LOT-O157. For your consideration is an exceedingly rare and historically important original antique c.1960's Greek Royal Family Presentation Christmas Card, hand-signed by both HM King Paul and HM Queen Frederica of Greece. Royal card is undated. Royalty autograph / signature is manuscript hand-signed in ink. Royal presentation holiday card is original. Condition is original. Museum quality. Presentation Christmas Card measures approximately 9.75" x 6.5". Guaranteed authentic.
Paul (Greek: Παύλος, Pávlos; 14 December 1901 – 6 March 1964) was King of Greece from 1 April 1947 until his death in 1964. He was succeeded by his son, Constantine II.
Paul was first cousin to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and maternal grandfather to Felipe VI of Spain.
Paul returned to Greece in 1946. He succeeded to the throne in 1947, upon the death of his childless elder brother, King George II, during the Greek Civil War (between Greek Communists and the non-communist Greek government). In 1947 he was unable to attend the wedding of his first cousin, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh to the future Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom as he was suffering from typhoid fever.
By 1949 the Civil War was effectively over, with the Communist insurgents ceasing the majority of their operations, and the task of rebuilding the shattered north of the country began.
In the 1950s Greece recovered economically, and diplomatic and trade links were strengthened by Paul’s state visits abroad. He became the first Greek Monarch to visit a Turkish Head of State. However, links with Britain became strained over Cyprus, where the majority Greek population favored union with Greece, which Britain, as the colonial power, would not endorse. Eventually, Cyprus became an independent state in 1960.
In December 1959, Prince Maximillian of Bavaria presented King Otto's coronation regalia to Paul. It had been almost a century since they were last in Greece.
Meanwhile, republican sentiment was growing in Greece. Both Paul and Frederica attracted criticism for their interference in politics, frequent foreign travels, and the cost of maintaining the Royal Family. Paul responded by economising and donated his private estate at Polidendri to the State.
In 1959, he had an operation for a cataract, and in 1963 an emergency operation for appendicitis. In late February 1964, he underwent a further operation for stomach cancer, and about a week later on 6 March 1964, King Paul I died in Athens. He was succeeded by his son, Constantine II.
Frederica of Hanover (Friederike Luise; Greek: Φρειδερίκη; 18 April 1917 – 6 February 1981) was Queen consort of Greece from 1947 until 1964 as the wife of King Paul, thereafter Queen mother during the reign of her son, King Constantine II.
On 1 April 1947, George II died and Frederica's husband ascended the throne as Paul I, with Frederica as queen consort. A Communist insurgency in Northern Greece led to the Greek Civil War. The King and Queen toured Northern Greece under tight security to appeal for loyalty in the summer of 1947.
Queen Frederica was constantly attacked for her German ancestry. Left-wing politicians in Greece repeatedly used the fact that the Kaiser was her grandfather, and that she had brothers who were members of the SS, as propaganda against her. She was also criticized variously as "very Prussian" and "was a Nazi". When she was in London representing her sick husband at the wedding of his first cousin Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark to King George VI's elder daughter Princess Elizabeth in November 1947, Winston Churchill remarked on the Kaiser being her grandfather. Queen Frederica had replied acknowledging the fact, but reminding him that she was also descended from Queen Victoria, and that her father would be the British king if the country had operated under Salic Law (allowing only males to inherit the crown).