Editing Constantine II of Greece (section)

==Early life==
{{stack|float=left|[[File:Paul and Frederica of Greece.jpg|thumb|left|Constantine's parents, Frederica and Paul, in 1939]]}}
Constantine was born in the afternoon of 2 June 1940 at his parents' residence, [[Villa Psychiko]] at Leoforos Diamantidou 14 in [[Psychiko]], an affluent suburb of [[Athens metropolitan area|Athens]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Meletis Meletopoulos | title="Κωνσταντίνος Β΄",Η βασιλεία στη Νεώτερη Ελληνική Ιστορία. Από τον Όθωνα στον Κωνσταντίνο Β΄ | language=el | location=[[Athens]] | publisher=Nea Synora-AA Livani | year=1994 | page=196 }}</ref> He was the second child and only son of [[Paul of Greece|Crown Prince Paul]] and [[Frederica of Hanover|Crown Princess Frederica]]. His father was the younger brother and [[heir presumptive]] of the reigning [[Greek king]], [[George II of Greece|George II]], and his mother was the only daughter of [[Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick]], and [[Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia]].<ref name=Burke>{{cite book|editor-last=Montgomery-Massingberd|editor-first=Hugh|editor-link=Hugh Massingberd|title=Burke's Royal Families of the World|volume=1: Europe & Latin America|location=London|publisher=[[Burke's Peerage Ltd]]|year=1977|isbn=0-85011-023-8|pages=327–28}}</ref><ref name="waiting">{{cite book | author=Curley, W.J.P. | title=Monarchs In Waiting| location=London |publisher=Hutchinson & Co Ltd | year=1975 | isbn=0-09-122310-5 |pages=39–41}}</ref>

Prince Constantine had an elder sister, [[Queen Sofía of Spain|Princess Sofia]], born in 1938.<ref name=Burke/> However, since [[agnatic primogeniture]] governed the succession to throne in Greece at the time, the birth of a male [[heir to the throne]] had been anxiously awaited by the [[Greek royal family]], and the newborn prince was therefore received with joy by his parents.{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=5}}{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=110-111}} His birth was celebrated with a 101–[[gun salute]] from [[Mount Lycabettus]] in Athens, which, according to tradition, announced that the newborn was a boy.<ref>{{cite news|title=Νεόλογος Πατρών|newspaper=Νεόλογος Πατρών|issue=132|date=4 June 1940|lang=el}}</ref> According to [[Greek naming practices]], being the first son, he was named after his paternal grandfather, [[Constantine I of Greece|Constantine I]], who had died in 1923.<ref>"Naming practices" in British Academy and Oxford University, ''Lexicon of Greek Personal Names'', [http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/practices.html online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816211449/http://www.lgpn.ox.ac.uk/names/practices.html |date=16 August 2018 }}</ref> At his [[baptism]] on 20 July 1940 at the [[Royal Palace of Athens]], the [[Hellenic Armed Forces]] acted as his godparent.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=367}}<ref>{{Cite book|first=Monique|last=da Rocha Carneiro|title=La descendance de Frédéric-Eugène duc de Wurtemberg|location=Paris|publisher=Éditions L'intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux|year=2000|page=411|isbn=978-2-908003-17-8|language=fr}}</ref>

===World War II and the exile of the royal family===
Constantine was born during the early stages of [[World War II]]. He was just a few months old when, on 28 October 1940, [[Fascist Italy]] invaded Greece from [[Italian protectorate of Albania (1939–1943)|Albania]], beginning the [[Greco-Italian War]]. The [[Greek Army]] was able to halt the invasion temporarily and push the Italians back into [[Albanian Kingdom (1939–43)|Albania]].{{sfn|Van der Kiste|1994|p=159 and 161–162}}{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=116}}{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=15-16}} However, the Greek successes forced [[Nazi Germany]] to intervene and the Germans [[Battle of Greece|invaded Greece]] and [[Invasion of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] on 6 April 1941 and overran both countries within a month, despite British aid to Greece in the form of an expeditionary corps.{{sfn|Van der Kiste|1994|p=162-163}}{{sfn|Palmer|Greece|1990|p=80}} On 22 April 1941, Princess Frederica and her two children, Sofia and Constantine, were evacuated to [[Crete]] in a British [[Short Sunderland]] [[flying boat]] along with most of the Greek royal family. The next day, they were followed by King George II and Prince Paul. However the imminent [[German invasion of Crete]] quickly made the situation untenable and Constantine and his family were evacuated from Crete to [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]] on 30 April 1941, a fortnight before the German attack on the island.{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=18-20}} In [[Alexandria]], the exiled Greek royals were welcomed by the Greek diaspora, which provided them with lodging, money and clothing.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=113}} The presence of the Greek royal family and government began to worry [[King Farouk of Egypt]] and his pro-Italian ministers. Constantine and his family, therefore, had to seek another refuge where they could get through the war and continue their fight against the Axis powers. [[George VI of the United Kingdom]] opposed the presence of Princess Frederica, who was suspected of having Nazi sympathies,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederica-queen-of-Greece|title=Frederica, queen of Greece|website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]|date=14 April 2023 }}</ref> and her children in Britain, but it was decided that Constantine's father and uncle could take up residence in London, where a government-in-exile was set up, while the rest of the family could seek refuge in the then-[[Union of South Africa]].{{sfn|Vickers|2000|p=292}}{{sfn|Van der Kiste|1994|p=164}}

