 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French. (July 2021)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
| Otto I | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byJoseph Karl Stieler, 1833 | |
| King of Greece | |
| Reign | 7 May 1832 – 23 October 1862 |
| Predecessor | Monarchy established Georgios Kountouriotis as President of theAdministrative Committee of Greece (1832) |
| Successor | George I (as King of the Hellenes) |
| Regent | Josef Ludwig von Armansperg (1832–1835) |
| Prime Ministers | |
| Born | Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria (1815-06-01)1 June 1815 Salzburg,Austrian Empire |
| Died | 26 July 1867(1867-07-26) (aged 52) Bamberg,Kingdom of Bavaria |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| House | Wittelsbach |
| Father | Ludwig I of Bavaria |
| Mother | Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen |
| Religion | Catholicism |
| Signature |  |
| Styles of Otto I of Greece | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Majesty |
| Spoken style | Your Majesty |
Otto I (Greek:Όθων,romanized: Óthon;German:Otto Friedrich Ludwig von Wittelsbach; 1 June 1815 – 26 July 1867) wasKing of Greece from the establishment of theKingdom of Greece on 7 May 1832, under theConvention of London, until he wasdeposed in October 1862.
The second son ofKing Ludwig I of Bavaria, Otto ascended the newly createdthrone of Greece at age 17. His government was initially run by a three-manregency council made up of Bavarian court officials. Upon reaching his majority, Otto removed the regents when they proved unpopular with the people, and he ruled as anabsolute monarch. Eventually, his subjects' demands for a constitution proved overwhelming, and in the face of an armed (but bloodless) insurrection, Otto granted a constitution in 1843.
Throughout his reign, Otto tried to make significant reforms to modernize Greece, seeing himself asEnlightened absolutist. He established educational institutions and several state services but was unable to resolve Greece's major part of poverty and prevent economic meddling from outside. Greek politics in this era were based on affiliations with the threeGreat Powers that had guaranteed Greece's independence,Britain,France andRussia, and Otto's ability to maintain the support of the powers was key to his remaining in power. To remain strong, Otto had to play the interests of each of the Great Powers' Greek adherents against the others, while not irritating the Great Powers. When Greece was blockaded by the BritishRoyal Navy in 1850 and again in 1854, to stop Greece from attacking theOttoman Empire during theCrimean War, Otto's standing amongst Greeks suffered. As a result, there was an assassination attempt onQueen Amalia, and finally, in October 1862, Otto was deposed while in the countryside. He died in exile in Bavaria in 1867.
Otto was born as Prince Otto Friedrich Ludwig of Bavaria atSchloss Mirabell inSalzburg (when it briefly belonged to theKingdom of Bavaria),[1] as the second son of Crown PrinceLudwig of Bavaria andTherese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. His father served there as the Bavarian governor-general. Through his ancestor, the Bavarian DukeJohn II, Otto was a descendant of the Byzantineimperial dynasties ofKomnenos andLaskaris. His father was a prominentPhilhellene, and provided significant financial aid to the Greek cause during theWar of Independence.
Otto was a child of delicate health and temperament, with a slight stutter and a passion for the piano.[2] As a teenager, he was tutored inClassical Greek andLatin by classical scholar and passionate PhilhelleneFriedrich Thiersch, who was the first to suggest the young prince as a candidate for the throne of the emerging nation. Thiersch's suggestion was supported byJean-Gabriel Eynard, a major financial benefactor of the Greek independence movement and friend of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Greece's governor.[3] Otto's name therefore entered the discourse surrounding Greek independence, both within Greece and abroad.
