Sophia of Prussia

Not to be confused with Duchess Sophie of Prussia.

Sophia of Prussia
Queen consort of the Hellenes
Tenure	18 March 1913 – 11 June 1917 19 December 1920 – 27 September 1922
Born	(1870-06-14)14 June 1870 New Palace, Potsdam, Prussia, German Empire
Died	13 January 1932(1932-01-13) (aged 61) Frankfurt, Weimar Republic
Burial	16 January 1932 Greek Orthodox Church, Florence, Italy, then Royal Cemetery, Tatoi Palace, Greece
Spouse	Constantine I of Greece
Issue	George II of Greece Alexander of Greece Helen, Queen Mother of Romania Paul of Greece Irene, Duchess of Aosta Lady Katherine Brandram
Names Sophia Dorothea Ulrike Alice
House	Hohenzollern
Father	Frederick III, German Emperor
Mother	Victoria, Princess Royal
Religion	Greek Orthodoxy prev. Calvinism

Princess Sophia of Prussia (Sophia Dorothea Ulrike Alice; 14 June 1870 – 13 January 1932), was Queen Consorts of the Hellenes during 1913–1917 and 1920–1922.

Member of the the House of Hohenzollern and daughter of Emperor Frederick III of Germany, Sophia received a liberal and anglophile education, under the supervision of her mother, Victoria, Princess Royal. Less than a year after the death of her father in 1889, she marries the Diadochos Constantine, Duke of Sparta and heir of the Greek throne. After a difficult period of adaptation in her new country, Sophia gave birth to six children and became involved in the assistance to the poor, following the footsteps of her mother-in-law, Queen Olga. However, was during the wars which Greece faced during the end of the 19th and the begin of the 20th century that Sophia shows the most social activity: she founded field hospitals, oversees the training of Greek nurses and even she herself heals wounded soldiers.

However, Sophia was hardly rewarded for her actions, even after her grandmother, Queen Victoria, condecorated her with the Royal Red Cross after the Thirty Days' War: the Greeks criticize her links with Germany. Her brother, Emperor William II was indeed ally of the Ottoman Empire and openly opposed the construction of the Megali Idea, which could established a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas. During World War I, the blood ties between Sophia and the German Emperor also cause the suspicion of the Triple Entente, which accuses Constantine I for his neutrality in the conflict.

After imposing a blockade to Greece and supported the rebel government of Eleftherios Venizelos, causing the National Schism, France and its allies deposed Constantine I in June 1917. Sophia and her family then went into exile in Switzerland, while the second son of the royal couple replaces his father in the throne under the name of Alexander I. At the same time, Greece entered the war alongside the Triple Entente, which allows it to grow considerably.

After the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1919 and the untimely death of Alexander I the following year, the Venizelists abandoned the power, allowing the royal family's return to Athens. The defeat of the Greek army against the Turkish troops of Mustafa Kemal, however, forced Constantine I to abdicate in favor of his eldest son George II in 1922. Sophia and her family then were forced to a new exile, and settled in Italy, where Constantine died one year later (1923). With the proclamation of the Republic in Athens (1924) Sophia spent her last years alongside his family and died of cancer in Germany in 1932.

Life

Princess of Prussia and Germany

A birth in a difficult context

See also: Franco-Prussian War

Princess Sophia was born in the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Prussia on 14 June 1870. Her father, Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, and her mother, Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom (herself the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort) are already the parents of a large family and as the penultimate child, Sophia was eleven years younger than her older brother, the future Emperor William II of Germany. Frederick and Victoria are a close couple, both in a sentimental and political levels. Being staunch liberals, they live away from the Berlin court and suffer the intrigues of very conservative Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and members of the House of Hohenzollern.

A week after the birth of Sophie, a case relating to succession to the throne of Spain damaged the the Franco-Prussian relations. The tone between Paris and Berlin worsened even further after Bismarck published the humiliating Ems Telegram on 13 July 1870. Six days later, the government of Napoleon III declares war on Prussia and the states of the German Confederation offer support to Prussia, which then appears as the victim of French imperialism. It's in this difficult context that Sophia was christened the following month, though all the men present were in uniform, as France had declared war on Prussia. Sophie's mother described the event to Queen Victoria: "The Christening went off well, but was sad and serious; anxious faces and tearful eyes, and a gloom and foreshadowing of all the misery in store spread a cloud over the ceremony, which should have been one of gladness and thanksgiving".

