Frederica of Hanover | |||||
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Queen consort of the Hellenes | |||||
Tenure | 1 April 1947 – 6 March 1964 | ||||
Born |
Blankenburg am Harz, Duchy of Brunswick |
18 April 1917||||
Died | 6 February 1981 Madrid, Spain |
(aged 63)||||
Burial | 12 February 1981 Royal Cemetery, Tatoi Palace, Greece |
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Spouse | Paul of Greece | ||||
Issue |
Sofía, Queen of Spain Constantine II of Greece Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark |
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House | Hanover | ||||
Father | Ernest Augustus III, Duke of Brunswick | ||||
Mother | Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia | ||||
Signature |
Full name | |
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Frederica Louisa Thyra Victoria Margareta Sophie Olga Cécilie Isabelle Christa |
Styles of Queen Frederica of the Hellenes |
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Reference style | Her Majesty |
Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Alternative style | Ma'am |
Frederica of Hanover (Friederike Luise Thyra Victoria Margarita Sophia Olga Cecilia Isabella Christa; Greek: Φρειδερίκη της Ελλάδας; pronounced [friðeˈrici ˈtis eˈlaðas]; 18 April 1917 – 6 February 1981) was Queen consort of the Hellenes as the wife of King Paul of Greece.
Born Her Royal Highness Princess Frederica of Hanover, of Great Britain and Ireland, and of Brunswick-Lüneburg on 18 April 1917 in Blankenburg am Harz, in the German Duchy of Brunswick, she was the only daughter of Ernest Augustus, then reigning Duke of Brunswick, and his wife Princess Viktoria Luise of Prussia, herself the only daughter of the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Both her father and maternal grandfather would abdicate their crowns in November 1918 following Germany's defeat in World War I, and her paternal grandfather would be stripped of his British royal dukedom the following year. As a descendant of Queen Victoria, she was, at birth, 34th in the line of succession to the British throne.
In 1934, Adolf Hitler, in his ambition to link the British and German royal houses, asked for Frederica's parents to arrange for the marriage of their seventeen-year-old daughter to the Prince of Wales. In her memoirs, Frederica's mother described that she and her husband were "shattered" and such a possibility "had never entered our minds". Victoria Louise herself had once been considered as a potential bride for the very same person prior to her marriage. Moreover, the age difference was too great (the Prince of Wales was twenty-two years Frederica's senior), and her parents were unwilling to "put any such pressure" on their daughter.