Editing Leopold I of Belgium (section)

===Refusal of the Greek throne===
Following a [[Greek War of Independence|Greek rebellion]] against the [[Ottoman Empire]], Leopold was offered the throne of an independent Greece as part of the [[London Protocol (1830)|London Protocol]] of February 1830, which stipulated that the new monarch could not be of Great Britain, France or Russia.{{sfn|Driault|Lhéritier|1926|p=463}}<ref name="Bower346">{{harvsp|Bower|2001|p=346}}</ref>

Though Leopold resided in Britain, he was not considered a member of the British royal family as he was not of the [[House of Hanover]]. He was quite popular across Europe for his role in the Napoleonic wars and, according to Defrance, was often mentioned in Greek "anglophile circles".{{sfn|Defrance|2004|p=92}} Despite popularity, he was often in dispute with George and the British government, who supported Leopold as a candidate for the Greek throne and subsequently demanded he give up his British possessions.{{sfn|Driault|Lhéritier|1926|p=27}}{{sfn|Defrance|2004|p=102}} Leopold eventually agreed and accepted this offer from [[Duke of Wellington]], the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]], and his Cabinet. However, Leopold was still anxious to accept the Greek throne and demanded certain conditions, including having the Greco-Ottoman border changed in Greece's favour by amending the border crossing the [[Achelous River|Achelous River and Valley]], receiving financial and military aid while the state was being set up, and having protection of Greece by the [[Great Powers]] from foreign aggression. He argued this zone of protection should be extended all the way to [[Samos]] and [[Crete]], whose populations had been active in the Greek War of Independence.<ref name="Bower346" />{{sfn||Driault|Lhéritier|1926|p=3}} Most of his demands were agreed to in a series of discussions, with particular priority in protecting the majority Christian inhabitants of the Greek islands. With the Great Powers mainly satisfied, they signed new international protocol, officially giving Leopold, "the son-in-law of George IV", the title of "Sovereign Prince of Greece". A few days later, on 28 February 1830, Leopold officially accepted the Greek crown.{{sfn|Driault|Lhéritier1926|p=4}}

Leopold contacted [[Ioannis Kapodistrias]], the ''de facto'' [[List of heads of state of Greece|Governor of the Greek State]], who he had known since the Napoleonic Wars. Leopold asked of him in his letters to provide assistance in his accession to the throne, however Kapodistrias' reply on 6 April was not of reassuring nature. Kapodistrias insisted that Leopold's border changes did not satisfy Greece, provoked the Ottoman Empire and would need to be ratified by the legislature. Contrary to historians Michel Lhéritier and Édouard Driault, Defrance claims that Kapodistrias's motive was to possibly intimidate Leopold. Kapodistrias also very strongly encouraged Leopold to convert to [[Greek Orthodoxy]] to the wishes of the Greek people, but Leopold was displeased by this. Later that month, the [[Greek Senate]] drafted a memorandum addressed to Leopold to welcome him and give a list of requests of the Greek people, including the border issue, the inclusion of Samos, Crete and Psara in the new Greek nation and the religion of Leopold. From London, Leopold worked to achieve these requests and even succeeded in increasing loans granted to Greece from 12 million to 60 million francs, however he failed to resolve the border dispute and annex Crete from the Ottoman Empire. Feeling the Greek population was too demanding and precarious, Leopold turned down the offer to become King of Greece on 17 May 1830.{{sfn|Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους|p=575}} The role would subsequently be accepted by [[Otto of Greece|Otto of Wittelsbach]] in May 1832 who ruled until [[Expulsion of Otto of Greece|he was finally deposed]] in October 1862.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Beaton|first=Rodrick|title=Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation|publisher=Allen Lane|year=2019|isbn=9780241312841|pages=111}}</ref> Otto would then be replaced by the [[House of Glücksburg]], with Prince Wilhelm of Denmark becoming [[George I of Greece]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-I-king-of-Greece|title=George I|date=20 December 2024|encyclopedia=[[Britannica]]}}</ref>