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The first King of modern Greece, Otto of Bavaria, was a lackluster German princeling picked to rule the new nation by the European powers who helped her win independence in 1829 after 400 years of domination by the Turks. He succeeded only in goading his Greek subjects into two revolutions, and leading them to disastrous defeat in war, before he abdicated. Still undiscouraged. the Greeks tried again, and invited Prince William of the Danish royal house of Glücksburg to come over and try his hand. In 1863 he was crowned George I, King of the Hellenes; 50 years later, he was assassinated. Ever since then, the Greek people have been voting the patient Glücksburgs on and off their throne with the unpredictable frequency of a football coach substituting players under the two-platoon system. Paul's brother. George II, was enthroned three times and dethroned twice. Their father. King Constantine, was twice called to the throne and twice thrown off it.
The Barbarian; As heir presumptive to this royal ring-a-rosy, Prince Paul as a young man showed an understandable lack of interest in kingship. Chafing under the dominance of his stingy elder brother George II, the easygoing Crown Prince spent most of his time away from Greece, aimlessly drifting from the home of one royal relative to that of another or sporting with the fast-living "Alfa Romeo set" in Italy. Once, as a lark, he slipped back into republican Greece wearing a thick black beard and posing as a deckhand on a friend's yacht. By the time he married Frederika, at the age of 36 (she was 20), restless, roaming Paul was more than ready to settle down.
Frederika herself was instantly at home in her new surroundings. "I was born, a barbarian," she has often said—to the infinite delight of her Greek subjects, "and I came to Greece to get civilized." The heady atmosphere of a nation where politics is a national sport was as much to Frederika's taste as the national wine Retsina, which smacks of turpentine to most foreigners. The new princess lost no time in establishing the dynasty which would make her stay in this delightful place secure. Her first child, a daughter, was born just ten months after the marriage. A second, the present Crown Prince Constantine, was born 19 months later.
Like many unregal newlyweds, Paul and Frederika spent their first married years in obscure battle with the household budget. King George II never hung so much as a new set of lace curtains in the palace without shopping every store in Athens to find a proper bargain. In Paul's small villa at Psychiko outside Athens. Frederika's time was mostly taken up by caring for her babies, making over old clothes, and poring over the accounts to see if Paul's allowance might stand inviting a few close friends to dinner.