Constantine of Greece, the king who has died in his country

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• Constantine families of Greece: three countries, their assets confiscated, poor health... This was the 46-year exile of the Queen's brother

The first signs of the imminent death of

, who died this Tuesday at the age of 82 in Athens,

, when he had to go into exile after the military coup by the colonels, we had it last Thursday , when the queen emeritus hurriedly left Rome, where she had assisted by presiding over the Spanish delegation at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI, to take the first direct flight to Athens.

Her very beloved brother "Tino", as they called him, had been admitted to a hospital in the Greek capital after suffering a

.

Finally, he died this Tuesday.

What are the things of fate: while

can, if God does not remedy it and his son allows it, die in exile,

, surrounded by his family.

"Each one has their different circumstances. Each one stumbles on his own stone.

.

She offered him the experience of hers.

But what advice was she going to give him?

What did he know how things were in Spain and who was who in the regiments?

Another thing is the respect that a constitutional king has to keep to the rules of the game, without ever getting out of his role, without getting in where he shouldn't ". With these words, were you criticizing the conduct of your husband or your brother? her?

It is true that the health of the 82-year-old former Hellenic king had been deteriorating for some time now, to the point of abandoning his residence in Porto Jeli, in the Peloponnese, where he had lived since his return from exile in London, to live in Athens, where it was easier to be cared for if what was feared happened.

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LOC.

Constantine of Greece, brother of Queen Sofia and last king of Greece, dies

• Drafting: EFE |

  EUROPE PRESSAthens

Constantine of Greece, brother of Queen Sofia and last king of Greece, dies

The situation of Doña Sofía with what is still her husband, sick and in exile, and her brother, who has died in the country where he was born and reigned for only four years, is

curiously

I directly and personally knew the end of that monarchy when

when the critical situation of King Constantine was already known, on the occasion of her mother's 50th birthday, on the 18th. April 1967. By then, Federica no longer lived in the royal palace but in Psychico, with her daughter Irene, "the usual house", a kind of modest mansion where Sofía and her sister were born.

And she does it pregnant with Felipe and taking her daughters Elena and Cristina with her.

At three in the morning, Army officers violently broke into the house and woke them up

.

"Hey get up, something important is happening... and I don't know what it is."

The confusion was great.

Sofía herself has told Pilar Urbano (

Plaza y Janes, 1995).

"I did not understand anything. I thought that the military came to protect us. An Army captain spoke to Queen Federica in a dry, cutting tone. 'I follow orders and no one leaves here!' We wanted to speak with my brother King Constantine that he was in the Tatoi Palace, but it was impossible. They had cut his telephone line. Shortly after, we had numerous tanks in front of the house that were aimed at our residence."

Logically, Sofía spoke with Juan Carlos, who was very worried.

It was not be for lowerly.

Constantine, who had tried to carry out a coup, in favor of the Constitution, was the Army who gave him the coup of colonels Papadopulos and Makarezos.

," Doña Sofia tries to explain.

The truth is that because of Queen Federica?

and because of her lack of intelligence to redirect the situation, refusing to condemn the military coup.

Princess Irene, for her part, recalled that her brother "was so tense about the situation that his deep-pitched voice normally emitted an octave higher. He told my mother with full force and clarity: 'I have nothing to do with this. I don't know what it's about. They're not acting on my orders.'"

.

The king had earned the opposition of the majority of the people to the point that, when he was forced to leave the country at dawn on December 14, 1967, in the direction of Rome, "he could not continue leading a dictatorship." .

And he did it with what he was wearing.

To the point that his brother-in-law

with which he had left Greece.

.

"THE GREEKS" IN SPAIN

During the years of exile, his sister Sofía and his brother-in-law helped him in every way possible.

King Constantine himself, speaking of the difficulties of exile, declared: "We had no means to survive", to the point that when

.

And Marivent was the scene of one of the businesses he set up to earn a living, one of those

, a bold and uninhibited reporter who got the great scoop, thanks to the King's brother-in-law who, against everything protocol, she shamelessly joked with don

.

"The reports of King Constantine's partner were the trigger for a strong flawed psychological charge," according to Manel Soriano in

(Today's issues) 2008.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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