However, the conflict lasted only a few months and leads to even a brilliant German victory, leading to the proclamation of Sophia's grandfather King William I of Prussia as the first German Emperor on 18 January 1871.

An Anglophile education

Sophie as a young girl, c. 1885.

Sophie was known as "Sossy" during her childhood (the name was thought to have been picked because it rhymed with "Mossy", the nickname of her younger sister Margaret).

The children of the Crown Princely couple became grouped into two by age: William, Charlotte, and Henry who were favoured by their paternal grandparents, while Sophia, Margaret, and Viktoria were largely ignored by them. Sophia's two other brothers, Sigismund and Waldemar, died at a young age (Sigismund died before she was born, and Waldemar when he was 11 and she was 8); this drew the Crown Princess and her three daughters closer together, calling them "my three sweet girls" and "my trio".

The Crown Princess, believing in the superiority of all things English, had her children's nurseries modelled on her childhood. Sophie was raised with a great love for England and all things associated with it as a result, and had frequent trips to visit her grandmother Queen Victoria, whom she loved. Sophie often stayed in England for long periods,especially on the Isle of Wight, where she likes to collect shells with her older siblings.

Because she was generally avoided by her paternal grandparents, Sophia's formative years were mainly shaped by her parents and her grandmother Queen Victoria. As a little girl she was so deeply attached to the old British sovereign that the Crown Princess doesn't hesitate to let her daughter for long periods under the care of her grandmother.

In Germany, Sophia largely stayed with her parents at two main residences: the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, and the Neues Palais in Potsdam. Like her sisters Viktoria and Margaret, she was particularly close to her parents and their relationship became even closer after the death, in 1879, of Waldemar, the favorite son of the Crown Princely couple.

Meeting and engagement with Diadochos Constantine

In 1884, Prince Constantine of Greece ("Tino") was sixteen and his majority was declared by the government. He then received the title of Duke of Sparta and Diadochos (διάδοχος / diádokhos, which means, "heir to the throne"). Soon after, the young man complete his military training in Germany, where he spent two full years in the company of a tutor, the Dr. Lüders. He served in the Prussian Guard, took lessons of riding in Hanover and studied Political science at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig.

After a long stay in England celebrating her grandmother's Golden Jubilee, Sophia became better acquainted with Constantine in the summer of 1887. The Queen watched their growing relationship, writing "Is there a chance of Sophie's marrying Tino? It would be very nice for her, for he is very good".

During his stay at the Hohenzollern court in Berlin representing the Kingdom of Greece at the funerals of Emperor William I in March 1888, Constantine saw Sophia again. Quickly, the two fall in love and get engaged officially on 3 September 1888. However, their relationship was viewed with suspicion by Sophia's older brother, the now Crown Prince William and his wife Augusta Victoria. In the Hellenistic royal family itself, this betrothal wasn't also completely supported: Queen Olga shows some reluctance to the projected union because Sophia was Lutheran and she would have preferred that the heir to the throne could marry with an Orthodox. But despite the difficulties, Tino and Sophia's wedding was scheduled for October 1889, in Athens.

The death of Emperor Frederick III

This period fell on an unhappy time for Sophia's family however, as her father Emperor Frederick III was dying an agonizing death of throat cancer. His wife and children kept vigil with him at the Neues Palais, even celebrating Sophia's birthday and offering her a bouquet of flowersas a gift. The Emperor died the next day. Sophia's eldest brother William, now German Emperor, quickly ransacked his father's things in the hopes of finding "incriminating evidence" of "liberal plots". Knowing her three youngest daughters were more dependent on her than ever for emotional support, the now Dowager Empress Frederick remained close to them: "I have my three sweet girls - he loved so much - that are my consolation".

