Marina Pina

Carlos Fresneda London

London

Updated Tuesday, February 27, 2024-12:15

  • National Forced meeting of Felipe VI with Juan Carlos I after his controversial birthday: funeral in London for Constantine of Greece

The Thanksgiving mass celebrated this Tuesday in Windsor by

Constantine of Greece

has become a new royal summit, demonstrating that although the Helena dynasty does not reign, it does maintain close ties with the rest of the royal houses.

Minutes before twelve in the morning Spanish time, the guests at the funeral began to arrive at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Palace, the same one where Harry and Meghan were married.

The thanksgiving service has been organized by the Greek royal family with the help of the Windsors.

In fact, they have given up the palace chapel to hold this mass, which was initially scheduled for January 27 at Westminster Abbey.

Carlos III's admission to The London Clinic for

prostate surgery

, and his subsequent diagnosis of cancer, forced the event to be suspended.

Carlos was also unable to attend his funeral last year in Athens and this Tuesday he was absent from the event again.

The monarch complies with his decision

not to participate in

public events during treatment to cure the cancer he suffers from.

In her place, Queen

Camilla

has led the entourage of the British royal family.

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Forced meeting of Felipe VI with Juan Carlos I after his controversial birthday: funeral in London for Constantine of Greece

  • Editorial: MARINA PINA Madrid

Forced meeting of Felipe VI with Juan Carlos I after his controversial birthday: funeral in London for Constantine of Greece

The British aristocracy has been widely represented at the funeral with the presence of the Kents, the Gloucesters and the Mountbattens, who were the direct link between the two royal houses through

Philip of Edinburgh,

cousin of Constantine of Greece.

The bond was such that the last king of the Hellenes was

Prince William's godfather.

The heir to the British throne, however, did not attend the funeral in Athens a year ago, and today he has not been present at the thanksgiving ceremonies.

The Prince of Wales planned to do a reading in memory of his godfather at the event, he was also absent in the end.

Despite temporarily assuming the duties of official representation of his father, Guillermo has also been forced to measure his appearances to attend to his wife,

Kate Middleton,

still recovering from the abdominal operation that will keep her away from public events at least until Week Santa.

His absence has been more striking given the extensive representation of the British royal family.

Princess

Anne

was there with

Tim Laurence, Zara Philips and Mike Tindall,

the Duke of York with his ex-wife,

Sarah Ferguson,

and his daughter

Beatrice

with

Edoardo Mapelli

.

The Dukes of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent and the Earls of Saint Andrew were also present.

Ten minutes before twelve in the morning Spanish time, King Felipe and Queen Letizia entered the chapel.

There they met with King Juan Carlos I and Doña Sofía, as well as with Infanta Cristina, who traveled accompanied by her son Juan de ella, who lives in London, and Infanta Elena.

It is the first meeting of the family since last December 20, when they had lunch together for Doña Elena's 60th birthday.

Furthermore, it occurs after Don Juan Carlos published photographs of his birthday celebration.

Two minutes before the scheduled time, Queen Camilla arrived at Galileo's porch accompanied by Anne Mary of Greece, received by the Dean of Windsor, who accompanied them to their seats.

There, Constantine's widow was surrounded by the entire Greek family.

It should be remembered that the first-born of Constantine and Anne Mary, Prince Paul, is now the head of the royal house of the Hellenes and who led the entourage along with Marie Chantal.

Alexia

was also there

with

Carlos Morales

,

Nicolás

with

Tatiana Blatnik,

Teodora with Matthew Kumar and little Prince

Felipe

with his wife,

Nina Flohr.

Nina's father is the owner of Vistajet, the private plane company that Don Juan Carlos rents for his travels around the world.

They were also accompanied by Princess Irene, who lives in Madrid with Doña Sofía and Pablo

and

Marie-Chantal

's five children .

Aquileas

is now second in the line of succession to dynastic rights, as they have decided to keep in force the Salic law that deprives his eldest daughter, the influencer Olympias, of the right to inherit succession rights.

If Constantine was the brother of Queen Sofia, his wife, Ana María, has the same relationship with

Margaret of Denmark.

In fact, the five children who were born from the marriage hold the titles of princes of Greece and Denmark.

That royal house has sent Princess

Benedicta

to her funeral.

An example of the convening power of Constantine of Greece is the presence of other royal houses.

Prince Constantine represented the Netherlands.

To the Bulgarian dynasty,

Kyril

, prince of Preslav;

from Serbia there were

Alexander

and Katherina and from Jordan, Princess

Noor

, Prince

Hassan Bin Talal

and Princess Sarvath El Hassan.

On the part of the German aristocracy, there was the zu Sayn-wittgenstein family, of which for a time the former lover of King Juan Carlos, Corinna Larsen, was a part.

Princes

Gustav, Carina and Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg attended.

As well as Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille.