Constantine I of Greece

Greece state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1868–1923 → Died in exile

King of Greece who led the Greek army in the Balkan Wars and broke with Venizelos over entering the First World War

The eldest son of George I, born in Athens and educated in Germany, he admired Prussian militarism and as crown prince commanded the army in the lost Greco-Turkish War of 1897. In 1912 he led the Army of Thessaly to victory at Sarantaporos and, after clashing with Venizelos, who demanded the swift capture of Thessaloniki over his wish to push north to Monastir, took the city. He succeeded his assassinated father in March 1913, commanded at Kilkis-Lahanas and the Kresna Gorge in the Second Balkan War and was made a field marshal. His pro-German neutrality in the First World War led him to dismiss Venizelos, causing the National Schism, and he abdicated in 1917. Restored in 1920, he abdicated again after the defeat in Asia Minor in 1922 and died in exile in Palermo in 1923.

Also known as: Konstantinos I · King Constantine I of Greece