Already shocked by the attitude of her eldest son, the Dowager Empress was deeply saddened by the marriage of Sophia and her upcoming move to Athens. Nevertheless, she welcomes the happiness of her daughter and consoled herself in a voluminous correspondence with Sophia. Between 1889 and 1901, the two women exchanged no less than 2,000 letters. They are found also on several occasions in their homes, in Athens and Kronberg. The preparations of Sophia's wedding where "hardly a surprising development considering the funereal atmosphere that prevailed at the home of her widowed mother".

Crown Princess of Greece

An auspicious marriage to the Greeks

A portrait of Sophie taken in 1902 whilst Crown Princess of Greece

On 27 October 1889 Sophia married Constantine in Athens, Greece in two religious ceremonies, one public and Orthodox abd other private and Protestant. They were third cousins through descent from Paul I of Russia, and second cousins once removed through Frederick William III of Prussia. Sophia's witnesses are her brother Henry and her cousins Princes ​​Albert Victor and George of Wales; for Constantine's side, the witnesses are his brothers Princes George and Nicholas and his cousin the Tsarevich of Russia.

The marriage (the first major international event held in Athens) was very popular among the Greeks. The names of the couple are reminiscent to the public of an old legend which suggests that when a King Constantine and a Queen Sophia ascended the Greek throne, Constantinople and the Hagia Sophia would would fall to Greek hands. Inmediately after the marriage of Diadochos, began for the population the hopes of the Megali Idea, i.e. the union of all Greeks in the same state. Abroad, the marriage of Constantine and Sophia raises much less enthusiasm. Thus, in France, it's feared that the arrival of a Prussian princess in Athens do change the Kingdom of Greece to the side of the Triple Alliance. In Berlin, the union the union was also unpopular: German interests are indeed important in the Ottoman Empire and the Emperor doesn't intend to help Greece only because the Diadochos was his new brother-in-law.

Nevertheless in Athens, marriage ceremonies are celebrated with pomp and especially give rise to a significant pyrotechnic spectacle on the Acropolis and the Champ de Mars. Platforms are also built on the Syntagma Square so the public can better admire the procession between the Royal Palace and the Cathedral. The newlyweds are related with most of the European dynasties, so in the festivities where representatives of all the royal houses of the continent: King Christian IX of Denmark (grandfather of the groom), Emperor William II of Germany (brother the bride), the Prince of Wales (uncle of both groom and bride) and the Tsarevich of Russia (groom's cousin) where among the guests of honor. Naturally, Sophia's mother and sisters are also present at the ceremony.

In fact, the hosts and their retinues are so many in the small Hellenic Capital that King George I can't receive all in his palace. He must ask some members of the Greek high society to receive part of the guests in their mansions. Similarly, the sovereign was obliged to borrow the horses and carriages of his subjects in order to transport all visitors during the festivities. In addition, the King was forced to hastily buy tens of additional livery for the lackeys at the service of the guests.

Installation in Athens

In the Hellenic Capital Constantine and Sophia settled in a small villa of French style located in the Kifisias Avenue, waiting for the Greek state who paid the build of a new home for them, the Diadochos Palace, located near the Royal Palace. The couple also ordened the building of another house on the royal estate of Tatoi because King George I refuses that development work could be undertaken in the main palace. In Athens, Constantine and his wife live a relatively simple life and far removed from the protocol of other European courts. But life in Greece is often monotonous and Sophia laments there for any company, she only could count with the wives of the tobacco sellers.

So for the Crown Princess takes a while to get adjusted to her new life. She however launches in learning Modern Greek (who manages to dominate almost perfectly in a few years) and uses her many trips abroad to furnish and decorate her new home. Less than nine months after her marriage, on 19 July 1890, the Crown Princess gives birth to her first child, a slightly premature son who was named George after his paternal grandfather. But the birth goes wrong and the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, who almost choke. Fortunately for the mother and child, the German midwife sent by the Dowager Empress Victoria to help her daughter to give birth manage to resolve the situation and no tragic consequences occurs.

