Ancestral Trails 2016 » Sophia Dorothea Ulrike von PREUSSEN (1870-1932)

Persoonlijke gegevens Sophia Dorothea Ulrike von PREUSSEN 

• Zij is geboren op 14 juni 1870 in Neues Palais, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany.
• Titel: Queen Consort of the Hellenes
• (Ancestry) : House of Hohenzollern.
• Zij is overleden op 13 januari 1932 in Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, Germany, zij was toen 61 jaar oud.
• Zij is begraven op 16 januari 1932 in Greek Orthodox Church, Florence, Italy.
• Een kind van Friedrich Iii Wilhelm Nikolaus von PREUSSEN en Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa von SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA

Gezin van Sophia Dorothea Ulrike von PREUSSEN

Zij is getrouwd met Constantine I of GREECE.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 27 oktober 1889 te Athens, Attikis, Greece, zij was toen 19 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

1. Alexander I of GREECE  1893-1920 
2. George II of GREECE  1890-1947
3. Paul I of GREECE  1901-1964 
4. Irene of GREECE-DENMARK  1904-1974 
5. Katherine of GREECE-DENMARK  1913-2007
6. Helen of GREECE-DENMARK  1896-1982

• Het echtpaar heeft gemeenschappelijke voorouders.



Notities over Sophia Dorothea Ulrike von PREUSSEN

Sophia of Prussia (Sophia Dorothea Ulrike Alice; 14 June 1870 - 13 January 1932), was Queen consort of the Hellenes during 1913-1917 and 1920-1922. A member of the House of Hohenzollern and daughter of Emperor Frederick III of Germany, Sophia received a liberal and anglophile education, under the supervision of her mother, Victoria, Princess Royal. In 1889, less than a year after the death of her father, she married her third cousin the Diadochos Constantine, Duke of Sparta and heir of the Greek throne. After a difficult period of adaptation in her new country, Sophia gave birth to six children and became involved in the assistance to the poor, following in the footsteps of her mother-in-law, Queen Olga. However, it was during the wars which Greece faced during the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century that Sophia showed the most social activity: she founded field hospitals, oversaw the training of Greek nurses and even she herself healed wounded soldiers.

However, Sophia was hardly rewarded for her actions, even after her grandmother, Queen Victoria, decorated her with the Royal Red Cross after the Thirty Days' War: the Greeks criticized her links with Germany. Her brother, Emperor William II was indeed an ally of the Ottoman Empire and openly opposed the construction of the Megali Idea, which could established a Greek state that would encompass all ethnic Greek-inhabited areas. During World War I, the blood ties between Sophia and the German Emperor also cause the suspicion of the Triple Entente, which accuses Constantine I for his neutrality in the conflict.

After imposing a blockade of Greece and supporting the rebel government of Eleftherios Venizelos, causing the National Schism, France and its allies deposed Constantine I in June 1917. Sophia and her family then went into exile in Switzerland, while the second son of the royal couple replaced his father on the throne under the name of Alexander I. At the same time, Greece entered the war alongside the Triple Entente, which allowed it to grow considerably.

After the outbreak of the Greco-Turkish War in 1919 and the untimely death of Alexander I the following year, the Venizelists abandoned power, allowing the royal family's return to Athens. The defeat of the Greek army against the Turkish troops of Mustafa Kemal, however, forced Constantine I to abdicate in favor of his eldest son George II in 1922. Sophia and her family then were forced to a new exile, and settled in Italy, where Constantine died one year later (1923). With the proclamation of the Republic in Athens (1924) Sophia spent her last years alongside her family and died of cancer in Germany in 1932.

Princess Sophie was born in the Neues Palais in Potsdam, Prussia on 14 June 1870. Her father, Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia, and her mother, Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom (herself the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort) were already the parents of a large family and as the penultimate child, Sophie was eleven years younger than her eldest brother, the future Emperor William II of Germany. Frederick and Victoria were a close couple, both on sentimental and political levels. Being staunch liberals, they lived away from the Berlin court and suffered the intrigues of a very conservative Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and members of the House of Hohenzollern.

