had expressed publicly his no consent to this marriage, he did not legalized his marriage. In the early 60's, it was decided to reform the rules of succession to update it, . They decided put a order of succession rules, this changed the position of the line of succession would not be in relation to the first king of the dynasty, now it would be in relation of the link to the last king,King Pavlo .Princess Irini had a closer link to the last king, she ranked second in succession and thus received military privileges, such as represent the family in military parades to chair and represent the Greek royal family. Prince Peter was the most distant link to the last king and thus lost the privileges granted to his position, also could not get it that his wife might have the title of Princess(no consent of his father) . He left to preside over the military parade, now could preside Princess Irini.

[BELTRANEJA]

thank you!! Nikolopolos, it is interesting, he had studied laws. he knew the consequences of not-consent of his father.

[Nikolopoulus]

I thought that he had not studied laws, I thought that he abandoned this studies, but I have read that he finished Paris university his studies in laws. He knew that made

[Marc23]

Originally Posted by snowflower

George had considered a few princesses as potential matches before that for Peter and one of them was Frederika of Hannover

Does anyone know who were the others?

[stef]

Princess Maria Bonaparte pointed to other European Princesses as candidates to marry Peter, I would say that among them were other families of nobility German , besides the Hannover.
She was a disappointment when discovered that Peter had married, she told it in letters to Freud.

[maria-olivia]

Often away Princess Marie did not have time for her children, which were in the difficult situation due to their father's family situation.
How easy is life for nowadays royals !

[DavidH]

I am currently writing an in depth article about King George II's mistress, Joyce Brittain Jones, and was fascinated to see that she, apparently, played a role in this issue of the regency.

I would be hugely grateful if any Greek or Greek speaking member could provide a translation of that part of the newspaper article on the regency which refers to Mrs BJ - and for any information, comments and views on the activities and influence of this intriguing lady.

[WreathOfLaurels]

The main reason why prince Peter was such a danger was because he was a fool, and worse than that he was a vain fool. He was also immature and weak. His foolishness lead him to make bad decisions and the vanity meant he was unwilling to admit his errors and instead looked to blame others for his own shortcomings and failures. The main reason why Irene was never accepted by the family was due to her divorces and love of intrigue and her bad influence on Peter. The 1964 press conference for example was probably the brainchild of Andreas papandreou as what this was really about was undermining the Kings prestige when he was on a public high - see the link below, it's in Greek and needs google translate - it only served to make Peter look devious and petty in the long run and just undermined the royal house even further. He was being kept margnilsed not out of spite but because he was a loose cannon, and an ambitious one at that.

http://http://www.royalchronicles.gr...andreaspapand/

[stef]

I totally agree with you. Pedro was not smart, Irina influenced on him, she wanted title of nobility , but this was not possible, because the family of Peter did not accepted the marriage, and Prince George did not granted consent to the union. In 1967 he sold all his property in Greece and long, and about 1970 Irina left him. Then he claimed to have been the victim of a hoax of Greek politicians. He asked forgiveness to the royal family. He was not smart

[WreathOfLaurels]

Interestingly enough the latest bio of A-Pap does not mention this little incident.

Given A-Paps unsavoury reputation he should have seen That one a mile off.