Queen Elisabeth of Greece

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Today marks the 125th Anniversary of the Birth of Queen Elisabeth of Greece, who was born on this day in 1894. The second child and eldest daughter of King Ferdinand of Romania and Princess Marie of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, she was the sister of King Carol II of Romania, Queen Maria of Yugoslavia, and Princess Ileana. Raised by her grand-uncle and great aunt, King Carol I and Queen Elisabeth of Romania, she was an introvert and socially isolated with a volatile temperament. In 1921, after refusing his proposal before, she married Crown Prince George of Greece, who soon became King in a politically volatile environment that led to them being deposed and exiled by 1924. With her setteling in Romania, where she amassed a great fortune, the couple’s relationship deteriorated and they divorced in 1935, right before the Restoration of the Greek Monarchy. Princess Elisabeth served as the First Lady of Romania, first for her brother, King Carol, and then nephew, King Michael, and also established close links with the Romanian Communist Party, earning her the name of the ‘Red Aunt’ of the sovereign. However, her communist links did not prevent her from being exiled with the rest of the Royal Family in 1947, when she moved to Switzerland and then to Cannes, having a relationship with Marc Favrat, a much younger artist, whom she adopted just before her death in 1956. Her main legacies are the Greek Emerald Parure Tiara and the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest, the current residence of her great-niece, the Custodian of the Crown of Romania.

Click HERE to learn about her Emerald Tiara, and HERE to learn about her Pearl and Diamond Tiara!

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2 thoughts on “Queen Elisabeth of Greece

  1. The Princess was NOT, as stated here, the First Lady of Romanian in the reign of her nephew, King Michael. The First Lady was Queen Helen, the Queen Mother of Romania

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