Home > Otto of Greece

He was the son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife, Therese of Saxe-Altenburg.

Not quite 18, the young prince entered Greece with many Bavarian advisors in a council of regency headed by Count Josef Ludwig von Armansperg , who as minister of finance had recently succeeded in restoring Bavarian credit at the cost of his popularity. The United Kingdom and the Rothschild bank, who were underwriting the Greek loans, insisted on financial stringency and on Armansperg. The Greeks were soon more heavily taxed than under Turkish rule; they had exchanged a hated Ottoman tyranny, which they understood, for government by bureaucracy, which they despised. Otto showed little respect for local customs. A staunch Catholic, and thus considered a heretic among the Greeks, he never considered changing his religion.

In 1837 Otto visited Germany and married the beautiful and talented Princess Amelie of Oldenburg ( December 21, 1818 - May 20, 1875). The wedding took place not in Greece, but at Oldenburg, on November 22November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 39 days remaining. Events 1718 Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as " Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British boar, 1836Events January Book by Maria Monk claims that she was sexually exploited in a Canadian convent February 3 United States Whig Party holds its first convention in Albany, New York. February 23 The siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas. February 24; the marriage did not produce an heir, and the new queen made herself unpopular by interfering in the government.

An ill-advised attempt to engage Greek sentiment by efforts to acquire CreteCrete sometimes spelled Krete (Greek Kappa;ρτ&eta / Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest in the Mediterranean Sea. It is the Greek island closest to North Africa. Tourist attractions in Crete include archeological sites in 1841, failed to materialize and only succeeded in embroiling him with the Great Powers.

Initially Otto refused to grant a constitution, but was forced to do so after a military coup, which occurred as soon as German troops were withdrawn from the kingdom, in 1843Events February 6 The first minstrel show in the United States The Virginia Minstrels opens (Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City). February 11 Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi premieres in Milan May 18 The Disruption of the Church of Scotland took place. Now for the first time he had Greeks in his council. His prestige suffered by the "Pacifico incident" of 1850, when British Prime Minister PalmerstonIn Australia, Palmerston is a satellite city of the Northern Territory capital, Darwin. Originally, Palmerston was the name given in 1855 to Darwin itself, but which later changed to the latter. The land for modern Palmerston was acquired after 1971 by th caused the British fleet to blockade the Pireus with warships, to exact reparation for injustice done to a British subject.

The unrealistic "Great Idea", his dream of restoring the Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire was the eastern section of the Roman Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (modern Istanbul), which remained in existence after the fall of Rome in the 5th century. The Byzantine period is usually consider under Christian rule, led to his entering the Crimean WarThe Crimean War lasted from 1854 to 1856. It was fought between Russia and an alliance of the United Kingdom, France, and the Ottoman Empire, joined somewhat tardily by Piedmont-Sardinia. The majority of the conflict took place around the Crimean peninsul against TurkeyTurkey (officially the Republic of Turkey Turkish Turkiye is a country located in Southwest Asia with a small part in southeastern Europe. Until 1922 the country was the center of the Ottoman Empire. The Anatolian peninsula, between the Black Sea and the; the enterprise was unsuccessful. In 1861 a student named Drusios attempted to murder the queen, and was openly hailed as a hero. After another coup in 1862, a provisional government was set up and summoned a national convention. The king and queen took refuge on a British warship and returned to Bavaria, taking with them the Greek royal regalia which he had brought from Bavaria in 1832.

Otto was born in Salzburg, Austria, son of Ludwig I of Bavaria and his wife Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen ( 1792- 1854). He died in the palace of the former bishops of Bamberg, Germany, and was buried in Munich. In his retirement he had become convinced that the throne of Greece was his by divine right and refused to accept the election to the throne of Prince George of Denmark.