Prince Michael of Greece, the late Prince Philip’s first cousin, has died at the age of 85, the The Telegraph reports.
A renowned historian, he wrote under the name Michel De Gres.
The prince was the last surviving grandson of assassinated Greek monarch King George I with a lineage going back to the House of Bourbon through his mother, Francoise d’Orléans. Although they were of the same age, he was former King Constantine’s uncle.
He was born in Rome in 1939 shortly before the start of the Second World War. His father died a year later and his mother died when he was 14. He grew up in Morocco, Spain and France, where he studied political science.
The prince was passionate about Greece and did his military service in the Hellenic Coast Guard. He spent some time living in the country and in recent years had divided his time between Greece and abroad.
He renounced his right to the Greek throne when he married artist and sculptor Marina Karella, daughter of an industrialist, in 1965, because she was a commoner. They had two daughters, Princess Alexandra and Princess Olga.
Prince Michael was the only member of the Greek royal family who did not leave Greece after the failed coup in 1967, when then King Constantine attempted to overthrow the military junta. He was also the only member of the Greek royal family who held Greek citizenship.
The prince achieved international acclaim as an author with dozens of bestselling works that combined his historical knowledge with literary narrative.
His writing focused on historical subjects and royalty. He had a reputation for meticulous detail and covered topics from Greece and the Ottoman Empire, to King Louis IV of France and the Russian tsars.
[Image: Nikos D. Karabelas, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98720950]