On 27 June 1941, most of the Greek royal family, therefore, set off for South Africa on board the Dutch steamship ''Nieuw Amsterdam'', which arrived in [[Durban]] on 8 July 1941.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=113}}{{sfn|Bertin|1982|p=338}}{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=20-21}} After a two-month stay in Durban, Prince Paul left for England with his brother, and Constantine then barely saw his father again for the next three years.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=189}}{{Sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=114}} The rest of the family settled in [[Cape Town]], where the family was joined by a younger sister, [[Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark|Princess Irene]], born in 1942.<ref name=Burke/> Prince Constantine, Princess Sofia, their mother and their aunt [[Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark|Princess Katherine]] were initially lodged with South African Governor-General [[Patrick Duncan (South African politician)|Patrick Duncan]] at his official residence Westbrooke in Cape Town.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=113-115}}{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=133}}

The group subsequently moved several times until they settled in Villa Irene in [[Pretoria]] with Prime Minister [[Jan Smuts]], who quickly became a close friend of the exiled Greeks.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=113-115}}{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=136 og 144}}{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=21}} From early 1944, the family again took up residence in Egypt. In January 1944, Frederica was reunited with Paul in [[Cairo]], and their children joined them in March of that year. Despite their difficult financial circumstances, the family then established friendly relations with several Egyptian personalities, including [[Queen Farida]], whose daughters were roughly the same age as Constantine and his sisters.{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=115-116}}

===After World War II and return to Greece===

In 1944, at the end of World War II, Nazi Germany gradually withdrew from Greece. While the majority of exiled Greeks were able to return to their country, the royal family had to remain in exile because of the growing republican opposition at home. Britain tried to reinstate George II, who remained in exile in London, but most of the resistance, in particular the communists, were opposed. Instead, George had to appoint from exile a Regency Council headed by Archbishop [[Damaskinos of Athens]], who immediately appointed a republican-majority government headed by [[Nikolaos Plastiras]].{{sfn|Van der Kiste|1994|p=170-171}}{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=164-169 og 171}}{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=38-39}} George, who was humiliated, ill and powerless, considered abdicating for a time in favour of his brother, but eventually decided against it.{{sfn|Van der Kiste|1994|p=170-171}}{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=164-169 og 171}}{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=38-39}}

Prince Paul, who was more combative but also more popular than his brother, would have liked to return to Greece as heir to the throne as early as the liberation of Athens in 1944, as he believed that back in his country he would have been quickly proclaimed regent, which would have blocked the way for Damaskinos and made it easier to restore the monarchy.{{sfn|Hourmouzios|1972|p=155}}

However, the unstable situation in the country and the polarisation between communists and bourgeois allowed the monarchists to return to power after the [[1946 Greek legislative election|parliamentary elections of March 1946]]. After becoming [[Prime Minister of Greece|prime minister]], [[Konstantinos Tsaldaris]] organised a [[1946 Greek referendum|referendum on 1 September 1946]] with the aim of allowing George to return to the throne. The majority in the referendum was in favour of reinstating the monarchy, at which time Constantine and his family also returned to Greece. In a country still suffering from rationing and deprivation, they moved back to the villa in Psychikó. It was there that Paul and Frederica chose to start a small school, where Constantine and his sisters received their first education{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=117}} under the supervision of [[Jocelin Winthrop Young]], a British disciple of the German-Jewish educator [[Kurt Hahn]].{{sfn|Tantzos|1990|p=61}}{{sfn|Mateos Sáinz de Medrano|2004|p=359}}<ref>{{cite journal|first=Ann|last=Packard|title=Obituary: Jocelin Winthrop-Young OBE, the Gordonstoun ethic ran deep in life and work of educationalist and Hahn disciple|journal=The Scotsman|date=10 March 2012|url=https://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/obituary-jocelin-winthrop-young-obe-the-gordonstoun-ethic-ran-deep-in-life-and-work-of-educationalist-and-hahn-disciple-1-2165056}}.</ref>

The tension between communists and conservatives led, in the following years, to the [[Greek Civil War]]. That conflict was fought mainly in northern Greece. The Civil War ended in 1949, with the victory of the bourgeois and royalists, who had been supported by Britain and the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Greek-Civil-War|title=Greek Civil War &#124; Britannica|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=13 April 2023 }}</ref>