Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, has died at a private hospital in Athens, his doctors announced late Tuesday. He was 82.
Staff at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to The Associated Press that Constantine has died after treatment in an intensive care unit, but had no further details pending an official announcement.
Constantine was born June 2, 1940 in Athens, to Prince Paul, younger brother to King George II and heir presumptive to the throne, and princess Federica of Hanover. His older sister Sophia is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Greek-born Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the United Kingdom's late Queen Elizabeth II, was an uncle.
In 1960, aged 20, he and two other Greek sailors won a gold medal in the Dragon Class — now no longer an Olympic class — at the Rome Olympics. While still a prince, Constantine was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1963, and became an honorary member for life in 1974. Constantine's insistence on appointing a government composed of centrist defectors that won a narrow parliamentary majority on the third try was hugely unpopular. Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica."The people don't want you, take your mother and go!" became the rallying cry in the protests, often violent, that rocked Greece in the summer of 1965.
Constantine was taken by surprise and his feelings toward the new rulers were obvious in the official photo of the new government. He pretended to go along with them, while preparing a counter-coup with the help of troops in northern Greece and the navy, which was loyal to him.
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