King Constantine, the last Greek king, has died. And it is natural for all of us, royalists and non-royalists, to feel tenderness and stop with the thought of those of us who can with prayer, are close to him and close to his family, to Queen Anne-Maria and to his children.

Let the elders remember what their eyes saw, and not what others told them, and the younger, thanks to the passage of time and softening the causticity, let them sit down to think and set their hearts to work, finally without prejudice.

And what will they see? A child, cheerful, without a hint of pretense or snobbery, a scout or student – one among equals in Anavrita – and a teenager who followed his parents in their various duties, sometimes bored, maybe even reluctantly, as any teenager would do. . And then we remember the honest prince on the day of his swearing in as heir to the Greek throne in the trophy hall of the then Old Palace, listening to his father’s speech, that excellent instruction of Paul to his son and successor, which Constantine has been preserved as the most valuable teaching. And then the Olympian heir, on his ascent to Athens, standing in a car, from Helliniko, while this was preceded by scenes of violent joy with family and close friends immediately after the victory in the Gulf of Naples. And then a proud brother riding with his sister Sophia in a wedding carriage through the streets of Athens. And so, in March 1964, the devastated young king, who was still smiling, but who suddenly found himself at the age of 23 in the crown, the crown of thorns of Greece, slowly walking, supporting his grieving mother from the metropolis on the Hilton among the millions of spectators who joined his mourning. And then the Pallaic celebration of his wedding. And somewhere there the fairy tale breaks off and a tragedy begins, personal and national.

Inheriting a job for which he was not responsible, and with neither the experience nor the necessary education, he was close to the voices of older councillors, whose fears stemmed from past events and had little to do with the concerns of his generation. . The forced resignation of Georgios Papandreou, and then the apostasy scandal, in which the Palace was certainly involved, but there is no evidence that the king was personally involved, were fatal events that shook a key country and state. The following year, Constantine bravely attempted to bring the country out of the impasse he had largely caused. Violation of the terms of the agreement between the Center and the ERE, which opened the way to elections and which he himself achieved, violation due to the fact that G. Papandreou could not resist the pressure of his son, as well as the refusal of K. In order to return Karamanlis to Greece, they left the king unnoticed, while rumors of a dictatorship were growing, which the necessarily unilateral government of P. Kanellopoulos refused to take seriously. “My father left me the desire and the curse never to establish a dictatorship,” said King Eleni Vlahova, who restlessly visited him in Tatoi in the early days of April 1967, literally. I know something from her.

On the night of April 21, 1967, the tanks of the conspirators surrounded Tata and cut him off from the outside world. Inside the house is the 26-year-old king with his wife, who is about to give birth, an assistant, several soldiers and gendarmes with a minimum of light weapons. The only contact with outsiders was made by Georgios Rallis shortly before the last telephone line was cut. The king asked him to contact Thessaloniki so that the local army could rush to the rescue, not knowing that the commander of the 3rd Army Corps, G. Zoytakis, an old assistant to King Paulus, was one of the leaders of the coup. In the morning, the trio of conspirators, represented at Tatoi, were received by an angry Constantine, who severely reprimanded them for daring, as the self-proclaimed saviors of the country, to violate the Constitution and involve him in their statements. Embodying a polity of succession and hierarchy, the young king had a natural distaste for kinetists and sworn officers, being an officer first and foremost.

Descending then to the Pentagon and faced with an almost hostile atmosphere there, Konstantin unsuccessfully tried to contact several loyal military men. His political advisers were arrested or went into hiding. Alone, without support from anywhere, the only thing he achieved was the appointment of a non-military government, which, of course, did not deceive anyone.

“My father left me the desire and the curse never to establish a dictatorship,” said King Eleni Vlahova, who visited him in Tatoi in the early days of April 1967.

Since then, his main concern has been to buy time to organize the overthrow of the dictatorship. Although he felt it from the first moment, he did not realize the degree of rejection on the part of the allied factor, relations with which the royal family cultivated so closely after the war. His frequent tours of the provinces during the summer confirmed his popularity, while in the coming crises in the army it was clear that royalist officers would be removed. So time was running out. Taking advantage of the concentration of the bulk of the army in northern Greece due to the then increased possibility of a war with Turkey, Constantine ventured on December 13, 1967 on a counter-movement against the junta, an action, the slovenly organization of which is not an easy task in a regime of constant surveillance on behalf of the regime – does not make it void as an act of great courage. Wanting to avoid conflict between the legalist and part of the army of the junta, Constantine preferred to go abroad without delay … Interestingly, the first king of the dynasty insisted on the completion and adoption of a liberal constitution, while the last he actually lost his throne, rising to overthrow the dictatorship.

Thus, the king’s public time was short. And years follow, whole decades of personal tragedy. Where each of his actions in favor of Greece is systematically discredited and slandered – and there were several of them, for example. about the extent of US military assistance to Turkey, as well as to some from the Cypriots, without losing sight of its key contribution to the capture of the Olympic Games from Athens – and where is even the school that was founded with the participation of the Greeks from London “Greek College so that his children could receive a Greek education and communicate with Greek children, he became the target of slanderous attacks until he was finally forced to close. This is followed by the humiliating for all of us, rulers and subjects, the adventure of Tatoi, with everything cannibalistic and blatantly unjust that took place then and later, as well as the deprivation of Greek citizenship of members of the fading dynasty. We believe that kings have no feelings.

I first met Konstantinos in London in June 1975. He still retained some haughtiness, but I remember his great excitement when the former naval officer who introduced me mentioned Greece, as I remember his knowledge of Greek army equipment. A few years later I saw him again. In front of his office elevator, which I called. “He’s slow, be patient,” I heard a voice behind me in Greek. I turned and saw the king. It’s been redone. He impressed me as a deeply saddened man. The same later, over and over again, more and more. Until he returned to Greece.

King Constantine, the last Greek king, has died. Let us agree that he was a good and benevolent man, bold and patriotic, and that he ascended the throne unprepared, without the resources and perhaps without the qualifications to deal with the inevitable political crises in Greece as a regulator of the state. And let us also agree that now, when he takes his eternal place in the family cemetery at Paleokastro in the recently burned forest of Tatoi, which he loved so much, our behavior towards him was unworthy of our democracy. Looking back at his life full of tragedies, for which he was in no way ready, let us say goodbye to him with honor, and some of us with excitement, and also with that, unfortunately, rare virtue of the soul, which is called empathy.

* Mr. Kostas M. Stamatopoulos is a Historian and Vice-President of the Hellenic Society for the Preservation of the Environment and Culture.