The Prince of Wales has pulled out of a memorial service for his godfather that was attended by British and European royalty and international politicians.
William was expected to give a reading at the service of thanksgiving for Constantine II, the last King of Greece, who was affectionately known as “King Con” to his friends and as “Tino” to the Windsors.
Palace aides said that William’s absence was due to a “personal matter” but stressed that the Princess of Wales’s recovery from abdominal surgery in January was “continuing well”.
However, his absence came at such short notice that there was no time to change the order of service.
Crown Prince Pavlos, the late king’s son, stepped in to give the reading in his place. He said: “Regrettably, the Prince of Wales — who, as you will know, was the godson of my late father — is unable to be here today and I am delivering this reading on his behalf.”
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William had been due to give a reading from the Book of Revelation. A Palace source said that he had telephoned the Greek royal family to apologise for his non-appearance.
Constantine died on January 10 last year. The service of thanksgiving at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, was attended by his widow, Queen Anne-Marie.
The King was also forced to miss the ceremony in honour of his good friend and second cousin. It is the most high-profile event he has missed since his cancer diagnosis was announced by Buckingham Palace this month.
A palace aide said that the King had not had a chance to meet members of the visiting foreign royal families but had been in touch with Constantine’s family since the death.
In his place, the Queen was the royal family’s leading representative. She was joined by the Duke of York, who stepped back from royal duties in November 2019, and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, who recently announced that she had been diagnosed with skin cancer six months after having breast cancer.
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Other members of the royal family who were there included the Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence; the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester; the Duke and Duchess of Kent; Princess Beatrice and her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi; Zara and Mike Tindall; the Earl and Countess of St Andrews; Lady Helen Taylor; Princess Alexandra; James Ogilvy and his wife Julia; Marina Ogilvy; Prince and Princess Michael of Kent; and Lady Sarah Chatto and her husband Daniel.
Sir John Major was also present, and Lord Soames of Fletching gave a reading.
Constantine, whose father was Prince Philip’s first cousin, ascended the Greek throne at the age of 23 in 1964 but fled after a coup three years later. The military regime declared a republic in 1973. Once democracy was restored, a referendum in 1974 resulted in a vote of 68.8 per cent to 31.2 per cent against restoring the monarchy.
For years, he lived in exile in London with a home in Hampstead Garden Suburb. He kept an office in Mayfair which, despite its sought-after postcode, appeared to have none of the palatial qualities he might have been used to. It was located between a souvenir shop and a hair and beauty centre, and the journalist AN Wilson said that the bland décor and nondescript furniture “would be more fitting to an expensive chiropodist than to a monarch in exile”.
He maintained his title even after he had lost his crown, saying: “I am the King of Greece but I’m not the head of state. Why should I be ex-king? [George] Bush is not called Mr Ex-President. He is called Mr President.”
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Prince Philip was 18 months old when he was evacuated from Greece in an orange box along with the rest of his family in December 1922 following the instability caused by the Greco-Turkish war.
Constantine was an accomplished sportsman, winning a gold medal in sailing at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He later sailed with Prince Philip at Cowes and served on the International Olympic Committee.
He married Anne-Marie, the youngest daughter of King Frederick IX of Denmark, who had just turned 18. They had five children: Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, the heir to the throne who trained at Sandhurst and served with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Theodora, who is an actor under the name Theodora Greece, and Prince Philippos.
Constantine returned to Greece permanently in 2013 and died of complications from a stroke ten years later, aged 82. He was laid to rest in a private funeral at the royal cemetery at Tatoi in a service attended by Princess Anne and Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Also in attendance at the burial last year was Constantine’s sister Sofía, the wife of Spain’s former king Juan Carlos and the mother of King Felipe.
King Charles was unable to attend the funeral last year as he had a conflicting diary commitment, including meeting the president of Cyprus.
