We start an appreciation of former monarchies with the somewhat turbulent history of Greece.
Greece had won its independence from the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) with the help of Britain, France and Russia. In the London Protocol of 3rd February 1830, the three Powers had assigned the borders of the new state. However, when the Governor of Greece, John Capodistria (Ioannis Kapodistrias) (Καποδíστριας) was assassinated in 1831 in Nafplion, the Greek peninsula was plunged into confusion. The Great Powers sought a formal end of the war and a recognised government in Greece.
The London Conference of 1832 was convened to establish a stable government in Greece. The Powers offered the Throne to the Bavarian Prince, Otto as an independent king of Greece. He was only 17 and the country was run by regents whom Otto dismissed 4 years later. Otto himself didn't prove to be any more popular or effective and was deposed whilst away in the countryside in 1862.
The blue Shield with the white Cross were introduced as the heraldic device for Greece on 26th February [O.S. 7th January] 1833, when the Regency announced the official design in the Ἑφημερίς τῆς Κυβερνήσεως τοῦ Βασιλείου τῆς Ἑλλάδος [Government Gazette of the Kingdom of Greece] (in Greek and German), Nafplio: Royal Printing Office, 22nd February 1833. Approved by Prime Minister Josef Ludwig von Armansperg, it detailed the entire Achievement and described, in Greek and German, its constituent parts. The Lesser Arms are described as an "equidistant azure Escutcheon, pointed towards the middle of its lower side, and containing the Greek Cross, argent, bearing at its centre a smaller Escutcheon with the Lozenges of the Royal House of Bavaria." The shade of blue is specified as light blue (German: hellblau). The Shield itself was supported by two crowned Lions rampant and surmounted by the royal crown. The entire composition was contained within a mantle and pavilion, topped again with the Royal Crown. |
The Pavillion was changed to dark blue with a border design and Greek Crosses in white.
The Monarchy was abolished via a referendum in 1924 following catastrophic events in Asia Minor after World War One and the Second Hellenic Republic was declared. In 1935, a royalist general-turned-politician Georgios Kondylis took power after a coup d'état, held a rigged referendum and abolished the Republic. King George II returned to Greece and was restored to the Throne.
The full Shield of the Greater Arms of Denmark was now added to the main Greek Escutcheon, which itself was changed. The blue background was made a darker shade, rather than the light blue of the original Decree and the Cross was no longer a couped Greek Cross but a Cross where the Arms reached the edges of the Shield which more closely resembled the original National Flag. This, of course, lasted until the Monarchy in Greece was officially abolished in 1973, King Constantine II having already fled in 1967. They remain King Constantine's Arms, however.
However, unless it was a mistake or a snub, the coffin of Queen Anne-Marie's mother-in-law, Queen Frederika in 1981 shows a Royal Standard with only the Dynastic Arms of the Glücksburg family at its centre and not her paternal Hannover Arms beside it.
The position of Crown Prince is somewhat different. Neither the constitution of 1844 or 1864, which served as the basis for other fundamental laws of the Kingdom of Greece, recognised titles of nobility. On the contrary, they prohibited even the sovereign from conferring such titles. As such, the heir apparent was usually referred to simply as "the diadochos" or "successor" by virtue of his function, rather than as a title, which had been the tradition in Greece since the Archaic Period. Only the future Constantine I bore the title "Duke of Sparta", created soon after his birth in 1868. However, as it ran contrary to the constitution, it caused a political scandal and, although in the end ratified by the Greek parliament, the title's use within Greece was very restricted.
The Arms shown above with a simplified Dynastic Inescutcheon and a white Label would appear to be somewhat fanciful and is hardly, if at all, supported by use. The Greek Royal Family, finding themselves in a country with little history of heraldry as the rest of Europe would understand it, have become more reliant on Monograms, following the Scandinavian Monarchies they are descended from.