Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark

Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (; 10 August 1888 – 21 January 1940) was the fifth and youngest son and youngest child of King George I of Greece, belonging to a dynasty which mounted and lost the throne of Greece several times during his lifetime. Much of his life was spent living abroad.

Family background Christopher was born at Pavlovsk, Imperial Russia, son of King George I of Greece and his wife Queen Olga, a Russian grand duchess by birth. He was the youngest of their eight children, being twenty years younger than their oldest child, Constantine. He was called "Christo" in the family. His older brothers were future King Constantine I, George, Nicholas and Andrew.

Christopher, like his siblings, was a polyglot, speaking Greek, German, English, Danish, Russian, French, and Italian. The siblings spoke Greek to one another, and used English with their parents. The parents, however, spoke German to each other.

The Greek royal family maintained close relations with the Danish royal family, to which they also officially belonged. The Hellenic royal line was a cadet branch of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg dynasty which had mounted the throne of Greece in 1863.

Early adulthood When Christopher came of age he joined the Hellenic Navy, although apparently he would rather have studied the piano. While a young man, he was apparently offered no fewer than three different thrones - those of Portugal, Lithuania, and Albania - but he declined them all, as he did not wish the stress of royal duties.

He was briefly engaged to Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife in about 1910 (Alexandra's mother, Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, was a daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, herself an older sister of George I of Greece, Christopher's father). The engagement was terminated when her disapproving father, Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, learned of the liaison.

First marriage

On 1 January 1920, Christopher married a very wealthy American widow, Nonnie May "Nancy" Stewart Worthington Leeds, at Vevey, Switzerland. His bride, a once-divorced and once-widowed commoner at least a decade older than the prince, was nonetheless recognised as Christopher's dynastic wife by his family He went on, "Dozens of people who had known the Grand Duchess Anastasia were brought to see the girl in the hope that they might be able to identify her, but none of them could come to any definite conclusion."

Death

Prince Christopher of Greece died in Athens on 21 January 1940, aged 51.

Ancestry