2006 Greek King Constantine Queen Anne-Marie Signed Royal Christmas Card Royalty for Sale

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2006 Greek King Constantine Queen Anne-Marie Signed Royal Christmas Card Royalty For Sale

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2006 Greek King Constantine Queen Anne-Marie Signed Royal Christmas Card Royalty:
$174.97

LOT-O278. For your consideration is an exceedingly rare and historically important c.2006 Greek Royal Presentation Christmas Card, featuring an original photograph of the royal family. Embossed gilt gold royal Greek coat of arms with cipher and crown. Royal presentation photograph / card is original. Pictured: Anne-Marie, Queen of Greece; Princess Theodora; Constantine II, King of Greece; Prince Nikolaos; Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece; Princess Alexia. Condition is original / fine. Royal autographs of King Constantine II and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece are manuscript hand-signed in blue fountain pen ink. Royal presentation Christmas Card measures approximately 8.0" x 6.25". Royalty autographs are bold and pronounced. Museum quality. Guaranteed authentic.

Constantine II (Greek: Βʹ, romanized: Konstantínos II, pronounced; 2 June 1940 – 10 January 2023) was the last King of Greece, reigning from 6 March 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973.

Constantine was born in Athens as the only son of Crown Prince Paul and Crown Princess Frederica of Greece. Being of Danish descent, he was also born as a prince of Denmark. As his family was forced into exile during the Second World War, he spent the first years of his childhood in Egypt and South Africa. He returned to Greece with his family in 1946 during the Greek Civil War. After Constantine's uncle George II died in 1947, Paul became the new king and Constantine the crown prince. As a young man, Constantine was a competitive sailor and Olympian, winning a gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics in the Dragon class along with Odysseus Eskitzoglou and George Zaimis in the yacht Nireus. From 1964, he served on the International Olympic Committee.

Constantine acceded as king following his father's death in 1964. Later that year, he married Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, with whom he had five children. Although the accession of the young monarch was initially regarded auspiciously, his reign saw political instability that culminated in the Colonels' Coup of 21 April 1967. The coup left Constantine, as head of state, with little room to manoeuvre since he had no loyal military forces on which to rely. He thus reluctantly agreed to inaugurate the junta, on the condition that it be made up largely of civilian ministers. On 13 December 1967, Constantine was forced to flee the country, following an unsuccessful countercoup against the junta.

Constantine formally remained Greece's head of state in exile until the junta abolished the monarchy in June 1973 (a decision ratified via a referendum in July). After the restoration of democracy a year later, a second referendum was held in December 1974, which confirmed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Third Hellenic Republic. While Constantine had contested the results of the 1973 referendum, he accepted the verdict of the 1974 vote, even though he had not been allowed to return to Greece to campaign. After living for several decades in London, Constantine moved back to Athens in 2013. He died there in 2023 following a stroke.

Anne-Marie RE (Greek: romanized: Ánna-María; born 30 August 1946) is a Danish princess who was Queen of Greece as the consort of King Constantine II from their marriage on 18 September 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973.

Anne-Marie is the youngest daughter of Frederik IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden. In 1964, she married Constantine and became queen consort of Greece. They had five children: Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Theodora, and Prince Philippos. As queen, Anne-Marie spent much of her time working for a charitable foundation known as "Her Majesty's Fund", a foundation established by her mother-in-law, Queen Frederica of Greece. In 1967, Anne-Marie and her family were forced into exile upon the rise of a military dictatorship. After fleeing to Rome, they eventually settled in London, when the Greek monarchy was officially abolished.

Anne-Marie and her family were stripped of their Greek citizenship and had their property revoked, leading them to sue in the European Court of Human Rights, where they won and were allowed back into Greece. Of the compensation she earned, Anne-Marie set up the "Anne-Marie Foundation", which provided assistance to people in rural areas of Greece. In 2013, she and Constantine moved back into Greece. They moved Athens in 2022. Constantine died in January the following year.