Conversion to Orthodoxy

After the birth of her eldest son, Sophia decides to embrace the faith of her subjects and to convert to the Orthodox faith. Having requested and received the blessing of her mother and grandmother, the Crown Princess informed her in-laws of her project and asked Queen Olga of instruction in orthodoxy. The Greek royal family is delighted by the news, because the announcement of the conversion can only be popular among Greeks. But King George I insists that Germanus II, Metropolitan of Athens and Head of the Autocephalous Greek Church could instruct Sophie in the Orthodoxy, rather than his wife. Of Russian origin, Queen Olga was indeed considered by some Greek nationalists as an "agent of the Pan-Slavism" and King George I therefore preferred that Germanus II will guarantee a task that could create difficulties for the Crown.

If the news of her conversion was greeted calmly by most members of her family, Sophia feared the reaction of Emperor William II, which takes very seriously his status as Head of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces and hate more than anything the disobedience.

Sophia therefore take the trip by her husband in Germany on the occasion of the wedding of her sister Viktoria with Prince Adolf of Schaumburg-Lippe, in November 1890, to personally announce her brother her intentions to change her religion. As expected, the news strongly displeases the Emperor and his wife, the very pious Empress Augusta Victoria. The latter even tried to dissuade her sister-in-law to convert, triggering a heated argument between the two women. Once made ​​aware, William II was so angry that threatened Sophia to exclude her from the Prussian royal family. Pressed by her mother to appear conciliatory, Sophia ends up writing to her brother a letter explaining the reasons for her conversion. But the Emperor will not listen and he forbade his sister to enter for three years to Germany.

Sophia officially converts on 2 May 1891; however, the imperial sentence was ultimately never implemented. Nevertheless, relations between William II and his sister are permanently marked by Sophia's decision. Indeed, the Emperor was a man extremely resentful and he never stopped to make pay her younger sister her disobedience.

Family and private life

Sophia and Constantine's marriage was harmonious during the first years. However, faithfulness is not the greatest quality of the Diadochos and his wife soon had to deal with his numerous extramarital affairs. Initially shocked by what she sees as a betrayal, Sophia soon followed the example of her mother-in-law and condone the behavior of her husband. From 1912, however, the couple became noticeably separated. At that time, Constantine began an affair with Countess Paola von Ostheim (neé Wanda Paola Lottero), an Italian stage actress who recently divorced from Prince Hermann of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach; this relationship lasted until Constantine's death.

The Crown Princess gave birth to her sixth and last child, a daughter named Katherine on 4 May 1913; due to the well-known marital problems, persistent rumors stated that the child was the result of Sophia's own affair. The rumors, false or true, didn't affect Constantine, who easily recognized his paternity.

In privacy, The Crown Princely couple communicate in English and it's mainly in this language that they raise their children, who grow up in a loving and warm atmosphere in the middle of a cohort of tutors and British nannies. Like her mother, Sophia inculcated in her offspring the love for the United Kingdom and the family spent every year several weeks in Great Britain, where she attended the beaches of Seaford and Eastbourne. However, the summer vacations of the family were spend in Friedrichshof with the Empress Dowager, but also in Corfu and Venice, where the Greek royal family went aboard the yacht Amphitrite.

Queen of Greece

Queen Sophia of Greece in 1913

Constantine came to the throne on the assassination of his father in Salonika on 18 March 1913, making him king and her queen consort.

During World War I Queen Sophie was involved to a certain degree with the affairs of the state and kept in frequent communication with her brother. In the words of G. Leon, "She remained a German, and Germany's interests were placed above those of her adopted country which meant little to her. Actually she never had any sympathy for the Greek people". Other sources point to the opposite, based on her many charitable works and efforts to improve the lives of the Greek people in and around the Greek capital, and refer to the scapegoating that followed the period known as the National Schism in Greece, based mostly on Sophie being a sibling of the German Kaiser and the allied effort to discredit the Greek royal family during World War I.

In 1916 as the Queen and King were residing in Tatoi, a mysterious fire broke out, destroying the main residence and much of the forest surrounding it. Queen Sophie grabbed her youngest child (Katherine) and ran a mile and a half with her in her arms. The fire lasted for forty-eight hours and was suspected as deliberate act of arson.

Exile

She left Greece on 11 June 1917 with her husband (who was forced to abdicate because of his alleged pro-German sentiments) and they went into exile to Switzerland, but were recalled to the throne some time after their second son Alexander's death from an infected monkey bite. Her husband was forced to abdicate a second time after defeat in a war with Turkey in 1922. King Constantine died early the following year.

