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| La reine Frédérique de Grèce en deuil de son mari le roi Paul. |
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| La reine Frédérique de Grèce.
Photographie (c) Getty Images / Evening Standard. |
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| Reine Frédérique de Grèce. |
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| Reine Frédérique de Grèce. |
Le 6 février 1981 à 23h30, la reine Frédérique de Grèce décède à Madrid des suites d'une insuffisance cardiaque consécutive à une opération des paupières. Elle avait soixante-trois ans. La reine laisse derrière elle trois enfants : la reine Sofía d'Espagne, le roi Constantin II des Hellènes et la princesse Irène de Grèce.
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| La jeune princesse Frédérique de Hanovre. |
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| La princesse Viktoria Luise tenant sa fille la princesse Frederica. |
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| Le duc et la duchesse de Brunswick-Lunebourg avec leurs cinq enfants en 1927.
Photographie (c) Smith Archive / Alamy Stock Photo. |
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| La princesse Frederica avec sa mère la princesse Viktoria Luise. |
Le 18 avril 1917, la princesse Friederike Luise Thyra Viktoria Margarete Sophie Olga Cécile Isabelle Christa de Hanovre, duchesse de Brunswick-Lunebourg, naît à Blankenburg, dans le Harz. La princesse est la première et unique fille du prince Ernst August de Hanovre (1887-1953) et de son épouse la princesse Viktoria Luise (1892-1980 ; née Prusse). Frédérique a quatre frères : le prince Ernst August (1914-1987), le prince Georg Wilhelm (1915-2006), le prince Christian (1919-1981) et le prince Welf (1923-1997). La famille de Frédérique déménage en Autriche alors qu'elle est encore bébé, et elle grandit là-bas, à Gmunden. Elle est éduquée par sa mère et une gouvernante anglaise jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit envoyée dans une école en Angleterre à l'âge de dix-sept ans. Elle assiste au mariage du prince Georges, duc de Kent, et de la princesse Marina de Grèce. Poursuivant ses études, Frédérique se rend à Florence. C'est là qu'elle rencontre pour la première fois son futur mari. Dans la maison de la reine mère Hélène de Roumanie, la princesse Frédérique de Hanovre est présentée au prince héritier Paul de Grèce, frère d'Hélène. Après avoir rencontré Paul, Frédérique se souvient : « J'ai perdu la tête et le cœur. »
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| Le prince Ernst August et la princesse Viktoria Luise de Hanovre avec leur gendre et leur fille le prince héritier Paul et la princesse héritière Frédérique de Grèce. |
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| Le mariage du prince héritier Pavlos de Grèce et de la princesse Frédérique de Hanovre.
Photographie (c) Hulton Deutsch. |
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| Le prince héritier Paul et la princesse héritière Frédérique de Grèce.
Photographie (c) Getty Images / Imagno. |
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| King George VI of the United Kingdom gives his consent to the marriage between Princess Frederica of Brunswick-Luneburg and Prince Paul of Greece, December 1937.
Image from The London Gazette. |
Princess Frederica of Hannover married Crown Prince Paul of Greece (1901-1964) at Athens on 9 January 1938. The crown prince was the third son of King Constantine I of the Hellenes (1868-1923) and his wife Queen Sophie (1870-1932; née Princess of Prussia). Paul and Frederica were first cousins once removed; the pair were descendants of Queen Victoria. At the time of her marriage to the Greek heir, Frederica was thirty-fourth in the line of succession to the British throne.
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| Frederica of Greece with her children Sophia, Constantine, and Irene. |
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| The King and Queen of Greece with their three children. |
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| Queen Frederica of Greece with Princess Sophia, Crown Prince Constantine, and Princess Irene.
Photograph (c) Getty Images / Genevieve Naylor. |
During the early years of their marriage, Paul and Frederica resided at a villa in Psychiko. The couple had three children: Princess Sophia (b.1938; later Queen Sofía of Spain), Prince Constantine (b.1940; later King Constantine II of the Hellenes), and Princess Irene (b.1942).
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| King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece. |
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| King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece. |
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| The King and Queen of Greece with their children. |
In 1947, Paul succeeded his brother George II as King of the Hellenes. Political instability in Greece led to the Greek Civil War, which lasted from 1947-1949. As the granddaughter of German Emperor Wilhelm II, the queen was persistently attacked by political opponents of the monarchy for her ancestry. Queen Frederica attended the wedding of her husband’s cousin Prince Philip to Princess Elizabeth (future Queen of the United Kingdom). While at the festivities surrounding the marriage, Frederica sat next to Winston Churchill at a dinner. Churchill asked the queen: “Wasn’t your grandfather the Kaiser?” Her Majesty retorted that he was indeed her grandfather and that “If you had Salic Law in England, my father would be your King today!” Standing five feet three inches tall, Frederica was remembered by many who encountered the queen for “her informal manner, easy smile, curly brown hair, and laughing eyes.” Like so many consorts, Frederica was an iron first within a velvet glove. A woman of immense internal strength and willpower, the queen did all she could to protect what she believed to be the best interests of her husband and her son.
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| King Constantine II of Greece with Queen Mother Frederica at the funeral of King Paul. |
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| King Constantine II of Greece with Queen Mother Frederica at the funeral of King Paul.
Pictured behind them is Princess Irene.
Photograph (c) Getty Images / Jack Garofalo. |
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| King Constantine II of Greece with his mother Queen Frederica at the funeral of King Paul.
Photograph (c) Getty Images / Keystone. |
King Paul of Greece died on 6 March 1964, aged sixty-two. He had been suffering from cancer, and, during his final days, his wife became ill with a case of pneumonia. Frederica became a widow at forty-six. After her son King Constantine II married his cousin Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark in September 1964, Queen Mother Frederica stepped back from most of her public duties in favour of her daughter-in-law. Alas, Frederica remained a figure of controversy: she was accused in the Greek press of being the éminence grise behind the throne.
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| Queen Mother Frederica of Greece with her daughter Princess Sofía and grandchildren, 1968.
Infanta Pilar is pictured in the background. |
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| Frederica with her granddaughters Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina. |
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| Queen Anne-Marie and King Constantine II of Greece, Princess Irene, Queen Mother Frederica, and Princess Sofía and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain, La Zarzuela, 1968. |
In 1967, the Greek royal family left the country following Constantine II’s failed counter-coup against the military dictatorship. The family first settled in Rome and then in London. Frederica accompanied her son into exile. The queen mother often visited her daughter Sofía and family in Madrid. Along with her daughter Irene, Frederica spent a great deal of time in Madras, India. The queen mother was extremely interested studying Indian culture. In 1976, Queen Sofía of Spain and her children flew to India as Queen Frederica was reported to be in delicate health.
After her death in 1981, Queen Mother Frederica of Greece was buried next to her husband King Paul at Tatoi.
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