A week after Sophie's birth, a case relating to succession to the throne of Spain damaged the Franco-Prussian relations. The tone between Paris and Berlin worsened even further after Bismarck published the humiliating Ems Telegram on 13 July 1870. Six days later, the government of Napoleon III declared war on Prussia and the states of the German Confederation offered support to Prussia, which then appeared as the victim of French imperialism. It was in this difficult context that Sophie was christened the following month, though all the men present were in uniform, as France had declared war on Prussia. Sophie's mother described the event to Queen Victoria: "The Christening went off well, but was sad and serious; anxious faces and tearful eyes, and a gloom and foreshadowing of all the misery in store spread a cloud over the ceremony, which should have been one of gladness and thanksgiving".

The children of the Crown Princely couple became grouped into two by age: William, Charlotte, and Henry who were favoured by their paternal grandparents, while Sophie, Margaret, and Viktoria were largely ignored by them. Sophie's two other brothers, Sigismund and Waldemar, died at a young age (Sigismund died before she was born, and Waldemar when he was 11 and she was 8); this drew the Crown Princess and her three daughters closer together, calling them "my three sweet girls" and "my trio".

The Crown Princess, believing in the superiority of all things English, had her children's nurseries modelled on her childhood. Sophie was raised with a great love for England and all things associated with it as a result, and had frequent trips to visit her grandmother Queen Victoria, whom she loved. Sophie often stayed in England for long periods, especially on the Isle of Wight, where she liked to collect shells with her older siblings.

Because she was generally avoided by her paternal grandparents, Sophia's formative years were mainly shaped by her parents and her maternal grandmother Queen Victoria. As a little girl she was so deeply attached to the old British sovereign that the Crown Princess didn't hesitate to leave her daughter for long periods under the care of her grandmother.

In Germany, Sophie largely stayed with her parents at two main residences: the Kronprinzenpalais in Berlin, and the Neues Palais in Potsdam. Like her sisters Viktoria and Margaret, she was particularly close to her parents and their relationship became even closer after the death, in 1879, of Waldemar, the favorite son of the Crown Princely couple.

In 1884, Prince Constantine of Greece ("Tino") was sixteen and his majority was declared by the government. He then received the title of Duke of Sparta and Diadochos (which means, "heir to the throne"). Soon after, the young man completed his military training in Germany, where he spent two full years in the company of a tutor, the Dr. Lüders. He served in the Prussian Guard, took lessons of riding in Hanover and studied Political science at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig.

After a long stay in England celebrating her grandmother's Golden Jubilee, Sophie became better acquainted with Constantine in the summer of 1887. The Queen watched their growing relationship, writing "Is there a chance of Sophie's marrying Tino? It would be very nice for her, for he is very good". The crown princess also hoped that Sophie would make a good marriage, considering her the most attractive among her daughters.

During his stay at the Hohenzollern court in Berlin representing the Kingdom of Greece at the funeral of Emperor William I in March 1888, Constantine saw Sophie again. Quickly, the two fell in love and got officially engaged on 3 September 1888. However, their relationship was viewed with suspicion by Sophie's older brother William, by now the new Kaiser, and his wife Augusta Victoria. This betrothal wasn't completely supported in the Hellenistic royal family, either: Queen Olga showed some reluctance to the projected union because Sophie was Lutheran and she would have preferred that the heir to the throne marry an Orthodox. But despite the difficulties, Tino and Sophie's wedding was scheduled for October 1889, in Athens.

