That any event taking place within the framework of Greek reality should have twelve quite different and equally scintillating facets must be taken as a matter of course. Beside it, such so-called inscrutabilities as described in, say, the classic film Rashomon are by Hellenic standards mere Oriental child’s play. The fact that the Greek press was banned from the ceremonies and the accounts had to be drawn from only two official sources in no way impeded the infinite variety in the occasion described. It must be recalled in this dizzying context that 1981 is an election year, meaning that much reportage of controversial material is even more brilliant and fragmented than usual. Even the foreign press, in this case, embraced the local spirit and had, for example, ex-King Constantine kissing the Greek soil at the tombs of his forefathers, at the gate of the royal summer palace and on the tarmac of the airport at which he arrived. Although one must enter this thicket of contrariness with caution, and come to conclusions at considerable risk, the idea that the ex-monarch spent most of his time ignoring his mother’s obsequies and kissing the land of his birth seems, at best, unlikely — though it should be pointed out that Greece was thirteen years younger when he left her last and was then certainly far more beautiful.Attempting to get down to the substance of this ephemeral stuff amounts to smashing a crown jewel to the flatness of observable truth:
one hesitates even to report the late lady’s title with any confidence — since it had been variously referred to in the press as Queen, ex-Queen, former Queen, former Queen Mother, ex-Queen Mother, Queen Mother, or certain epithets on the infra-red end of the rainbow which it would be unseemly to repeat. What all reports agreed upon, however, was the word ‘Queen’, and Frederika was a Queen, every inch a Queen; indeed, several inches too many.
The question aroused by her death was not so much that of her controversial career as of the matter of monarchy in general. Yet, whether monarchy in Greece in 1981 is an issue or not is itself open to debate. Monarchs of modern Greece who have packed their bags in a hurry have in the past returned to unpack them at leisure. And to predict the future in a country whose past is so open to interpretation is hazardous. For this reason, the events which occurred between Frederika’s death in Madrid on Thursday, February 5, and her interment the following Thursday at Tatoi were of greater interest than the details of her funeral.
Frederika’s death was first reported in the local press with dignified brevity. It was only after the Rallis government decided to allow her burial “for humanitarian reasons” next to her husband, King Paul, and his ancestors at the Royal summer palace at Tatoi that the fur hit the fan. Accusing the government of trying to win the favor of extreme Rightists in a pre-election context, the Opposition press claimed that the funeral was being ‘politicized’. Although it was the Junta in •fact which forced the King into exile, royalists and Juntists often hold in common a general contempt for civil government in this country.
A rush of dispatches appears to have followed, betwixt Athens, London (where the ex-King resides) and Madrid (where Frederika lay in state). At first it was said that Constantine would spend the nights before and after the funeral at a hostelry near the summer palace and that there would be 500 attending the funeral with special invitations.
On Sunday night the Prime Minister expressed surprise at the reaction. “Every human being has the right to be buried in his own family grave and I fail to see why in the case of this burial an exception should be made to the rule.”
The opposition, however, continued its attack and claimed that the government had acted hastily and was encouraging exploitation on the part of Rightists which might endanger the country’s democratic institutions. Whatever strength there may have been in these arguments, the invitation list was subsequently cut to fifty persons and the King’s sojourn reduced to the length of five hours. Greek journalists and photographers were banned from the ceremony as well as all TV coverage. It was announced that neither Prime Minister Rallis nor Foreign Minister Mitsotakis would attend the funeral. Meanwhile, the King’s private secretary was reported to have said that he anticipated a million people attending the ceremony.
On Tuesday, February 10, a police ordinance was issued prohibiting any march or gathering of people and (as if it were possible in Athens) any organized movement of vehicles. In Thessaloniki the mayor said the government’s decision was a great mistake, the city council of Chania condemned it unanimously, in Athens a demonstration of 600 youths was quickly broken up and in Thessaly a communist stabbed his royalist brother-in-law.
The following day, Constantine stated “I deplore the political exploitation of the funeral and interment of my dear mother.” The restrictions placed on the funeral, he continued, “added bitterness to grief.” The legal issue of the ex-King’s return seems to have been solved as soon as it came up. The Minister of Interior issued a statement that Constantine, being born in Greece, of parents with Greek citizenship, having served in the Greek Armed Forces, could not be barred from entry. Whether he was arriving with the usual citizen’s passport, or the royal red passport or no passport at all, no one seemed to know.
