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Today marks the Centenary of the Death of King Alexander of Greece, who died on this day in 1920! The second son of King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophia of Prussia, he was the brother of King George II and King Paul of Greece, Queen Helen of Romania, the Duchess of Aosta (a short-lived Queen of Croatia), and Lady Katherine Brandram, the cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Margarita, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Princess Cecile, Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess Theodora, Margravine of Baden, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, Princess Paul of Yugoslavia, Princess Sophie of Greece and Hanover, Princess Eugenie of Greece, and Prince Michael of Greece, and was also the uncle of Queen Sofia of Spain, King Constantine II of Greece, King Michael of Romania, and the Duke of Aosta. Educated at the Hellenic Military Academy in Kypseli, Prince Alexander distinguished himself in combat during the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. He succeeded his father in 1917, during the First World War, after the Entente Powers and the followers of the Prince Minister pushed the King and Crown Prince into exile, and installed a puppet King under the Prime Minister who had the support of the Entente Powers, and sent all other members of the family into exile, isolating the King and blocking all communication. His Reign saw the victory of the Entente and their Allies in the First World War and the early stages of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, when Greece’s territory was increased by a third. King Alexander supported Greek troops during their war against the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. Under his reign, the territorial extent of Greece considerably increased, following the victory of the Entente and their Allies in the First World War and the early stages of the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. King Alexander controversially married the commoner Aspasia Manos in 1919, and after traveling around Europe for a few months, they returned to Greece in the Summer of 1920, with his wife, titled Madame Manos not Queen, pregnant with their first child. However, in October, the King was bitten by a domestic Barbary macaque and suddenly died of sepsis at the age of 27. Only his grandmother, Queen Olga of Greece, was allowed into the country and attended his funeral, acting as the Regent until King Constantine was restored to the throne, after a general election and referendum. Madame Manos was made Princess Aspasia of Greece and the couple’s daughter eventually became Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia, the mother of the current Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia.
