The burial of Prince Michael, the last grandson of King George I, who was also known as Michel de Grèce, took place in Tatoi.
The funeral service was held on Thursday morning at the 1st Cemetery of Athens, in the presence of several “blue bloods”. The first cemetery was the site of the final farewell to Prince Michael the entire Greek former royal family, the former Queen of Spain Sofia, her sister Princess Irene, members of the Spanish royal family, the wife of Prime Minister Mareva Grabovski – Mitsotakis, as well as several businessmen and friends of the family of the deceased.
The family’s warm request was that in lieu of wreaths in his memory, donations be made to the ELIZA Society Against Child Abuse, of which Prince Michael was Founder & Honorary President.
See photos from the 1st Cemetery of Athens
Prince Michael
He was a historian, literary scholar, prince of Greece and Denmark and the only living grandson of George I and a relative of the late former king of Greece, Constantine. He was also the first cousin of Prince Philip.
Prince Michael was born on January 7, 1939. His father, Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (1888-1940) was the fifth son of George I and Queen Olga, and the younger brother of Constantine I by two decades.
Michael’s mother, Frances of Orléans, was the daughter of John of the House of Bourbon-Orléans (Maison de Bourbon-Orléans), Duke of Guise.
The return to Greece
During World War II, Michael lived in Morocco, and in 1948, he and his mother, Francis, moved to Paris. Five years later, his mother passed away and his uncle took over his guardianship.
At the age of 25, having received a degree in political science from a university in Italy, he arrives in Greece where he serves in the army for four years. At that time, he lived in Tatoi.
In 1965, Michel de Gress fell deeply in love with and married the artist Marina Karella and resigned from the succession to the Greek throne.
The couple had two daughters a few years later, Olga, born in 1971, and Alexandra, born in 1968.
His career
Michel de Gres began his career as a historian and as a writer in the distant 1970s when he divided his time between writing and historical research. He tackled a variety of subjects concerning Greece, the heroes of the Revolution, the Louis and Tsars and the Ottoman Empire.
Indicatively some of his works are: “The Maharani”, “The Bourbon Maharajas”, “The Last Sultan”, “The Mystery of Kythera”, “Bouboulina”.
