When Otto of Bavaria became the first King of Greece in 1832 when the great European powers forced the militarily chastened Ottoman Empire to formally accept its independence, he brought with him from Bavaria some of his ancestral Wittelsbach dynasty crown jewels: a crown, orb and sceptre which he declared to be the Crown Jewels of Greece. However, when he was overthrown in a coup in 1862 and fled, he took "his" jewels back with him to Bavaria.
In 1959, Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria presented the Greek Crown Jewels (also called the Greek Regalia) back to King Paul of Greece. Greek monarchs since Otto had not been crowned. Nevertheless the Crown Jewels of Otto were accepted and remain in Greece.
Famous quotes containing the words greek, crown and/or jewels:
“Here Greek and Roman find themselves
Alive along these crowded shelves;
And Shakespeare treads again his stage,
And Chaucer paints anew his age.”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“It grazes the horizons, launched above
Mortality—ascending emerald-bright,
A fountain at salute, a crown in view—”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)
“Just see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil’s pet baits. In larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a bloody deed....”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)