At the end of Greek War of Independence, the three Great Powers formulated theLondon Protocol of 1829, which recognized an autonomous Greek state. Article 3 of the protocol stated that Greece would be a monarchy, under the rule of a prince who was not from the ruling families of one of the three Great Powers.[4] Numerous candidates were considered for the vacant throne, includingPrince Frederick of the Netherlands and Otto's uncle,Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria. Even an Irishman namedNicholas Macdonald Sarsfield Cod'd put himself forward, claiming descent from the ByzantinePalaiologos dynasty.[5] Ultimately, they settled onPrince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and the amendedLondon Protocol of 1830 recognized him as thede jure sovereign of Greece. Although initially enthusiastic, Leopold was discouraged by the limited borders established by the protocol and Britain's refusal to grant financial support to the vulnerable new state. Due to this, as well as personal reasons, he formally rejected the crown three months later.[6] Kapodistrias' assassination in 1831 destabilized Greece, and caused British Foreign SecretaryLord Palmerston to convene theLondon conference. Here, the crown was offered to the 17-year-old Prince Otto, which he happily accepted. The BavarianHouse of Wittelsbach had no connections to the ruling dynasties of any of the Great Powers, and so was a neutral choice with which they were all satisfied. The Greeks were not consulted, but Greece was in chaos and no group or individual could claim to represent it anyway.[7] TheLondon Protocol of 1832 therefore finally recognized Greece as a fully independent state, with Otto as its king.
The Great Powers extracted a pledge from Otto's father to restrain him from hostile actions against theOttoman Empire. They also insisted that Otto's title would be "King of Greece", rather than "King of the Hellenes", because the latter would imply a claim over the millions of Greeks then still under Turkish rule. Not quite 18, the young prince arrived in Greece with 3,500 Bavarian troops (theBavarian Auxiliary Corps) and three Bavarian advisors aboard the BritishfrigateHMSMadagascar. Although he did not speak Greek, he immediately endeared himself to his adopted country by adopting the Greek national costume and Hellenizing his name to "Othon" (some English sources, such asEncyclopædia Britannica, call him "Otho"). Thousands lined the docks ofNafplio to witness his arrival, including many heroes of the revolution such asTheodoros Kolokotronis andAlexandros Mavrokordatos. His arrival was initially enthusiastically welcomed by the Greek people as an end to the chaos of the prior years and the beginning of the rejuvenation of the Greek nation.[8] A year later Greek poetPanagiotis Soutsos evoked the scene inLeander, the first novel to be published in independent Greece:[9]
O King of Greece! Old Greece bequeathed the lights of learning to Germany, through you Germany has undertaken to repay the gift with interest, and will be grateful to you, seeing in you the one to resurrect the firstborn people of the Earth.
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Otto of Greece" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Otto's reign is usually divided into three periods:[by whom?]
TheBavarian advisors were arrayed in a Regency Council, headed by CountJosef Ludwig von Armansperg, who, in Bavaria as minister of finance, had recently succeeded in restoring Bavarian credit, at the cost of his popularity. Von Armansperg was the President of the Privy Council and the first representative (or Prime Minister) of the new Greek government. The other members of the Regency Council wereKarl von Abel andGeorg Ludwig von Maurer, with whom von Armansperg often clashed. After the king reached his majority in 1835, von Armansperg was made Arch-Secretary, but was called Arch-Chancellor by the Greek press.
Britain and theRothschild bank, who were underwriting the Greek loans, insisted on financial stringency from Armansperg. The Greeks were soon more heavily taxed than under Ottoman rule;[10] as the people saw it, they had exchanged a hatedOttoman rule for government by a foreignbureaucracy, the "Bavarocracy" (Βαυαροκρατία).
In addition, the regency showed little respect for local customs. As aCatholic, Otto himself was viewed as a heretic by many pious Greeks; however, hisheirs would have to beOrthodox, according to the terms of the 1843 Constitution.[11][page needed]
King Otto brought his personal brewmaster with him, Herr Fuchs, a Bavarian who stayed in Greece after Otto's departure and introduced Greece to beer, under the label "Fix".[12][13]
Popular heroes and leaders of the Greek Revolution, such as generalsTheodoros Kolokotronis andYannis Makriyannis, who opposed the Bavarian-dominated regency, were charged with treason, put in jail and sentenced to death. They were later pardoned under popular pressure, while Greek judges who resisted Bavarian pressure and refused to sign the death warrants (Anastasios Polyzoidis andGeorgios Tertsetis, for instance), were praised as heroes.
