Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark
| Prince Michael | |
|---|---|
| Born |
7 January 1939 Rome, Kingdom of Italy |
| Spouse | Marina Karella (m. 1965) |
| Issue | Princess Alexandra of Greece Princess Olga, Duchess of Apulia |
| House | Glücksburg |
| Father | Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark |
| Mother | Princess Françoise of Orléans |
| Religion | Greek Orthodox |
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Styles of Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark |
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|---|---|
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| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |
Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, RE (born 7 January 1939) is the author of several historical books and biographies of Greek and other European figures, in addition to working as a contributing writer to Architectural Digest. He is a grandson of King George I of the Hellenes, a descendant of King Louis Philippe d'Orléans and a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
He was born in Rome to Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark, the youngest son of George I of Greece, and his second wife Princess Françoise of Orléans, a daughter of the Orleanist claimant to the defunct French throne, Jean, Duke of Guise. He is one of the four last surviving great-grandchildren of Christian IX of Denmark (with Christian Castenskjold, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma).
His father died when he was a year old, leaving Michael an only child, and his mother died in 1953 when he was 14, leaving him an orphan. Although a Greek prince, like many members of his dynasty he grew up largely abroad, sometimes in exile. As Europe marched into World War II, the infant Michael's family scattered: his mother's father, the Duke of Guise, left his residence of exile in Brussels, the Manoir d'Anjou, for their property at Larache, Morocco in March 1939 where he died on 24 August, the Manoir having become the Belgian headquarters for Germany's invading Wehrmacht. Less than six months after her father's death, Françoise was widowed by the death of Prince Christopher, following an abscess of the lung, in Athens in January. She took Michael to join her mother's household in Larache where her elder sister, Princess Isabelle Murat and her family, had also taken refuge from Europe. Their brother, Henri, Count of Paris, who succeeded his own father as head of the Orleanist monarchist movement, sent for his wife and children to come from their relatives in Brazil, and by the spring of 1941 they too were settled in Spanish Morocco (still being banned from the French sector), near Casablanca, in a small house without electricity that was named Oued Akreech in the town of Rabat. Michael lived his early childhood years on the African continent in the midst of his mother's family. Later, they also spent time in Spain.
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Wikipedia