This period fell on an unhappy time for Sophie's family however, as her father Emperor Frederick III was dying an agonizing death of throat cancer. His wife and children kept vigil with him at the Neues Palais, even celebrating Sophie's birthday and offering her a bouquet of flowers as a gift. The Emperor died the next day. Sophie's eldest brother William, now German Emperor, quickly ransacked his father's things in the hopes of finding "incriminating evidence" of "liberal plots". Knowing that her three youngest daughters were more dependent on her than ever for emotional support, the now-Dowager Empress Frederick remained close to them: "I have my three sweet girls - he loved so much - that are my consolation".

Already shocked by the attitude of her eldest son, the Dowager Empress was deeply saddened by Sophie's upcoming marriage and move to Athens. Nevertheless, she welcomed the happiness of her daughter and consoled herself in a voluminous correspondence with Sophie. Between 1889 and 1901, the two women exchanged no less than 2,000 letters. On several occasions, they were also found in each other's homes, in Athens and Kronberg. The preparations of Sophie's wedding were "hardly a surprising development considering the funeral atmosphere that prevailed at the home of her widowed mother".

On 27 October 1889, Sophie married Constantine in Athens, Greece in two religious ceremonies, one public and Orthodox and another private and Protestant. They were third cousins in descent from Paul I of Russia, and second cousins once removed through Frederick William III of Prussia. Sophie's witnesses were her brother Henry and her cousins Princes Albert Victor and George of Wales; for Constantine's side, the witnesses were his brothers Princes George and Nicholas and his cousin the Tsarevich of Russia.

The marriage (the first major international event held in Athens) was very popular among the Greeks. The names of the couple were reminiscent to the public of an old legend which suggested that when a King Constantine and a Queen Sophia ascended the Greek throne, Constantinople the Hagia Sophia would fall to Greek hands. Immediately after the marriage of the Diadochos, hopes arose for the Greek populace of the Megali Idea, i.e. the union of all Greeks in the same state. Abroad, the marriage of Constantine and Sophie raised much less enthusiasm. In France, it was feared that the arrival of a Prussian princess in Athens would switch the Kingdom of Greece to the side of the Triple Alliance. In Berlin, the union was also unpopular: German interests were indeed important in the Ottoman Empire and the Emperor didn't intend to help Greece simply because the Diadochos was his new brother-in-law.

Nevertheless, in Athens, the marriage ceremony was celebrated with pomp and gave rise to an especially significant pyrotechnic spectacle on the Acropolis and the Champ de Mars. Platforms were also built on the Syntagma Square so the public could better admire the procession between the Royal Palace and the Cathedral. The newlyweds were related to most of the European dynasties, so representatives of all the royal houses of the continent were part of the festivities: King Christian IX of Denmark (grandfather of the groom), Emperor William II of Germany (brother of the bride), the Prince of Wales (uncle of both groom and bride) and the Tsarevich of Russia (groom's cousin) were among the guests of honor. Naturally, Sophie's mother and sisters were also present at the ceremony.

In fact, the hosts and their retinues were so many in the small Hellenic Capital that King George I couldn't receive all of them in his palace. He had to ask some members of the Greek high society to receive part of the guests in their mansions. Similarly, the sovereign was obliged to borrow the horses and carriages of his subjects in order to transport all visitors during the festivities. In addition, the king was forced to hastily buy dozens of additional liveries for the lackeys at the service of the guests.[

Issue
George II of Greece 20 July 1890-1 April 1947 married Princess Elisabeth of Romania, no issue.
Alexander I of Greece 1 August 1893-25 October 1920 married Aspasia Manos, had issue, Queen Alexandra of Yugoslavia.
Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark 2 May 1896-28 November 1982 married the future Carol II of Romania, had issue, Michael I of Romania.
Paul I of Greece 14 December 1901-6 March 1964 married Princess Frederika of Hanover, had issue, include Constantine II of Greece and Queen Sofía of Spain.
Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark 13 February 1904-15 April 1974 married Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, nominally King Tomislav II of Croatia from 1941 to 1943; had issue.
Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark 4 May 1913-2 October 2007 married Major Richard Brandram MC; had issue.
SOURCE: Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_of_Prussia

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