Otto's early reign was also notable for his moving the capital of Greece fromNafplio toAthens. His first task as king was to make a detailed archaeological and topographic survey of Athens. He assignedGustav Eduard Schaubert andStamatios Kleanthis to complete this task.[14] At that time, Athens had a population of roughly 4,000–5,000 people, located mainly in what today covers the district ofPlaka inAthens.
Athens was chosen as the Greek capital for historical and sentimental reasons, not because it was a large city. At the time, it was a town consisting of only 400 houses at the foot of theAcropolis. A modern city plan was laid out, and public buildings erected. The finest legacy of this period are the buildings of theUniversity of Athens (1837, under the name Othonian University), theAthens Polytechnic University (1837, under the name Royal School of Arts), theNational Gardens of Athens (1840), theNational Library of Greece (1842), theOld Royal Palace (now the Greek Parliament Building, 1843), theNational Observatory of Athens (1846) and theOld Parliament Building (1858). Schools and hospitals were established all over the (still small) Greek dominion. Due to the negative feelings of the Greek people toward non-Greek rule, historical attention to this aspect of his reign has been neglected.
During 1836–37, Otto visited Germany, marrying the 17-year-oldDuchess Amalia (Amelie) of Oldenburg (21 December 1818 to 20 May 1875). The wedding took place not in Greece but inOldenburg, on 22 November 1836; the marriage did not produce an heir, and the new queen made herself unpopular by interfering in the government and maintaining herLutheran faith. Otto was unfaithful to his wife, and had an affair withJane Digby, a notorious woman his father had previously taken as a lover.[15][better source needed]
Due to his having overtly undermined the king, Armansperg was dismissed from his duties by King Otto immediately upon his return from Germany. However, despite high hopes on the part of the Greeks, the BavarianRudhart was appointed chief minister, and the granting of aconstitution was again postponed. Otto's attempts to conciliate Greek sentiment through efforts to enlarge the frontiers of his kingdom, for example by the suggested acquisition ofCrete in 1841, failed in their objective and only succeeded in embroiling him in conflict with the Great Powers.
| This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Otto of Greece" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
.svg)
Throughout his reign, King Otto found himself confronted by a recurring series of problems: partisanship of the Greeks, financial uncertainty, and ecclesiastical disputes.
Greek parties in the Othonian era were based on two factors: the political activities of the diplomatic representatives of theGreat Powers Russia, United Kingdom and France and the affiliation of Greek political figures with these diplomats.[citation needed]
According toRichard Clogg, the financial uncertainty of the Othonian monarchy was the result of
The political machinations of the Great Powers were personified in their three legates in Athens:Theobald Piscatory (France),Gabriel Catacazy (Russian Empire), andSir Edmund Lyons (United Kingdom). They informed their home governments on the activities of the Greeks, while serving as advisers to their respective allied parties within Greece.
King Otto pursued policies such as balancing power among all the parties and sharing offices among the parties, ostensibly to reduce the power of the parties while trying to bring a pro-Othon party into being. The parties, however, became the entree into government power and financial stability.
The effect of his (and his advisors') policies was to make the Great Powers' parties more powerful, not less. The Great Powers did not support curtailing Otto's increasing absolutism, however, which resulted in a near permanent conflict between Otto's absolute monarchy and the power bases of his Greek subjects.[10]
Otto found himself confronted by a number of intractableecclesiastical issues: 1)monasticism, 2)Autocephaly, 3) the king as head of the Church and 4) toleration of other churches. His regents, Armansperg and Rundhart, established a controversial policy ofsuppressing the monasteries. This was very upsetting to the Church hierarchy. Russia considered itself a stalwart defender ofOrthodoxy, but Orthodox believers were found in all three parties. Once he rid himself of his Bavarian advisers, Otto allowed the statutory dissolution of the monasteries to lapse.
