Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark
Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark, (born 7 January 1939) is a Greek prince, historian, and author. He has written several historical books and biographies of Greek and other European figures, in addition to working as a contributing writer to "Architectural Digest". He is the first cousin of the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. Birth and family. He was born in Rome to Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark (youngest son of King George I of Greece) and his second wife Princess Françoise d'Orléans of  France (daughter of the Orleanist claimant to the defunct French throne, Prince Jean d'Orléans, Duke of Guise). His godparents were his two first cousins Queen Helen, Queen Mother of Romania and King George II of Greece (eldest children of his paternal uncle King Constantine I). His father died when he was a year old, leaving Michael an only child, and his mother died in 1953 when he was 14, leaving him an orphan. Although a Greek prince, like many members of his dynasty he grew up largely abroad, sometimes in exile. As Europe marched into World War II, the infant  Michael's family scattered: his mother's father, the Duke of Guise, left his residence of exile in Brussels, the "", for their property at Larache, Morocco in March 1939 where he died on 24 August, the "Manoir" having become the Belgian headquarters for Germany's invading "Wehrmacht". Less than six months after her father's death, Françoise was widowed by the death of Prince Christopher, following an abscess of the lung, in Athens in January. She took Michael to join her mother's household in Larache where her elder sister, Princess Isabelle Murat and her family, had also taken refuge  from Europe. Their brother, Henri, Count of Paris, who succeeded his own father as head of the Orleanist monarchist movement, sent for his wife and children to come from their relatives in Brazil, and by the spring of 1941 they too were settled in Spanish Morocco (still being banned from the French sector), near Casablanca, in a small house without electricity that was named "Oued Akreech" in the town of Rabat. Michael lived his early childhood years on the African continent in the midst of his mother's family. Later, they also spent time in Spain. By the time Michael 's mother died in Paris in early 1953, France had repealed the law of banishment against its former ruling families (24 June 1950) and the Comte de Paris had taken up residence in the capital. When, in August 1953, "Monseigneur" moved the Comtesse and their children to a new estate, the "Manoir du Cœur Volant" in Louveciennes, Michael joined the couple and their four eldest children in the main building, while the seven younger children and their governesses occupied an annex given the name "la maison de Blanche Neige" ("Snow White's cottage"). Henceforth, Michael was given into the care  of his uncle and raised with his Orléans cousins. Michael later acknowledged that his uncle had been a poor manager of his ward's assets, but maintained that there was no malfeasance or attempt to conceal losses. He would also comment that, allegations to the contrary notwithstanding, his uncle's notorious relationship with his assistant Monique Friesz in his later years, during which substantial assets were presumed to have been consumed or diverted, did not reflect manipulation on her part so much as the desire of the Comte de Paris for companionship when he chose to isolate himself from the  society, culture and luxury to which he had previously been accustomed. He is the last surviving grandchild of George I of Greece and one of the 2 last surviving great-grandchildren of Christian IX of Denmark (the other is his second cousin Christian Castenskiold, son of Princess Dagmar of Denmark). Activities. Michael studied political science in Paris. He then re-patriated to Greece for military duty, serving a term in the Hellenic Coast Guard, discharged with the rank of Sub-lieutenant. He inherited from his mother a half-interest in the domain of the Nouvion-en-Thiérache, once the seat  of the Dukes of Guise, from whom the Bourbon-Orléans inherited the vast property, which included a "grand château" and a "petit château", in Aisne. The Comte de Paris owned the other half of the Nouvion. He and Michael sold the "grand château" in 1980 to the city of Roubaix, which subsequently became a conference center for environmental studies, while the "petit château" was sold in 1986 to the local government of Nouvion. List of works. Having watched his mother observe a family tradition by igniting what he called a kind of "auto-da-fé" in which she burned his  late father's papers and memorabilia following the sale of his villa in Rome after the war, Prince Michael grew up to become a biographer and historian. He has written several biographies about members of ruling dynasties, those about contemporaries often including accounts and anecdotes attributed to his royal relatives. He has also written novels about historical royalty, distinguished for meticulous detail. In English: Marriage and issue. Michael married Marina Karella (b. 17 July 1940) on 7 February 1965 in Athens, daughter of Theodore Karella and Ellie Chalikiopoulos. Marina is a Greek artist and sculptor of international reputation whose work  has often been exhibited in Athens, Paris and New York. The marriage was held at the Royal Palace in Athens. This was a non-dynastic marriage, which obtained the legally required authorisation of King Constantine II only after Michael renounced all rights of succession to the Greek throne for himself and his descendants. The couple has two daughters: