King Paul & Queen Frederika (nee Hannover) of Greece

[Ilias_of_John]

My consort had met her as a child. She certainly possessed all the public relations attributes that fit a queen! (unlike her husband who, even as a king, could hardly speak the language of his subjects).

never in all my life heard of king paul unable to speek greek! do we have any proof for this?

I ont think its Queen Frederica who uttered the statement Eric,(unlike her husband etc), someone else said it.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes. Although it would be something people will put on Frederike. I cringe when I saw the interview of her claiming to be "A strong woman...etc" It was as bad as Diana's years later.

[carl fraley]

i saw this on youtube (or saw a brief intro clip) and then came across a facebook page as well .  Anyone have any info on where you can get it?

http://youtu.be/ZGBrRgwusHg

as well as the fb link

https://www.facebook.com/KingPavlosDoc

any info/insight??

[Kalafrana]

According to another thread, when Elizabeth of Romania married George III she found life difficult with his family because they all spoke Greek among themselves and she felt left out. In this context, it would be rather surprising if George,s brother Paul couldn't speak Greek.

According to Philip Eade's 'Young Prince Philip', Andrew of Greece far preferred Greek to any other language.

It is always possible that Paul and Frederica preferred to speak German together.

Ann

[Eric_Lowe]

That would indeed be natural for them...apart from English.

[carl fraley]

the statement that King Paul spoke NO greek is ludicrous.  He use to Broadcast to the Greek People during WWII when he was with the Greek Gvt in exile from Cairo and London.
i will have to go back through my book but i have read that they spoke German after they married b/c The Queen Didn't know greek yet.  I can't find the Source Right now but I emailed the webmaster at the Greek ROyal Website so maybe I will get an answer. just fyi .. King George I spoke Greek, Danish, English, German and French and would often in mid conversation switch from 1 to the other depending on who was present.  on 3/18/1913 "he told his sons in English (which none of the Greek officers present understood that in october he would celebrate his Golden Jubilee and that he would take advantage of that and abdicate".  ("Kings of Hellenes by John Van Der Kiste , page 74).  Also, Queen Frederica ,In her book, she says she spoke German and English to Pavlos, German in person and English over the phone and in letters. She also states that they spoke Greek to the children,  However, Sofia's German is flawless and her English has a German accent, so I think that's the language she heard from her mother as a little girl.
also, just FYI, there are tons of Youtube Videos of HM King Constantine II, HM Queen Sophia, and HRH PRincess Irine speaking Fluent Greek on Youtube so just throwing that out there.

[Превед]

Indeed. It would have been funny if male members of the Greek RF didn't speak Greek at a time when loads of schoolboys in German and Russian Gymnasien / гимназии / γυμνάσια, French lycées / λύκεια and British public schools / σχολεία struggled through Homer and Thucydides in the original Greek, while at least Protestant students of theology learnt Greek in order to read the New Testament in the original.

[DNAgenie]

There is a vast difference between the modern Greek language (particularly spoken Greek) and Ancient Greek as learnt by schoolboys. The Greek RF had to learn modern Greek in order to converse with their subjects.

[Eric_Lowe]

That makes perfect sense.

[Превед]

There is a vast difference between the modern Greek language (particularly spoken Greek) and Ancient Greek as learnt by schoolboys. The Greek RF had to learn modern Greek in order to converse with their subjects.

Yes, of course, but both varities are Greek. BTW since Greece has experienced "linguistic civil war" in the same way as Norway (where another Glücksborger, King Haakon VII, always spoke Danish), I as a Norwegian suspect that these accusations against the Greek RF may have had something to do with these nuances.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think the language between Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) are more in common than Greek. 

[Kalafrana]

That point is so obvious it really isn't worth making.

I think we have now established that King Paul did speak Greek perfectly well.

Ann

[Превед]

I think the language between Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) are more in common than Greek.  

Not if you take into account various highly divergent and archaïc dialects in all three Scandinavian countries, including Finland-Swedish. Danophone Maria Fyodorovna managing to converse with Swedophones in Finland speaking rather archaïc Swedish dialects can probably be compared to a modern Greek reading ancient Greek. You need education and exposure, otherwise the comprehension will be very low.

Some telling examples with the words for "king":
Modern Greek: βασιλιάς
Ancient Greek: βασιλεύς

Modern Danish and Norwegian: konge
Archaïc Danish: konning
Archaïc Norwegian: kongje
Modern Swedish: kung
Archaïc Swedish: konung
Old Norse: konungr
Icelandic: konungur

Of course the most obvious parallell is between the modern Scandinavian languages and Old Norse / Icelandic, but the way I understand it the difference between Ancient and Modern Greek is smaller than between these. (Although Katharevousa certainly can be compared to modern, puristic Icelandic, which with its many neologisms is less comprehensible to modern Scandinavians than Old Norse is.) Greek was less influenced by Turkish, Italian and Slavic than the Scandinavian languages were by Low German, whose influence on the modern Scandinavian languages can be compared to that of French on modern English.

Note for instance that "language" (a French word in English) is γλώσσα in both Ancient and Modern Greek, while in modern Scandinavian it's språk / sprog (from Low German spraak, compare German Sprache), quite unlike Old Norse tunga, (which still means "tongue", though.)

[Eric_Lowe]

Thanks for pointing out the difference. Appreciate it.

[carl fraley]

Personally, and this is my opinion, the Kings of the Hellenes have always been the scapegoat for crooked and selfish politicians.  King George navigated it pretty well but after his assination the Greek Politicians had , had almost 50 years to get their groundwork.  When King Constantine ascended the throne, they thought he was going to be a cipher, they thought wrong.  Both Queen Sophie and King George II were much maligned because
1.) Sophie was born a princess of Prussia  and was british at heart
2.) King George II, was trained with the Prussian Military
but King Constantine excercising his Perogatives and ya he stretched it but he was correct . 

King Alexander said it best (or this quote was atributed to him) When brought to his attention that he Signed a document without reading it he quickly replied back "My father read first and then signed and he's in exile, my grandfather signed first and then read , and he died a King".


ok long story short is what i am asking everyone is do you think if King Constantine II had been a little older and more experienced how things might have been diferent.  King Paul seemed to be very adept at handling the politicians and IMO was a great example of a Modern Constitutional Monarch.

2.) Do you think in 60 years time history will exhonerate the Glucksborg dynasty in Greece as the Truth comes to light?