Constantine II

Constantine II, 1940–, king of the Hellenes; also known as Constantine XIII. He was appointed regent in 1964 and succeeded to the throne the same year on the death of his father, King Paul. In 1967, after a military junta had seized political power in Greece, Constantine made an abortive attempt to overthrow the generals. When the coup failed, he and his family fled into exile. The junta declared him formally deposed in June, 1973, and established a republic. In Dec., 1974, after the overthrow of the junta, the Greek voters chose not to restore the monarchy. Constantine was stripped of his Greek citizenship in 1994. In 2002 the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Greece had to compensate the former king for property nationalized after the royal family fled the country.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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