Death and burial

In her last years Queen Sophie was diagnosed with cancer. She died in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1932. With the restoration of the monarchy in Greece, Queen Sophie's remains were re-buried in 1936 at the royal burial ground at Tatoi Palace alongside her husband.

Legacy

She is the paternal grandmother of her namesake, Queen Sofia of Spain, ex-King Constantine II of the Hellenes and of ex-King Michael I of Romania. Queen Sofia of Spain, is in turn the paternal grandmother of Infanta Sofia of Spain.

Issue

All children of Sophie and Constantine had the titles of King or Queen except for their youngest child, Princess Katherine. All three of their sons had ascended to the Greek throne, therefore becoming King of the Hellenes. Their eldest daughter Helen had married Crown Prince Carol of Romania, but as he had renounced his rights to the throne, Helen's son, Prince Michael, ascended to the Romanian throne. Their second daughter, Irene, married the deposed King Tomislav II of Croatia, who was also the 4th Duke of Aosta. Then, Sophie and Constantine's youngest child, Katherine, married a British commoner.

Name	Birth	Death	Notes
George II of Greece	20 July 1890	1 April 1947	married Princess Elisabeth of Romania, no issue.
Alexander I of Greece	1 August 1893	25 October 1920	married Aspasia Manos, had issue, Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia.
Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark	2 May 1896	28 November 1982	married the future Carol II of Romania, had issue, Michael I of Romania.
Paul I of Greece	14 December 1901	6 March 1964	married Princess Frederika of Hanover, had issue, include Constantine II of Greece and Queen Sofía of Spain.
Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark	13 February 1904	15 April 1974	married Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, nominally King Tomislav II of Croatia from 1941 to 1943; had issue.
Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark	4 May 1913	2 October 2007	married Major Sir Richard Brandram MC; had issue.

Ancestry

Family of Sophia of Prussia

16. Frederick William II of Prussia 8. Frederick William III of Prussia 17. Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt 4. William I, German Emperor 18. Charles II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 9. Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 19. Princess Friederike of Hesse-Darmstadt 2. Frederick III, German Emperor 20. Charles Augustus, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach 10. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach 21. Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt 5. Princess Augusta of Saxe-Weimar 22. Paul I of Russia 11. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia 23. Princess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg 1. Princess Sophia of Prussia 24. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 12. Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 25. Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf 6. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 26. Emil, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 13. Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg 27. Louise Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 3. Victoria, Princess Royal 28. George III of the United Kingdom 14. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn 29. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 7. Victoria of the United Kingdom 30. Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (= 24) 15. Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 31. Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf (= 25)

Arms

Coat of Arms of Sophia of Prussia

Sources

• Bennett, Daphne (1971). Vicky: Princess Royal of England & German Empress. London: Collins and Harvill Press. ISBN 000262883X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bertin, Célia (1982). Marie Bonaparte (in French). Paris: Perrin. ISBN 226201602X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |sous-titre= (help)
• Driault, Édouard; Lhéritier, Michel (1926). Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce de 1821 à nos jours : La Grèce et la Grande Guerre - De la Révolution turque au traité de Lausanne (1908-1923) (in French). Vol. V. PUF.
• Gelardi, Julia P. (2005). Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312324243. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Leon, G. B. (1974). Greece and the Great Powers 1914-17. Thessaloniki: Institute of Balkan Studies. OCLC 462815121. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mateos Sainz de Medrano, Ricardo (2004). La Familia de la Reina Sofía : La Dinastía griega, la Casa de Hannover y los reales primos de Europa (in Spanish). Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros. ISBN 84-9734-195-3.
• Van der Kiste, John (1994). Kings of the Hellenes : The Greek Kings, 1863-1974. ISBN 0750921471.
• Van der Kiste, John, The Prussian Princesses: Sisters of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Fonthill, 2014
• Vickers, Hugo (2000). Alice, Princess Andrew of Greece. Londres: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-13686-5.

External links

Media related to Queen Sophia of Greece at Wikimedia Commons