By tradition dating back to the Byzantine era, the king was regarded by the Church as its head.[16]On the issue of the Church'sAutocephaly and his role as king within the Church, Otto was overwhelmed by the arcana of Orthodox Church doctrine and popular discontent with his Catholicism[10] (while the Queen was Protestant).
In 1833, the regents had unilaterally declared the Autocephaly of theChurch of Greece. This was a recognition of thede facto political situation, as thePatriarch of Constantinople was partially under the political control of theOttoman Empire. However, faithful people, concerned that having a Catholic as the head of the Church of Greece would weaken the Orthodox Church, criticised the unilateral declaration of Autocephaly asnon-canonical. For the same reason, they likewise resisted the foreign, mostlyProtestant missionaries who established schools throughout Greece.
Tolerance of other religions was over-supported by some in the English Party and others educated in the West as a symbol of Greece's progress as aliberal European state. In the end, power over the Church and education was ceded to the Russian Party, while the king maintained a veto over the decision of theSynod of Bishops. This was to keep balance and avoid discrediting Greece in the eyes of Western Europe as a backward, religiously intolerant society.[10]
Catholic communities had been established in Greece since the 13th century (Athens, Cyclades, Chios, Crete). Jewish communities also existed in the country, those arriving after theExpulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492) joining the earlierRomaniotes, Jews who had been living there since the times ofApostle Paul.[17] Muslim families were still living in Greece during Otto's reign, since hostility was mainly against the Ottoman state and its repressive mechanisms and not against Muslim people.
Although King Otto tried to function as an absolute monarch, asThomas Gallant writes, he "was neither ruthless enough to be feared, nor compassionate enough to be loved, nor competent enough to be respected."[18]
By 1843, public dissatisfaction with him had reached crisis proportions and there were demands for a Constitution. Initially Otto refused to grant a Constitution, but as soon as Bavarian troops were withdrawn from the kingdom, apopular revolt was launched.
On 3 September 1843, the infantry, led by both ColonelDimitris Kallergis and the respected Revolutionary captain and former President of the Athens City Council,General Yiannis Makriyiannis, assembled inPalace Square in front of the Palace in Athens.[11] Eventually joined by much of the population of the small capital, the crowd refused to disperse until the king agreed to grant a constitution, which would require that there be Greeks in the Council, that he convene a permanent National Assembly and that Otto personally thank the leaders of the uprising.
Left with little recourse now that his German troops were gone, King Otto gave in to the pressure and agreed to the demands of the crowd over the objections of his opinionatedqueen. This square was renamedConstitution Square (Greek:Πλατεία Συντάγματος) to commemorate (through to the present) the events of September 1843—and was to feature in many later tumultuous events of Greek history.[19] Now for the first time, the king had Greeks in his Council and the French Party, the English Party and the Russian Party (according to which of the Great Powers' culture they most esteemed) vied for rank and power.
The king's prestige, which was based in large part on his support by the combined Great Powers, but mostly the support of the British, suffered in thePacifico incident of 1850, whenLord Palmerston, the BritishForeign Secretary, sent the British fleet to blockade the port ofPiraeus with warships to exact reparation for injustice done to a British subject.[20]
TheGreat Idea (Μεγάλη Ιδέα), the irredentist concept that expressed the goal of reviving theByzantine Empire, led him to contemplate entering theCrimean War on the side of Russia against Turkey and its British and French allies in 1853; the enterprise was unsuccessful and resulted in renewed intervention by the two Great Powers and a second blockade of thePiraeus port, forcing Greece to neutrality.
