Prince Christopher of Greece and Denmark - Family Background

Family Background

He was born at Pavlovsk, Imperial Russia, son of George I of Greece and his 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, 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 Denmark in 1863.

Read more about this topic:  Prince Christopher Of Greece And Denmark

Famous quotes containing the words family and/or background:

    The American father ... is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)