Thanksgiving service for the life of King Constantine II of the Hellenes

A thanksgiving service for King Constantine II of the Hellenes, who died on 10 January 2023, 82 years old, took place today at St. George's Chapel, Windsor, United Kingdom. 

The service was officiated by the Dean of Windsor, Christopher Cocksworth, and Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain. The eulogy was delivered by King Constantine's friend Sir Nicholas Soames, who is a grandson of Sir Winston Churchill. His eulogy can be read here, while the order of service can be read here.

The service was attended by the late king's widow Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes, all her children as well as other members of the Greek royal family, and also by many representatives of royal Europe. Among the many present in the chapel were (the Greeks and the British royal and extended family listed first, then the others in alphabetic order):

Greece

• Queen Anne-Marie
• Crown Prince Pavlos and Crown Princess Marie-Chantal
• Princess Maria-Olympia
• Prince Achileas-Andreas
• Prince Odysseas-Kimon
• Prince Aristides-Stavros
• Princess Alexia and Carlos Morales Quintana *
• Prince Nikolaos and Princess Tatiana
• Princess Theodora and Matthew Kumar
• Prince Philippos and Princess Nina
• Princess Irene
• Princess Alexandra (daughter of Prince Michael)
• Darius Mirzayantz * (son of the former)

United Kingdom

• Queen Camilla
• The Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York
• Princess Beatrice and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi
• The Princess Royal (Princess Anne) and Sir Tim Laurence
• Zara and Mike Tindall
• Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto, 
• The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester 
• The Duke of Kent
• The Earl and Countess of St. Andrews
• Lady Helen Taylor 
• Prince and Princess Michael of Kent
• Princess Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Ogilvy
• James and Julia Ogilvy
• Marina Ogilvy,
• The Marquess and Marchioness of Milford Haven
• The Countess Mountbatten of Burma 
• Lady Alexandra and Thomas Hooper
• India (Hicks) and David Flint Wood 
• Amory Flint Wood (son of the former and a godchild of King Constantine).

The Prince of Wales was meant to attend, but had to cancel for "privacy reasons". According to the order of service he had been invited to do the second reading.

Austria

• Archduchess Helen *

Baden

• Margrave Bernhard and Margravine Stephanie

Bulgaria

• Prince Kyril

Denmark

• Princess Benedikte (sister-in-law of King Constantine)

Hannover

• Hereditary Prince Ernst August

Hesse

• Landgrave Donatus

Hohenlohe-Langenburg

• Princess Saskia

Jordan

• Queen Noor
• Prince Hassan and Princess Sarvath

Serbia

• Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

• Prince Gustav and Princess Carina
• Princess Alexandra, Countess of  Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille and Count Michael Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille

Schleswig-Holstein

• Prince Alexander *

Spain

• King Felipe
• Queen Letizia
• Queen Sophia (sister of King Constantine)
• King Juan Carlos
• Infanta Elena
• Infanta Cristina
• Juan Urdangarin y Borbón (son of the former)

Toerring-Jettenbach

• Count Hans Veit *

Others

• Princess Tatiana Radziwill

For the record, the funeral service took place on 16 January 2023 in Athens, Greece, followed by burial at the royal cemetery at Tatoi.

Sources

• The Official Website of the Royal Family of Greece
• The Official Website of the Crown Prince of Serbia
• The Royal Watcher (blog)
• Nobiliana.de, thread Memorial Service for King Constantine ll of the Hellenes
• Various X (Twitter) accounts, including Rodrigo, RoyalArjan and Rebecca English.

Updated on Wednesday 28 February 2024 at 20:45 (a few names added (marked by an asterisk) as well as Nobiliana.de and Rebecca English in the list of sources).

Funeral service for former King Constantine II of the Hellenes

The funeral service for former King Constantine II of the Hellenes, who died on 10 January 2023, 82 years old, took place in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens on Monday 16 January 2023, followed by burial at the royal cemetery at Tatoi. 

I wrote last Wednesday that «It is expected that the funeral will be attended by members of Europe's current and past royal and princely families, including Spain, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania». I had somehow feared that many reigning European royal families, except for those with the closest relations, would not be represented in order not to stepping on the toes of the Greek govenment, due to EU and NATO connections etc. I had obviously not thought through this fear or sort of analysis well enough. The funeral turned out to be an impressive gathering of people who wantged to say good bye to a former king and dear relative and friend.

I have tried to compile a survey of royals attending the funeral service, based on the official websites and other sources, such as various TV clips posted on Twitter during the day, Nobiliana.de etc.  Among the members of the Greek royal family attending the funeral were Queen Anne-Marie, Crown Prince Pavlos, Crown Princess Marie-Chantal, Princess Maria-Olympia, Prince Constantine-Alexios, Prince Achileas-Andreas, Prince Odyseus-Kimon, Prince Aristidis-Stavros, Princess Alexia, Carlos Morales y Quintana, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Tatiana, Princess Theodora, Matthew Kumar, Prince Philippos, Princess Nina, Princess Irene, the latter the younger sister of the late king, Prince Michael and his wife Marina Karella and their eldest daughter Princess Alexandra and her husband.

