George
Prince of Greece and Denmark
Prince George of Greece and Denmark (24 June 1869 – 25 November 1957) was the second son and child of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, and is remembered chiefly for having once saved the life of his cousin the future Emperor of Russia, Nicholas II in 1891 during their visit to Japan together. He served as high commissioner of the Cretan State during its transition towards independence from Ottoman rule and union with Greece. From 1883, George lived at Bernstorff Palace near Copenhagen with Prince Valdemar of Denmark, his father's younger brother. The queen had taken the boy to Denmark to enlist him in the Danish royal navy and consigned him to the care of Valdemar, who was an admiral in the Danish fleet. Feeling abandoned by his father on this occasion, George would later describe to his fiancée the profound attachment he developed for his uncle from that day forward. In 1891, George accompanied his cousin the Tsesarevich Nicholas on his voyage to Asia, and saved him from an assassination attempt in Japan, in what became known as the Otsu Incident. George, along with his brothers Constantine and Nicholas, were involved with the organization of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens. George served as president of the Sub-Committee for Nautical Sports. He served as a judge for the weightlifting competition, and demonstrated his strength by clearing the weights at the end of the event. Although much of modern
Greece had been independent since the 1820s, Crete remained in Ottoman hands. For the rest of the 19th century, there had been many rebellions and protests on the island. A Greek force arrived to annex the island in 1897 and the Great Powers acted, occupying the island and dividing it into British, French, Russian and Italian areas of control. In 1898, Turkish troops were ejected and a national government was set up, still nominally under Ottoman suzerainty. Prince George, not yet thirty, was made High Commissioner, and a joint Muslim-Christian assembly was part-elected, part-appointed. However, this was not enough to satisfy Cretan nationalists. Eleftherios Venizelos was the leader of the movement to unite Crete with Greece. He had fought in the earlier revolts and was now a member of the Assembly, acting as minister of justice to Prince George. They soon found themselves opposed. George, a staunch royalist, had assumed absolute power. Venizelos led the opposition to this.
The Cretan Gendarmerie was a gendarmerie force created under the Cretan State, after the island of Crete gained autonomy from Ottoman rule in the late 19th century. It later played a major role in the coup that toppled the government of King Constantine in 1916, and also in the World War II Battle of Crete and the Greek Resistance that followed. When Prince George of Greece undertook his duties as High Commissioner, one of his fundamental objectives was to restore law and order. He wanted to prove to everyone that Cretans were worthy of autonomy. So it was decided that all residents should be disarmed and a central body of Gendarmerie should be created. The core of the new Cretan Gendarmerie were the small units that the powers had created. In January 1899 the Prince called the commanders of the four Gendarmerie units to Chania to hear their proposals on the way the Cretan Gendarmerie should be organized. At this meeting it was realized that the only commander who was expert and had serious proposals on the subject was the Italian representative. Thus, the Italian proposal was accepted and it was decided on the organization of a unit of gendarmerie similar to the Italian Carabinieri, which was considered one of the best such units in Europe. In the summer of 1899, Carabinieri Captain Federico Craveri was named commander and organizer of the new Cretan Gendarmerie. Craveri, with the help of a team of 140 Carabinieri officers and non-commissioned officers, undertook the organization of the new force, using as a core the personnel of
the four forces created by the international governors. In the achievement of this objective he was helped by two particularly favourable factors. First, was the fact that many young Cretans, inspired by love for their country, hurried to enlist in this new paramilitary unit of the independent Cretan State. This meant that Craveri could choose the best. Enlistment in the Gendarmerie, which also had military duties (the foundation of Militia having been postponed permanently due to lack of funds), was considered an honorable service to the nation. Georgios Vouros, for example, abandoned his studies in the Law Faculty of Athens University in order to enlist as a simple constable, and Evangelos Sarris, who had previously abandoned his studies in order to participate in the revolution of 1898, immediately enlisted in the Gendarmerie. Both were later to be among the first Cretans commissioned into the Gendarmerie. The other factor that helped Craveri to enforce law and order in the island was his excellent relationship with the government and Prince George, as well as the fact that the island's authorities had the right to deport all persons who were considered dangerous. This measure was initially applied by the international authorities and the constitution of 1899 and was extended for two years as a privilege of the Prince. None of the people deported by the admirals or the Prince had the right to return to Crete unless the Prince decided so.
The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, better known as the House of Glücksburg, is a branch of the German House of Oldenburg. Oldenburg house members have reigned at various times in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greece, and several northern German states. In 1863 and with the name George I, Prince Wilhelm of Denmark was elected King of the Hellenes on the recommendation of Europe's Great Powers. He was the second son of King Christian IX of Denmark. On 6 September 1898 (25 August 1898 according to the Julian calendar then in use on Crete, which was 12 days behind the modern Gregorian calendar during the 19th century), a Cretan Muslim mob massacred hundreds of Cretan Greeks and murdered the British vice-consul, his family, and 14 British soldiers and sailors, in the city of Candia (modern Heraklion). As a result, the International Squadron and the occupying forces ashore expelled all Ottoman forces from Crete in November 1898. The autonomous Cretan State, under Ottoman suzerainty, garrisoned by an international military force, and with its high commissioner provided by Greece, was founded when Prince George of Greece and Denmark arrived to take office as the first high commissioner, effectively detaching Crete from the Ottoman
Empire, on 21 December 1898 (9 December according to the Julian calendar). The Admirals Council was dissolved on 26 December 1898. On 13 December 1898, Prince George of Greece and Denmark arrived as high commissioner for a three-year tenure. On 27 April 1899, an Executive Committee was created, in which a young, Athens-trained lawyer from Chania, Eleftherios Venizelos, participated as minister of justice. By 1900, Venizelos and Prince George had developed differences over domestic policies, as well as the issue of Enosis, the union with Greece. Venizelos resigned in early 1901, and for the next three years, he and his supporters waged a bitter political struggle with the Prince's faction, leading to a political and administrative deadlock on the island. On 15 August, the Cretan Assembly voted for the proposals of Venizelos, and the Great Powers brokered an agreement, whereby Prince George would resign and a new constitution created. In the 1906 elections the pro-Prince parties took 38,127 votes while pro-Venizelos parties took 33,279 votes, but in September 1906 Prince George was replaced by former Greek prime minister Alexandros Zaimis and left the island. In addition, Greek officers came to replace the Italians in the organization of the Gendarmerie, and the withdrawal of the foreign troops began, leaving Crete de facto under Greek control.
Royal standard of the King. Standard used by King George I of Greece. The flag consists of the plain cross version of the national flag, with a royal coat of arms of Greece superimposed in the center of the cross.
Awards: Sash and star of the Order of the Redeemer.
