George II (Greek: Γεώργιος Β', romanized: Geórgios II; 19 July [O.S. 7 July] 1890 – 1 April 1947) was King of Greece from 27 September 1922 until 25 March 1924, and again from 25 November 1935 until his death on 1 April 1947.
The eldest son of King Constantine I of Greece and Princess Sophia of Prussia, George followed his father into exile in 1917 following the National Schism, while his younger brother Alexander was installed as king. Constantine was restored to the throne in 1920 after Alexander's death, but was forced to abdicate two years later in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War. George acceded to the Greek throne, but after a failed royalist coup in October 1923 he was exiled to Romania. Greece was proclaimed a republic in March 1924 and George was formally deposed and stripped of Greek nationality. He remained in exile until the Greek monarchy was restored in 1935, following a rigged referendum, upon which he resumed his royal duties. The king supported Ioannis Metaxas's 1936 self-coup, which established an authoritarian, nationalist and anti-communist dictatorship known as 4th of August Regime.
Greece was overrun following a German invasion in April 1941, forcing George into his third exile. He left for Crete and then Egypt before settling in London, where he headed the Greek government-in-exile. At the end of the war, George returned to Greece after a 1946 referendum had preserved the monarchy. He died of arteriosclerosis in April 1947 at the age of 56. Having no children, he was succeeded by his younger brother, Paul. He was also a male-line first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
George was born at the royal villa at Tatoi, near Athens, the eldest son of Crown Prince Constantine of Greece and the crown princess, Sophia of Prussia. George was a great-grandson of both King Christian IX of Denmark, the "father-in-law of Europe", and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, the "grandmother of Europe". George was born nine months after his parents married. Queen Victoria speculated that George was premature, being born a week before his due date. During George's birth, his mother struggled and George's umbilical cord was strapped around his neck. A German midwife, who was sent specially by his grandmother the German Empress Victoria, assisted in George's birth. George was named after his paternal grandfather, King George I of Greece, following traditional Greek naming practices. He was baptized on 18 August [Old Style: 5 August] 1890; his godparents included Queen Victoria.
George was the eldest of six siblings, born between 1890 and 1913, and spent most of his childhood in Athens in a villa on Kifisias Avenue. As a child, George also made numerous visits to Great Britain, where he stayed for several weeks to visit his British relatives. The Greek royals often stayed in Seaford and Eastbourne. George also made visits to Germany to see his mother's family and they stayed in Schlosshotel Kronberg with his grandmother Victoria, but also took summer holidays in Corfu and Venice, travelling on their private yacht, Amphritrite IV.
George has been described by historians John Van der Kiste and Vicente Mateos Sáinz de Medrano as the most introverted and distant of his siblings, having been aware of his role as heir from a young age. Van der Kiste presents George as a child who often misbehaved, especially during visits to Germany, but less turbulent than his younger brother, Alexander, who was described as mischievous, and less sporty than his younger sister, Helen, who was seen as a tomboy.
George pursued a military career, training with the Prussian Guard at the age of 18, then serving in the Balkan Wars as a member of the 1st Infantry Regiment. George received a military education as the heir to the throne. He was trained at the Hellenic Military Academy in Athens, which allowed him to enroll in Greece's infantry as a second lieutenant on 27 May [Old Style: 14 May] 1909. However, a few months after he joined, on 15 August [Old Style: 2 August] 1909, a group of military officers organised a coup d'état against George I, the concurrent king and grandfather of George. The coup d'état became known as the Goudi coup and was led by Nikolaos Zorbas, who declared himself a monarchist, but campaigned for the dismissal of all princes from the army. Zorbas argued that dismissing princely soldiers would protect the popularity of the royal family. However, it is argued by Van der Kiste that many of the officers involved in the coup blamed the high-ranking princes for the defeat of Greece in the 1897 Greco-Turkish War. They particularly placed blame on George's father, Crown Prince Constantine, believing that the royal family was monopolising the highest army positions.
Some of the officers involved in the coup believed that the country would be better off if King George I was deposed and replaced by another neutral candidate, such as by George, his grandson. Proposed candidates included the Austrian duke Francis of Teck or a member of the German royal House of Hohenzollern. However, George was the most desirable candidate as he was more popular than his father, was an adult and was politically inexperienced, so was seen as easily more controllable. Violence sparked by the coup continued until February 1910 and members of the royal family were forced to resign from the military in order to avoid a revolution. George, his siblings and his parents evacuated Greece and moved to Germany for three years in exile. To avoid controversy, their exile was branded as a three-year "education leave", which was approved and so George continued his military training, but with the prestigious First Foot Guards Regiment of the Prussian army. This period of absence from Greece reduced his popularity as a potential replacement for his grandfather.
As Greece became more politically stable as violent protests lessened, George, his siblings and his parents returned to Greece at the end of 1910. In 1911, Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos allowed members of the royal family to be given back their former ranks in the military, but George returned to Germany to continue training with the Prussian army. When the First Balkan War commenced in October 1912, George returned to Greece to fight against the Ottoman Empire. George and his brother, Alexander, served as officers on his father's staff. George served in numerous battles, which was criticised by the media as it put the country's future monarch at risk of being killed. One such battle that George participated in was the capture of Thessaloniki on 8 November [Old Style: 26 October] 1912, which marked major progress for Greece in the war.
On 18 March [Old Style: 5 March] 1913, George's grandfather and the reigning king, George I, was assassinated while taking his daily walk in Thessaloniki. Crown Prince Constantine, whose popularity had grown due to Greece's successes in the First Balkan War, acceded to the throne as King Constantine I. George thus became the Crown Prince of Greece at age 23. In the early weeks of being crown prince, George and his family moved to their new residence, where George developed a close friendship with his uncle, Prince Christopher, who was only two years older than him. On 30 June [Old Style: 17 June] 1913, the Second Balkan War broke out between Bulgaria and its former allies, which included Greece. Relations between Greece and many of its Balkan allies grew during the war, notably with Romania, which paved the way towards the marriage between George and Elisabeth, the daughter of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania. When Greece and its allies won the war in August 1913, George and his family resumed their European trips. George accompanied his father on a state visit to Berlin and received the Order of the Red Eagle from his uncle, Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser. The following summer, George travelled to the United Kingdom with Christopher and was in London when he heard of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914.