Former king of Greece Constantine dies

He was being treated in a private Athens hospital’s ICU ward.

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. He was the royal couple’s second child and only son.

Constantine reigns as the head of state in Greece from 1964 to 1973, which up until a military coup in April 1967 was a constitutional monarchy.

The monarchy was abolished in a dubious plebiscite declared by the junta, although Constantine and his family had fled the country in December 1967 in the wake of a failed counter-coup by high-ranking royalist military officers.

A referendum in late 1974, after the restoration of democratic rule, nevertheless abolished the institution of hereditary constitutional monarchy in Greece for good, with 69.2 percent of voters favoring a republic.

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.