On the eve of the funeral, a large force of gendarmerie, as well as units of the riot squad were on location at Tatoi. The numbers of royalists arriving, many on chartered buses from different parts of the country, were described as ‘scores’. That night fires were observed burning in the area, said to be lit by security forces to prevent people descending from the hills behind the estate.
The following morning thousands of Royalist leaflets Uttered the streets. Two small bombs exploded in political offices in central Athens. At 12:50 the Olympic aircraft carrying the bier of the former Queen, attended by ex-King Constantine, his wife Anna-Maria, Queen Sophia of Spain, Princess Irene and Frederika’s grandchildren landed at the Tatoi military airbase. King Juan Carlos arrived an hour later and was greeted by the Prime Minister and given the honors due to chiefs of state. Prince Philip of Edinburgh had arrived ten minutes earlier piloting his own plane. The funeral cortege reached the gates of the Palace at 2:30 p.m. and a large number of persons at this time broke through police cordons.
At this point all facts must give way to speculation. The numbers of commoners who reached the chapel and the grave site varied from one to three thousand and more. Some say they behaved with rustic dignity and others with jostling rudeness. Did the good folk from the north throw the soil of Macedonia and Epirus (which Frederika “had helped to save”) onto her grave? Did former Queen Juliana trip and stumble in the crowds? Did Princess Irene lose her shoe? Were ladies of the former Queen’s Fund forced to step onto the grave of Queen Olga to avoid being trampled? Did Prince Philip lay a laurel wreath on the nearby tomb of his father, Prince Andrew? Was, finally, the flag draping the bier removed, folded and returned to the ex-King, or was it, in the avalanche of earth and rose petals, buried? If so, it could be aptly said she sank courageously and took the standard with her. If not? In Greece, even today, events twenty-four hours after their happening can become mythologies without ever bothering to enter the annals of history.
It is, however, reasonably well documented that on February 12, Frederika was buried in the royal cemetery at Tatoi; that the funeral was attended by her three children, her grandchildren, and her friends and that she was laid, as she desired, beside her husband whom she loved, and who loved her, perhaps, as some say, too well. It is known, too, that the ex-King and his family by 6 p.m. had been flown out of Greece’s sovereign territory.
The living have gone away again. The country has returned to its everyday concerns. The royal residence, after so many years’ neglect is still derelict and the cemetery where George I and Olga and so many of their descendants rest on a hillock beside the little chapel, will — after a week’s hard work of neatening it up — become overgrown again. Is it possible to lay a hand on this desolate spot and ask, Implora Pace!
Greece in the 1980s
The Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at King’s College, London, offered a scholarly dimension to the festivities accompanying Greece’s entry into the European Community. A three-day conference masterminded by Richard Clogg was held at King’s College, bearing the title “Greece in the 1980s”.
The official opening of the conference by the Rt. Hon. Earl Jellicoe, Chairman of the Council of the College, on January 8, was followed by the Hon. C. M. Woodhouse’s introductory paper on two attempts in Byzantine times to bring the Greeks into the community of western people and the contemporary culmination of that goal.
The two historical examples were, firstly, the proposal of a marriage between Irene of Athens and Charlemagne, thus uniting the Holy Roman and Eastern Empires; and secondly, the Council of Florence in 1439 which unsuccessfully tried to end the Great Schism.
Prof. Victor Papacosma provided a historical perspective on the development of the Greek state during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and an interesting discussion on the future developments of Greek politics followed Dr. Nikiforos Diamandouras’ “Greek Political Culture: Continuity and Change”. George Mavrogordatos’ “The Emerging Party System” completed the work of the first day.
The second day proved even more spirited. Prof. Theodore Couloumbis’ “Foreign Policy-Making Structures” set forth vital questions concerning the mechanism of Greek policy-making, and Richard Clogg pointed out the emotional aspects in Greco-Turkish relations. One of the best reports was by Prof. John Iatrides who attempted a re-examination of Greece’s relations with the U.S. Dr. Thanos Veremis offered a linkage between internal and external security considerations in post-war Greece and Dr. John Campbell gave the final paper of the second day on “Values and Continuities in Greek Society”. The last session was dedicated to religion, education and literature and therefore offered a note of tranquility after the heated discussions of the previous day. The Rev. Dr. Kallistos Ware made an authoritative report on the Greek Orthodox Church at a time of transition while Dr. Alexis Dimaras’ elegant presentation matched his very substantial analysis of the challenge posed by E.C. membership to Greek education.
The conference closed with Dr. Peter Mackridge’s admonitions on the future of Greek culture as the country enters the European Community.