The continued inability of the royal couple to have children also raised the thorny issue of succession: the 1844 constitution insisted that Otto's successor had to be Orthodox, but as the king was childless, the only possible heirs were his younger brothers,Luitpold andAdalbert. The staunch Catholicism of the Wittelsbachs complicated matters, as Luitpold refused to convert and Adalbert marriedInfanta Amalia of Spain. The sons of Adalbert, and especially the eldest,Ludwig Ferdinand, were now considered the most likely candidates, but due to the issue of religion, no definite arrangements were ever made.[21]
In 1861, a student namedAristeidis Dosios (son of politicianKonstantinos Dosios) attempted to murderQueen Amalia and was openly hailed as a hero. His attempt, however, also prompted spontaneous feelings of monarchism and sympathy towards the royal couple among the Greek population.[22]
While Otto was visiting thePeloponnese in 1862 a new coup was launched and this time aProvisional Government was set up and summoned a National Convention. Ambassadors of theGreat Powers urged King Otto not to resist, and the king and queen took refuge on aBritish warship and returned toBavaria aboard (the same way they had come to Greece), taking with them the Greek regalia which they had brought from Bavaria in 1832. In 1863 the Greek National Assembly elected Prince William of Denmark, aged only 17,King of the Hellenes under theregnal name ofGeorge I.
It has been suggested that had Otto and Amalia borne an heir, the king would not have been overthrown, as succession was also a major unresolved question at the time.[23] However, the Constitution of 1844 made provision for his succession by his two younger brothers and their descendants.[citation needed]
Otto died in the palace of the former bishops ofBamberg, Germany, and was buried in theTheatiner Church inMunich. During his retirement, he would still wear the Greek traditional uniform, nowadays worn only by theevzones (Presidential Guards). Αccording to witnesses,[who?] Otto's last words were "Greece, my Greece, my beloved Greece."[24]
Otto's letters to his sister,Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria, Grand Duchess of Hesse, written between 1832 and 1861, are preserved in the Hessian State Archive (Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt) in Darmstadt, Germany.[25]
Otto's letters to his father-in-law,Augustus, Grand Duke of Oldenburg, written between 1836 and 1853, are preserved in the Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv in Oldenburg, Germany.[26]
He received the following honours:
Kingdom of Bavaria: Knight of theOrder of St. Hubert[27]
Kingdom of France: Grand Cross of theLegion of Honour,July 1834[28]
Spain: Knight of theOrder of the Golden Fleece,13 June 1835[29]
Russian Empire: Knight of theOrder of St. Andrew,June 1835[30]
Sweden-Norway: Knight of theRoyal Order of the Seraphim,11 July 1835[31]
Kingdom of Prussia: Knight of theOrder of the Black Eagle,30 November 1835[32]
Ernestine duchies: Grand Cross of theSaxe-Ernestine House Order,May 1836[33]
Grand Duchy of Hesse: Grand Cross of theLudwig Order,16 June 1836[34]
Austrian Empire:
Oldenburg: Grand Cross with Golden Crown of theHouse and Merit Order of Peter Frederick Louis,28 October 1839[37]
Belgium: Grand Cordon of theOrder of Leopold,14 May 1841[38]
Kingdom of Saxony: Knight of theOrder of the Rue Crown,1841[39]
Kingdom of Sardinia: Knight of theOrder of the Annunciation,31 January 1845[40]
Denmark: Knight of theOrder of the Elephant,2 November 1846[41]
Kingdom of Hanover:[42]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach: Grand Cross of theOrder of the White Falcon,17 August 1852[43]
Duchy of Modena and Reggio: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Eagle of Este,1856[44]
Württemberg: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Württemberg Crown,1856[45]
Two Sicilies: Grand Cross of theOrder of St. Ferdinand and Merit[46]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Media related toOtto of Greece at Wikimedia CommonsOtto of Greece Born: 1 June 1815 Died: 26 July 1867 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| New title | King of Greece 1832–1862 | Succeeded byas King of the Hellenes |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Loss of title | — TITULAR — King of Greece 1862–1867 | Succeeded by |
| Capital | | |
|---|---|---|
| Monarchs | ||
| Regency Council | ||
| Prime Ministers | ||
| Architects | ||
| Notable People | ||
| Early Greek Parties | ||
| Events | ||
| Influence |
| |
| Structures | ||
| Institutions |
| |
| Other | ||
| Kings | .svg) .svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| History |
| |
| Notable politicians | ||
| Orders | ||
| Structures | ||
| Establishments | ||
| Related | ||
