The former king of Greece, Constantine, passed away on Tuesday evening in Athens at the age of 82.
He was being treated in a private hospital’s ICU ward for nearly a week after suffering a serious stroke.
Constantine was born on June 2, 1940 at a royal residence in the Athens district of Paleo Psychiko, months before the outbreak of WWII in Greece.
He was the crown prince and heir of King George II of Greece and Princess Frederica of Hanover, and was the royal couple’s second child and only son.
Constantine reigned as the head of state in Greece from 1964 to 1973.
A referendum in late 1974, after the restoration of democratic rule in Greece, abolished the institution of hereditary constitutional monarchy in the east Mediterranean country.
During self-exile, Constantine lived mostly in the UK, although he and other members of the royal family returned to Greece for permanent residence over the previous years.
The former monarch will be buried as a private citizen in a family cemetery at the former royal summer home at the forested Tatoi site, due north of Athens.
The Greek government will be represented at the funeral by the Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted that “…the eventful life of former King Constantine marked, and was marked, by turbulent moments in the country’s modern history… by wounds which were healed by the volition, the free conscience and the maturity of the Greek people…His passing is, at a human level, the official epilogue to a chapter that was closed with the 1974 referendum…from now on, it’s up to history to judge.”
Mitsotakis also extended his sincere condolences to the family of the former monarch.
On his part, Ecumenical Patriarch His All Holiness Bartholomew performed a Trisagion service for the former king of the Hellenes on Wednesday morning at the St. George Cathedral, accompanied by hierarchs and priests of the Patriarchal Court.