Other royal families

Belgium

• King Philippe and Queen Mathilde

Denmark

• Queen Margrethe II
• Crown Prince Frederik
• Prince Joachim
• Princess Benedikte

Jordan

• Queen Noor Al Hussein
• Princess Raiyah Bint Al Hussein
• Princess Sarvath El Hassan

Liechtenstein

• Princess Margaretha

Luxembourg 

• Grand Duke Henri

Monaco

• Prince Albert II

Netherlands

• King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima 
• Princess Beatrix

Norway 

• Crown Prince Haakon & Crown Princess Mette-Marit
• Princess Märtha Louise*

Spain

• King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia
• King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia (sister of King Constantine)
• Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo
• Infanta Cristina

Sweden

• King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia
• Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnusson*

United Kingdom**

• Princess Anne, the Princess Royal and Sir Tim Laurence

Former monarchies

Baden

• Margrave Bernhard and Margravine Stephanie

Bulgaria

• King Simeon II

Hannover***

• Hereditary Prince Ernst August and Hereditary Princess Ekaterina
• Prince Christian and Princess Alessandra

Iran

• Empress Farah Pahlavi

Romania****

• Radu Duda (Prince Radu)

Russia

• Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna

Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg

• Princess Alexandra

Schleswig-Holstein

• Prince Alexander

Serbia

• Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine

Other dignitaries

Greece

• Deputy Prime Minister Panagiotis Pikrammenos
• Culture Minister Lina Mendoni

According to eKathimerini.com about 200 people attended the funeral service, while 60 of them followed the coffin to the Tatoi royal cemetery. A mermorial dinner took place in Athens later on Monday.

* Princess Märtha Louise does not represent the royal house at the funeral service, cf. the official website, but rather herself. Because she is a princess I have put her in the official section. The same goes for Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnusson

** Lady Gabriella Kingston, who was one of the late king's godchildren, was present for the funeral service. As she is not a royal she is not listed here. It has been stated that she represented the Prince of Wales at the funeral.

*** Chantal Hochuli, formerly Princess of Hannover, mother of Prince Ernst August and Prince Christian, also attended the funeral service.

**** Nicholas de Roumanie-Medforth-Mills, formerly styled Prince Nicholas of Romania), also attended the lying in prior to the funeral service.

Updated on Wednesday 18 January 2023 at 07:45 (added Princess Raiyah in the Jordan section as well as footnotes *** and ****), then at  09:55 (updated footnote ****), last time updated on Monday 23 January 2023 at 09:25 (Schleswigh-Holstein added).

Prince Philippos of Greece to marry Nina Flohr

The office of the former King of the Hellenes today announced the engagement between Prince Philippos of Greece and Nina Nastassja Flohr. According to Hello Magazine the announcement said:

Their Majesties King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie are delighted to announce the engagement of their youngest son HRH Prince Philippos to Nina Nastassja Flohr, daughter of Thomas Flohr and Katharina Flohr.

Nina and Philippos were engaged on the island of Ithaca in Greece earlier this summer.

The details of their wedding will be announced in due course.

The website of the Royal Greek Family has not yet published the statement. Prince Philippos, b. 1986, is the youngest son and child of King Constantine and Queen Anne-Marie. He is currently working as a hedge fund analyst residing in New York, while Nina Flohr, b. 1987, the daughter of the Swiss businessman Thomas Fohr and his former wife Katharina Konečný, has worked as a creative director of his dad's private jet charter company VistaJet and is currently listed as a director of Dodeca Holding Ltd.

Due to the pandemic it is still unknown when the couple will tie the knot. Prince Philippos' sister Princess Theodora was in November 2018 engaged to Matthew Kumar, but the wedding has yet to take place due to the pandemic.

Sources: See links. Some information or links has also been gathered from the message board Nobiliana.de (Greece/Flohr, EAG 2020, 1 September 2020).

UK: Foreign royals at York Brooksbank wedding

Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank got married at St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on Friday 12 October 2018, and I posted a short blog article later the same day.

In the article I listed the following foreign royals attending the wedding:

• Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece
• Crown Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece
• Princess Maria-Olympia of Greece
• Prince Philippos of Greece (with his partner Nina Flohr)
• Prince Ernst August of Hannover
• Princess Ekaterina of Hannover
• Prince Christian of Hannover
• Princess Alessandra of Hannover

Yesterday (13 October) The Telegraph published the article «Royals, sheikhs, supermodels and oligarchs - what Eugenie and Jack's wedding guest list in full reveals» which adds the following guests:

• Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain
• Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, former Emir of Qatar
• Sheikh Suhaim Al Thani of Qatar
• Sheikh Fahad Al Thani of Qatar

Now, The Telegraph writes that «The inclusion of the Crown Prince of Bahrain is bound to raise an eyebrow after the Duke of York’s friendship with the King of Bahrain has attracted negative headlines due to the regime’s poor track record on human rights.» and «Qatari rulers Sheikh Hamad, Sheikh Suhaim and Sheikh Fahad also made it onto the guest list, also a reflection of Prince Andrew’s middle-eastern ties.»

I am quite certain that The Telegraph by Sheik Hamad means the former Emir, but I am not 100 % sure. And there are several sheikhs named Suhaim and Fahad (Fahd), as the genealogy website The Royal Ark demonstrates, so it is not easy to make a well-educated guess. But Fahad (Fahd) might be the elder brother of the current Emir, Tamim, while Suhaim is one of the nephews of Sheik Hamad and thus a cousin to Tamim.

The Telegraphs also adds the Hereditary Prince and Princess of Oettingen-Oettingen and Oettingen-Spielberg to the party, i.e. Franz-Albrecht and Cleopatra. They were also present at the Sussez wedding in May.

Not a royal, but Count Nikolai von Bismarck was also present, accompanied by his girl-friend, the well-known model Kate Moss.

Concerning members of the British Royal Family not attending the wedding, I mentioned in my Friday article that the Duchess of Cornwall was absent due to other commitments, while Princess Alexandra, the Hon. Lady Ogilvy had a broken arm and had cancelled (well, I didn't mention the reason then). It seems that the Duchess of Kent was not present either, for reasons I don't know, even if she was said to be listed in the Court Circular (yesterday's can't be found at the official website as of now as far as I can tell). Very well, I will leave the rest of the more or less complete guest list to Nobiliana and other forums ...