King Charles’ special relationship with Greece was featured in Greek outlet Proto Thema by Michael Stukas who wrote about, among other things:
His visits to Mount Athos are well known, but a veil of secrecy covers many elements around them. Less well known is that Charles has a talent for painting and that Greek nature has inspired him to create watercolours which are sold through Charles’s foundation trust shop at Highgrove House for £2,950 each.
Charles’ special love and interest in Greece was confirmed in 2021 when he attended the events for the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the Greek Revolution, but also by various initiatives for Greece that he undertook in previous years.
The Greek “roots” of Charles
Charles III, born in London on 14 November 1948, is now King of the United Kingdom and 14 other states of the British Commonwealth, now known as the Commonwealth of Nations, and Supreme Ruler of the Church of England. His father was Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and his mother was the then Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, later Queen of Great Britain.
Charles’ father Philip (1921-2021), was born in Corfu with the title of Prince of Greece and Denmark. His parents were Prince Andrew of Greece, fourth son of George I and brother of Constantine I, and Alice of Battenberg. Prince Andreas was accused of insubordination during the Asia Minor Campaign due to the movement of his unit behind the First Army Corps and was put on trial. With the intervention of the British, French, Spanish and others, he avoided execution and was sentenced “…unanimously to life imprisonment (exile) and deprivation of rank”.
The British warship HMS Calypso picked up Andrew’s family with Philip being carried in a makeshift cot made from fruit boxes. In 1947 Philip became engaged to his distant cousin Elizabeth. The couple were married on 20 November 1947.
Philip participated in the Battle of Crete and the Battle of Taenaros. For this action he was honoured by Greece with the Greek War Cross. However, he did not seem to have any particular feelings for Greece. He never officially visited Greece, although the British had given him the nickname “Phil the Greek”. He reportedly said: “I certainly never felt nostalgia for Greece. A grandfather who was murdered (he means George I) and a father who was sentenced to death does not endear me to the perpetrators (perpetrators is the word he used).”
Charles’ youth – His grandmother Alice and monasticism
Charles from his childhood and youth stood out for some actions unusual for royal offspring. In 1955 it was announced that he would attend school instead of having a private tutor as had been the case until then. In 1966 he spent a long period at Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia and in the same year he visited Papua New Guinea on a study tour. In 1976 he founded The Prince’s Trust and then 16 other organisations which he chairs to this day. These relate to education, youth, the environment, entrepreneurship etc. Today he is a patron of more than 350 charities and organisations.
But his love for Greece is of particular importance. His visits to Mount Athos have been much discussed, but not many details have been made known about them. Some attribute his special interest in Orthodox monasticism, which has also manifested itself in his visits to monasteries in Romania, to the influence of his grandmother Alice (1885-1969).
On 20 October 1928, Alice was accepted into the Orthodox Church and gradually began to acquire a strange behaviour. She claimed to communicate with God and to have healing properties. Her relationship with Andrew began to show problems. Her husband and relatives asked her to be examined by a psychiatrist. Her treatment was undertaken by Dr. Schimmel and then Sigmund Freud, who subjected her to a treatment to accelerate menopause, which was unsuccessful. He even bombarded her ovaries with X-rays. Finally, in 1930, Alice was confined to a sanatorium for two and a half years.
Her condition improved and she moved to Germany. In 1938 she returned to Greece and did not leave even during the Occupation. Then, with the help of her brother Lord Mountbatten, she organised and ran soup kitchens at her personal expense. In 1943 she hosted the Cohen family of Jewish origin (Rachel, widow of Haymaki Cohen and her two children) in her house in Akademias Street until liberation. Afterwards, Aliki moved to 61 Patriarchos Joachim Street in Kolonaki and dressed as a nun. She then went to Tinos where she tried to establish a monastery on privately owned land in the church of Panagia Tinos. However, Aliki was not a real nun since she did not follow the strict rules imposed by the monastery.
In January 1949 she returned to Athens where she founded the “Christian Brotherhood of Martha and Mary” which “hosted” a clinic and a school for nuns. She continued to wear her nun’s habit and travelled all over the world to raise money for her charitable work.
After the coup of 21 April 1967 she left Greece at the urging of her son Philip and settled in Buckingham Palace. She died on 5 December 1969. She was originally buried in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. On 3 August 1988 her remains were transferred in accordance with her wishes to St Mary Magdalene Monastery in Jerusalem.
Alice loved Greece very much. It is said that during the Occupation a German General visited her and asked her how he could help her. She replied, “Can you take your troops out of my country?”
