Queen Anne-Marie of Greece

Anne-Marie (Άννα-Μαρία; born 30 August 1946) is a Danish princess who was Queen of Greece as the consort of King Constantine II from their marriage on 18 September 1964 until the abolition of the Greek monarchy on 1 June 1973.

Anne-Marie is the youngest daughter of Frederik IX of Denmark and Ingrid of Sweden.

Princess Anne-Marie was born on 30 August 1946 in Frederik VIII's Palace, an 18th-century palace which forms part of the Amalienborg Palace complex in central Copenhagen.

She was the third and last daughter and child of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Ingrid of Denmark.

Her father was the eldest son of Christian X of Denmark and Alexandrine of Mecklenburg-Schwerin; her mother, born a Princess of Sweden, was the only daughter of the Crown Prince of Sweden and Princess Margaret of Connaught, daughter of the Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

Anne-Marie was baptised on 9 October 1946 in the Holmen Church in Copenhagen.

Her godparents are King Christian X and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark (paternal grandparents); the then Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden (maternal grandfather); Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland (maternal uncle); King Haakon VII of Norway (paternal granduncle); Princess Dagmar of Denmark (paternal grandaunt); Prince George of Greece and Denmark (grandfather's first cousin); the Crown Princess Märtha of Norway (father's first cousin); Queen Mary of the United Kingdom; and Crown Princess Juliana of the Netherlands.

Anne-Marie is a great-great-granddaughter of both Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark.

Therefore, she is related to many other members of European royalty, such as her future husband Constantine II, who is also a great-great-grandchild of both Queen Victoria and Christian IX of Denmark.

Moreover, Anne-Marie is the aunt by marriage of Felipe VI of Spain and the first cousin of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Princess Anne-Marie and her sisters grew up in apartments at Frederik VIII's Palace at Amalienborg in Copenhagen and in Fredensborg Palace in North Zealand.

She spent summer holidays with the royal family in her parents' summer residence at Gråsten Palace in Southern Jutland.

On 20 April 1947, less than a year after Princess Anne-Marie's birth, her grandfather, Christian X, died, and her father ascended the throne as King Frederik IX.

At the time of her father's accession to the throne, only males could ascend the throne of Denmark.

As Anne-Marie's parents had no sons, it was assumed that her paternal uncle, Prince Knud, would one day assume the throne.

Anne-Marie was educated at N. Zahle's School, a private school in Copenhagen, from 1952 to 1961.

The popularity of Frederik IX and his daughters and the more prominent role of women in Danish life paved the way for a new Act of Succession in 1953 which permitted female succession to the throne following the principle of male-preference primogeniture, where a female can ascend to the throne if she has no brothers.

Her eldest sister, Margrethe, therefore became heir presumptive, and Princess Benedikte and Princess Anne-Marie became second and third in the line of succession.

In 1959, at the age of 13, Anne-Marie first met her future husband, her third cousin Constantine, Crown Prince of Greece, who accompanied his parents, King Paul and Queen Frederica, on a state visit to Denmark.

Constantine at the time was 19 years old.

In 1961, she attended the Chatelard School for Girls, an English boarding school outside Montreux in Switzerland.

They met a second time in Denmark in 1961, when Constantine declared to his parents his intention to marry Anne-Marie.

The pair became secretly engaged without telling the public nor members of their families due to Frederik IX's opposition to their relationship because of her age.

They met again in Athens in May 1962 at the wedding of Constantine's older sister, Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain.

Anne-Marie was a bridesmaid, while Constantine was a groomsman for the future monarchs of Spain.

The couple spent time in Athens afterward and told their families about their engagement.

In 1963 and 1964, she attended the Institut Le Mesnil, a Swiss finishing school also in Montreux.

Upon returning from schooling, Anne-Marie undertook childcare work for a few years.

This was in approval of her mother, who wished for her to become a good housewife to her future husband.

In 1964, she married Constantine and became queen consort of Greece.

They had five children: Princess Alexia, Crown Prince Pavlos, Prince Nikolaos, Princess Theodora, and Prince Philippos.

As queen, Anne-Marie spent much of her time working for a charitable foundation known as "Her Majesty's Fund", a foundation established by her mother-in-law, Queen Frederica of Greece.

In 1967, Anne-Marie and her family were forced into exile upon the rise of a military dictatorship.

After fleeing to Rome, they eventually settled in London, when the Greek monarchy was officially abolished.

Anne-Marie and her family were stripped of their Greek citizenship and had their property revoked, leading them to sue in the European Court of Human Rights, where they won and were allowed back into Greece.

Of the compensation she earned, Anne-Marie set up the "Anne-Marie Foundation", which provided assistance to people in rural areas of Greece.

At birth, Anne-Marie had two elder sisters: Princess Margrethe (later becoming Queen Margrethe II upon her accession to the Danish throne in 1972 until abdicating in favour of her son, Frederik X, in 2024), and Princess Benedikte, who married Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and lives in Germany.

In 2013, she and Constantine moved back into Greece.

They moved to Athens in 2022.

Constantine died in January the following year.