Sophie of Prussia
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sophie_of_Prussia".

See also Sophia of Prussia (1582-1610).

Sophia of Prussia
Queen of Greece
Reign	March 18, 1913 – June 11, 1917 December 19, 1920 – September 27, 1922
Full name	Sophia Dorothea Ulrike Alice)
Titles	HM Dowager Queen Sophie HM The Queen of Greece HRH The Crown-Princess of Greece HRH Princess Sophia of Prussia
Born	June 14, 1870(1870-06-14)
Birthplace	Potsdam
Died	January 13, 1932 (aged 61)
Place of death	Frankfurt
Consort to	Constantine I of Greece
Offspring	George II, Alexander I, Elena, Paul, Irene, Katherine
Royal House	House of Oldenburg House of Hohenzollern
Father	Frederick III, German Emperor
Mother	Victoria, Princess Royal

Princess Sophie of Prussia (Sophie Dorothea Ulrike Alice; June 14, 1870 – January 13, 1932), was a Queen consort of Greece.

Princess of Prussia

She was born in Potsdam, Prussia, in 1870 to then Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia and Victoria, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom, herself the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and Albert, Prince Consort. Sophie, known as "Sossy" during her childhood, (the name was thought to have been picked because it rhymed with "Mossy", the nickname of her younger sister Margarete) was Victoria and Frederick's seventh child and third daughter.

She was a sister to Wilhelm II, German Emperor, Princesses Charlotte, Margrete and Viktoria of Prussia, as well as Princes Heinrich, Waldemar and Sigismund of Prussia. Sigimund died before she was born, and Waldemar when he was 11 and she was 8.

She is the paternal grandmother of her namesake, Queen Sofia of Spain and ex-King Constantine II of the Hellenes. Queen Sofia also has a granddaughter, Infanta Sofia of Spain, who was named in her honor; Infanta Sofia's parents are the queen's son, Prince Felipe and his wife, Princess Letizia.

Marriage and Children

On October 27, 1889, she married Crown Prince (later King) Constantine of Greece in Athens, Greece. They were third cousins through descent from Paul I of Russia, and second cousins once removed through Frederick William III of Prussia. This led to in-fighting within her family, particularly with Empress Augusta Viktoria, known within her family as Dona, wife of her brother William. In 1890, when Sophie announced her intention to leave her Lutheran faith for Greek Orthodoxy, Dona summoned her and told her that if she did so, not only would William find it unacceptable, being the Head of the Prussian Protestant church; she would be barred from Germany and her soul would end up in Hell. Sophie replied that it was none of her business whether or not she did. Dona became hysterical and her son, Prince Joachim, was born too early causing her to cling to him for the rest of his life as she believed he was delicate. Evidently, so did William as he wrote to his mother that if the baby died Sophie would have "murdered it." Sophie and Constantine had six children:

• George II, King of the Hellenes (1890–1947) who married Princess Elisabeth of Romania
• Alexander I, King of the Hellenes (1893–1920) who married Aspasia Manos
• Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark (1896–1982), who married Carol II, King of Romania
• Paul I, King of the Hellenes (1901–1964)
• Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark (1904–1974), who married Prince Aimone of Savoy, 4th Duke of Aosta
• Princess Katherine of Greece and Denmark (1913–2007), who married Richard Brandram

Princess Sophie as a girl

In 1916 as the Queen and King were residing in Tatoi, a mysterious fire broke out, destroying the main residence and much of the forest surrounding it. Queen Sophie grabbed her youngest child (Katherine) and ran a mile and a half with her in her arms. The fire lasted for forty-eight hours and was suspected as deliberate act of arson.

Exiles of Husband

She left Greece on June 11, 1917 with her husband (who abdicated because of his alleged pro-German sentiments) and they went into exile to Switzerland, but were recalled to the throne shortly after their second son Alexander's death from an infected monkey bite. Her husband was forced to abdicate a second time after defeat in a war with Turkey in 1922, and he died early the following year.

WWI Loyalties

During World War I Queen Sophie had been wrongly seen in Greece as very pro-German because her brother was Kaiser Wilhelm II. Like her mother, she was passionately pro-British.

Death and Burial

Styles of Queen Sophie as consort
Reference style	Her Majesty
Spoken style	Your Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

In her last years Queen Sophie was diagnosed with cancer and died in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1932. With the restoration of the monarchy in Greece, Queen Sophie's remains were re-buried in 1936 at the Royal Burial Ground at Tatoi alongside her husband King Constantine.

Titles from Birth

• Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia of Prussia (1870–1888)
• Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Greece (1888–1913)
• Her Majesty The Queen of Greece (1913–1923)
• Her Majesty Dowager Queen Sophie (1923–1932)

Ancestry