Charles’ visits to Mount Athos
Charles had visited Greece unofficially several times after 1964. The first time he travelled to Greece officially was on 22 November 1998, 14 months after the tragic death of Diana. The then heir to the British throne was an official guest of the late Kostis Stephanopoulos, President of the Republic from 1995 to 2005. His first official visit to Athens was in the framework of the “Britain and Greece” Festival to attend the “Saint Music on the Fields” Academy concert at the Athens Concert Hall.
According to some accounts, Charles went to Mount Athos a few days after Diana’s death. He visited the Monastery of Vatopedi where he met with Abbot Ephraim. Locked in a room with Ephraim, Charles is believed to have made a “spiritual commitment” to Christian Orthodoxy. From then on, his visits to Athos became more frequent. It is significant that between the spring of 2003 and May 2004 he visited Mount Athos three times. Always accompanied usually by two bodyguards and politely declining the presence of Greek officials. Of particular interest is the fact that there is always an order to keep the identity of the high visitor to the “Garden of the Virgin Mary” a secret.
As the Guardian wrote on 12 May 2004: ‘According to friends and associates of the Prince, the future head of the Church of England has a love of the Orthodox faith to the extent that he has decorated part of his Highgrove home with precious Byzantine icons. Many believe these come from Mount Athos the holiest site in the Orthodox world. “There is no doubt that Charles is Orthodox at heart, unfortunately he is very limited because of his location,” an Athonite monk confided to Helena Smith.
The same publication reported that Charles’ constant visits to the Vatopaidi Monastery and Mount Athos in general fuelled speculation that he was personally teaching Orthodox Christianity, despite his associates categorically denying this. “The (then) prince’s trips to Mount Athos are a purely personal affair. He goes there as a private person, not in his official capacity as Prince of Wales. The visits are on his private time so we do not announce details.
What I can say is that he is interested in the architecture and spirituality of Mount Athos,” said then (2004) Palace spokeswoman Kirstine Clark. Charles’ visits to Mount Athos continued in the following years. The new British monarch usually stays at the Vatopaidi Monastery where he is hosted in luxurious accommodation. Charles is a member of the Friends of Mount Athos Foundation in Britain, which has provided funds for the reconstruction of the monasteries.
Charles and painting
Few people know that Charles has a talent for painting. He is fascinated by Greek nature and several of his paintings have subjects from Greece (Mount Athos, the island of Scorpios, etc.). One of his watercolours, depicting the Vatopedi Monastery, painted after his accession to the throne, has been reproduced in 100 lithographs and sold by the Highgrove House shop for £2,950 (about $5,500) each. Each is signed by the new British monarch: Charles 2022.
Charles and his help to Greece during the financial crisis
Charles’ mother Elizabeth in her 70 years of reign never visited Greece. Let us not forget that the executions of nine EOKA fighters were carried out with her acquiescence, if not her consent…
On the contrary, Charles not only visited Greece many times but also showed his interest in Greece during the economic crisis. Since 2015 the Prince’s Trust International, the UK charity founded by Charles in 1976 to support vulnerable young people, has a strong presence in Greece.
As part of a five-year programme, the Foundation aimed to support more than 2,200 young people (18 to 30 years old) in Athens and other cities in Greece to learn basic skills and find employment. On a visit to Greece in 2018, Charles said:
“Knowing that Greece and so many young Greeks have been going through such a difficult period in recent years I wanted to find a way, small and inadequate, to help so that the young people of Greece can reach their full potential either through skills training or by helping them to set up their own businesses.”
At a formal reception at St. James’s Palace in London in 2019, Charles welcomed Greek beneficiaries of the programme alongside prominent Greeks from the British business world. In fluent Greek he said: “Together we can help the young people of Greece build a brighter future for themselves and their country.”
In 2018, during a visit to Greece, Charles praised Greece: “We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our literature, our religion, our arts are all rooted in Greece.”
Charles in Athens in 2021
Charles and royal wife Camilla represented Great Britain at the events marking the 200th anniversary of the declaration of the 1821 Revolution. Clearly moved, he laid a wreath at the Unknown Soldier Memorial, while a military band played “God Save the Queen”. Then at a banquet he emphasised: “My wife and I could not be happier to return to Greece which has long held the most special place in my heart” and went on to praise “the extraordinary courage and fortitude shown by the Greeks during the 1821 Revolution”. For Charles, “apart from anything else, Greece is in my blood and for a long time I have been fascinated by its ancient civilization and history.”
“In Athens lived my beloved grandmother, Princess Aliki, in which during the dark years of the Occupation a Jewish family took refuge, an act for which she is considered in Israel “as virtuous among the nations”.
Epilogue
The new British monarch’s dozens of visits to Mount Athos and his love for Greece are not in doubt. However, his role does not allow him to make substantial interventions in British politics. It is certainly preferable to have a philhellenic monarch on the British throne rather than someone with neutral or anti-Hellenic feelings…
